I’ve always loved the prayers that Paul offers in his epistles for the churches that he is writing to. Rather than comment on this prayer to the Colossians I thought I would instead offer a prayer for my church.
A Prayer for Ridgecrest
Father, I am very grateful for this church I have been privileged to work at for 22+ years. I have watched as You have worked in the lives of young men and women and developed ambassadors for the kingdom. I have watched as You have created a hunger to help the helpless as we have worked in Haiti all these years. I have watched as You have created a place which people can call home and where people can find hope.
But now I want to ask that You would do more. More than we can even ask or imagine. Yet I will ask anyway. I want to ask that You use Your Word by Your Spirit to bring about transformed lives. Would You capture our heart’s affection and our mind’s attention as we hear Your Word preached, as we listen to Your Word being taught, as we read Your Word for ourselves. Would you create in us a hunger that can only be satisfied by You. Would You create in us a holy discontent with the things of this world. Would You create in us an eager anticipation for heaven and eternal life.
Would You teach us what it means to abide. Your Word says that “If a man abides in Me and I abide in Him, He will bear much fruit.” Teach us how to abide in Your Word. Teach us how to abide in Your incomparable love. Enable us to grasp just how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ – and to know this love deep down in our souls, that we might be filled to the measure of all of Your fulness. As we learn to abide may we be a fruit-bearing people that delights your heart and that nourishes the souls of those who are lost and desperate and helpless and hopeless.
And would You teach us how to pray. We confess our prayerlessness. We confess our anemic attempts at intercession. We confess that our prayers lack contrition and unction and fervor. We need You to energize us to pray. We need You to empower our praying. We need You to give us an urgency for prayer.
But mostly, Father, we need You. We have tried to live the Christian life in our own strength. We have tried all the tips for successful Christian living. We have tried to work up the courage to live consistently. We need You… for “apart from You we can do nothing.”
Forgive us for our waywardness. Fuel us each day with Your joy. Fill us each day with Your compassion. May Your Spirit equip us to do Your work and enable us to worship You in a way that brings honor and glory and praise to You and Your Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.