Covenant - Prayers

World Communion Sunday

Baptism: Otto Bernard Haskins

Covenant - Worship with Grace Des Moines

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Posted by GraceDesMoines on Sunday, October 3, 2021

October 4 – 9, 2021

Click on the day to expand the guide.

Monday, October 4
ReadJohn 17:11, 13-21

Notice – Jesus uses the word ‘our’ a lot in the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus says our father, our daily bread, our trespasses, and so on. While we often pray for personal reasons, Jesus begins the prayer that he taught the disciples with, “Our Father…” reminding us that we are all part of the same family. Just hours before he went to the cross, Jesus prayed forcefully for his followers to be one. “Holy Father, watch over them in your name…that they will be one just as we are one…. I pray they will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.” In a world that tends to focus on our differences, how can you better open your heart to let the Holy Spirit create the type of oneness for which Jesus prayed?

Pray – Jesus, guide your people all over the earth. Guide me. Help me to live so that words like “peace,” “unity,” “humility” and “love” will be the main qualities others see in me. Amen.

Tuesday, October 5
ReadPsalm 139:7-12, Acts 17:24-28

Notice – The phrase “who is in heaven” in the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples is, in Greek, ouranos. Often we think of heaven as an unspecifi ed location far away, but ouranos can be translated into air or atmosphere too. The idea of heaven may always seem far away, but God is also as close as the air we breathe. Paul went on to tell the Athenians, “We have no need to imagine that the divine being is like a gold, silver, or stone image made by human skill and thought” (Acts 17:29). Few in today’s fi rst-world cultures specifi cally worship gold, silver or stone images. But more broadly, many of us are tugged to give a life priority to lots of gold, silver, or stone objects (as well as many other materials). What helps you maintain a focus on the God who “isn’t far away from any of us”?

Pray – God, I believe in and trust you as a personal being who loves me and my world.  Help me live and act in ways that show that your love has touched my life. Amen.

Wednesday, October 6
ReadMatthew 6:12, 14-15, Luke 11:4

Notice – In addition to hamartia (which meant “missing the mark”), Greek used other words for “sin.” Luke 11:4 used hamartia about our sins, but it used a form of opheleima, which meant “a debt owed to someone,” about what we forgive in others. Matthew 6:12 also used opheleima, while Matthew 6:14-15 used a form of paraptoma, which meant a lapse or slip-up. Scholar William Barclay wrote: “Of all petitions of the Lord’s Prayer this is the most frightening. ‘Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors’….It is… quite clear that… if we say, ‘I will never forgive so-and-so for what he or she has done to me’… and then take this petition on our lips, we are quite deliberately asking God not to forgive us…. To be forgiven we must forgive, and that is a condition of forgiveness which only the power of Christ can enable us to fulfi ll.” Who do you need to forgive?

Pray – God, I have sins, debts and lapses aplenty toward you and others. Forgive me—and strengthen me to forgive others. Amen.

Thursday, October 7
ReadPsalm 23:1-3, Romans 8:12-14

Notice – King David had worked as a shepherd (cf. 1 Samuel 16:11, 17:34-36), and likely wrote Psalm 23. He knew a shepherd’s job description from his own experience, and pictured God as his shepherd. Centuries later, the apostle Paul said the defi ning characteristic of a child of God is allowing God’s Spirit to lead you. As a shepherd leads his fl ock of sheep in the ways that best protect and nurture them, so God leads those who put their trust in him. The apostle Paul addressed readers as “brothers and sisters” in Romans 8:12. The use of these family terms reminded his readers that, as in the Lord’s Prayer, God is our parent who leads us lovingly and well. What direction is God leading you in today?

Pray – Lord, thank you for being my shepherd. Lead me into a truly good life, based not on my own wishes and instincts, but on your eternal principles. Amen.

Friday, October 8
ReadActs 1:6-8, Ephesians 3:18-21

Notice – The prayer that Jesus taught his disciples ends by talking about the ‘kingdom, the glory and the power forever’. Jesus promises the power to cary on his mission to the ends of the earth. Jesus said to people pretty much like us, “You will be my witnesses.” What factors made it more powerful for God to use people (us!) as witnesses? Whose witness has shaped your life? In what ways have you been able to live out Jesus’ commission for you to be one of his witnesses? Find a quiet time to spend with God this week. Ask God to spark a vision in you of what God’s power might do in
and through you that goes far beyond all that you could ask or imagine.

Pray – Jesus, you promise me your power—not the power to boss people around, but the winning, persuasive power of self-giving love. Make me powerful as Jesus was. Amen.

Saturday, October 9
ReadPhilippians 2:1-4

Notice – When we pray that things on earth may be as they are in heaven, we should become people that are “the best at showing honor to each other…. If possible, to the best of your ability, live at peace with all people.” What inner fears make it hard to honor and live at peace with people who are different from you? How can the truth that the eternal God loves and values you give you a footing on which you can set aside the need to climb above others?

Pray – Jesus, I want my life to count for good, to make this world a better place. May I not just talk about them but live them humbly and gratefully every day. Amen.

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