Prayers for the 6th Sunday of Easter (May 17-23, 2020)

presentation inside church

The Watchword for the Week:

Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth; sing the glory of his name; give him glorious praise. Psalm 66:1,2

Let us give thanks for your goodness, dear God, let the people shout their joy.
We praise you for your freely given love, and the gift or your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
May we live our praise through our daily lives.
Gracious God, we love you, and we are thankful that you accept us as we are, but challenge us to become more of who you want us to be. 

Psalm 66:8-20

8 Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard,
9 who has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip.
10 For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.
11 You brought us into the net; you laid burdens on our backs;
12 you let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water, yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.
13 I will come into your house with burnt offerings; I will pay you my vows, 
14 those that my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
15 I will offer to you burnt offerings of fatlings, with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams; I will make an offering of bulls and goats.
16 Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me.
17 I cried aloud to him, and he was extolled with my tongue.
18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
19 But truly God has listened; he has given heed to the words of my prayer. 
20Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me.

Let us Confess our Sins.
Gracious God, you call forth from us shouts of praise and thanksgiving, and you call us to respond to your grace with a joyful noise on our lips. But we confess, Lord, that we often speak out of anxiety and anger rather than grace; this causes us to utter words either to or about others that cause pain and division rather than unity. At other times our mouths are silent when they should be bearing witness to your greatness. For these our sins, we humbly repent. 

Our God is gracious and forgives the penitent heart. He forgives you of your sins, so let us, therefore, give God glorious praise.
Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By God’s great mercy, we are given new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.

Praise, honor, glory, and power to the One seated on the throne and to the Lamb, forever and ever! Jesus was handed over to death for our sins,
And was raised to new life for our justification.
Then what can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or hardship? Can persecution, hunger, nakedness, peril, or sword?
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Christ, who loved us.
We are convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor powers, nor heights, nor depths, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

(God speaks to us through the inspiration of Scripture. So approach the opportunity to read the Daily Texts as a privilege, eagerly anticipating what might be spoken to you today. How might this new word make a part of your life new again? If you do not have your own copy of the Daily Texts, you will find them posted in the margin on the right of your page (at the bottom of the page if you are on a mobile phone) When you have finished praying, continue as follows.)

As you taught your disciples to pray, so we pray together:

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.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and forever. Amen.

Let those who serve you praise you, O God, let the true of heart give you thanks.
Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let the whole earth be in awe of you; all the inhabitants of the world greet you with joy. For you spoke, and the wonderful deed was done; you commanded, and it all came to pass.
Praise to the love that moves the stars and stirs the hearts of the people.
God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,
Make us complete in everything good so that we may do your will, working among us all that is pleasing in your sight; through Jesus Christ. Praise God to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.