"Let Us Pray"
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you so much for this day and for all of the tomorrows that you will be faithful to give us. We also want to take a moment to thank you for the many things you have watched us do and become.
Lord, I pray that you will bless everything we are doing, including the many things that we have planned and invested in. I pray that you will make our will your own, and no matter what you may have had in mind for us to do, I pray that you will alter your vision so that we can continue doing what we have always done.
Lord, bless our adult and youth programs, Sunday 11:00 a.m., 1 hour worship services, and our 9:45 a.m. Sunday school. We have worked so hard for so many years to keep these programs together, and we ask that you will keep new ideas from destroying what we love.
We know that you are a creative God, doing things in new ways, and we don't want to discourage you from doing your little new stuff. But Lord, those are ideas for other churches and we are sure that you know how important our history and heritage are to the world. We have an identity that is unique and worth preserving.
So, we want to take this time to pray for those who are unable to find you in what we do, and ask you to touch them in a special way and send them somewhere else.
Lord, do everything with miracles, so that we can be still all the time and know that you are God. Make us great teachers without having to study. Make us great pastors without having to care. Give us millions and millions of dollars so that we can hire lots of employees to do the work of your Kingdom.
Lord, we want to be free from active ministry so that we can invest in our careers, spend time with our families, and be faithful members of our churches by paying attention to our speakers and our leaders, and by coming every time the doors are open...to be fed.
Lord, thank you for hearing our prayer. We know that you will do what we ask, because you are our God and you always do our will.
All together:
“Our Father in heaven, hollowed be our name, our kingdom come, our will be done in heaven as we do on earth. Keep giving us all that we ask for, Forgive us our debts, and be patient as we search our hearts and psychologists for ways to forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one (Johnny 1:1 *NSV)."
In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
* New Selfish Version
8 comments:
yikes
Wow, Johnny. Sounds like you had a "usual" day at the office. Same ol' mumbo jumbo from the same people who want to do things the way we did them 50 years ago, which has landed our church in the position it's in today.
It's like you said one day in a sermon- "Yesterday's good ol' days have made big contributions to today's bad ol' days."
So, let's keep serving each other and not the people who really need us. And let's continue to have an order of service in church every Sunday and not DARE change it up. And let's continue to make our Sunday morning church services as uncomfortable as possible so people won't feel welcome.
;-)
So what you trying to say? . . . that all we care about is ourselves? How dare you! (hope you catch the sarcasm ;)
Blessings,
Bret
Staci,
Don't be afraid. I will protect you.
Daniel,
Actually, I was trying to rest and Ella wouldn't let me, so I started thinking about how impatient we can be with children and how I don't want Ella to feel like she's not important.
From there, my mind went to the mission of Jesus and I couldn't help but feel a little sarcastic. So, this is the result.
Bret,
I always do.
Grace and peace...
Wow....you definitly must have written this one before the morning coffee....good stuff though.
You really like colored fonts don't you? heehee. You're awesome.
Kathy,
I did have coffe, but not enough, after a really long week.
Colored fonts are fun!
Johnny
Sounds like you were reverting back to your Charlotte Temple days. Oh... did I just say that? Apparently yes. I was at first just reading your post like any other post, and then I was like, wait a minute. What did he just write? Then I understood what you were saying, and agreed completely with the Preposterousness of it all. The sad thing is, people are really pleading prayers like that without having any clue. Frustrating...
And yet, I wonder if I too am praying selfish prayers...
Stephanie,
We all do. Because we have been taught for too long that God is interested in what makes me happy, not what builds the Kingdom.
Grace and peace to you and yours.
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