Pastoral Prayer by Paul Meeks (# 10)

Our gracious and loving Heavenly Father, we come to You today in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.  We want to thank You for Your amazing grace that saved us, that changed our lives and brought us into Your eternal Kingdom.  And all that’s wonderful, but we can’t live in the past.  The yesterdays were wonderful, but this is today and we need that amazing grace every day.  We need it today because we live in a fast-paced world and each day has its challenges and we don’t know what a day will bring forth.  But we do know that Your grace is always sufficient and we rejoice in that.  By Your grace we can do things we never thought possible and we can reach heights we never thought we could reach.  So, today we give You thanks and we glorify Your matchless name.

Lord, when we contemplate the events of the past few days in the world, our minds are troubled.  The bombings in England and Egypt and in Nigeria and the continual killings in many places are terrible and put fear in the hearts of civilized people all around the world.  And we’re sure that even today evil men are planning more terrorist acts.  We pray that their evil plans would be foiled and that confusion and discord would come into their ranks.  It’s hard for us to comprehend that although these are diabolical acts inspired by Satan, yet You love even these young men that are suicide bombers, because Your Word tells us that You so loved the world that You gave Your only Son to save even the vilest of sinners.  We pray that these evil men would come to the Truth and that their hearts and minds would be changed by Your amazing grace.

We pray for our president and vice-president and the cabinet members that face these and other situations.  They need Your wisdom and directions and they need to be sensitive to the impressions that the Holy Spirit is trying to impress on them.  We pray for all the men and women in government.  How much we need God in the affairs of our nation and that’s what we pray for today and every day.

We pray for our church and our special needs right here among us today.  You know us, Lord, individually and you look right down into our hearts and minds and you understand where we stand before You right now.  Please help us each one as we lift up our hearts and our needs.  We ask for Your special touch and for the assurance that we need from You.  You do hear and answer our prayers.  And as we reach out to You, You’re already reaching out to us.

We pray for the search that’s going on for those to fill the staff positions that we need.  We ask that You would guide us to the ones that You already have in mind for us, that will meet our needs in ministry.  We pray, too, for the plans for an adequate building that will enable us to do a better job of ministering to our community.  These are important decisions that are being made and we pray for your guidance and direction.

We pray for Pastor Steve as he brings the message in just a few minutes.  Enable him to express the thoughts that You’ve given him for us.

We pray in the name of Jesus.  Amen.

Paul Meeks

College Wesleyan Church

Marion, IN 46953

Pauldarmeeks@aol.com