Thank God for Pastor Chris and his sermon on Sunday from Malachi 3:13–4:3. May we remember the promised mercy of God when we are tempted to throw in the towel on serving Him.

Pray for Pastor Chris as he concludes our preaching series, Malachi: Return to Me, this Sunday. The sermon will be focused on Malachi 4:4-6.  

Thank God for our final Summer Conversations class this past  July 26: Loving Your South Asian Neighbors (with Shaun Singh). We also enjoyed sessions on loving our adult children and loving our Catholic neighbors. May we learn to reach out in Christ’s love to our neighbors, whoever and wherever they are. 

Thank the Lord for the baptismal service of Spencer on July 23 at Village Bible Church. Ask the Lord to bless and guide him in the days ahead. 

Pray for Daniel W., who was injured recently at work. 

Pray for Ed C. in his health challenges. 

My prayer this morning is inspired by 1 Thessalonians 1. Let us pray.

O Lord, we come to you because you have loved us, and you have called us through your gospel, which has come to us not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. What a grace it is that you have chosen us for yourself.
Even though we are your children, we confess that we have stumbled in our thoughts, words, and deeds, giving in to the world, the flesh, and the devil in many ways. And so we quietly confess our sins to you.

***

Our confidence before you is Christ, who has set us an example of faith, hope, and love, and who has atoned for our sins through the offering of himself.

Lord of all the earth, we pray for our president. He is but a man, so we ask that you would grant him a humble heart to listen to good counsel, to discern good counsel from bad, and to act for peace and justice. Protect him from harm and help him to govern wisely.

We pray that you would help us to be imitators of God, that we might receive your word even in affliction, that our faith in you might echo in our families and our communities, for the glory of your name.

We pray for your blessing for Shaun Singh and the South Asian Friendship Center, that their ministry may shine the light of your word, that it may come with power and the Holy Spirit to Little India in Chicago and beyond. 

Guide Pastor Chris as he preaches your word this morning, and may you continue to act with power among us through that word.

Lord, we pray for all among us who have reason to doubt or weep or cry out in anguish. Grant them freedom to speak to you from the depths, that they would not hide their pain but would lay it out before you in all sincerity and faith.

We give thanks for your grace and mercy to those among us who have been suffering great pain. We thank you for the recent relief that Anna Farnsworth and Elizabeth Cornforth have experienced, and we ask for your continued healing touch. 

We thank you for granting Bob Ooms to be renewed in his strength, and we pray that you would give him and Diane joy in this additional time together, that they would continue to face Bob’s cancer journey with full conviction of the truth of your word.

And we give you thanks for Katarina’s safe birth. We pray for the Knapps and the Farnsworths, as they care for their daughters. 

Now we pray that, as we continue to worship, you would stir our hearts to wait for the coming of your Son from heaven, whom you raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. In his name we pray, amen.