Together Seeking God’s Face: A Year of Praying in the CRCNA
The prayers for June 6-16, 2022 are prayers for Synod and the CRC as a whole.
They are taken from “40 Days of Intentional, Guided Prayers before Synod 2022”.
This and other prayer resources can be found at https://network.crcna.org/prayer
June 13 - Theme: Seeking God Together
Suggested Bible Reading: Psalm 100: A psalm. For giving grateful praise.
“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.”
Prayer
By Liz Tolkamp, Children's Pastor, Willoughby Church and Faith Formation Ministries Regional Catalyzer for Rockies West, Langley BC
God of the ages, we come with gratitude for your gift the church. Throughout history and in the world today, you have provided your church to be a witness to your saving grace.
God, we come with gratitude for the love you have for us and your church. You desire that we live in unity. Keep us from disunity. Teach us to imitate the love you have shown us in Christ.
God, we come knowing that you have called us to love one another. Keep us from dishonoring each other. Help us to speak to one another in love. Give us open ears and kind hearts to hear what the Spirit is saying.
God, we come with gratitude that you are a wise God. We earnestly seek your wisdom. Help us to turn to you to discover anew who we are and where you are leading. Teach us to live according to your holy will.
God, we come knowing that perfect love drives out fear. Keep us from becoming fearful. Help us to turn our fears into strength and speak of what we love.
God, we give you thanks for the active and powerful work of your Spirit in your church today and throughout the ages. May your Spirit guide us in the way of love and peace, for your honor and glory, Amen.
June 14 - Theme: We Want to See Jesus
Suggested Bible Reading: John 10:11-18
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
Prayer
By Nalini Suganandam, Resonate Global Mission, Mission Support, Grand Rapids, MI
God our Shepherd, thank you for loving us so much that you gave your life to redeem us and made a way for us to be adopted as your precious children - each and every one of us. Thank you for inviting us to enter in and rest in your presence. Lord, we long to be with you. We quiet our heart and mind before you, ready to listen and receive.
In these days of being constantly faced with pressures from all directions, each voice and/or expectation fighting for priority and often an immediate response, give us the courage to be still, to sit before you and acknowledge that you are God and we need to hear your voice. Speak, Lord, we long to hear you.
Emmanuel, God with us, we take comfort in your promise that you are present always. Help us to see you working in our current situations. Remove our blinders that we may see you in the people with whom we interact. Give us wisdom and discernment to recognize the movement of your Spirit.
God of grace and mercy, when we struggle to hear and see clearly ground our faith and trust in you, in who you are and in your promise that you are working and that you are always with us. Open our eyes, Jesus, we long to see you.
Lord, hear our prayer. We ask this in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
June 15 - Theme: Desiring that the World May Know Jesus
Suggested Bible Reading: Acts 2:14-24
“Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: ‘Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'
Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.’"
Prayer
By Tim Sheridan, Resonate Global Mission, Church Planting Leader, Maple Ridge, BC
God, you have shown us the full extent of your love by sparing nothing to restore and redeem this world, not even your own son. You beckon our gaze continually to the cross where we encounter your love afresh. We stand in wonderous awe that the king of the universe would lay his life down for the sake of the world. We praise you for such grace.
God, you have formed us to be a dying and rising kind of people; the people of the crucified and risen Messiah.
Long may we linger at your feet, O crucified and risen King.
We confess we are slow to die and quick to rise with our own pride, passion, and position. Forgive us, we pray.
School us in the way of the cross.
Show us what we need to die to, what we need to forsake and what we need to lay down as we engage each other for the sake of the world.
Breath upon us Holy Spirit, that we may hear your particular invitation to us
May our dying and putting to death what you invite us to put to death, birth fresh humility in our hearts. Dying, may we rise with fresh faith, renewed hope, and transformed love. For one another. And for the world you have come to save. And for the mission you have invited us into.
That the world may come to know Jesus.
In his name we pray, amen.
June 16 Prayer
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name, your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today 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 the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and
the power and
the glory forever. Amen
The remaining prayers in June will focus on the Fruit of the Spirit
Friday, June 17. “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5). Thank You, Jesus, for being our source of power to produce fruit for You.
Saturday, June 18. “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you” (John 15:16). Thank You for choosing us, for loving us first. Thank You for Your power to produce eternal fruit.
Sunday, June 19. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23). We praise You, Jesus, for the gift of Your Spirit, Who dwells in us and changes us from the inside out.