“Will you make your church a place where love informs action, where joy runs deep, where peaceful hearts produce patient people? Will you give us the pleasure of seeing kindness amongst Christian children?”

Our Father in heaven, we rejoice to remember that hidden in the holiness of your Son, you count us holy in your sight. Not only as we pray, but as we live each day, you see us as saints, set apart by our Savior, for our Savior.

And yet we live in the hope that what we see by faith, we will one day see by sight. Surely you will understand us, Father, if we ask today for a foretaste of what we will enjoy tomorrow. Surely you will overlook our impatience if we ask that you would continue to work out in our lives the righteousness and resurrection power that is already ours in Christ.

Father, we know that what we will be, is also what we should be. And yet in our conversations we find ourselves biting and devouring one another – we worry that in the carelessness of our words we’ll consume each other. We dream of walking by the Spirit. We wake, and once again gratify the desires of the flesh.

And so we ask that you would be our guide. Lead us away from swamps of sexual immorality, sensuality and impurity. Painful as it might be, expose our inclinations to idolatry and our secret openness to empty superstitions. Fortify us against open and scandalous sins, against drunkenness, even orgies, and things like them. Protect us in our friendships and keep our families from the evils of enmity, strife and fits of anger. We covet your assistance as we struggle with envious spirits, hidden jealousy, and unhealthy rivalries. Restrain the evil one, we ask; restrain ourselves: check our rising doubts, our rebel sighs, our bitter thoughts.

What we pray for ourselves and for our loved ones, we pray for your church. Shield your bride, and shelter her from the onslaught of her enemies.

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