Prayers of the Church 4.19.09

Father in heaven, we come before you of one heart and one soul, brought together by the desire to worship you and serve your creation, brought together in awe of the resurrected savior.

This time after Easter is so important because death has been conquered and a new day is at hand.

We should be happy. We should be joyous. Nothing should stand in our way of fulfilling our mission, our destiny. But we are confused. Our savior has been taken from us, the earthly king, surely the son of God, but still a man of flesh. And he is no longer among us. Through the scriptures and our teachings, we have watched him grow, to teach, to serve, to sacrifice. All of a sudden, our weaknesses, our fears, begin to overtake us. Where are you Lord? Those around us remind us that seeing is believing. We need to see you, we need to feel you. Without you in our lives, we are like the disciples huddled behind locked doors.

Then, thankfully, the gospel smacks us in the face – “love one another just as I have loved you”. Slowly but surely, we see you. We see you in the likes of the servants around us locally and globally. We see you inside the Grandview Community. We see you in area churches like the Embryville Church of Christ. We see you on the mission field in places like Ghana.

We see…we know…our faith is restored. Just like Thomas, in the face of the revelation of the living Lord, all of our objections -- from even the most cynical of us, the most skeptical of us -- are washed away, and all we can do is confess “my lord and my God”.

We have the desire, dear Lord. We have been rejuvenated. We have been inspired all over again. You have set us free. And this freedom allows us to give totally of ourselves because of your gift, your promise.

Bestow your great grace upon all of us, Lord.

Help us love our enemies, Father; and help them love us.

In the silence, let us reflect on the resurrection body of Jesus:


Bless those who serve in your name; we remember specifically the Embryville Church of Christ and their minister, Phillip Rogers, as well as Enoch & Lydia Nyador who minister for you in Ghana. Keep them and strengthen them.

And now we pray together as Jesus Christ, the prince of peace, taught us to pray: