The world needs hope right now and the words of this song are just so powerful! Please join in with all of God’s children and sing out loud about the love of God! #HappyEaster #Heisrisen #BecauseHelives
“Because He Lives” by Matt Maher
I believe in the Son
I believe in the risen One
I believe I overcome By the power of His blood
Amen, Amen
I’m alive, I’m alive
Because He lives
Amen, Amen
Let my song join the one that never ends
Because He lives
I was dead in the grave
I was covered in sin and shame
I heard mercy call my name
He rolled the stone away
Amen, Amen
I’m alive, I’m alive
Because He lives
Amen, Amen
Because He lives
I can face tomorrow
Because He lives
Every fear is gone
I know He holds my life my future in His hands
Amen, Amen
I’m alive, I’m alive
Because He lives
Amen, Amen
I have just fallen in love with the words of this song and I sing this as a prayer and an affirmation of my faith and commitment to Jesus Christ.
“So Will I” by Hillsong
God of creation
There at the start
Before the beginning of time
With no point of reference
You spoke to the dark
And fleshed out the wonder of light
And as You speak
A hundred billion galaxies are born
In the vapor of Your breath the planets form
If the stars were made to worship so will I
I can see Your heart in everything You’ve made
Every burning star
A signal fire of grace
If creation sings Your praises so will I
God of Your promise
You don’t speak in vain
No syllable empty or void
For once You have spoken
All nature and science
Follow the sound of Your voice
And as You speak
A hundred billion creatures catch Your breath
Evolving in pursuit of what You said
If it all reveals Your nature so will I
I can see Your heart in everything You say
Every painted sky
A canvas of Your grace
If creation still obeys You so will I
So will I
So will I
Architect of life, shift the universe and align us with Your message to love beyond our limitations. Mend and resolve what is broken in our lives so that we can experience the fullness of these moments that You gift us.
Thank You for being faithful, consistent, constant and always with us. Impact our attitudes as we remember the saints that have gone before us, so that we can trust in the resurrecting power of Almighty God; that in Christ there is no good bye and there is no end. There is only oneness with the love of the One who created us.
We pray for many things. But the prayer that is answered into our being, is that God is always with us, goes with us, and stands alongside us as we face the many obstacles and mazes of this life. We are never without God. Ever.
Great Provider, “every good and perfect gift comes from You” (James 1:17). We thank You Lord for each moment from our first cry to our final breath. Bring us to a new way of understanding grace and love. Wrap our minds around, “a new awareness, discovery and consciousness that grace is already living inside of us” (Rev. Ed Bacon) and that in each moment we become a new creation because of Jesus Christ.
Untie the knots in our minds and hearts that keep us from experiencing God’s love in the here and now, because we cannot hold onto anything that once was or never was. We are, however, held by the constant love of God that frees us to let go of all earthly things and allows us to follow the path that leads to salvation and eternal life.
Your sacrifice on the cross and triumph from the grave frees us from the prison of our own false thoughts. “Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the One who hears it and not in the one who says it” (Max Lucado) then we have faith that these prayers will make a difference.
Great provider, thank You for blessing us with so much! Each breath, each sunrise and each moment of life is a gift. We pray for a thankful heart. We pray for a gracious heart. And we pray for a humble heart. “Beneath our clothes, our reputations, our pretensions, beneath our religion or lack of it, we are all vulnerable both to the storm without and to the storm within” (Fredrick Buechner).
Comfort us with the truth that You are always with us, that You will always love us regardless of the works that we do or don’t do, and that You will always redeem us every time that we fail. Help us to believe in the miracle of God’s never ending love.
Give us the wisdom to trust You, O Lord, so that we can let go of our fear of failure and our hunger for success. Reorient our perspective so that we can see that the living bread from heaven is for all of us, and that it will never run out. Let us know that we can live this life in the abundance of all that God provides.
Great Provider, hear our prayers today and not our demands. Supply us with a greater understanding of Your love. Create new ways of thinking as “we live our lives before the wild, dangerous, unfettered and free character of the living God” (Walter Brueggemann).
Help us to pray for each other and not just ourselves. Give us the wisdom to have less ego, hate, and condemnation, but have more compassion, love and mercy. Instead of demanding what we think we deserve, let us give thanks for what we don’t deserve: Grace and forgiveness. We’ve all made mistakes. We all need to forgive each other and point each other back to God. So strengthen us to run toward the experience of love. Guide us to wherever it is that You are.
“So when the devil throws our sins in our face and declares that we deserve death and hell, we can tell him this: “we admit what we deserve…For we know (of) One who suffered and made satisfaction on our behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there we shall be also!” (Martin Luther)
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)
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.
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)
A text book that my Pastor, Reverend David Poling-Goldenne, wrote for seminary students. We will honor his life and ministry today at his memorial service.
Lord God, “the earth is Yours and “You have made everything beautiful in it’s time.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Usher us into Your presence and shield us from a world of easy answers and false solutions.
Present the hard truths of this life so that we can think, ponder and dwell in the Word of God and it’s meaning in our lives. Our life is our message to the world just as the life of Your Son is Your message to us: Love all and love God.
Our faith does not rest upon on who or what we are, but in who Jesus is, what He has done and in what He is doing now. So Lord, guide us to wherever You are and “if we can’t fly, then let’s run, if we can’t run, then walk, if we can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever we do, we have to keep moving forward” (Martin Luther King, Jr.) into the future that God has planned for us.
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