Father,
Your rule over the world started long before we were born and will continue long after we have left it. You are the one who is enthroned forever. And so we have read the testimonies of those long dead who knew you and trusted you and lived in your world, and saw the glory of your work. It was written about you that you look down from heaven at the earth, to hear the groans of prisoners and set free those who are near to death. When our Lord called to you, you did not abandon him to death, but raised him back to life. For having done such a thing, billions of people are in awe of you and worship, and we among them.
But you listen not only to your special son, but also to us who have become yours through him. You hear our groans and rescue us from those things in our lives that carry the taste of death. You have given good jobs to those who could barely get by. You have given children to the childless. You have protected the lives of loved ones. You have given families to the lonely. You have healed sickness. You have healed, also, our inner being. You have cured souls of that blindness that made evil look like the source of pleasure instead of the source of death. You have given peace to the anxious. You have given joy to the depressed. You have let the powerless prevail with you in prayer.
Beyond all this, you will not abandon us to death, but as you resurrected your son, so you will resurrect us, not for a mere continuation of this same weak, humiliating, deteriorating life, but to a life that is indestructible, glorious, and powerful. For all this, we bring you thanks and honor.
Please continue to provide for us during the years of our earthly life. Though we trust you all the more because we have seen your care for us in the past, yet our needs continue. Though you have blessed us with food and money and housing yesterday, we need more for today. So we ask you to take care of the needs of each one here at Royal York. Give the moderate amount that is most conducive to a godly life. If you choose to give less to some, free them from anxiety and bless them with an abundance of peace that the work of your Spirit in them might be evident to all. If you choose to give more to some, give them sobriety and humility and let their abundance allow them to be all the more like you who gives generously to all.
Work among us here to increase our faith. We desire that your Holy Spirit would blow among us so that we would trust and know in our gut and not just in our minds that your attention and power and presence is here now. Make it so that if an unbeliever joins us, they might say, “God is here!” Fill us with the joy and calm of walking with you in a way that rests in the certainty that you listen and care and answer.
Thank you for buying us back from being slaves to sin and death. Thank you for our Lord Jesus who paid the ransom price by his death. Lord Jesus, now that we belong to you, we thank you for being gentle with us and sympathizing with our weaknesses. In you, have indeed found rest for our souls.
We pray for our service this morning and ask that you would be honored in all that is done here. May our songs be pleasant to you. May you be pleased as the truth is taught through the reading and exposition of the scriptures. Help us to be receptive hearers, that we would not be hearers only but doers of the word. Help us to love you with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. In our fellowship, help us to speak truth with each other, always seeking others' interests ahead of our own. We ask that you would specially encourage those who serve in the nursery that we might gather here.