April 1, 2021

OPENING PRAYER

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.

CONFESSION OF SIN & PRAYER FOR GRACE

Lord Jesus: on this Maundy Thursday, I confess my abandonment of you. Like your disciples who fled in fear, I too have turned my back on you. I have been ashamed to associate with you and unwilling to bear your name courageously before others. I have failed to stand up for what’s right, and I have gone along with the ways of the world. Forgive me, Lord Jesus. In the Last Supper, I see you inviting fearful disciples into fellowship with you, through the cup that represents your costly sacrifice. In this, I know you welcome even me to your Table. And so I come, confident of your forgiveness. Amen.

OT READING: Isaiah 50

THE LORD’S PRAYER

NT READING: John 18:1-19-16

PRAYER OF ADORATION:

Lord Jesus: I adore you for the agony you endured on my behalf. Who can understand the depth of your suffering? I close my mouth in silence and bow my knee in worship.

PSALM READING: Psalm 116

PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

Lord Jesus: as I read this psalm, I hear it as though coming from your lips, and takes on fuller and deeper meaning. The Father DID hear your pleas for mercy. He DID free your soul from the snares of death. And because the Father did these things for you, I KNOW he will do them for me. “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.” Let me lift high your salvation today, and let me call on you for help - for in so doing, I honor 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.