Category Archives: prayer

A Sinner’s Prayer Prompted by the Last Passover in Luke 22

Posted on by
Reply

Dear God and heavenly Father,

I know that I am a sinner and that I need your forgiveness. I confess that there is nothing that I can do to save myself.  I admit my complete inability to work my way to heaven or to somehow be good enough to be saved.  Instead, I trust Christ and Christ alone as the One who bore my sin when He died on the cross.

I believe that I can come to you directly on the basis of Christ’s shed blood and in so doing not have to face your holy judgment.  I believe that Christ was raised from the dead and I take this as a guarantee of my own resurrection.  Help me now to live completely for you.

Please fill me with your Holy Spirit so that I might walk in newness of life.  And help me to carry out your will each and every day until I meet you face to face.

In Christ,

Amen

A Prayer Prompted by Luke 21

Posted on by
Reply

Heavenly Father,

You are allowing us to live in troubling times. All around us we see war, disease, unrest. Our society seems right now to be falling apart.

Help us to find our strength and stability in you.  Allow us to be a light during these dark days as we point people to you.  Help us not to get sidetracked by the conflicts of our age. We know that instability is in some ways normal during these times in which we live.

Help us to be peacemakers while we look forward to the peace that will only come when Jesus, the Prince of Peace, returns.

In Christ,

Amen

Watch yourselves – Luke 21:34-36

Posted on by
Reply

34 But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.

In a wider discussion about signs of the times and future things, Jesus turned his attention back to the present.  He knew that our interest in the future is not always correlated with vigilance in the present.  In fact, it can be used as a way to avoid it.

The person who is always looking just beyond the horizon can grow careless.  It doesn’t have to happen, but when attention is drawn to the “What if … ?” or “Is it maybe …?” we can lose sight of our current responsibilities.  

Character is inevitably developed in the present tense.  What we do today ripples into tomorrow in more ways than we can imagine.  Preparing for the future means doing something before the future gets here.  This was Christ’s concern for his disciples and it remains his concern for us.

If we become lax in our walk with Christ, in our disciplines, or in the little details of our spiritual life, the future will be here before we know it.  It will come quickly enough anyway, but it will seem even quicker for the one who is caught off guard.

Watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down …

A Prayer Prompted by Luke 20

Posted on by
Reply

Dear God, holy Trinity, Father Son and Holy Spirit,

We believe that Jesus Christ is truly God and truly human, both at the same time.

We also acknowledge that, as God, Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth.

Please help us to be diligent students of your word so that we will believe rightly to the best of our ability.

We trust that right beliefs about you will lead to a better understanding of you.

Let this also lead to more complete obedience, better worship and a fuller appreciation for who you are and what you have done.

And prevent us from all forms of hypocrisy.

In Christ,

Amen