Almighty God,
We offer you thanks this morning. Thanks for the gift of your beautiful creation where you have planted each of us according to your purpose.
We thank you for the miracle of this church family, and for gathering us by your Holy Spirit to receive your gifts. You have called each of us by name to receive renewal, restoration, and new life in Christ. Make this a time and place of rest. Where our restless and distracted hearts find rest in you.
Lord,
Today and everyday, fill us and enliven us with your Holy Spirit that we might rejoice in proclaiming the Gospel. Grant us joy in the truth that your Word of Good News is not just information, but the living power of the living God.
“The words which I have spoken to you are Spirit and they are life”.
Pour out your Spirit and settle our busy and restless minds and hearts this morning. Make us vessels to receive your promise of a peace that is deeper and richer than anything we can imagine. Peace in Jesus Christ. Peace in the midst of daily triumphs. Peace in the midst of daily struggles. Peace that passes all understanding.
By the power of your Word, shatter the bondage of self in which we are chained. Create in us a clean heart and renew a right spirit within us. Renew our hearts, Lord, so they might burn with love for our neighbors. Renew our hearts to bear the good fruit that this world needs: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
As we go about our day, have us know and walk in the assurance that your Spirit hovers over us, gives us the very breath of life, and lives in us. To stir us, to correct us, to work through us, to comfort us, to teach us, to lead us. And ultimately, to show us the Son, that we may be set free in the Son.
All this we pray in the name of the One whose name is above all names, Jesus the Christ,
AMEN.