Prayer October

As we pray tonight, I’d like to start with a scene from the book of Nehemiah, God’s people meeting together thousands of years ago in a very special festival after the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt. It looks a lot different to how we meet together today in Grossman high, but also they do the same things as we do: praise, confession, remembering our salvation. So as we come to pray, this is the scene.

On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads. 2 Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors. 3 They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God. And the Levites—said: “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.[a]”

“Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. 6 You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.” Neh 9

Almighty lord and our 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, as the Israelites said then and we say now, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 

We thank 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 we all 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 tonight we pray for the church in Lybia.

B. Our Nation in focus this week is Libya

• Pray that work on translating the Bible may start so Libyans can read or hear the gospel in their heart language. 
• Pray that the cruel acts of the Islamic State will only make more people search for a loving God
• Pray for Libyan Christians to find the strength to live every day for Jesus
• Pray for new Christians who come to faith through Arabic websites and TV shows.  Pray they find support and can access God's word.

We bring before you Compassion. We pray that they would conduct all their operations and programs in a wise and loving way so that resources are used effectively. We pray that thousands of children grow up knowing about God’s love for them, and with the resources to escape the poverty cycle. May we in the west remember to be generous to the poor in the rest of the world even though it’s far away and easy to ignore.

We thank you for the rain we are getting this week and please send more to the areas in drought. Thankyou for the generosity of many parts of the Australian community to support farmers in the drought. We pray that whenever you grant the drought to end, that farmers would be able to get back on their feet quickly. Thank you for the abundance of food that our farmers grow so that we never have to worry about being hungry.

We pray for us as a church, as we plan for the future. We pray for wisdom and creativity to incorporate ideas and suggestions into the life of our community so that we can be effective as the body of Christ, each diverse part unified in love and purpose, to bring glory to you.

We bring before you those of us with sickness and pain and chronic illness, for healing, and for those of us struggling with mental health issues. Help each of us to trust you through any journey of suffering, knowing that you work all things for our good, and may we learn to use 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.