Prayers...

Prayers for the week of  January 4, 2014

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, even at a young age Your Son desired to be in Your House doing the work that You would have Him do, preparing for and preparing others for the holy work He alone could do for our salvation.  Grant that all of Your people with faith-filled hearts would yearn to be in Your house hearing of Your Son’s work for us and –moved by it—leaving Your House to share it with others. Lord, in Your mercy:  Hear our prayer.

We pray for the whole Church of God in Christ Jesus and for all people according to their needs ...

Into Your hands we commend all for whom we pray, trusting in Your mercy, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
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“And he said to them. ‘Why were you looking for me?  Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’  And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them.”  Luke 2:49-50
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 A Prayer based on the Petitions of the Lord’s Prayer

“Thy Kingdom Come”

In the Name of the Father and of (+) the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

O Lord, Whose Kingdom comes freely and abundantly, we sinners pray that Your Kingdom may come among us also, even today, as Your Holy Spirit works through Word and Sacrament to bring us Your Kingdom of grace and mercy, so that we would believe Your Word and lead a godly life according to it. To that end, lend your fatherly ear to my petitions:

* For the ill, suffering, injured: O Lord, as Your Son came preaching, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” so also as part of that message He came healing the sick and raising the dead. Bring comfort to those who contend with illness, to those who suffer, to the injured and the hurting, especially Norm Bunge*, Connie Block*, Wally Bartels*, Debbie Taylor, Sue Ail, Donna (friend of Diane Mautone*), the Knoepfel* family: who are ill, contending with infirmity that they may know that Your Kingdom of temporal care and eternal salvation is even now  among us through the work of your Holy Spirit and your blessed Word and Sacrament.
* For the anxious, lonely: O God, through the work of Your Holy Spirit, who brings to our remembrance all the promises of Christ, we know that the blessings of Your Kingdom – given freely in Your Divine Service to us – is a present comfort, a daily calm in the face of all our cares.  Hear my prayer on behalf of all unbelieving members of my family that they would be granted Your peace, which needs not worry about tomorrow, for Thy Kingdom of grace and mercy is among us this day. Grant us all peace for today and tomorrow’s certain hope that Your Holy Spirit will continue to work among us and strengthen and sustain us through Your Word and Sacrament.
* For the mourning: O Lord, Thy Kingdom comes among us each and every day; especially at life’s end, are we thankful  that You have sustained Your saints through Your Spirit’s working in Word and Sacraments, that the faithful might know a blessed end. Hear my prayer on behalf of any who mourn the death of a loved ones. Comfort them with Your mercy; point them to the future glory that knows in full the joys of the Kingdom that has no end. Grant them the courage to know that – as they continue(s) on here below, here too Your Holy Spirit will continue to sustain them in Word and Sacrament.
* For the rejoicing: O Lord, with what rejoicing do we welcome and celebrate the coming gifts of Your Kingdom, Your grace and mercy therein, and the many temporal blessings that flow to us because – even today – Your Kingdom comes among us. Hear my prayer of thanksgiving on behalf of Abigail Bestul and her family as they rejoice at the occasion of of Abigail's baptism.  Grant them a thankful heart that confesses Your goodness and desires to continually receive the means by which Your grace and Spirit come – pouring out  the benefits of the cross upon us… those benefits won and purchased for us by the blood and death of Christ, our Lord.
* Please bless all our shut ins including Velda Miller*, Florence Mitchell*, Betty Wear*, Bruce Morecraft, Janet Keller, Alice Breneman, and Myrtle Stade, as well as all Widows and Widowers of Calvary.

Hear my petitions, O Heavenly Father, for the sake of Your Son, who has promised your kingdom to come and, thus, taught us to pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven…”