Prayer 2.

I reused my other prayer last time I was rostered to pray at church because it was a long time in between, but then I had a short gap in the lead up to this prayer so I didn't triple-dip, people might catch on. Wrote a new one. I'll get a bit of rotation happening. I never used to be keen to do prayer because it takes a lot of time to do it well, but now I just set aside a lot of time well ahead of the deadline and enjoy it.


Almighty heavenly father,

You are the awesome creator of the universe, so holy and glorious that nobody can stand in your presence, so wise that that your plans are beyond understanding, so perfect in goodness and righteousness, so faithful to your word, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

We praise you for revealing yourself to us in the bible. Every word you have spoken shows us how good you are, and how much trouble we are in. We reject you from the very beginning, and the world you made for us is wrecked by wars and injustice and suffering, and the ultimate curse of sin, death. Death that separates us from each other and from you. But, thank you that you have not left us alone. You promised to make it right, and when the time was right, in your great mercy you sent your son Jesus, God born as a man, to live with us, and die for us. Only the death of your perfect son in our place could break the power of death. Nothing we can do will fix this world, and so we put our trust in Jesus who rose from the dead and will one day come as the judge of all people and make all things new. We pray that he comes soon, but we also pray for your patience so that many more may turn to you and escape the judgement they deserve.

Father, thank you that we have freedom to worship Jesus in this country. There are many places where our brothers and sisters in Christ suffer for his name, must meet in secret, are forbidden to own bibles, or are caught up in religious conflict, and you have told us to remember them, so we pray for them tonight. We pray for North Korea, Somalia, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan, Eritrea, Nigeria, the Maldives, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Yemen, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, the Central African Republic, Qatar, Kenya, Turkmenistan, parts of India, Ethiopia, Egypt, Djibouti, and Bourma. Please help your children to be brave, and to show love to those who persecute them. May the church everywhere be filled with your power, to bring you glory.

We pray for university ministry at Newcastle. Thank you that many students are meeting up with their friends one to one to read the gospel of Luke, and we pray that through your Holy Spirit this simple act of reading the bible will have a powerful impact on many lives. Please be with the staff team M, J and R, and the trainees H, M and A, for the rest of the year. Sustain them physically, mentally and spiritually. We pray for A and H as they both come to the end of their apprenticeships and consider what to do from next year onwards.

We pray for the CAP Money course running this month, that it will be helpful for those who come along to develop self-control and wisdom so that they can use money prudently and for your glory. We also thank you for the opportunity to serve the wider community through this course, and to connect with people who need to hear about Jesus even more than they need to hear about budgets.

We pray for KL, who has left Newcastle and is just arrived in France. We pray that amongst whatever homesickness, excitement, exhaustion or whatever she might be feeling, that she will rely on you completely. We pray that she learns French very quickly, so that she can begin to enjoy building relationships, and sharing the bible with people. We pray that the church planting organisation she is going to join will be able to use her skills to grow the gospel in France, both in numbers and in knowledge.

We bring before you those of us with sickness and pain for healing: K, and G, and others we don't know about. Help them to trust you on their journey of suffering, knowing that you work all things for our good, and may they use their suffering to focus on Jesus, the one who will take away every pain, wipe away every tear.

In the words of Jude:
To him to is able to keep us from falling and present us before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy… to the only God our saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and evermore, AMEN.