Pastoral Prayer by Paul Meeks

Our gracious and loving Heavenly Father, we come to You today in the name of Jesus, the name that's above every name both in heaven and on earth.  Your word tells us that some day at that name every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord.  How thankful we are that we've already made Him both Lord and master of our lives.  There are truly multiplied millions in our world who don't even know His name, but how blessed and how privileged we are to be among those who have heard.  We glorify and magnify and worship You today with all of our hearts.

Lord, it's so good to be in fellowship with You and with our brothers and sisters today.  We're part of each other.  We belong together.  We love each other and we care for each other.  I pray for the moms and dads and the grandparents here this morning.  We all need wisdom and strength, we need guidance from the Holy Spirit to be the kind of parents we should be.  What an awesome responsibility to be entrusted with little lives to nurture and mold and do our best to help them to become what You have planned for their lives.  We want them all to become Christians while they're still young and we want to help guide them to be godly men and women.  We know we're not perfect and we make mistakes.  We sometime blow it and we need to ask forgiveness and we want to do that when we need to, but please help us not to make fatal mistakes that will follow them into later life.  We don't get to start over when they're old, so please help us, Lord, and give us divine wisdom, give us patience, give us longsuffering, give us endurance and help us to be loving and caring, and when we do blow it help them to know that we love them and we're trying to do right.

We pray for the little children, the babies and toddlers that even now are in the nurseries and in their classes.  As a church we have the privilege and responsibility to help train them in these formative years and we want to do our very best.  We pray for those that are working with them and interacting with them week after week here at church.

We pray for our youth who are even now a vital part of our church and the ministry of our church.  Their goals and values and their futures are being determined largely during these critical years.  They watch us, and what we do as individuals and as a church helps to determine who and what they are becoming.  They face pressures and temptations every day and so we pray that they will be strong and that they will be faithful to You.

We pray for the needs of our people this morning.  We all came to church expecting to meet with You and receive help for our particular needs.  Lord, please look down inside each one of us and understand the cares, the burdens, the hurts, the problems and perplexities that are there.  We need You.  We need You right now as we're praying.  We lift up our hearts to You for Your individual touch and the assurance that You are with us, that You know and You care.  Thank You, Lord, for being right here right now.

We pray for our community and our nation.  We desperately need You and Your intervention in our affairs.  We pray for all those in authority over us.  Put Your thoughts into their hearts and minds. May we be revived as a nation and seek Your face.

We pray for our pastor as he preaches to us in a few minutes.  Give him Your divine anointing and enable him to express those things that You have put into his heart and mind.  Be exalted among us today, O, God.

We pray in the name of Jesus,  Amen.