Father God,

Today, I pray that we would spend more time on loving our neighbor than pronouncing our opinions on social media over the ills of our society. I pray that our efforts would turn from having the latest soundbyte or comment jab and turn to getting to know our neighbors to know how to help them.

May we care less about being the winner of arguments with those we will never see face to face, and care more about being the hands and feet of our Living God touching the lives of those around us in the midst of suffering.

Forgive our society for being one where wickedness gets more news attention than the true Christian work of one-anothering.

Restore Your Body on this earth to one where we are known for our love of one another and our love of Truth, not just a watered-down, distorted version of one or the other.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray for mercy upon our nation. We look around us and its hard to know where to begin with repentance as sin after sin is called good while truth after truth is being called evil. We are surrounded by so many blatant sinful patterns that its hard to even to even notice the more subtle sinful patterns in which our society bathes us, patterns in which we daily swim.

As Christians we pronounce condemnation upon those blatant sins, but so often neglect how subtle sins have contributed to the patterns of society. Our silence when the patterns benefit us. Our compliance with compromises. Our watering down of the Word.

Ultimately, our nation has rejected You, Oh Lord, and Your ways while we, Your own children, have also slowly and comfortable slipped down the same slippery slope away from the ways of our God. Rather than allowing us to argue over who has sinned the most versus the least, drive us to our knees and cause us to look only to our own guilt that we might turn from it in all its forms.

Forgive us and show us how to walk in Your ways in all of life that we might be the good and faithful servants of the Living God!

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray for those whose health hinders, even prevents their coming together for the services of the church. I pray for those whose health disrupts not only their daily life and function, but separates them from the body of Christ physically. I pray for those who become isolated, sometimes even forgotten, at least unattended to by the body.

I pray for those who need a helping hand rather than an admonishment. I pray for those who need a kind word and comfort rather than a chastisement. I pray for those who need the body to come to them rather than to leave them in their darkness.

I pray that the true body of Christ would see where its weaker and wounded brothers and sisters need one-anothering. I pray that the true body of Christ would set aside their conveniences and comforts to meet the weaker in body where they wait. I pray that the true body would demonstrate with boldness and clarity to the world that the body of Christ is not an institution but the very children of God loving one another.

May we repent of neglecting those in our midst who need the presence of a Christian brother or sister incarnate in real fellowship.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray that we would better understand what our worship should look like when we gather together in Your Name. We have buildings, we have orders of worship, we have our schedules, but do we have Your Spirit?

We are told that we love You when we love one another well. We are told that the world will know we belong to You by our love for one another. We are told that worship is hypocrisy when we live as the world lives in how we treat others.

Therefore, I ask that You would purify our worship so that it fills more than one day a week. I pray that our one day a week would simply be an overflow of how we live before You and before others and with others the rest of the week. I pray that the overflow would be a natural outworking of our lives in which we love one another by edifying, by comforting, by encouraging, by supporting, by listening, by knowing and loving one another.

Tear down all that we have falsely built up as a poor substitute for fellowship. Tear down all that hinders true fellowship. Tear down all that presents itself as community yet is superficial and empty. Teach us to one-another as You desire in our worship as an overflow of our lives.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray for a reformation of society in which servants lead rather than those who want others to serve them. I pray for a spirit of humility to rise up and bring down the influence of the prideful. I pray for “one-anothering” to overtake the “look at me” spirit. I pray that we would as a society lose our taste for the flashy, for the superficial, for the charisma that drives our interests and connection.

I pray that we would all seek to edify, comfort, encourage, and exhort to godliness. I pray that Your children would rise up to lead this reformation in such a powerful way that even the unbelievers are pressed to follow it. I pray that this reformation would rise from the meek in our midst as a natural outworking of Your Spirit rather than from some top down pressure from those who now lead.

Lord, let us better reflect Your Will to one another and to the watching world. Let us be reformed by the call to love one another.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray for the promises of daily bread to be fulfilled by Your mighty hand in the life of Your children. This world promises nothing to us as it bears toilsome fruit only by the sweat of our brow. We walk in this fallen world looking forward to the total fulfilment of New Heavens and New Earth, yet we must rest in the daily promise of Your care for this earthly life.

While we need the hope of that future life with You in eternity, we also need to rest in the hope of a Father who cares for us now. Help us by the Spirit You placed within us to look to Your promises as steadfast and new every morning in this life. Remind us that Your promises remain true for every day, every moment that we walk in these earthly frames. Then let us take each step in our daily walks looking to Your Hand for provision.

Be our God and make us Your people through Your daily bread.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray for a right understanding of what it means to be a child of the Living God to spread broad and deep among Your people. For so many, the name Christian is an adjective which opens the door to a social network. For many others, the name is something passed down in their family and worn as a badge until it happens to be inconvenient. For many, it has become like clothes that can be worn when helpful and left in a closet when bothersome. For many, it has become so distorted that it is barely recognizable. For others, it becomes a burden that must be cast away and trampled upon.

For those who truly bear the Name above all names, who are filled by the Spirit, who have been reborn into the kingdom, we still need to learn how precious is this name. We still need to learn how this name should change everything within us and all that comes out of us. Our lives should reflect the changes within us.

Teach us Oh Lord where we are poorly reflecting the change of our hearts. Show us where we are misunderstanding the beauty of this name. Move us to shine light into the darkness, to pour living water into the desert, and to stand on the Rock of Truth in everything we do (Col. 3:23).

Forgive us where we fall short in this in our daily walk.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray for our nation to have a restoration to right reasoning. As we in our nation have strayed further and further away from You as the basis for all truth, so many have continued that slide and found themselves even questioning the existence of truth and reason. Either in practical or philosophical ways, they reason as if there is no reason.

In our society, we see more and more decisions and positions being based on feelings and inconsistent reasoning. This denial of reasoning not only separates us from Your Truth, but separates us one from another. Each pursues and does what is right in his own eyes rather than submitting to the reality that Your Word is meant to guide our paths and You designed all things to work according to reason and order as part of that Truth. You are not a God who walks in chaos nor did You create us for chaos, but You laid the foundations in accordance with Your ordered Will and ordained that we should walk in Truth.

Restore us to clear reasoning by beginning with the fear of the Lord and extending Your truth and rule over every area of life.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray for Your Gospel’s Truth to permeate the depths and breadths of both our individual lives and also our collective lives. We know it cannot fully change society unless it has changed the stony hearts into regenerated hearts loving You, but once the hearts are alive again to serve You, let them pour living water into the surrounding world.

As we submit more and more of our lives to Your Word, let our interactions with others reflect the changes in our own heart such that the darkness of present society is swallowed by light. Turn our foolishness of following culture’s worldviews that we have accepted into a willingness to turn towards Your ways of walking out life as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Enable us to see clearly how belonging to Christ changes how we interact with everything else in this world. Let us no longer be deceived by the lie that our faith is only personal. Let us be convicted by the Spirit that our faith should be living in every area of not only personal but also collective life in neighborhoods, in towns, in our social groups, in our states, in our nation, and in the world. Show us how to bring all things under Christ in our lives.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.