My Prayer

Lord, we lift up Mark to you, a server at Applebee's who is finishing his senior year of college and just starting a new internship. We pray that you would richly bless him in his endeavors, that whatever he pursues, he would do so to bring glory to you alone.

If he does not know you, I pray that you would intervene in his life and make your glory known to him. If he does follow you, we pray that he would understand the value that his position as a server holds in the Kingdom. Lord, we pray that he would serve people diligently and find opportunities to engage them in purposeful, meaningful conversation.

Jesus I also ask for your healing power to fall on my Kathy. A single touch from you is enough to purge the cancer from her body, but I ask that you would go further than that. Lord, I ask that you would so radically intervene in her situation that she would know that her healing came from your hands and that she would know you are God. I ask that your intervention would be enough to bring her entire family together, united under the purpose of loving and serving you.

I ask on behalf of my friend James that you would banish his unbelief and restore his ability to believe that we were created for a purpose. If it is your will for me to speak on your behalf to James, I pray that you would give me the courage and the words to speak when the time is right.

Lord, let your glory fall among the students of North Heights to create an urgency and place serving you as their highest priority. We know that your heart is breaking for these students who are living in difficult situations, struggling with suicidal thoughts, divorced parents, depression and worthlessness. Give us the desire to fight the enemy on each of these fronts, Father, that we, as a church body, would stand united against these weapons the enemy is using against us, and that our praise would render these weapons useless against our children, our siblings, and our nieces and nephews. We ask that you would reveal your truth to every single young person of North Heights; the truth that you are God, and that you have set in motion a love story far greater than anything we could possibly imagine, and each of us play a lead role in that story.

Give us glimpses of your heart in the moments that we are tempted and fall, that we would know how it grieves your heart to see your children wander astray. Help us understand the gravity of the sins we commit, and then the gravity of your love and grace that nullifies those sins.

You are so good to us, but our minds rarely comprehend it. Open our eyes to see your plan, that you would empower us and embolden us to work on your behalf. It is an honor that you would use us in even the smallest way. Remind us of the importance of prayer and thank you for choosing to work through your people, broken as we may be.

Teach us to pray with our children, with our friends, and with the people with whom we typically don't pray. Break our "comfort zone" mentality and remove social constructs that distract us from communicating to everyone that we can about your love and saving grace.

Father, we invite you into our worship services on Sunday morning, that we would celebrate with great joy the amazing things you continue to do in our lives. But we also invite you into our daily lives, Father, that you would penetrate the places of our lives that we've been unwilling to give completely to you. Walk before us into the places where your presence is unwelcome, that we would usher your presence into the darkness and pierce it with your light. From Monday morning to Sunday night, we pray for your presence at every moment, in every action, every word that we speak and every interaction with your beloved children.

Amen.