Prayers of the Church, 10.12.08

Father, we gather before You of our own free will. While there are many reasons that we may be here today, to mourn, to celebrate, to serve, because of guilt, out of habit, we still made a choice to be here. Thank You for giving us that ability to make choices. Thank You for loving us so much that You let us decide whether or not to accept You, whether or not to serve You, whether or not to worship You. It is only in this way that we can truly love You.

We make decisions most of our waking moments, many of them mundane and made with practically no thought. Sometimes we make weighty physical choices like who to marry, where to work, whether to pay our bills, where to send our children to school. Sometimes we are faced with the most thoughtful of choices, choosing whether or not to pray, to forgive, to share. Sadly, unfortunately, so many of our choices are made without You being involved. Even more than all of this, none of us has truly chosen to give all for Your sake and for the sake of the good news. Many times our choices simply fail You. Forgive us for leaving you out of our choices, out of our decision-making. Forgive our thoughtlessness.

But You have never forsaken us. You made Jesus earthly so that his worldly choices mattered. He chose to stand up against the religious leaders of the day. He chose the poor and wretched, the unclean and the sick. He chose to turn away from the devil’s temptations. He chose to accept pain, pierced for our transgressions, yet He did not open his mouth, and He chose to suffer for our iniquities.

Jesus chose to honor You and to save us.

Help us make Godly choices. Help us choose You and the service of Your kingdom, not because we have to, but because we want to.

Bless our enemies, Father and help us choose to treat them with mercy.

In the silence, Father, hear our prayers…of praise, of pain, of fear, of thanks:


Bless those mission organizations we support: Agape Womenʼs Services, Appalachian Christian Camp, Christian Student Fellowship at ETSU, Emmanuel School of Religion, European Evangelistic Society, Higher Ministries, Interfaith Hospitality Network, Milligan College, Friends at John Sevier, and the Salvation Army.

And now we pray together as Jesus taught us to pray: