A Prayer

We thank You, Father, that You are so good to us. There are so many ways in which You have been good to us, not the least of which is that You have rescued us from the destructiveness of our sin. If You had not sent Jesus what kind of people would we be now? But He has come, we have entrusted ourselves to Him, and as a result, we have been changed. All of this is because of Your kind grace granted to us. And as we stop to think about things like this, we wonder why You included us among those who enjoy the favor of Your goodness. The marvels of Your grace.

We know that there is room in us for more change, more growth. That change doesn't happen as fast as it might. But You are a patiently persistent God. And it is that persistence that makes the difference. Slowly but surely, Your Spirit does His work in us so that there actually is change. We do grow. We are, in fact, becoming more like Jesus. We thank You for that, Father. And we look forward to the day when this whole process will come to its goal, the day when we will be made whole. That is the day when we will live and love and obey just like Jesus does. That will be a glorious day for sure.

Father, we think about the people that we know. Some of them are family, some good friends, and some just acquaintances. But there are so many among them who do not know You. They are estranged from the God who has created them, the God who would make them whole. And because of that, their lives just don't work as well as they might. We ask that You would use us, use our lives and our words, that they would come to know real life because of Jesus.

Bring them our way, give us opportunities to speak and the boldness to speak so that they would join us as Your children.

And now, Father, as we turn to the preaching of Your Word we ask for Your kind blessings so that we will come to understand better what it means to follow Jesus and thus make You look good.