Lord God, bring us together as children of God. Shield us from this dysfunctional world. Through Your Son, Jesus, You connected us to God and to each other. Remind us today of that connection. Remind us that we are all sinners redeemed by the same God.
Give us the wisdom to stop fighting battles that don’t need to be fought and to let go of the things that just need to be given to God. Give us the patience and the strength to just simply wait for You because “You can do more in one second that we could ever do in an entire lifetime” (My Emmanuel Prayer Team).
You are the Alpha and Omega. You are the source of everything that we are and will ever be. It is because of You that we have hope. It is through You that we have love. It is by You that we can live.
Tags: Christian, Church, ELCA, Jesus, lutheran, My Emmanuel Prayer Team, Prayer
Gracious and Holy One, come into our lives and minds today. Let us return to Your truth. Remind us, that even in the ordinary moments of life, that we are surrounded by God’s extraordinary presence.
Don’t let us just return to business as usual, but instead lead us into the new possibilities of God’s amazing grace. Do not let us do good works simply to earn Your favor or the favor of others, because we’re not in this life for business. We are in this life to be among the living, and because of Your Son we can truly live as children of God.
You laid down Your life for this mess of a world because “in our desire to control love, we lost our way” (Jeff Hood). But love found us and continues to guide us. Each time we mess up and fall, the cross reminds us that the Holy Spirit lives and dwells within all of us, and that we are never ever alone.
Tags: Christian, Church, ELCA, Jesus, lutheran, Prayer, Rev. Jeff Hood
Creator God, we meet You at this point in our life because we want a connection with the truth. Flood our minds with the wisdom to stop thinking as the world does. Challenge us to apply Your Word in every aspect of our lives. Don’t let us look elsewhere for recognition, love or value for “the mind and the heart will be restless until we rest in the arms of God…and God is the totality of Love” (Rev. Jeff Hood), so we don’t need to fear life’s challenges but instead trust in the One who is the source of our strength and our hope.
Love has been spoken loudly, clearly and definitively the through the life, death and resurrection of God’s only Son. It is through Jesus that we are transformed from sinner to saint and receive the gift of eternal life. It is His Love that surrounds us. It is His Love that will sustain us. And it is His Love that will deliver us evil.
Tags: Christian, Church, ELCA, Jesus, lutheran, Prayer, Rev. Jeff Hood
I saw this picture at an office complex. You can see my reflection behind Jesus. I kinda like that.
We welcome You Messiah and we also walk in the shadow of Your cross. We pray for wisdom to see beyond the cheers of the crowd demanding an instant miracle. If we build our faith on the crowd, then we build on a sinking foundation. So instead of empty words, let’s build on the solid rock of Christ and live out our faith in the One who paid the price so that we would know that God is always with us.
“We’re not saved because we’re good. We’re good because we are saved” (Rich Mullins). So when the Hosanna’s fade, let us not be moved but instead let us hold on to the truth. The truth that “Love is always going to be far more dangerous than power” (Jeff Hood). The truth that Jesus died for us so that there would be no emptiness between us, and the love of God. Lead us to the cross Lord, where Your love is and will always be…one scarred hand to the other.
Tags: Christ, Christian, Church, ELCA, Jeff Hood, Jesus, lutheran, Palm Sunday, Prayer, Rich Mullins
St. James Lutheran Church in Crystal Minnesota
Lord God, we come here today so that You can pour Your Spirit into the deserts of our lives. Teach us how Your love knows no limitations. It walks on water, it raises the dead and it connects us with our Creator. When all else fails, the love of God never fails. So release the gospel into our story so that we can step into our function as children of God and messengers of truth.
“Authenticity takes courage (Bishop Yvette Flunder).” Faith in Jesus, goes beyond words, it calls us to action. Yes, we may take up our cross but it is Jesus who carries it. “He has a purpose in even the things we cannot understand (Romans 8:28).” So Lord, give us courage, give us strength and give us the vision to pursue Your dream of a healed world. And when doubt creeps in, give us the wisdom to know that “God doesn’t call the qualified. God qualifies the called (Mark Batterson).”
Tags: Bishop Yvette Flunder, Christian, Church, ELCA, Jesus, Mark Batterson, Prayer, Romans 8:28
Lord God, “thank You so much for Your love for us. Thank you that, despite the way the world and other people treat us, we are loved by the One who matters the most (Vince Antonucci, VerveLV).” We come to You today with our whole truth because You know our life story.
You spoke us into being and You know every moment of sin, shame and inconsistency. Yet, Your love for us never fails. We’re forever struggling to know You more, so please give us the wisdom to understand that You already know us. You see us, You hear us and you still love and forgive us no matter what. You take all of our messes and create the most beautiful work of art, called life, for You are with us always.
The way of the cross is not forced its given. The Lord isn’t asking us to walk across a continent; He’s asking us to walk across the street” (M. Russell Ballard) or towards the broken souls in this very room and love our neighbors as ourselves with the same love that God gives to us. So let us begin.
Tags: Christian, Church, ELCA, Jesus, M. Russell Ballard, Prayer, VerveLV, Vince Antonucci
Original Painting by Jason Manlapaz
Lord, “because You bend down to listen, as long as we have breath, we will pray (Psalm 116:2).” “Guard our speech from evil and our lips from deception (by) open(ing) our hearts to Your word (Episcopal Church).” Guide us through these questions and doubts that are rooted in the gravity of our human brokenness.
As sinners we all have a past, but as saints we also have a future to fully live in the experience that is Jesus Christ who is the truest expression of God’s love for all of us. It is Jesus, and Jesus alone, who goes before us and takes our place on the cross so that we can know that God is always for us, no matter what.
We are here today because “our conscience is captive to the Word of God (Martin Luther)” and it shocks us and it frees us each time we confront the cross. Lord, we look for You, we reach for You but most of all we simply seek to know You, to really know You.
Tags: Christian, Church, ELCA, Episcopal Church, Jesus, lutheran, Martin Luther, psalm 116, Word of God
New Song Church
We come here today to hear Your Word and to be reminded that whatever it is that we have lost is nothing compared to what is found in Jesus Christ. We pray that You would help us to read and then look up from the pages of the bible so that we can stare into the face of Jesus and confront the truth and the impact of the cross. Infuse us with what we cannot see during this journey to Gethsemane, to Golgatha and the resurrection.
Remind us that even though we revel in Epiphany we do not live there, but we remain forever in Emmanuel, God with us. “The Law says, ‘do this,’ and it’s never done. Grace says, ‘believe in this,’ and everything is already done.” (Heidelberg Disputation). So even if we do not have perfect faith let us have honest faith in a God that we so desperately need.
We are people of bread and water who hunger and thirst because we are limited by our own humanity and beholden to confront our need for the cross. You have called us to this place, and not one of us knows what our journeys will do but we pray that we will commit to those journeys knowing that the greatest guide that we have is the guide of love: the love of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
(This prayer was based on a sermon by Pastor Stan Mitchell of Gracepointe Church in Franklin, Tennessee)
Tags: Christian, Church, ELCA, gay christian, GLBTQ Christian, Gracepointe Church in Franklin Tennesse, Inclusion, Jesus Christ, love of God, Pastor Stan Mitchell
Cross at Community Lutheran Church, Las Vegas NV
Lord, we come into Your presence today with all of the joys and sorrows that come with this life. Open our hearts so that we can talk with You about the intimate feelings of our heart. Let the prayers and questions that need to be said rise up to You like incense. Silence the whispers of ego and self-righteousness. Help us to forgive what needs to be forgiven and to let go of whatever holds us back from receiving and reflecting Your love. Give us the faith to know that You will “restore what is broken and change it into something amazing” (Joel 2:25)
“Faith is not believing in (our) own unshakable belief. Faith is believing in an unshakable God when everything in (us) trembles and quakes” (Beth Moore). There are no easy answers in this life but there is a God who will not forsake us. There is the Word of God that will not return void. And there is the love of God that knows no end. So Lord, give us the wisdom to be able to preach the gospel with our life and not our lips.
Tags: Beth Moore, bible, Christian, Church, ELCA, Jesus Christ, Joel 2:25, lutheran, Prayer, Son of God
St. Joseph Catholic Church, Las Vegas, NV
Lord we come into Your presence as “citizens of a kingdom that cannot be shaken and as children of the (One who knows) no limitations” (Godfruits). We lay down our burdens at Your altar for we all come with scars of a broken heart or of regrets of the things we did or didn’t do. We release all these things to You because You are “merciful towards our iniquities, and (because of the intercession of Your Son) You will remember our sins no more” (Hebrews 8:10). We’ve failed a thousand times and will fail again but You’re always there to pick us back up to face the world knowing that our mistakes do not define us: our salvation does.
Our “faith (in God), is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light” (Helen Keller). “So (let us) be careful how we live. Don’t let us live like fools, but (let us be) wise (so that we can) make the most of every opportunity… Don’t (allow us to) act thoughtlessly, but (allow us to) understand what (it is that) You want us to do” (Ephesians 5:15-17)
Tags: Christian, Church, ELCA, Ephesians 5:15-17, Godfruits, Hebrews 8:10, Helen Keller, Jesus Christ, lutheran, Prayer, Son of God
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