Help us to be a church that remembers the fourth commandment. Help us by your Spirit to be careful to keep this one commandment, so that we might better keep all the rest of your commandments. Help us to see that we are stronger together when we spend more of our day in worship, more of it in fellowship, more of it resting and reading so that we might be better equipped and oriented for the work of our callings and our witness before the world.

The prayers of a Sunday morning service offer a perfect context to encourage both gratitude for the Sabbath and renewed ambitions for the Lord’s day. If you are a pastor or elder seeking to encourage thoughtfulness about the fourth commandment, perhaps consider a sampling from these suggestions – or praying something similar, but better suited for the needs of your church. (Some of these prayers and petitions are drawn from Scripture. Others are drawn from Westminster Larger Catechism 120 and 121.)

1. O Lord, we admit today that even as we consider your goodness, we also see our failures. We find faults in our working, when we do too little, or do too much. We see wrongs in our resting, when we treat each day alike, or shrink your day down to a sixty-minute Sabbath. And so we come to you on your day, confessing that we are weary of our foolishness and tired of our sins. Lift our heavy hearts by your Holy Spirit, and give us the true rest we need. Pardon our sins because of the work of Jesus Christ. And then so bless us this day that we will show forth your Lordship every day, until we reach the promised rest purchased for us by Jesus Christ Our Lord, in whose name we pray.

2. Gracious Father, we acknowledge that we struggle to keep your day. It comes once a week, and many activities come in between our rests. Good tasks both distract us from the blessing of your day and keep us from preparing for it. Please help us by your Spirit to prioritize your day, and then be glorified as you answer our prayers.

3. Lord, help us to understand both your day and our difficulties. Help us to see that if we find it hard to keep the Sabbath, that it does not make us legalists to keep trying. Give us the insight to see that all of your commandments are hard to keep – and that this does not make any of them unimportant for your people.

4. We thank you Lord for your generosity, that you made your day for us, and not us for your day.

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