COV LIFE BLOG

Pastoral Prayer – July 15, 2018

James 1:5 says, “…if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”

In prayer we express our dependency upon God, therefore on this morning, let us together ask God to be generous in giving us wisdom as a church for the days ahead.

Father you are good, and we lean into you through prayer this morning, as one body, declaring that you are not only good and all powerful, but you are perfectly wise.

Jeremiah 10 tells us, “it is you who made the earth by your power, who established the world by your wisdom, and by your understanding stretched out the heavens,” and Isaiah calls us to consider the greatness of your wisdom when he said, “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?…Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord, or instruct the Lord as his counselor?… you are the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. You do not faint or grow weary; your understanding is unsearchable. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are your ways higher than our ways and your thoughts than our thoughts.”

God, we ask that in your great grace you would be generous to pour out your wisdom upon us. God help us to be a church that submits to the authority of your Word, in all spheres of our life together.
God, help us to be wise in how we counsel one another with your word. Help us to be wise in how we apply gospel truths to one another. Help us to be wise in how we pursue our brother or sister who is entangled in sin. Help us to be wise in how we pursue your wayward sheep, in how we deal with unrepentant sin and how we preserve sound doctrine and the corporate witness of your Church to a watching world.

You tell us in Psalm 127, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.”
Lord we desire to see your church grow. To see men, women & children “be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature,” looking ever more like our Savior.

And so with this aim in mind we submit our plans to you and ask for your wisdom across all of our ministries, from Covenant Life Kids, to CLI, to our Internship. Help us to use a biblical grid on how we organize, run and evaluate these various ministries, and give us the resolve to remain faithful in the teaching of the gospel, entrusting the level of fruitfulness to you.
God we ask for your guidance in how we best steward this property in the days ahead. Lord we know the church is your people and not a building. And yet in your kindness you’ve given us this space to gather as one body, so lead us to care well for this place.

God it’s our desire that CLC would be not only a church where Christ exalting community is experienced, but we pray that we’d collectively labor in the work of multiplying gospel influence in our city & to the nations through discipleship and church planting.

And so God we ask for wisdom and guidance in identifying and training up new elders that we send to lead our next church plant; guide us in “the who” & “the when” & “the how” and all the details.

God, we engage in your mission because you’ve called us to – that others might come to know salvation in you. And your word tells us that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, and we too once played the fool before you gave us eyes to see that in that in Christ is the power and wisdom of God. (1 Cor. 1)

And so we offer this prayer – that you might make us walk in wisdom as a body, and that as we hold out the gospel you would give us the joy of seeing many turn to Christ.

In His name we pray, Amen.