Prayers of the Church, 7.29.12

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."

From your holy scriptures, Father, we read these words, and believe. As we trust the sun to rise, as we trust time will continue to march onward, so we trust in you, Lord.

We have expectations of you, Father, some pure and righteous, grounded in the faith, in the Holy Word, and some living in our selfish desires, our focus on ourselves and wanting you to be at our beck and call…for our purposes. Forgive us Lord. Forgive us when we forget that our purposes have no place, no merit, unless they are aligned with your will for the world and how we can be a blessing to that world.

You don’t promise that our lives will be easier because we follow you…in fact, you promise our lives can be more challenging when we trust in you, when we stand up for the cause of the Christ. You don’t promise that we’ll be physically healthy, that we’ll be successful by the earth’s standards, that we’ll be wealthy with earthly riches. You don’t promise that we’ll have physical beauty, flat bellies, sculpted muscles.

What you do promise is that you love us and will always love us, whether we acknowledge your existence or not.

What you promise is salvation, everlasting life, eternity with you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

What you promise is that no matter our situation, you will never forsake us. You promise that if we stray, you are always ready to welcome us back to you.

And we have made promises to you, Lord. We say we love you. We say we love our fellow humans. Help us be the Christians you want us to be. Help us be the Christians we planned to be when we made our promise, our commitment to you: I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and I want to serve him as my savior. Help us understand the gravity of that commitment.

Hear our thoughts, our desires, our prayers as we ponder that commitment in the silence.


We ask your special blessings today, Father, on Joe Lieway, his family, and his ministry of planting self-sustaining churches in Liberia. We pray his efforts are fruitful and that your truth shines through these churches to the people they serve.

And now, we pray together the prayer that our savior, Jesus Christ, taught us to pray: