Father God,

Today, I pray that we as Your children would understand the sacrifices of Hebrews 13:15-16 that are pleasing to You and live them out in our daily one-anothering. I pray that the scales of our eyes that have hidden from us these simple truths would fall away. I pray that the self-deceptions would be revealed for the compromises they are.

I pray that we, Your remnant, would relearn what true worship looks like not just in light of the current world in which we live, but in spite of the world which resists such worship of loving one another in the Name of Christ.

May Your Spirit manifest itself in our midst through our returning to the sacrifices of worship called for in Hebrews. Christ has finished the need for blood sacrifices. Let us offer the the sacrifices of thanksgiving and loving one another that tell the world that the Lord Yahweh is in our midst.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray for Your children to be filled with the strength of Your Spirit in order that they might worship you despite the cost. We live in a world where the darkness does not like the light coming from anything that reflects Your Glory. As we walk in truth according to Your Word, we reflect light for others to see. Those who love darkness do not want light to shine and reveal them for what they are.

Give us strength and courage to stand for truth even when the darkness resists, pushes back, even attacks. As we endure that resistance, as we follow You in spite of the costs, preserve us that we might persevere. Our bodies and our wills struggle when the trial of resistance, even persecution, continues on and on.

We can grow weary when it seems that we are resisting alone. Let us sense Your Spirit working in us and through us so that can persevere through the storms. Send fellow laborers to stand with us and encourage us, and let us encourage them to continue the good fight as well. Pour out Your power to work through us in tearing down the gates of hell this day.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray for those who don’t have words to express their present struggle. For some, their lives have collapsed upon them, slamming them to the ground and crushing them suddenly and by surprise. For some, it is not the suddenness but the unrelenting nature of their struggle, feeling as though their prayers are daily repeating the same thing over and over. For some, they feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of simultaneous challenges leaving them frozen in their tracks and in what to pray.

In those times, You promised that Your own Spirit would guide our words. You promised that the groans and cries of our heart would be heard through Your Spirit’s work. You promised to catch our tears in a bottle, to provide our daily bread, to lift us up when we feel like we cannot get up on our own.

Hear today, the deepest, most painful cries of Your children’s souls and be present to comfort, to lift up, to heal, to provide, to strengthen… to love us. Have mercy on those who can barely breathe through their circumstances much less form words to express the weight and darkness of their struggles.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray for truth in healthcare to prevail whether in terms of the therapies used or in the business of operations. We live in an age where ideologies lead to blindness and profit motives lead to bad decisions. Rather than dialogues that promote understanding, we get propaganda and deceptions without real substance.

I pray that those who call themselves by the Name of Christ would join together and stand above the darkness, shining a light into the darkness for both believers and unbelievers to find real healthcare which cares for body and spirit.

I pray that those who try to hide the truth, who try to spin the story to their favor, who are deaf to dialogue due to ideologies, would be shown for their foolishness.

Forgive us for our compromises with the world and lead us to honor You in all we do in caring for the bodies You gave us acknowledging the spirits attached to those bodies.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

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.