The Pastor’s Corner

Prayer: Almighty God and Savior of your people, we thank you and praise you just as the church of old sang songs of worship to you when you safely brought them out of the land of bondage and sin. Like us, they too were ensnared by the messiness of sin, yet, through a mediator, you rescued them. So we, too, have been rescued from our pitiful state and tragic end through the Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. In him, we have forgiveness of sin, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit, an increase of grace, and the hope of perseverance to the very end of our lives. Like the church of old, we now journey to that heavenly city, a city not made with hands, reserved for all those who love you. We look forward to a better country that the eye has not seen or ear heard what you have in store for those who love you and have been loved by you. From all eternity, you have loved us, placing your favor on us. You have demonstrated your love in being pleased to crush your Son for our sake. Though we are like sheep, often going astray, you still love us and care for us. We thank you, our God, that your love is not fickle; that it does not depend on our efforts or labors. Like the church of old, we too stray, but your love remains. Please forgive us and help us to walk worthy of the calling that we have received and grant to us more love for you we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Prayer: Grant almighty God that you would help your ministers as they seek to be faithful to the Good Shepherd of the Sheep. We know that they, too, are prone to wander. They are not immune to the trials and temptations of this life and are, often, under great attack from the world and the Evil One. We pray that you would protect our pastors today and give them an extra measure of your Spirit as they labor to guide and protect the sheep of your pasture. Please grant them a greater love for your Word, causing them to drink from the well of living water that will never run dry. Please give them insight and wisdom as they ponder the mind of the Spirit and seek to prepare a bounty for your people. Please provide them with guidance and strength as they deal with many issues within the life of the church. Help them as they care for the sick, the afflicted, the struggling, and the downcast. Help them as they pursue the wandering and wayward. Encourage them with your presence, for they are often discouraged by the state of your church and the world and are often under attack by those you have charged them to love. Restore to them the joy of your salvation and help them labor faithfully, pointing others to the glory of Christ. Protect them and lead them in the paths of righteousness we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Prayer: Grant almighty God that we, as your redeemed people, would heed the warnings and instructions found in your Word and seek to live in it all of our days. As we read and meditate on your Word, we receive your counsel and mind. Your Spirit is communicating your will for our lives through it. Though there are times when we receive counsel from the ungodly, we know that counsel cannot stand in your sight. We are ashamed at how often we take instruction from things that do not point us in the paths of righteousness. Your Word directs us to take counsel in you and delight in your Word as that light unto our path. Grant, therefore, holy Father, that we would bear fruit from finding our source of hope and instruction in the infallible Word written for our good. Please grant us a hunger and thirst for righteousness we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Prayer: Our God in heaven, we lament and ask what it is that makes your people stray so easily from your paths. We take note of the ease with which we wander from the green pastures you have provided for us. We are ashamed at how easily the enemy of our souls leads us by the nose, enticing us with our desires, leading to disaster and destruction. We grieve the reality that we are prone to wander, Lord, we feel it, prone to leave the God we love. We are easily enthralled with the desires of this life, exposing the worldliness of our hearts. We trade that which is right for that which pleases the eyes, the flesh, and pride. No wonder your word calls us creatures of dust and unprofitable servants. Yet, despite all these things, you demonstrated your love toward us in that while we were still sinners, your Son died for us. He died because we do wander. He died because we are easily lured and enticed by the Evil One. He dies because we are sinful to the core. Through Christ, we now have peace of conscience with you. We thank you for so great a salvation. Please grant us a greater willingness to mortify the deeds of the flesh and serve you all our days we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Prayer: Grant, Almighty God, that as Thou invites us daily with so much kindness and love and makes known to us Thy paternal goodwill, which Thou didst once show to us in Christ Thy Son -- O grant that, being allured by Thy goodness, we may surrender ourselves wholly to Thee, and become so teachable and submissive that wherever Thou guidest us by Thy Spirit, Thou mayest follow us with every blessing.

Let us not, in the meantime, be deaf to Thy warnings; and whenever we deviate from the right way, grant that we may immediately awake when Thou warnest us, and return to the right path, and deign Thou also to embrace us and reconcile us to Thyself through Christ our Lord. Amen.
(From Lifting Up our Hearts: 150 Selected prayers of John Calvin)

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Prayer: Our God in heaven: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we praise you and thank you for giving us another Lord's Day that is a picture of our eternal hope and rest guaranteed by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as you delivered your people of old to their promised rest pictured for us in the land of Caanan, we too have been given a sure hope of a better country not made with the hands of men but by your own hands. In that place, there will be no more tears or sorrow or pain or suffering or death. It is a place we long to see, knowing that it is beyond anything we can imagine. Yet, because you are good to us and know that we need to be reminded of that hope, you have given us one day in seven to come apart from our worldly labors and entertainments to commune with you with your people and to hear from you as your Word is read and, especially, proclaimed. We ask that you give us hearts and minds prepared to worship you today and that we do it with zeal and joy for all you have done for us. We pray that you will forgive us for our abuse of this day and remind us of our privilege to obey you granted by the work of your Spirit. Please help us, therefore, to love the Lord's Day as we love to think on eternity. Be pleased to change our affections to that which is good, right, and lovely we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Prayer: Grant almighty God that you would grant to us your ever-present grace and wisdom as we seek to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We know that you have entrusted them to our care. We know that they belong to you, and you expect us to nurture them, guide them, instruct them, rebuke them, and lead them to your side. Please help us to not hinder them from coming to you. We confess that we are not sufficient for these things and need your help. Please help us as we seek to raise them in a world that is hostile to your Word as it constantly promotes a worldview that teaches rebellion, self-centeredness, and a lack of integrity and respect. Father, please help! We long to see our children embrace the Gospel of your Son. We long to see them serve you all their days. We know that we labor in vain if you do not go before us and give us all that we need. We also pray for those parents who have finished that part of life. Some of them are saddened by the outcome. Some are riddled with guilt. Some are distressed at the lives of their children. Please comfort them. Please continue to help all of us as we seek to point our covenant children to your Son through our words and actions, we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Prayer: O Father, we take a long look at our lives and the condition of our own heart, and we lament and groan -- indeed, we grieve because we think and act so contrary to what you demand. We are creatures of dust, worms living in this fallen world. We, too, are fallen. We move through our days consumed with the fleeting things of this life. Rarely do we sit and ponder your greatness. Fleeting are those thoughts of your holiness that demand our absolute obedience in thought, word, and deed. Who will save us from this body of death? Who will rescue us from our indwelling sin - all sin? Thanks be to you, our Father, for the gift of your Son. Though our sins are as scarlet, they shall be whiter than snow. Who shall separate us from you? What can take us out of your hand? WE praise you that our eternal destination doesn't depend on us. We thank you that you delight in forgiving our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. Please grant us a genuine love for you married with a zeal to obey you each day. We know that we were made and saved to glorify you in all things. Please help us. Please be merciful to us. Please deliver us from this body of death.

We pray for our family and friends who are still living trapped by the power of the Evil One. We pray that you, the God of salvation, would be pleased to rescue them from their misery and hopeless condition. We ask that you press their minds and hearts with their mortal state and the coming of death. We pray that you would do what we cannot do and rescue them and bring them safely into your glorious kingdom we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Prayer: Our great God in heaven, you alone are holy, and we are fallen creatures of dust. We thank you for being mindful of our needs and concerns and the myriad of things that seek to trouble us, causing anxiety and worry. Though we know your Word tells us to be anxious about nothing, we often find ourselves beset by what happens in our lives. We spend energy worrying about what might be instead of trusting you with our whole heart and leaning on you in prayer, casting all our cares upon you. We confess to you the weakness of our fallen condition. Though we are your redeemed people, we still fret about things. Forgive us, Lord, and help us to trust you. As students of your Word, we are reminded of the exhortation of your Son to refrain from anxiety because as you care about the birds of the air, much more will you care for us. Therefore, holy Father, please show your mercy and grace to your weak people.

We pray for the world and the countless number of our brothers and sisters who live in difficult circumstances. Many of them suffer in untold ways merely because they name the name of Christ. They are ridiculed, oppressed, persecuted, harmed, and some are martyred for their faith. We pray for their well-being, asking that you remember your promises to them. Remind them, Lord, that to live is Christ and to die, gain. Please help them to advance the cause of your Kingdom and use them to bring many into union and communion with you we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Prayer: Grant, Almighty God, though we daily depart from Thee by our sins, that we may not yet be wholly removed from the foundation on which our salvation depends. But do Thou so sustain us, or even raise us up when fallen, that we may ever continue in our degree and also return to Thee in true repentance. And whatever may happen to us, may we learn ever to look to Thee, that we may never despair of Thy goodness, which Thou hast promised to be firm and perpetual, and that especially while relying on Thine only begotten Son our Mediator, we may be able to call on Thee as our father, until we shall at length come to that eternal inheritance, which has been obtained for us by the blood of Thine only Son. Amen.
(Lifting Up our Hearts: 150 Selected Prayers of John Calvin)

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Prayer: Grant, almighty God, that you would kindly and gently lead your people safely to our heavenly rest. We know that you have promised never to leave us or forsake us. We know that your Word promises that the good work you began in us will continue it until that great day. Sadly, and much to our embarrassment, we forget these simple truths too quickly. We forget that we live our whole life -- each moment -- before your face. We forget that you see all that we do, say, and think. Forgive us, Father, for the sins we commit, those sins of omission and commission. Please give us the zeal to obey you in all things and all ways. We give you thanks for your patience with us, not treating us as our sins deserve. We thank you that you are faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Who is like you, our God? Who is so kind and good to regard your creatures made in your image with favor? Who but you would condescend to our weakness and rescue us from our stubborn selves? We lift our eyes to heaven, and we praise your name for saving us. We plead with you to rescue many from the snare of sin and death and the tragic end it all brings. Be pleased to save and usher many into your kingdom we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Prayer: Almighty God, we thank you and praise you for granting us another day to honor and adore you and to live our lives to glorify you. We thank you for the gift of life. We know that we are the work of your hands because you made us and fashioned us after your image. In the beginning, you made us from the dust of the ground and breathed into us the breath of life, and we became a living soul. We know that you made us walk with you just as our first parents did in paradise. Yet, due to their sin, we fell with them in that Garden and were plunged into a life of misery. Despite that rebellion, you promised a Redeemer who came in the fullness of time to reverse the effects of the fall and to bring us back into union and communion with you. Though we are now your people, we still transgress your law and fall short of your glory. Forgive us, Father. Please grant us a greater zeal to obey you. Please give to us what you command and help us by your Spirit.

We pray for our loved ones and those living in rebellion against you. We pray for their eternal state and ask that you turn their hearts of stone to flesh and make them able and willing to believe the mandates of the Gospel. We know that only you can save. We know that you alone can open blind eyes and deaf ears. We understand that the heart of man is desperately wicked, and only you, by your grace, can turn that evil that resides within it to that which is good and right and holy. Therefore, we plead with you to do what you love to do - forgive sinners. WE thank you, our God, for the great work of salvation given to us through Christ our Lord in whose name we pray. Amen.

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