Grateful Prayer On This Day Of Worship

 PRAYER ON THIS DAY OF WORSHIP

Well, the weeks just seem to melt away sometimes during this season of the pandemic where one day looks very much like the next.  I am grateful for Sundays – just the reminder that we can take time out to focus on God, His goodness, His caring presence with us through everything that is going on.  I hope we are doing that every day; that is the reason why we are putting these little videos together.  But there is this lovely time that God has built into every week for us to just a bit more intentionally pause and focus on “the back story.”

Keeping the Sabbath is significant enough to make the 10 Commandments. 

Remember to keep the Sabbath day holy. Do all your work in six days. But the seventh day is a sabbath to honor the Lord your God. Do not do any work on that day.  Exodus 29:8-10a

In our 24/7 never-ending activity it’s good to hear the call to stop and pay attention to the goodness of God.

Come, let us bow down and worship him. Let us fall on our knees in front of the Lord our Maker.  Psalm 95:6

Heavenly Father, it is good to lift our gaze to You again today and to be reminded that You are our Maker.  You deserve honour and praise for the wonder of who You are and all You do. 

Worship the Lord because of his beauty and holiness. All you people of the earth, tremble when you are with him.  Psalm 96:9

It seems like we’ve lost our sense of living in holiness.  It’s not a word or concept we hear much about but it certainly matters to You.  Thank you for giving your own son to die on the cross so we could be made completely clean from our sin and be able to come close to You where there is perfect peace and rest.  What a mess we would be in without Jesus.  Forgive us for wandering around through our days without a sense of what is beautiful and holy.  We need that stirred up in us again. 

I’m reminded Lord of Psalm 100 – a Psalm about worship that some of us memorized as kids in Sunday School

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.  Psalm 100 NIV

Some of us can gather together with other believers and sing our praises together.  Some of us can only watch online.  However we gather today, we pray that our hearts will just honour You.

The way you are honoured the most is when we simply remember who you are and whose we are.  Lord we believe You are good and just like the guy who approached Jesus we also ask You to help our unbelief.  You are better than we know.  Help us to know more.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

Nothing pleases You more than when we give You thanks.  We pause today to look around and reflect and remember all the ways You care for us and provide for us.  There’s never been a time in our lifetimes when we have been so vulnerable in so many ways and yet here we are today.  You’ve brought us through this far and we’re going to keep trusting You to take us forward.  Even while we endure the challenges of times of lockdown we have so much to give you thanks for.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.  Psalm 100 NIV

We simply say with the Psalmist that You are good and we are grateful that Your love endures forever and that Your faithfulness continues through all generations.  We bless the generations to come after us to also know and love and worship You.  Raise them up in the truth and the liberation of being those who worship and serve You. 

The nations will worship the Lord. All the kings on earth will respect his glorious power.  Psalm 102:15

And God we pray that from the kings and leaders of governments around the world to the smallest and least known person, that many would follow You and worship You.  Help us to respect Your glorious power and to honour You as You deserve on this day and every day.  Amen