This weekend we enter into the pastoral words of Jesus to His church. Words meant to encourage and exhort us in our shared lives through Him. And so, today, we pray this prayer adapted from John Ballie as the church of Jesus Christ.
Father God, we kneel before you in humble adoration as we set our face to the tasks and interests of another day, week, and season. Thank you for the blessed assurance that we shall not be called upon to face them alone or in our own strength, but that at all times we will be accompanied by your presence, strengthened by your grace, and encouraged by your family.
Thank you that throughout our human life run the footprints of our Lord and Savior, King and Sage, Priest and Friend, Jesus Christ, who for our sake was made flesh and tasted all the different challenges of daily living as well as the end we need no longer fear.
Thank you that as we go about our work and play, relationships and aspirations, we can be conscious of the spiritual presence of the heavenly host.
Thank you for the saints who rest from their labors, the patriarchs and matriarchs, prophets and prophetesses, apostles, noble martyrs, for all the holy and humble, for our own dear departed friends and family who have shown us your way.
As we remember them we bless and adore your great name. We rejoice, O Father, that you have called us to be members of the Church of Jesus Christ.
Let the awareness of this holy fellowship follow us wherever we go, cheering us in loneliness, protecting us in company, strengthening us against temptation, and encouraging us to act in love and justice.
O Lord Jesus Christ, you called the disciples to shine as lights in a dark world. In shame and repentance we acknowledge before you the many faults and weaknesses of which we are guilty, we who in this generation represent your Church to the world. We as Christ City Church especially acknowledge our part in this.
Forgive us, we pray, the feebleness of our witness, the meagerness of our giving and loving, and the mediocrity of our zeal. Help us to live in equal measure to the love have received, following the One who cared for the poor and the oppressed such as we. Let the strength of your Spirit, O Jesus, be in us all, to share the world’s suffering and redress its wrongs, in the fullness of your joy.
Through your life given, we live.
Amen.