Prayer

Where are the desperate prayers?

March 19, 2021 0 Comments

The fridge is empty and a friend has arrived at midnight. He’s hungry. You know your neighbour had loads of pizza delivered so you go and knock on the door thinking surely he has leftovers. So with shameless audacity you go, knock, and knock, and knock, till he awakens, and then you ask. He gives you a box of pizza — so he can go back to sleep.

Jesus told this story first. Luke 11:5-10.

Jesus is describing something we don’t really believe to be true. We don’t really believe our spiritual cupboards are empty, barren, and lacking. Every time our friends arrive in their night asking for help we offer them something from our north american affluence, rather than from the zone of our poverty. We would rather not admit our barren spiritual cupboards. We would rather deny the spiritual dependency of our hearts because we don’t like to admit our emptiness. Somehow we have turned a reality of the spiritual life, depleted spiritual cupboards, into something shameful, something to be denied.

Jesus doesn’t treat reality that way. Nor does He treat us that way.

One disciple was willing to confess their spiritual poverty (Luke 11:1) so he asked, “Lord teach us to pray.” Jesus doesn’t just teach the “Lord’s Prayer; He is offering us a pathway to regular renewal. Jesus reveals that our Heavenly Father delights to give the good gift of the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him! (See Luke 11:11-13)

Every now and then we may throw up a quick “Oh Lord fill me with your Spirit.” But where are the desperate prayers? Desperate prayers are founded in a desperate realization: “I have neighbours asking for real help and my spiritual cupboard is empty. The daily bread has been eaten. It’s the middle of their night and Lord we need help! Come Lord fill us with your Spirit!”

Many neighbours, many friends, are in a long night of longing, having been ransacked by the world and the evil one. Dear Church they are not sure they can still come to you for help.

Are you persisting and longing in prayer before the Father who loves you and is willing to fill you?
In the asking we are positioned to receive.
In the seeking we are positioned to find.
In the knocking we are positioned to be welcomed.

Praise be to God. He is our good Father! Jesus says He will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.

“‘Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit…” Ephesians 5:14-18

Prayer

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Prayer of the People, 12 March 2021

March 15, 2021 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for giving us the grace of faith. We know we do not live by sight but by faith. You have rescued us from lies and delivered us into your Truth. Thank you for the delight that has overcome our fears so can reside in your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

When we see Jesus in the Gospels we are getting to look into what angels had longed to see and your prophets foretold. Oh Lord grant us the grace of living full into this mystery revealed! Christ in us — the hope of glory.

Come Holy Spirit Come.

Too often our days do not seem all that glorious. So Lord, Help us love you with all our minds, all our hearts, and all our strength in the course of our daily rhythms: making meals, washing dishes, cleaning spaces, folding laundry, taking up our work, setting our work down, and loving the people closest to us and our neighbours.

Grant us the courage required to be curious about people and inquisitive without judgment. May truth flow from our faces, our speech, and our actions because you are close. May we boldly proclaim your victory over death and offer your invitation to life through faith in Jesus.

Oh Lord grant us perseverance as a church to continue holding space for each other in service and in care. Give us wisdom to plan for the future restart of in-person ministry in the UBC campus community and across our city. May Jesus be lifted up among us!

Please join me in the Lord’s 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.

This prayer was part of the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast on 12 March 2021.

Prayer

Prayer of the People, 5 March 2021

March 8, 2021 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

We praise you and glorify you. Not to us but to you be the glory forever. Through the life, death, burial, and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ you have made it possible for us to share in your life and your love. You have brought us into your communion — the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We came — bowed down and humiliated. But you lifted us up.

Thank you for this grace in which we now stand.
We stand before you loved not condemned.
We stand before you forgiven not abandoned.
We stand before you welcomed not cast away.

Oh Lord, may your true reality be driven deep into our hearts to transform our character so that we are full of good fruit. We confess, that like Esau, we so easily trade our birthright as children in your Kingdom for quick and momentary satisfactions. We lost sight of the promises You made and we gave in to false promises made by the world. 

Forgive Us Lord.
Come Holy Spirit Come — 

Fill us with new songs so we can testify together of your faithfulness, righteousness, and peace. Cause original moments to flourish in our fellowship.

Your peace Lord, may it come for the people of Yemin.
Your peace Lord, may it abide in the hearts of Christians under pressure in Pakistan.
Your peace Lord, may it transform every valley and hill, city and town in Syria.

Oh Lord we need you and so we pray as Jesus teaches us:

(Please join me in the Lord’s 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.

This prayer was part of the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast on 5 March 2021.

Prayer

Prayer of the People, 26 February 2021

March 1, 2021 0 Comments

Prayer of the People  —  26 February 2021

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for rescuing us from a cascade of lies and for bringing us into the truth of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. In your communion — of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — there is nothing false. Transform us into true worshippers through the love you pour into us.

Thank you for providing us with food and shelter. 
Thank you for the promise of each new day. 
Your faithfulness continues to all generations.
Thank you for the warmth of friendship with others.
Thank you for the strength to make meaningful contributions through our work. 
Bless the work of our hands and our minds.
Thank you for our remembrance of your interventions in difficult days past.
Thank you for the promise of your company through difficult days to come.
Thank you for the joy we find in simple moments of quietness.
Thank you for the breath we breathe.
May your Spirit  blow through us again. Come Lord Jesus. Come.

May faithful generosity emerge from our delight in you and your word.
May faithful attention to our accepted responsibilities and duties bring glory to You.
May faithfulness be formed in our character as a fruit of lives deeply enriched by your Spirit.

Oh Lord we lift up your church under pressure in Myanmar, Tanzania, and in Hong Kong. Enable your disciples to share their lives with neighbours and to see the promise and power of Jesus’ good news released into people’s lives.

Oh Lord we need you and so we pray as Jesus teaches us:
(Please join me in the Lord’s 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.

This prayer as part of the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast on 26 February 2021.

Prayer

Prayer of the People, 19 February 2021

February 22, 2021 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

In the moment before you said, “Let there be…” your love existed and was shared within your eternal communion, the communion of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

Your holiness precedes the billions of galaxies you made and infiltrates every vast expanse between them. You see us. You are able to locate us. You have made us. We are the people of your pasture purchased through the blood of the Lamb. So say the Word — Say the Word that awakens us to the reality of you and to the reality of your love. Call out to us, “Wake up O Sleeper, Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

For some us the joy of our salvation is preceded by the knowledge of our havoc to which we had become numb. And so — we fear.

We confess Lord, we have been foolish; we have been rebellious; we have been lovers of darkness. Forgive us and usher us into your ways of peace. May the righteousness and kindness of Jesus replace all the bitterness, rage, malice, unforgiveness, and apathy that has rushed in to fill the places created by desire and disappointment. 

Lord, grant us the grace of repentance and the grace of obedience that comes by faith. 

Indeed, fill us with the joy of your salvation!

We lift up our brothers and sisters
who weep; comfort them Lord.
who fear the future; assure them Lord.
who wrestle with decisions; guide them Lord.

We lift up students at UBC and at Langara College. We pray that your would call out disciples for Jesus — who rejoice in your friendship, and delight in your love. Cause them to be new creations from the inside out.

Oh Lord we need you and so we pray as Jesus teaches us:

(Please join me in the Lord’s 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.

This prayer with part of the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast on 19 February 2021.

Prayer

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