February 19, 2021
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
Merciful Father, I come into your presence with deep gratitude, for I am no longer under the law but under grace. Resting in that truth, I freely confess my brokenness and my weakness before you. Instead of worshipping you, I have put myself at the center of my life. Instead of honoring others, I have withheld words of blessing and spoken words of harm. Have mercy on me, for Jesus’ sake. By your Holy Spirit, awaken in me today passionate worship, joyful obedience, and wholehearted love for others. Amen.
OT READING: Isaiah 58:1-12
THE LORD’S PRAYER
NT READING: Matthew 17:1-8, 22-23
PRAYER OF ADORATION:
Jesus, I adore you in the beauty of your holiness and the power of your majesty. As the radiance of God’s glory, you have brought light to a dark world and life to people dead in sin. You are God’s beloved son; I will listen to you.
PSALM READING: Psalm 25
PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
O Lord, prayer is the ascent of the soul toward you; and I join with this psalm to lift my mind, my heart, and my soul upward. My natural instinct is to focus on the things of this world. I constantly give my attention to lesser things. I obsessively look for opportunities to escape from reality. I know deep in my bones that these things are cheap. Insubstantial. They really can’t bear the weight of my desires. Make me like the psalmist, whose desire and longing is aimed toward you. Use the events of this day - the good things, as well as the loneliness and trouble - to change my sense of what is worthy of longing, so that I lose my taste for lesser things. Sharpen my hunger for the substance, beauty and weight - the glory - of you. I know you are good in my intellect; teach me these things at the deepest level of my experience. Guard my soul, O Lord. With the psalmist I say, may integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait for you.
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.