Father,
We tell our children about the things you have done for us, saving us from a sinful life and bringing us into this family of love and service. We tell them about answered prayer and the way you rescued us out of difficult situations. This seems normal to them now. But we pray that when they know the world better in coming years, they will marvel at the now familiar stories of what you have done and add to our stories the stories of their own miraculous rescues, preservations, transformations, and answers; and tell them to their own children so that they come to marvel at you as well.
Of course we talk about you not only to our children, but also to all the others that you bring into our lives. We want to pray this morning for those who have dedicated their lives to speaking to others about you and the work of your son. We pray for Sara John and ask that you would bless her work in India. Help her to master the language and the culture. Let her love for the girls she's teaching there be seen through the linguistic and cultural divide so that it may be clear to them that she is the servant of you who are love itself.
You don’t respond to us mechanistically, but with deep attention and creative care. Things don’t happen exactly the same way twice, and so everything we hear about you gives us a new angle from which to consider your greatness. We have met together here this morning to express to you our love and amazement. And this is not an isolated day, but part of the unending flow of worship that has continued uninterrupted since the creation. If the praise of mankind somehow failed, the stones would have to wake up and sing. But the praise of your people won't fail. Our worship continues from the day you called us out of darkness and into light and will last forever into eternity.
We depend on you for everything and so we ask for you to give us what we need to sustain our physical life. Please care for those struggling with debt. Either preserve us from it or deliver us from it so that we may live free and simple lives dedicated to service and prayer. Give us food to eat, something to wear, and a place to live. Give some of us more of these than we need so that we may have the joy of helping you do for others what you have done for us.
Your son has already paid off the debt that weighed us down the most - the one with the record of our selfish and angry actions with payment demanded in death. Consciously or unconsciously we were slaves to the fear of death until we believed. Your eternal son shared our flesh and blood so that, dying and rising, he would destroy the one who had the power of death. And now as the song says, “whom the son sets free is free indeed.”
Please empower all those who serve this morning: the musicians as they sing and play, those who read and pray, those who exposit the scriptures, and especially encourage those who serve by not being here and taking care of children.