PRAYING TO JOURNEY CLOSE TO JESUS ON THIS FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT

 FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT PRAYERS

On this first Sunday of Lent 2022 as we focus on prayer – which in fact is one of the 3 spiritual disciplines we are encouraged to consider during these 40 days as we seek to draw closer to Jesus – fasting, prayer, and giving.

Let’s come before God with hearts open ready to pour out our love and devotion to Him, and ready to be filled up with all the love and wisdom He so willingly makes available to us.

We begin with a prayer of confession and request for reconciliation.

Lord, You have mercy on anyone who comes to You.  Here we are today asking You to take away our sins from us and to mercifully kindle in us the fire of Your Holy Spirit.  In Your Word You promise:

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.  Isaiah 36:25-27

And so we’re asking today that You would clean us up.  Get rid of all our impurities.  Take away our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh.  Fill us up with Your Spirit so we have the desire and the courage to follow all Your laws.  Amen

We hear so many messages that are different from God’s perspective and we need to have our minds renewed as God reveals truth to us.  We are reminded in the Bible:

I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.  Ephesians 1:16 - 18

And so Loving God, along with this prayer in the Bible we are asking that You will show us all that we need to know today so we can grow more in our life with You.  We need more light as we seek to rest our hope in You.  There’s a great confidence You want us to have every day about how reliable You are and all Your promises.  There’s so much more to life that You want us to experience that is good – even rich and glorious as this verse says.  Help us to look past what’s going on around us in the world and seek Your truth. Holy Spirit, help us to understand what You are revealing to us. 

And Lord, then help us to hold our thoughts steady as we’ve been instructed to do so in Your word: 

Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.  Philippians 4:8

We end today with the familiar blessing that I never tire of praying over myself or on behalf of others.  Let’s receive this blessing:

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.  Numbers 6:22-27