Each week for this season our devotions will be centered around the practice of PRAYER. Like the disciples we too have the opportunity to ask Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.” We encourage you to read all prayers and Psalms out loud – let the words of Scripture fill your prayers!
Prayer of Confession
Gracious God, our sins are too heavy to carry, too real to hide, and too deep to undo. Forgive what our lips tremble to name, what our hearts can no longer bear, and what has become for us a consuming fire of judgment. Set us free from a past that we cannot change; open to us a future in which we can be changed; and grant us grace to grow more and more in your likeness and image, through Jesus Christ, the light of the world. Amen.
Psalm 90
1 Lord, you have been our refuge
from one generation to another.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or the earth and the world were made,
you are God from everlasting, and world without end.
3 You turn man back to the dust;
you say, “Return, O children of men.”
4 For a thousand years in your sight are as yesterday,
even as a day that is past.
5 You scatter them as a night-watch that comes quickly to an end;
they are even as a dream and fade away.
6 They are like the grass, which in the morning is green,
but in the evening is dried up and withered.
7 For we consume away in your displeasure
and are afraid at your wrathful indignation.
8 You have set our misdeeds before you,
and our secret sins in the light of your countenance.
9 For when you are angry, all our days are gone;
we bring our years to an end, as a tale that is told.
10 The days of our life are seventy years, and though some be so strong that they come to eighty years,
yet is their span but labor and sorrow; so soon it passes away, and we are gone.
11 But who regards the power of your wrath,
and who considers the fierceness of your anger?
12 So teach us to number our days,
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
13 Turn again, O Lord, and tarry not;
be gracious unto your servants.
14 O satisfy us with your mercy in the morning;
so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.
15 Comfort us again, according to the measure of the days that you have afflicted us,
and for the years in which we have suffered adversity.
16 Show your servants your work
and their children your glory.
17 And may the grace of the Lord our God be upon us;
prosper the work of our hands; O prosper our handiwork.
The Lord’s Prayer
Jesus, in teaching the disciples how to pray, prayed the follow prayer in the Gospel of Matthew and Luke. We learn as well as we join with the prayers of Jesus!
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Thanksgiving Prompt
Where have you experienced God’s grace the most over this last year?
Intercession Prompt
Take a few minutes and pray for your needs and the needs of those around you.
Closing Prayer
O God our King, by the resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ on the first day of the week, you conquered sin, put death to flight, and gave us the hope of everlasting life: Redeem all our days by this victory; forgive our sins, banish our fears, make us bold to praise you and to do your will; and steel us to wait for the consummation of your kingdom on the last great Day; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.