On Sunday Pastor Daniel preached from Genesis 16:1-16. Thank God for His grace when we run ahead and try to fix our problems on our own.

Pray for Pastor Chris as he prepares to preach this coming Sunday, February 8th. His text will be Galatians 4:21–31.

Pray for healing for Bob and Diane in their continuing journey with cancer. 

Pray for all in our midst who are experiencing depression, disappointment, pain, anxiety, or grief. May we support one another in the darkness so that we will rejoice together in the light. 

May we be a congregation that more and more desires to reach our neighbors with the gospel. 

Pray for our Men’s and Women’s Bible Studies, our Youth Ministry, our Small Groups, and our Adult Sunday School. May we more and more become people of the Word. 

Pray for our Community Chat Potluck on February 15^th. 

Pray for our Naperville Coffee & Classics group, which resumes on February 21. 

Please pray for the following events to invite and welcome people to NCC:

Discover NCC Class (February 8), Membership Class #1 (February 15), Membership Class #2 (February 22). May people be drawn into our fellowship and be given the tools they need to be joyful and productive members of the NCC family. 

Pray for our scheduled Sisters Together events on February 7 and April 18. 

Pray for our next NCC Forum, which will feature Pastor Dillon Thornton speaking on the theme “Seeing Everyone, Everywhere, All the Time: How Our Devices Incite Envy.” May this time be a blessing to our neighbors, and may some be drawn closer to Christ. 

My prayer will be based on Colossians 1:3–14. Please pray with me.

Our Father, we give you thanks for giving us Jesus, teaching us to trust him and to love the saints because of the hope laid up for us in heaven. We have heard of him in the gospel, which has come to us and is bearing fruit and increasing among us and in the whole world.

We give you thanks for the gospel fruit through the ministry of Caring Network. And we pray for them, that they would be able to reach and serve more women so that they might choose life, that they would present the gospel clearly to the men and women they serve. We pray for the staff and volunteers of Caring Network to have good listening skills, wisdom, and perseverance as they minister to those who come to their clinics or who reach out to them via telecare. We pray for protection for those who seek help at the clinics as well as those who are involved with the work of Caring Network. And we pray for red tape to be minimized as they seek to build more clinics. 

We ask for ourselves, that you would fill us with the knowledge of your will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Give us hearts ready to receive your truth this morning, through the words of our hymns, the words of Scripture, and the preaching of your word. 

For those among us who find themselves weak and helpless, due to illness, sorrow, or conflict, we pray that you would strengthen them with all power, according to your glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy.

Help us to be a community that gives thanks to you, you who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 

When we think of such things, we realize we are not worthy of that inheritance because of our sin, so we confess our sins to you now.

***

We thank you for delivering us from the domain of darkness and transferring us to the kingdom of your beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

With boldness, then, we come to you through Jesus and we pray together the prayer that he taught his disciples to pray, praying… 
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.