What's the Difference?
Over the next couple of months we're going to be experimenting with some changes to the prayer guide. For this sermon series "What's the Difference?" we're going to try connecting the prayer guide to the Sunday messages. 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.
Scripture
3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
- Titus 3:3-6
Confession and Thanksgiving
Spend some time dwelling on the depths of God's kindness by confessing any unconfessed sins and thanking Him for the kindness and love He shows you.
Pay attention to how you experience God in this moment.
- Do you experience Him as angry with you?
- Do you experience Him as disappointed with you?
- Do you experience His love as conditional?
Now read this passage from Romans 5:6-8:
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Even in the midst of your sin and brokenness, God posture is kindness and love. You don't have to be afraid of your sin, minimize it, or beat yourself up over it in order for God to love you.
Spend a couple minutes receiving God's kindness directed at you in this moment. Ask Him to help you see yourself the way He sees you.
Prayers of 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
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.