Some More Changes to the Prayer Guide
Over the next couple of months we're going to be experimenting with some changes to the prayer guide. Our goal is to help you to engage in prayer more consistently and in ways you might not have experienced before. For our next sermon series we're going to try connecting the prayer guide to the Sunday topics, but for this week we are going to pray related to our new series "What's the Difference?" If you didn't get a chance to participate in the service, you can view all of our messages on our website.
Opening Prayer
Heavenly Father, I pray that this day I may live in your presence and please you more and more.
Lord Jesus, I pray that this day I may take up my cross and follow you.
Holy Spirit, I pray that this day you will fill me with yourself and cause your fruit to ripen in my life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
You are Loved to Love
Before we can love ourselves and others, we need to know we are loved. Jesus demonstrated this love through his life, death and resurrection.
"But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him."
- Romans 5:8 (The Message)
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us."
- 1 John 3:16a
How was Jesus able to love us like this? Because He knew he was loved. His identity was shaped in the love of the Father. Even in his darkest hour before his arrest, Jesus is confident of his Father's love.
"...you loved me before the creation of the world. "
- John 17:18
"Jesus reveals what was happening before creation. The Father was loving his Son. Before God was creator or ruler, he was a Father who loves. He delighted in giving out his life and being to his Son in the fellowship of the Spirit. Everything God does, he does out of relational love. It's not one of his characteristics. It's his core identity. At the center of our universe is a trinitarian God whose essence is love."
- 'Delighting in the Trinity' by Micahel Reeves, p. 36, 38
"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them."
- I John 4:16
Just like Jesus, we can be confident in and rely on God's love for us.
The Holy Spirit lives in us to continue his loving work of reconciliation.
We are loved so that we can love.
Petition
God invites us to cast our cares on him because he cares for us. God is all-together good, already knows what we need, and is eager to give us good things. So we don’t need to pray out of anxiety or fear, but confident trust. Spend a few minutes making your requests known to God.
- For the church
- For others
- For myself
Closing Prayer
Now, O Lord, calm me into a quietness that heals and listens, and mold my longings and passions, my wounds and wonderings into a more holy and human shape.
- Guerillas of Grace