Father,
When we stop and consider you and the things that you do, our whole being is filled with thankfulness. Your people, who are obedient to the truth, have gathered here this morning to sing our thankfulness to you together, and to speak of it with one another. You do amazing things, and the more attention we give to your works, the more they fill us with delight. There is something wonderful about all you do and you let us see your righteousness through it. You work to preserve the memory of what you have done in the past, so that prayers of delight and thankfulness continue to go up. You have caused many histories to be written of your acts in the lives of your saints, and you have caused many stories to be told of your care within our families and churches.
May this testimony about your greatness and goodness, and especially those things as demonstrated in the death of Christ, become a significant part of the conversation in this city, not merely among us who love you, but everyone. We can’t get away from the messages of those who hate you. We see ungodliness that leads to depression, despair, and death promoted on every billboard, TV station, and smartphone. You are the one who has life in yourself. We want the people of this city to be thinking and reading and talking about you. Help us, as the body of Christ on earth, to know how to speak, so that we represent you rightly, and stir up, in others, love and worship.
You know that we need many things and you have not forgotten your promise to care for your children. For another week, we can testify that we have never seen the righteous forsaken. You have given us food to eat to sustain our bodies and your word to sustain our souls. Some you have healed, some you have given strength to endure. We pray that you will continue to give us everything we need.
Keep us from overvaluing our own understanding of things and so losing, through pride, the value of any wisdom we may have had. Help us to hear your word and understand it by the Spirit of Truth, and receive it like children, not with suspicious judgment, but with wonder. Give us the clarity to identify those who are godly among us and the childlike humility to imitate them as they follow you. Through our faith, make us wiser than your enemies.
Of all the acts of yours that we remember, there is none greater or more unfathomable than the cross. The gaze of every heart that loves you through all time is fixed on those three hours when the God-man hung between heaven and earth. Even today your Spirit testifies to each of us that we are your children because the blood of that day won our reconciliation.
We ask that all that is done this morning be pleasing to you, both in this service and in our fellowship. As we have received love and comfort from you, help us to speak words of love and comfort to each other.