Proclaim. Disciple. Serve.

Pastoral Prayer (05/09/2021)

Heavenly Father: As the One who called us out of darkness into your excellent light, we
humbly and reverently approach your throne of grace in prayer.

Our transcendent triune God, we praise you and worship you as God: eternal, infinite,
absolutely holy, perfect in every way. You are Creator and you are our Creator. The
universe is your creation. We are your creatures. We depend on you for everything.

Lord, we thank you that out of love for your creation and love for your people, the Son of
God came into this world to fulfill perfect righteousness, living as your perfect image in
the midst of a fallen world. God became man for our sake. May you be glorified.

Father, we pray for our civil authorities – at every level of government. We pray for the
authorities in the legislative and in the executive and in the judicial branches of our
government. We ask that you would show mercy to us and to our country – that you would
do a work in our authorities so that they would govern according to your standards of
righteousness and in line with how you created this world to be governed. More than that,
we ask that you bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ears and hearts of those who govern
us and that the power of the gospel through the Holy Spirit would regenerate them and
bring them to faith and repentance.

Father, I pray for Gethsemane Baptist Church. I pray that you would transform us into a
people who rejoice always, who pray without ceasing, and who in everything give thanks.
I pray that you would unite us so firmly and yet so intimately into the kind of church that
demonstrates what you call a local church to be. I pray you would cause us to love and
serve each other more. I pray that you would drive us to our knees and that we each of us
would pray for everyone else in this church – by name! I pray you would work in our
hearts so that we are all sacrificial givers, in all the ways that Scripture teaches us to give. I
pray that you would protect us spiritually – shepherd us as only you can.

We pray for everyone in our fellowship who is going through difficult circumstances:
physical difficulties, spiritual difficulties, suffering, or discouragement. I pray that you
would remind each of them and each of us that there is no greater comfort than Jesus
Christ. If we have Jesus Christ, we lack nothing. Comfort these precious souls with the
comfort that can only come from you. Give each of us the grace to be praying regularly for
our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Heavenly Father, I repeat last week’s prayers for our pastor and his family. Grant them
grace in all that you have called them to and all that you are leading them through for this
season of their lives.

Father, we thank you for the Scripture that you breathed out and which we hold in our
hands. I pray that as we now turn to your Word, that we would each pay close attention to
what you want to teach us this morning. I pray that you would bless the faithful preaching
of your Word and that today’s sermon would in fact be a faithful exposition of your
revealed truth.

Together we pray all of these things in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen