A Prayer

Father,

You have said, ‘Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue’. You want us to do more than believe. You want us to strive for moral excellence. For many of us this is a startling thought. We were told to be Christians and then get to church. And we did that. Later, we were told that we needed to be disciples and not just believers. And so, we saw that there were old habits that needed to go and new habits that needed to be developed. And so we worked at gaining those new habits as well as getting rid of those old ones. We were also told that we needed to tell people about Jesus so that they might become one of us.  And we did that, too. And as we continued on living as disciples there were other things that were told to do. And we worked at doing them also. But most of us of have never heard anyone tell us to strive for virtue, for moral excellence. Father, this seems like an awful lot. It is an awful lot. And yet, that is what You are saying. This is what You want us to add to our faith. And we want to obey You.

But, Father, developing this moral excellence is difficult. We have known so very few examples of this quality that we can imitate. So even knowing what moral excellence might look like is difficult. And as we look at the world around us, it isn’t just that moral excellence is ignored. It’s mocked.

And so, once again we find ourselves in over our heads. This will be hard, maybe even impossible. But You are the God who is full of powerful grace that changes people. You do the impossible. So, we appeal to You. Help us, Father. Teach us what it means to excel in this area, what it can look like. And then, change us so that it will be developed in us. We know that somehow the Spirit will show us the way and make the changes. And that is so encouraging.

Once again, Father, we look to the future with optimism. We are praying to be able to obey You, and that is a kind of prayer You love to hear. It’s the kind You love to grant. So we look forward to how You will grant this request so that, step-by-step, we will gain moral excellence as we pray this through Christ our Lord, Amen.

A Prayer

Father,

You are the God who has rescued us. You have delivered us from the domain of darkness and the cruel king who rules that domain. Every day that we spent there was a taste of death. And our future, if we remained there, would have been worse.

But You delivered us from that domain and transferred us to a different kingdom, the kingdom of Your beloved Son, Jesus. And now we are subjects of a very different kind of king. He is a good king who loves all those who serve Him. And now, every day is another opportunity to taste more of the life that is His gift. And our future is glorious.

Father, it is obvious to us that we do not deserve any of this. What we deserve is to be left in that other domain. What we deserve is to suffer for time and eternity. But for reasons that will forever mystify us, You have been so very gracious to us. And we give You thanks for that.

We acknowledge that now that we are members of Jesus’ kingdom You have expectations of us. You call us to live worthy of this kingdom and worthy of this King. And that is exactly what we want to do. But our sin gets in the way. So, we ask You, Father, to do whatever is necessary - whatever is necessary - so that we will clearly see our remaining sin and thoroughly hate it so that we will repent of it and pursue instead godly traits of virtue and integrity and character. We know that doing this will not be easy. Dealing with sin will hurt, sometimes greatly. But we want to walk worthy of our Savior. So, we look to You to work in us by Your Spirit so that the change will happen and be obvious.

We know, Father, that You are the God who listens to the prayers of His saints. And that is so encouraging to us when we pray. And while You hear all of our requests, You don’t grant them all. You are too wise and too loving to do that. But we know that the requests that we have made this morning are the kind that will be granted. And so, we look forward to seeing that happen.

As we offer this up to You through Christ our Lord. Amen.