Is This a Worthy Prayer?

O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? 

 

(It's in the Bible: Revelation 6:10)

A Prayer

Father,
 
You have given to us so many gifts. Your kindness has overflowed, and we are blessed.
 
We thank You, Father, for Your gift of joy. There isn't a moment in our lives when we can't rejoice. Oh, there will be plenty of times when we will be sad. Happiness will come and go. But to rejoice, we can always do that. And we can do that because of You.
 
You are the God who is always near. You are never so busy somewhere else that we are left all alone. Impossible! You are Immanuel, God with us, our loving Father. Always. And in that, all by itself, we can rejoice.
 
But there is more. We rejoice because Jesus is Lord. And He is in the process of making that claim good everywhere. He is right now conquering His enemies. And the day will come when every person - from Adam to whoever the last person will be - every person will bow to Him confessing that He is Lord. And we are a part of that. We are His means of conquering. And we will win this war. In that we always can rejoice. The joy in Jesus as conquering Lord is our strength.
 
The day will come when all the battles will be over. Jesus will return. And then we will experience life in a way that is impossible to imagine here. And the heart of that will be that we will be with You, face to face, enjoying the pleasures of Your presence in a new heavens and a new earth. We can't wait!
 
But we're not there yet. There is more fighting to be done. We still have to deal with the world, the flesh and the devil. And Father, there are times when it gets really hard. In those moments, remind us that we can still rejoice. We may have to do that through tears, but we can still rejoice. Jesus is Lord. And He will conquer. And all that we have had to deal with as His Church - all of it will be rewarded. We thank You that our joy leads to hope, the certainty that, at the right time, You will keep Your promises. This war will end. We will win. And that's one thing that keeps us going, as we pray this through Christ our Lord, Amen.

A Prayer

Father,
 
You have told us that to live, to really live, is bound up in knowing You, the only true God. And because of Your kind grace, we believe You. Life really is all about knowing You. So, we thank You that You have allowed us to come to know You. But there is more to know about You, Father, much more than what we now know. And so, we ask that You would reveal to us more of who You are. We want to know You better.
 
You have said that You are the God who is to be feared. Knowing You better will mean fearing You more. But, Father, what does it mean to fear You? It can't mean that we are to cower in some corner wondering if You're going to erupt in rage, dreading the possibility. That just isn't You. But what does it mean? We know that there are so many who have such superficial thoughts of You, so many for whom the notion of fearing You has no place in their hearts. We don't want to be like that. But we're not sure what it means to fear You.
 
What makes this more confusing, Father, is that, well, You are our Father. You have made it clear to us that You are gentle and kind. You tenderly care for us. Whatever it means to be a truly loving father, that's You. We are so grateful that You are this to us. Life would be so very different and so very difficult if You weren't a father to us. But how do we put this together with that other thought. How are we to fear You, our loving Father? What does that mean?
 
There is much here that we just don't understand. And that could get very frustrating. But You have promised to tell us whatever it is that we need to know. All we need do is ask. So, we are asking. Reveal more of who You are to us. Teach us what it means that You are our dear Father whom we are to fear.
 
We ask this so that we would gain more of the life that You have promised us. But our desires are not ultimately about ourselves. We realize that it is as we know You better and gain more life that we will be able to display the beauty of Your grace to a very needy world. So, Father, we ask that You would grant this request for the sake of the world that they might come to know You. As they join us in knowing and enjoying You, they will honor Your Name. And that is always the most important thing. We ask these things, Father, through Christ our Lord, Amen.

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 of vengeance. You are the one who has said, ‘Vengeance is mine. I shall repay.’ This is an aspect of who You are that we don’t hear very much about. This is an aspect of who You are that we are not as familiar with. We talk about Your love and Your grace and how awesome it is for us to enjoy these aspects of Your character. But we don’t talk much about how You will avenge Yourself on Your enemies. But You will. This is simply an expression of Your justice. This creation is Yours. You are the God who runs this place. And You have made it abundantly clear that You have expectations. All creatures are to acknowledge that You are God. This is simply agreeing with reality. You are God. And You have also made it abundantly clear that all who refuse to do this, all who rebel against You, will be held accountable for their choices. You will repay them for their refusal to acknowledge the obvious. You are God. We feel uncomfortable thinking about this, but it makes sense. You are the just God who rules creation.

This helps us as we find ourselves confronted by those who hate You and take it out on us. There will be justice. But it isn’t something for us to try to bring about. Vengeance belongs to You.

There should be sadness as we contemplate what will happen to Your enemies. You take no pleasure in the death of the wicked and neither should we. And yet it is a comfort for us to know that a day is coming when You will vindicate Your name and Your Gospel. Grant us the patience we need to wait for that day.

As we contemplate Your justice remind us that the only reason we will not have to face it is Jesus. We will never experience Your just rage against our rebellion because Jesus already has. Humble us with that thought as we consider the fate of so many. And motivate us with this truth so that the rebels that we know will see the effects of the Gospel in our lives. And seeing that, we ask that they would come to submit to Jesus as Savior and Lord, and give up their rebellious ways. 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.

A Prayer

I waited patiently for the Lord;
He inclined to me and heard my cry.     Psalm 40.1

Father,

You have promised Yourself to us and You have done that in so many different ways. You have told us that You will care for us as a good shepherd lovingly cares for his sheep. You have assured us that You will never leave us nor forsake us. You have made clear to us that when we are in trouble all we need do is to call upon You and that You will deliver us. You have given us many great and precious promises and we are grateful for all of them.

And yet, Father, there’s a problem. We have called upon You, we have mentioned some of those promises, reminding You of what You have told us. But nothing has happened. You have not kept Your promises. We know that You will keep Your promises, so we wait for that to happen. But, Father, waiting is hard.

A Prayer

These are old pastoral prayers that I wrote.

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!  

Psalm 8  

Hallowed be thy name. Matthew 6

O Lord, You are the Almighty whose deeds are amazing. You are able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. You have pledged to use Your might to spread the fame of Your Name. Help us to believe that, to be convinced of that, so that our prayers would regularly call upon You to use that might to enable us to accomplish great things for the sake of the glory of Your Name.

O Lord, You are the holy one of Israel who is of purer eyes than to see evil. You cannot look at wrong. And yet, there is so much evil, so much that is just wrong, not just around us but also in us. We do ask that you would make us learn to hate evil like you do so that we would be eager to cast it out in Jesus’ name.

O Lord, You are the Father who is so near to his children, the Father who loves us dearly. Our adversary whispers his lies in our ears so that we will doubt this. And as a result, we so often act like orphans who need to depend on themselves to survive. Help us, Father. Teach our hearts to believe in Your Fatherly love, to entrust ourselves to Your Fatherly love, so that our lives would broadcast that love to the people around us.

O Lord, You are the God who has created and at every moment sustains this universe. You do that not just with great power but also with great wisdom. And for this reason alone, You are worthy of the worship of every person alive. Give us a growing desire to see You receive this worship so that we would live in a way that would baffle those who refuse to worship You. Bless us with this so that they would see the foolishness of their ways and turn from them to You to offer worship that is worthy of Your Name.

O Lord, You are the one who has come in Jesus to reveal to us who You really are: the Almighty, the Holy One of Israel, our Father, the God who has created and sustains. We thank You that He has come. Help us to listen to Him so that we will serve You with all that we have.