Corporate Worship Prayers

6/6/21

Father in Heaven, thank you for the unique blessing it is to gather and celebrate. It's a truly amazing work you invite us to partake in each week; it's a joy and it only happens because you are faithful in gathering your church in upholding her. Whatever you promise you intend to make good on. You promise that the gates of hell will not prevail against it, so they won't. You promise that you will always be with your people, even until the end of the age, and you will be. The truth is: you always have been. It is so easy for us to get caught up in the difficult or perilous seasons of our life and convince ourselves that you are not present in our suffering. We allow ourselves space to believe you are not at work, that you are not a zealous God who is working in and around your people for your glory and our good. But you are always with us, always holding us together, always walking with us through the dark valleys. Always fighting for your people. Forgive us for believing anything that is to the contrary. Spirit, sear this reality into our hearts and allow us to take comfort in the God who is present with us. You are so very good and so very faithful and we gather here to celebrate you today. It's in the wonderful name of Christ that we have gathered, and in his name we pray, Amen.

6/13/21

Father GOD,

We thank you and we praise you this morning for who you are!
You are mighty to save, and rich in mercy towards us. All of
Creation praises you in earth and sky and sea; and we join in that
chorus with joyful shouts and grateful hearts.
JESUS, we confess that our hearts are not always inclined to
worship you as they should be; that our first response to trial is
not one worthy of your name...allowing ourselves to be lost in
our feelings and chasing after what we think will make us happy,
rather than truth rooted in your word.
SPIRIT, we pray that you would work in us and stir our hearts to
respond to your loving pursuit of us. Transform our hearts to be
pure and holy; to see those around us as you do, to love our
families, to love friends, neighbors, widows, orphans, and
enemies as you have shown us to. Create in our hearts the desire
to serve you, not out of duty, but motivated as a response to all
that you have done for us. Help us to always look up as we seek
to love in your Name.
It is for his beautiful name that we pray ...
And all of God’s children said together... Amen.

6/13/21

Father God,

You give life and you are love.
You spoke the world into existence.
All that we have comes from you.
But God, in our foolishness, we turned from you. We thought we knew better.
And it turns out, we surely did not.
For in our sin, we separated ourselves from you forever.
And nothing we could do on our own would ever be enough.
But in your great grace and infinite mercy, you made a way.
You sent your one and only son, Jesus, to live an amazing, perfect, sinless life.
He changed the world and taught about your plan to save us through him.
He died the death that we deserved and made us right with you forever.
Thank you, Lord.
We thank you and we praise you.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

6/20/21

Lord, we thank you for the salvation that we have in Jesus and that we can call upon your name because you are a loving, good Father that is with us.  

Lord, you bless those who are poor in spirit. Those who realize their need for a savior. But we are proud and self-sufficient. We rely instead on our works and self righteousness. Lord, would you show us our complete and utter dependence on you? Make us know that every aspect of our lives is grace upon grace. From the breath we take in without even a thought to the ability to gather here today, everything is from you and for you. Remind us of how needy we are.

Father, you bless those who mourn and are broken over their sin. But we minimize and gloss over our sin as if it's nothing. We carry on with our everyday activities knowing that we have been prideful, unloving, angry, or envious, but we simply don't care because we are hard of heart. Lord, give us the gift of godly grief that produces repentance. 

And Lord, you bless the meek, the gentle, the lowly. But we value success, performance and status. We are consumed with ourselves and how to elevate our name, not yours. Lord, teach us to be humble, that we would not seek to inherit this world and it's treasures, but to seek you and inherit eternity in your Kingdom. 

Lord, only you know our hearts. Search us and change us for your glory.

Amen.

6/27/21

Almighty Father, you alone are holy and worthy of our praise. We give all glory and honor and praise to only you. You are a good and just God and we love you. How we long for the day that we will be with you for eternity where we will worship you constantly and without ceasing.

Lord, we confess how quickly we lose our focus on you in this earthly life. We are like young children who get easily distracted by a shiny object. As soon as problems creep in, or temptation presents itself, or we find something that we think will satisfy our desires, we instantly turn our attention from you and become absorbed with whatever is immediately demanding our devotion. We are so short-sighted in our actions, Lord. In one breath, we proclaim your praise and claim that we completely and wholly trust in you, but in the next breath, we worship a man-made idol or become slave to the problem of the day.

Lord, give us eyes to see and ears to hear. Keep our focus on you. Give us a heavenly and eternal perspective. Reveal the idols in our lives and overcome our finite problems in a powerful way. Please forgive us for turning away from you and turning toward these earthly “shiny” objects.

Now, Father, we ask you to bless our time together this morning. Refresh and renew our hearts and minds. May your word reveal your truth to us in a big way. Lord, keep your word always in front of us, at the forefront of our thoughts so that we can maintain our gaze on you and you alone.

In Jesus’ name we pray,

Amen.