Editor's Note: I was honored by being asked to pray at the 8th Annual Community Prayer Breakfast hosted by Abundant Life Christian Church of Los Angeles. I was asked to pray for the healing and wholeness of our churches and communities. This is my prayer.
Loving Father we thank You that we are Your children and have become joint-heirs with Christ Jesus, just because we believed on His holy name.
Now these are the gifts you gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip us to do your work and build up the church, the body of Christ until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of your Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ (Ephesians 4: 11-13).
And You have given Your church this task of reconciling the people to You. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” (2 Corinthians 5: 18-20).
Thank you, God, for the body of believers who are called to serve you, who are proclaiming the Good News to all who will hear.
Send us out to be a light in the dark. Send us out to speak life. Send us out to extend grace and mercy. Send us out to feed the hungry, to befriend the lonely, to find the lost. Open the doors of the church and fill it with the broken, the angry, the hurting. Let them find forgiveness and comfort in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for where you have placed your churches at this time. Where we are is no accident. Our neighborhoods are our mission field, and we declare these streets covered by the blood of Jesus. Satan has no power here. Neighbor will embrace neighbor. The strong will stand for the weak. The young will respect the old. The capable will assist the unable. The homes will be safe havens of friendship, kindness, and compassion. No one will go hungry. No one will go unnoticed. Lives in our neighborhoods will be changed in the name of Jesus.
Be with your Church Lord we pray, for we have become united with You and we are now all members of Your body. Lord I pray that your churches may become one in unity with Christ and with each other, just as You Lord are in loving fellowship with the Father.
May we hold to the things of this world lightly knowing that our citizenship is in heaven and keep us from going after the things of this world but to find our peace and joy and rest in You alone.
Give each member of your church a loving thankful heart and one that lives in willing submission to each other - and to You. Sanctify Your Body I pray and wash each one of us clean with the water of Your Word day by day, so that we may one day be presented to the Father without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Help us Lord to live our lives in a way that is pleasing to You.
Heavenly Father how it must grieve Your holy Spirit that we have caused such barriers and divisions to be established within the body of Christ. It was Jesus’ prayer that we be one in unity of spirit – one in the bond of peace – one in fellowship and love towards all those that are called by Your name.
Forgive us of our unbiblical prejudices and un-Christian principles. Forgive us for being too quick to criticise our brothers and sisters in Christ and for being too ready to declare our differences. Help us to discover our similarities in Christ, and rejoice that our citizenship is in heaven.
Help us Lord to love others as You have loved. Help us to love without prejudice or bias. Help us to be ready and willing to love the unlovable.
Bind Your people together in love and in the unity of spirit and the bond of peace and guide us, we pray, into all truth - knowing that You are no respecter of persons – and that ALL who trust in Your sacrifice at Calvary are forgiven sinners, citizens of heaven and accepted by the You, into Your family.
Build up Your people O God, into a sanctified body… a fellowship of believers – a people set apart from the world to serve You in newness of life and living in gracious union with one another.
May we learn to pursue all that leads to godliness and to exhibit in our hearts all the nature and character of love that only comes from You - so that we may become channels through who the love of Christ flows to others in need.
Teach us to love each other as You loved us and help us to grow in grace and in a godly unity- as directed by the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name we pray,
AMEN
Loving Father we thank You that we are Your children and have become joint-heirs with Christ Jesus, just because we believed on His holy name.
Now these are the gifts you gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip us to do your work and build up the church, the body of Christ until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of your Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ (Ephesians 4: 11-13).
And You have given Your church this task of reconciling the people to You. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” (2 Corinthians 5: 18-20).
Thank you, God, for the body of believers who are called to serve you, who are proclaiming the Good News to all who will hear.
Send us out to be a light in the dark. Send us out to speak life. Send us out to extend grace and mercy. Send us out to feed the hungry, to befriend the lonely, to find the lost. Open the doors of the church and fill it with the broken, the angry, the hurting. Let them find forgiveness and comfort in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for where you have placed your churches at this time. Where we are is no accident. Our neighborhoods are our mission field, and we declare these streets covered by the blood of Jesus. Satan has no power here. Neighbor will embrace neighbor. The strong will stand for the weak. The young will respect the old. The capable will assist the unable. The homes will be safe havens of friendship, kindness, and compassion. No one will go hungry. No one will go unnoticed. Lives in our neighborhoods will be changed in the name of Jesus.
Be with your Church Lord we pray, for we have become united with You and we are now all members of Your body. Lord I pray that your churches may become one in unity with Christ and with each other, just as You Lord are in loving fellowship with the Father.
May we hold to the things of this world lightly knowing that our citizenship is in heaven and keep us from going after the things of this world but to find our peace and joy and rest in You alone.
Give each member of your church a loving thankful heart and one that lives in willing submission to each other - and to You. Sanctify Your Body I pray and wash each one of us clean with the water of Your Word day by day, so that we may one day be presented to the Father without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Help us Lord to live our lives in a way that is pleasing to You.
Heavenly Father how it must grieve Your holy Spirit that we have caused such barriers and divisions to be established within the body of Christ. It was Jesus’ prayer that we be one in unity of spirit – one in the bond of peace – one in fellowship and love towards all those that are called by Your name.
Forgive us of our unbiblical prejudices and un-Christian principles. Forgive us for being too quick to criticise our brothers and sisters in Christ and for being too ready to declare our differences. Help us to discover our similarities in Christ, and rejoice that our citizenship is in heaven.
Help us Lord to love others as You have loved. Help us to love without prejudice or bias. Help us to be ready and willing to love the unlovable.
Bind Your people together in love and in the unity of spirit and the bond of peace and guide us, we pray, into all truth - knowing that You are no respecter of persons – and that ALL who trust in Your sacrifice at Calvary are forgiven sinners, citizens of heaven and accepted by the You, into Your family.
Build up Your people O God, into a sanctified body… a fellowship of believers – a people set apart from the world to serve You in newness of life and living in gracious union with one another.
May we learn to pursue all that leads to godliness and to exhibit in our hearts all the nature and character of love that only comes from You - so that we may become channels through who the love of Christ flows to others in need.
Teach us to love each other as You loved us and help us to grow in grace and in a godly unity- as directed by the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name we pray,
AMEN
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