Meeks #9

Pastoral Prayer by Paul Meeks #9


Our gracious and loving Heavenly Father, we come to you today in the name of Jesus. Thank you for giving your only begotten Son that we could be saved. Thank you for the power of the Gospel; it is the power of God unto salvation. We acknowledge that we are blessed beyond measure and we want to give you thanks. We have lots of food at home and we have different sets of clothes to wear and we have a roof over our heads and a place to sleep and that makes us richer than 75% of this world. We’ve never had to experience the agony of torture or the loneliness of imprisonment for our faith and we’ve never had to suffer the pangs of starvation so we’re far ahead of millions of our fellowmen around the world. We came here this morning without fear of harassment or arrest or even torture or death, so we’re the envy of literally billions of people. Help us, Lord, not to be forgetful or even unaware of these and many other blessings we enjoy. Help us not forget to give you our thanks and praise. We have so much to thank you for. We are so blessed, and we don’t know why we are privileged. Accept our thanks today.

We pray for our country today and thank you for the privilege of living here. It’s still the best place in the world to live, and we would say, God bless America, not as an oft repeated phrase, but as a sincere prayer. Your Word says “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,” and we pray that would be a reality. We pray for our president and the men and women in government. May they have the wisdom and the courage to govern in righteousness and truth. We pray for the men and women in the military in many places around the world. They face harm and danger every day and we pray for their protection. We pray that the forces of evil and Satan will be defeated and the plans of evil men will be confused and never be brought to pass.

We pray for our own communities where we live and work and for the thousands of people that we have contact with every day. May the Spirit of Christ be seen in us even in situations when we are not even aware that we’re being watched.

We pray for the many teachers who are beginning a new year with new students and new responsibilities. They need wisdom and understanding. Make them witnesses of your grace day after day as they interact with their students.

We pray for the hundreds of students that will be coming to IWU and Taylor in just a few days. We’re thankful that we have the opportunity to minister to hundreds of them and we want to be faithful to that charge.

We pray for our church and many decisions and plans that are being made. We need divine wisdom and direction, so we pray for our staff and the leaders of our church. Help us to be the kind of church that you want us to be.

We pray for the one that will bring the message in just a few minutes. We pray for your anointing on him and on us as we hear your word for us through him.

We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Paul Meeks
College Wesleyan Church
Marion, IN 46953
pauldarmeeks@aol.com