Sunday, October 25, 2009

Breaking Free of Our Earthy Orientation

Almighty God,

We long for a taste of you this morning. A sip of your holy presence. For we are earthy creatures, people who are fixated on earthly things. Our minds cannot be drawn upward because our fascinations are too much involved with earthly things. But if you reveal yourself we shall see that which is more delightful. When you show yourself to be more desirous our current infatuations will lose their luster. Our souls will find that you are more lovely and more satisfying.

Pull back the shades that hang over our eyes and give us a glimpse of your splendor. Let us inwardly see that nothing in this vast creation can compare to you and all should be counted as nothing for you.

Lord, our souls long for more than what we have. Our fixation on transitory things has left us thirsting. Yet we cannot ascend higher than our hearts will let us. So let your grace come to us this morning. Like the rising of the sun at dawn come to us, and may we see that there is something more glorious and much more worthy of our affection.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Your Word Endures

The grass may whither and the flower may fade, but your word will never pass away. Not one jot or tittle will be erased or abolished. They are more firm than the mountains. They shall persist from age to age because you O God endure forever, and your faithfulness persists from generation to generation.

We gather today to hear that word. In it our hearts delight. We long for it as for food, even more than bread for the body. It is more precious than rubies and more desirable than abundant riches. It is our wealth. It is our health. Your voice is our hearts content.

So we ask that you might fill these walls with the echo of your Spirit. May it be that when we leave this place we may say, “The Lord has been in our midst. He has spoken directly to us.” God, we pray that we may have the same reaction as those souls who after speaking with Jesus said, “Did our hearts not burn within us?” May we feel that stirring in our own souls.

Give us O God, a taste of your goodness and be filled with your love. Grant us the privilege today to sit at your feet and be fed with the meat of your word.

Loveless

Grant us your grace, O most merciful Lord, that it may be well with us. We are loveless people, and our hearts are cold. Does not our lack of obedience prove our hearts do not yearn for you. Our failures only evidence how low our desire for you is.

This is our failure God. Not so much that we have broken your commands in so many ways, but that our hearts have not sought you or clung to you. We have not placed you at the foremost object of our affection.

But we pray O God that you would forgive our deadness and cure the numbness of our hearts. Fill our hearts with your Spirit and breath your love into us, that we might be resurrected with love.

Lord, let your will be ours and let us always follow you. We pray that you might become our chief desire and our highest priority. May serving you be our delight and walking in your ways be no longer laborious, but the sweetest thing to us.

God, so much do we have to confess, but the source of it all is our lovelessness. We do pray that all might be pardoned and that Christ’s sacrifice might be sufficient to cover it. Moreover we pray that we might be bound by your grace to hold on to you and cherish you.