Category Archives: prayer

Maundy Thursday

April 17th, 2025 |

Key Scriptures: Matthew 26:26-75; Mark 14:22-72; Luke 22:14-71; John 17:1-18:27

We are now in the central act of this divine drama of salvation. Notice the extensive details in all the Gospels. Floyd McClung, summarizing our Lord’s Passion, declared, “The Lord used a criminal act of evil persons against an innocent man and turned this into the foundation of their forgiveness.”

This is the moment of Jesus’ agonizing prayer and personal decision to take up the Cross. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we have a window into Jesus’ human feelings. Jesus knew it was God’s plan, yet the suffering (and horrible separation) of the Cross caused him to cry out to the Father, and, after his cry, to submit to God’s plan for our salvation. We were the “joy set before him” (Hebrews 12:1-3) that propelled this decisive act of love. As he is crying out, John 17 lets us know that he is interceding for both his immediate disciples and for all believers. Jesus prays that we would be holy, united, and walk in love, just as God is holy, One, and love.

We also see Peter denying Jesus and then repenting of his cowardice. In Luke 22:31-34 Jesus predicts Peter’s denial – and eventual restoration! This is why the Mark 16:7 tells the astonished women, “Go tell the disciples and Peter…” that Jesus is alive. This is why Jesus asks Peter three times in John 21, “Do you love me?” With each affirmation of Peter, Jesus restores and commissions. What a wonderful Lord who restores us when we cry out to him.

Jesus is arrested and his (mis)trials begin. First, he appears before the religious leaders and remains mostly silent as they accuse him of blasphemy. He affirms that he is the Messiah and King. The religious leaders were threatened by Jesus’s words and works. Their delicate political situation with the Roman Empire would be threatened if the people rallied around Jesus as King. As evening turns to morning, the final trials come.

As we ponder the pathway of our Lord, will we choose divine love over human power, offering our lives for God’s glory and the good of others? Today is a good day to bring all past mistakes and regrets that still haunt our memories and realize that we serve a God of restoration. Though not all consequences are always removed, we can live with a clean conscience and hope for the future because Jesus is praying for us.

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Prayers and Reflections in a Tumultuous Season, Part II

September 6th, 2024 |

As we navigate the raging waters of a surplus of instant information and deficit of deep wisdom, I hope the following will calm our hearts, enlighten our minds, and strengthen our hands for service to God and our communities.

“Lord, help me displace outrage with obedience, and instant reactions with intercession. Help me stand for truth with tears and pursue peacemaking as your child. Please continue your delivering, healing, and reconciling grace in my life and empower me toward victory over sin and all the schemes of evil. Jesus, you are Lord over all creation, including all powers of injustice and oppression. Thank you for your love and power. Amen.”

Isaiah 44:19 is a great verse for today’s hyper-reactive public square. As the prophet repudiates idolatry and the folly of using the same wood for a cooking fire and an idol, the little phrase, “no one stops to think…” leaps from the page. Pausing, considering context, and reflecting are lost arts in our pursuit of clicks and likes. As we necessarily debate issues, let’s stop and think and then share in a way that makes our world better.

“Loving Lord, awaken us to your pathos for the hurting, your providential care in our lives, and your power to help us walk in holy love. Holy Father, bring your divine embrace to the vulnerable and your wise discipline to the haughty. Jesus, as you were sent, so send us to share your light and love. Sovereign Spirit, unite your church in faith, hope, and love. Help us edify, not efface, the beauty of your church. Amen.”

There is a need for fresh intellectual leadership. The late Dallas Willard, renowned Christian author, shared with leaders that he longed for the day when pastors and local churches once again were the intellectual leaders of the community.

A special thank you to all faithful scholars. You pursue your fields with dedication and discipline and your discoveries help us understand world better. Yes, you have some dishonest and intemperate colleagues, but your efforts to learn and then teach remain important to our world. Throughout history, church and society have kept learning alive through much tumult. Always position your work as service and remember your good influence.

Friends, as we go forward, let us do so with passionate prayer and principled thinking, with a desire for all to meet Christ and a willingness to cooperate with people of conscience.

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A Prayer of Consecration

January 24th, 2021 |

As we lament and repent, we are also called to a new hope, a new obedience rooted in love and the fear of the Lord. Here is a prayer for us to align ourselves with God’s reign. In the coming weeks I will be offering serious critiques of issues and policies from the new administration, as well as insights on geopolitical hot spots around the world. All of this must be rooted in prayer.

Holy and Loving Lord,

We offer these words of consecration with humility, trusting only in your mercy. We plead that you will empower us to put off all that enslaves and ensnares us, and put on a new heart, mind, and will that honor you and serve others well. Help us, O God:

  • To put off all idolatry. Forgive us for crafting a deity to our own liking, either reducing you to a feeling or capitulating to fatalism. We put on awe and reverence and submit to you on your terms. We put off using our perceptions of your guidance as an excuse for manipulation of power. We put boldness and courage that aims to serve. We put off the idols of ideology, cherry-picking Bible verses to suit our opinions and refusing to listen to the voices of others who also cry out to you. We put on engagement in the public square with prophetic distance, allowing us to confirm and critique from a pure heart. We put off the idolatry of self-fulfillment, choosing to follow in the pathway of Jesus, who, secure in his identity, became a servant, our sacrifice for sin, and now as the Risen Lord, a preview of our future.
  • To put off all immorality. Forgive us for excusing the sins of those we like and magnifying the mistakes of those we hate. Forgive us for replacing intimacy with you with unholy substitutes objectifying others and escaping from reality. We put on agape love, seeing everyone we meet as sister or brother made in your image. We put on delight in prayer, learning to listen to you as well as pour out our hearts. We put off the immorality of greed and lust for power and put on the virtues of diligence, generosity, and stewardship of your gifts and opportunities.
  • To put off all injustice. Forgive us for blindness to systems that keep too many from access, equity, and opportunity. Help us put on advocacy and actions so all can flourish. Forgive us for ceremonial gestures without substance and hospitality that is hollow, expecting others to conform to our expectations. We put on listening ears, and an open table where you are present. We put off avoiding uncomfortable contemporary and historical issues and our tendencies to choose narratives that conform to our preferences. We put on a fearless pursuit of the truth, knowing you are at work in and through all circumstances.

Gracious Lord, empower our repentance and resolve. Keep our hearts tender and our minds discerning.  We put off our self-deception that displaces your eternal principles with our human preferences. We put off naïve nationalism and visceral hatred of our country and put on humility for our deep flaws and hopefulness that our highest values may be realized. Have mercy on our land, and every land. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Observations of Our World

December 5th, 2017 |

I am very concerned with the triumph of emotivism in academic/intellectual circles. Critical thinking is not confined to a culture, gender or race. Critical thinking needs new attention so our dialogues move us toward truth, and, where possible, principled compromise on policies. Please friends, let’s be unafraid listen with humility and observe with objectivity.

In our polarized world, there two things that offer hope:

  1. shared encounters in community worship; and
  2. shared engagement in God’s work that renews our communities. God’s presence expands our hearts in holy love and practical work expresses our unity in service.

For centuries, human beings have sought meaning. In our century, we are debating the meaning of being human. Grateful for the Biblical story that offers identity and hope, humility and purpose.

Lord, please heal us.
Heal our hearts: touch our deepest wounds as use us as emissaries of compassion.
Heal our heads: liberate our minds from captivity to crowds and release fresh thinking.
Heal our hands: deliver us from selfish motives and methods and unleash innovation and integrity for the common good.
Lord, heal our land, one prayer, one kind word, one sacrificial act at a time.
Amen.

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Daily Prayers

September 19th, 2016 |

As we worship, let’s consider awakening each day with a simple prayer:
Lord, by your grace and power, may all I feel and think, say and do add to the beauty of your world and bring value to all.

Today I choose blessing over cursing, reconciliation over conflict, peacemaking over polemics and service over selfishness.

I cannot do this in my own strength.

Sovereign Spirit, envision, encourage and empower my efforts for the glory of the Father and Son and the good of others.

Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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