Our great heavenly father
What a good and faithful God you are. We praise you for your amazing creative power, because you formed this universe in all its beauty and complexity. We praise you for all the good things you’ve given us, oceans and seasons and the moon and tasty food and friendships and families and music and too many other things to name - you created them and gave them to us. And you are infinitely more creative and powerful than we can imagine because you’ve created things we can’t see, things we don’t even know exist, mysteries in our cells and at the bottom of the ocean and far away beyond our galaxy.
(Ps 96)
Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let the sea resound, and all that is in it.
Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them;
let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.
Let all creation rejoice…. before the Lord, for he comes,
he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples in his faithfulness.
We confess that we have not been thankful for the creation we enjoy. Instead we exploit it. We ruin the relationships you have blessed us with. We don’t love others with the same love you’ve shown us. When we see the way the world has turned its back on you in pride, in selfishness, in war, that’s just a macro view of the same situation in our own hearts, and we ask you to forgive us, to have mercy on all who call on you for forgiveness.
And at Christmas, we remember, you have not left us alone. You left the glory of heaven, and entered this world, the Godhead veiled in flesh, the incarnate deity, God with skin on, the creative power of the God of the universe born as a baby, dwelling with us as a man among humanity. What a strange plan. What a mystery that nobody could have expected. Even the prophets who foretold it couldn’t understand it, even as they praised you, as Isaiah wrote,
"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end."
You kept your promise hundreds of years later, when you revealed your plan to Mary she sang
“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name.”
Our families, our country and our world struggles to find peace. But through the promised one, the prince of peace, the mighty God, the child that was born, the son that was given, the birth, the life, the death and the resurrection of Jesus, you have brought peace for those who trust in him. True peace between us and God. And though we can taste the goodness of this peace now we long for heaven where, with Jesus, peace will never end.
We pray for the people of Saudi Arabia. We ask that you would shake this centre of Islamic spiritual influence and make Jesus’ Lordship known. We praise you that you are revealing your son to increasing numbers of Muslim pilgrims through dreams and visions, so that as they come to Mecca seeking God they encounter the living Christ. We also pray for new opportunities to engage with Muslims via the internet, and that you would be softening hearts to hear the gospel. And for Christians, we pray that they do not give up meeting together, but continue to encourage each other as they look to the day of Jesus return.
We pray for our church’s sponsor children Sarah in Ghana and Darlin in Columbia. We pray that you keep them and their families safe, and that they are able to attend the programs Compassion provides. We pray that the programs are safe places for them to receive more education and learn about your love for them. We pray that they complete their education, become women of integrity, and are able to have a better life then they would otherwise have.
We pray for our mission partners: Simon and Margie Gillham at Moore Theological College.
- We pray for Simon as he prepares 5 talks on Ecclesiastes for Queensland Summer School, and then that you would give Margie and Simon good rest in the second half of January.
- We pray too for the work of the Centre for Global Mission at Moore and that Simon can help students consider opportunities for global mission. Thankyou that Moore can support pastoral training in Africa and South America and we ask that Moore’s development of systems and smartphone apps to deliver that content for free around the world would progress smoothly. Give them wisdom in knowing how to ‘train pastors’ using online delivery.
We also Pray for Scott and Wendy Mackenzie and the team at Singleton Evangelical church as they proclaim the gospel in Singleton over Christmas and as they prepare for Singleton Alive in January. Ask God to draw many people to Jesus from Singleton and the Hunter.
And now we pray that we would listen carefully to your word as it’s read to us and be attentive to the sermon later so that we can learn from Nick’s work studying and preparing to give us a deeper understanding of the gospel. With your Holy Spirit to work in us as we learn more about you and imitate your son Jesus our Saviour. We pray everything in his name. Amen.
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