Meeks #3

Pastoral Prayer by Paul Meeks
Our gracious and loving Heavenly Father, we come to You today in the name of Jesus. We come reverently but we also come confidently because You told us that You would hear us and that You would answer our prayers. So we come with full assurance of faith. What a marvelous privilege we have as Your children.Lord, we know that You're right here with us right now as we've met together in Your name and we gratefully acknowledge Your presence. But You're with us not only when we meet together here, You're with us out there in our everyday world, day after day, and we thank You. And we do need You, we need Your presence. We need Your mercy and Your Grace. We've done nothing to deserve Your mercy, but we thank You for it. If we all got what we deserve we'd never have eternal life and the hope of heaven. We'd never have Your presence with us. We'd never have forgiveness of sins and we'd be lost, without God in the world. So we don't ask for what we deserve, we ask for Your mercy and grace. We're so thankful that You sought us and found us and drew us to Yourself. And as we prepare our hearts for communion in a little while we thank You for Calvary. We thank You for forgiveness of sins and new life in Christ.When we look around us at our world we are often troubled and concerned. We know that we're in a struggle between good and evil around the world. Lord, we pray for Your intervention in Iraq and ask that You would give wisdom to those that are attempting to give guidance and direction to the conflict that's going on there. Please, Lord, bring an end to the violence and death and suffering and may there be peace and safety. We pray for the military forces that are there and are continually in danger. They need You individually. May they call upon You for divine help. There are so many places around the world where there is no freedom especially freedom of worship. Our world desperately needs You. We pray for Your kingdom to come and Your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.We need You, too, right here at home in our communities. There is strife and ungodliness around us. Little children and others are being exploited and abused through no fault of their own. They need You and they need us, so, help us to be faithful to them and to You.Right here in our own church family we have all kinds of needs. There are many that are facing serious physical problems and they need Your healing touch and Your touch on them emotionally and spiritually to encourage and uplift them. Some are facing surgeries this week and they need the assurance of Your presence with them. Some are facing financial difficulties and they need Your direction and guidance right now this very week. Answer prayer for them in special and definite ways. And, Lord, for each of us, look down inside and see there the hurts and feelings, the discouragements and frustrations and all the ways we need You. Meet each of us at the very point of our need today.As Pastor Steve comes to speak to us in a few minutes we pray for Your divine anointing on him and on us as we listen. May this day bring glory and honor to the name of Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.