A Prayer

Holy Spirit,

We come to You, the third person of the glorious Trinity, the one who is truly God and worthy of all praise and worship, but also the one who is all too often neglected and forgotten. Who You are and what You do is too hidden from our eyes. And yet, as we come to understand the Gospel better we find ourselves seeing more clearly how important You really are.

You are the one who has made the blessings of the Gospel ours. You are the one who convicted us of sin so that we would repent. You are the one who granted us faith so that we would believe. It is only because of these gracious ministrations of Yours that we have come to Jesus. If this is all that You ever did for us, we would be greatly indebted to You, greatly indebted.

 But those things are only the beginning of Your work in us. You are also the one who united us to the body of Jesus, His Church, marking us out in our baptism. You gave us abilities that we could use in this Church to encourage the saints and to attract unbelievers to Jesus. You still point out our sins so that we would repent and become holy. You comfort us as we deal with the evils of this age. You encourage us when we want to give up. You illumine the Scriptures so that we can come to know reality as it actually is. You guide us through this life. And You do all these things not from some faraway place. You live within us.

There is so much about who You are and what You do that we still don't understand. So, we ask that You would continue to teach us. Teach us about the awesome power that You have to bring about tremendous change. Use it to change our lives. And then, use us to change other lives. Use us as You see fit to bring in the kingdom that will completely transform this creation. We look forward to the age to come when we will be able to grow more and more and more in our understanding and appreciation of who You are and what You do, things that will evoke our praise for You, forever. Amen