My Father and My God!
Bless Your church this morning as we gather for corporate worship. Protect Your church from the world, the flesh, and the Devil. O Father, confuse the council of the ungodly who may be planning to attack Your people this morning around this world. Keep Your hedge of protection over Your redeemed as we desire to gather for corporate worship to hear Your Word, praise and confess Your name, offer ourselves as living sacrifices to You, and exalt the name of Jesus.
You have revealed in Scripture that You are the Sovereign God. One God in essence and yet three in person: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! You created all things by the Word of Your power, and You uphold all things that exist, both in Heaven and on earth! There is nothing outside of Your sovereign governance! You alone rule in the kingdoms of men as You so easily demonstrated with the powerful worldly rulers such as the Pharaoh, King Nebuchadnezzar, Herod, and Pontius Pilate. Your sovereign rule is the soft pillow that every believer can lay his head on at night!
Thank You, dear Lord, for salvation! Thank You for the forgiveness of sins, reconciliation, righteousness, adoption, and sonship! I have absolutely no hope of salvation unless I am rescued by Jesus Christ alone! My only hope is Jesus’ righteousness, His atoning death on the cross, His rising from the dead, and His being seated in Heaven as the sovereign Ruler of the nations, and His coming again to gather up His people from the four corners of this earth! And I know, as You have revealed in Your Word, that Jesus did all this on behalf of and in the place of His sheep, His church, His bride! Thank you, Lord Jesus!
Thank You that You are working all things together for every believer’s good and our conformity to Christ (Rom. 8:28-29). Thank You that You have promised to never leave nor forsake Your people, Your sheep, Your church, even me (Heb. 13:5). Lord, we are living in a fearful, discouraging, and confusing time in human history. Thank You for the promise that nothing can separate us from Your love (Rom. 8:38-39). Thank You, Lord Jesus, that all power and authority is in Your hand, the very hand of the One who purchased the church and sustains and keeps every sheep of Your pasture!
Please, Lord Jesus, strengthen the heart of all Your redeemed! Strengthen my heart! You have not given us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and of a sound mind (2 Tim. 1:7). Yet, as believers, we are, at best, partially sanctified in this life and therefore we must fight against fear that at times floods our hearts! We must continually fight against the world, the flesh, and devil in this life as they assail us continually. We realize daily that the Christian life is labor. We must be diligent, self-controlled, and hard working even as soldiers, farmers, and athletes (2 Tim. 2). The battle is exhausting, courage can wane, and many times we become discouraged! Help us, help us, dear Lord, to “gird up the lions of our mind and be sober, and rest our hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13). Help us to put on the full armor of God so we can make a firm stand against the world, the flesh, and the devil! (Eph. 6) Help us, sovereign, gracious, and merciful Lord, to be faithful, diligent, persistent soldiers of the cross of Christ!
O God: Father, Son, Holy Spirit: I love You! You are my Sovereign Lord, My God, My Savior, My King, My Redeemer, My Shepherd! I bow to no man! I bow only to my Sovereign God and Savior, Jesus Christ! And yet I know I am inconsistent, sinful, weak, frail, fragile, and broken! I do know that I love You because You first loved me and You shed Your love abroad in my heart by Your Holy Spirit (Rom. 5). But I also know that my love for You is not what it ought to be! I know my love is growing, but is less than perfect. I know that I have not loved You with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength!
But even though my love is imperfect, incomplete, weak, and at times vacillating, Jesus’ love for You, Father, never vacillated, was never imperfect, never incomplete and never weak! He loved You perfectly, completely, with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength! And He did so in my place and on my behalf and that of all the redeemed! And this is the righteousness I wear! Jesus imputed it to me in exchange for all my sins, past, present, and future! Wow! Hallelujah! What a Savior! I have no hope apart from Jesus! Yet, in Christ I am complete! In Christ, I have all that is necessary unto my salvation! In Christ, I stand righteous, holy, and just in Your sight because of Christ’s righteous robes! O Lord, bless me to walk in Your ways, and with greater courage to live unto Christ in this fallen, sin-cursed world!
Heavenly Father, hear my prayer for the sake of Your Son, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ in whose name and authority I pray. Amen!
