December 12, 2020
OPENING PRAYER
O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know my thoughts before I think them. You know my words before I speak them. You know my past, my present, and my future. Awaken me now, to seek you while you may be found, to call upon you while you are near, and to live a life that brings glory to your name.
CONFESSION OF SIN & PRAYER FOR GRACE
Almighty God: I confess that I often honor you with my lips while my heart is far from you. I am content to appear righteous instead of truly being righteous. I repent of my sin and my self-love. Please search my heart, examine my motives, and forgive my faults. Awaken me to your glory, and send your Spirit to renew and change my heart. Help me to hear your voice today above the clamor of this world, and follow only you. Amen.
OT READING: Isaiah 66
THE LORD’S PRAYER
NT READING: 2 Peter 3:8-15a
PRAYER OF ADORATION:
Lord, in the fullness of time you made known the mystery of salvation by sending forth your Son. As I await his second coming, I adore you for your patience. You are not slow to fulfill your promises; rather, you wait so that many may reach repentance.
PSALM READING: Psalm 85
PRAYER OF CONSECRATION:
Your word, O Lord, is a fountain of hope and beauty that continually draws me to you. This psalm asks for your reviving favor to come back to your people again, and although it’s focused on your people as a whole, it also gently speaks to the one who’s spent a lifetime walking with you. Often walking the long road with you involves periods of silence or even distance, when it feels like you’re not speaking. It’s easy to feel that the joy of your presence was something for the past. I add my prayer to the prayer of the psalm today: revive me, so that I might rejoice in you. Show me your steadfast love. I’ll be quiet, so that I can hear you, Lord, speaking peace to me. Help me to not return to my folly. Give me a sense of your nearness today... for Jesus’ sake.
BENEDICTION
And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us now and always, until the day of Christ's return.