National Day of Prayer

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! The heavens declare Your greatness; the oceans cry out to You; the mountains, they bow down before You; so I’ll join with the earth, and I’ll give my praise to You.

Who is like the Lord, our God? There is none like You. You, in holy, triune splendor, are God alone, sovereign creator of all things, both the physical realm and the spiritual realm. You did it with Your powerful word, having spoken light into existence and having breathed into mankind, forming him from the dust of the ground in Your own image. You sustain all things by Your powerful word, bringing everything to pass according to Your purpose, for the pleasure of Your will and for Your eternal glory – all despite the wretched sinfulness of mankind introduce so early on. You would have been just to destroy creation at Your first displeasure, but You purposed even sin that You might overcome it infinitely with grace, revealing Your patience, longsuffering, forbearance, and unfathomable mercy in the promised prophecy and faithful fulfillment of it in Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. You are amazing. I dare not consider that I could possibly praise You for the magnificence of all Your attributes in their infinite perfection. And to think that You have revealed Yourself to fallen humanity in numerous ways, but primarily to us through a book. Yes, the Holy Scriptures are truly God-breathed, Your chosen and perfect method to reach all kinds of people in all kinds of cultures over all kinds of ages. I praise You for Your word.

Father I adore You; I lay my life before You. I love You. It’s hard to say, “I love You,” because I see my sin – even daily – ever against You, in thought, word, and deed. I consider the words of Jesus, “If you love Me, then keep My commandments.” It’s amazing that You would let me take another breathe, much less profess my love for You when my transgressions are so great. Like Your great servant Paul, whom You worked in so magnificently, to the point that he would acknowledge his hard work and then humbly point out that it was actually Your grace working within him, I struggle with divisive desires. That confirms that You are working in me, but I long for progress. Dare I say I see it? I long for that day when my desires will be so aligned with Your holiness that all I do is please You, never to sin again. I know it is coming, even with the return of Jesus, for Your faithful promises can never fail. So I ask You, Father, to forgive me as I confess my sinfulness. I hold nothing back. Though there are myriad sins that I commit daily, both of omission and commission, that go unnoticed by me, You are aware of them; and when I confess that they are there, though I reflect not on them, and when I ask You to wash me clean, You do so. As far as east is from west have my sins been separated from me. Amazing. Father I praise You for Your eternal plan. Your electing love, Your desire to glorify Yourself in the Person of Jesus Christ, who had all the glory You had before creation, is wonderful. I am humbled beyond expression, awestruck by Your ways, that I would be called a co-heir of all things with Christ, a reflector His glory both now and forever, a participant in the kingdom of heaven, a ruler of creation with Him who died for – all according to Your plan before creation. Your knit me together in my mother’s womb; I am fearfully and wonderfully made. You ordained all my days before even one of them came to be. And I am at Your service, longing to be made to increasingly serve You. Rebellious, yes, but ever-repentant and, by Your grace, ever increasing in holiness, predestined to be conformed to the likeness of Your Son.

Jesus I adore You; I lay my life before You. I love You. Again, dare I say, “I love You”? You are the One who emptied Yourself by taking on humanity. You left Your kingdom in heaven to become a man. What a disgrace! No – what grace! Your love, displayed so marvelously in Your willingness to live and die for me, such a worthless wretch, is nearly beyond belief. You Lord Jesus are my great God and Savior, the worthy Lamb of God who fulfills Scripture as the seed of the woman who would conquer death and sin. You are Prophet, Priest, and King, indeed the King of kings, supreme and pre-eminent over all creation as a result of Your work of redemption. You are sufficient in every matter – whether on earth or in heaven. Though I, like many others, may not fully grasp Your full deity and full humanity, I know both to be true. It was the only way – the perfect way – for You to be glorified in fullness by Your creation. Had You needed not overcome sin, we might fail to glorify You in fullness; but that could have never been. For You are creator and redeemer, the beginning and the end, from before there was time. I adore You Jesus, as One who was tempted in every way yet was without sin. I worship You, not merely a man, or even solely God, but the infinitely worthy and eternal God-Man. You are everlasting father, prince of peace, wonderful, counselor. How can it be that You would call me a friend? How can it be that You are unashamed to call me brother? How could I not adore You forever. Dare I think that Your work is completed. True, You said, “It is finished,” but that was the end of the beginning. You died, an essential part of our redemption; You bore the weight of the just punishment of the all the sin of Your people in Your body on the cross. You experienced the separation from the Father that we deserved for our sins so that we won’t have to. But You weren’t done. No one took Your life; You laid it down. And not even death could hold You; for You are God, perfect in every way. You cast out sin and death; You bound Satan; and You reign as King, sustaining all things, at the right hand of the throne of God forever. But You aren’t done. You don’t sleep. Jesus, You always intercede for us; You are our mediator, our Priest. You teach us truth by Your Spirit; You are our Prophet. And I adore You.

Spirit, I adore You; I lay my life before You. I love You. You, Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, co-equal and co-eternal with Father and Son, One in being with the Father and Son, yet mysteriously eternally distinct, proceeding from both Father and Son as the submissive yet seemingly most active member of the Godhead, are equally worthy of praise. You hovered over the emptiness of creation on Day 1, and brought God’s word to pass in forming the earth and filling it with life; You are the agent of life. Blowing wherever You please, according to the perfect will of God, You regenerate the elect and bring them sovereignly to faith in Christ, all by grace. You convict of sin, You counsel to repentance, You lead in ways everlasting, always near. You, Holy Spirit, are the Spirit of Jesus Christ, indwelling the hearts of believers in a mysterious, yet essential and effective way. You pray for Your people, interceding with groans that words cannot express. You protect and guide; You open our minds and hearts to the word of God. Apart from Your blessing, we’d remain darkened in heart and mind to spiritual truth. Thank You for Your presence as comforter. Apart from Your presence we’d be hopeless, for Jesus in His physical humanity is absent, having ascended to the right hand of the throne of God. Yet He, along with the Father, sent You to lead us home. And we know that You are faithful and will do it.

The mysterious and glorious Covenant of Redemption, made before creation, is so appropriate, given Your character. Perfect in every way, yet wanting to involve creation in a relationship with Yourself, You show Your love. The Father lovingly elects His people, the Son lovingly redeems the elect, and the Spirit lovingly applies redemption to the elect. Adoration of You, O God of revelation, is the least that I can do.

Lord God, I’ve confessed my sinfulness in some small degree, but I must confess more. It’s not merely in thought, word, and deed, that I’ve transgressed Your character, that I’ve offended You openly, that I’ve denied Your authority, broken Your law, set up my own autonomy, and committed cosmic treason, but it is in my very nature that I am a sinner. I sin only because I am a sinner. Thus I am by nature a child of wrath. Some might say they are exempt from punishment due to this fact: they did not choose to be of the seed of Adam; they had nothing to do with his sin, which left them sinful by relationship. However, I know my sinfulness is my own – I don’t claim exemption. I am guilty, deserving of Your just wrath. And I am, by Your grace, saddened by my sin; therefore, I repent in dust and ashes. How dare I continue to sin against You! Don’t I get it? Don’t I respect Your authority? It pains me to say, “Oftentimes, no.” Lord, woe is me! I am unclean. Forgive me; cleanse me; place me in Christ, for He is my only shelter, my only hope. What’s this? Why, yes, it’s true! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Christ Jesus! Indeed! You have placed me in Him. You see me as pure and blameless. You’ve washed me white as snow, though my sins be as scarlet! Praise be to God!

How thankful I am for Him. How thankful I am for Your love and grace and mercy and patient forbearance before the Holy Spirit applied the redemptive work of Jesus to my life. How thank I am for Your daily bread, your constant renewal and mysteriously ever increasing love for me. How thankful I am that You care for me. What is man that God should care for him? Never can I repay, nor must I try, You for Your loving kindness. Rather my response must be mere gratitude. It can’t be enough. It’s not. You want it that way. The glory is Yours. All blessing and honor and glory and power be to You, O Lord, forever and ever.

My thanks shall not yet cease. I have only scratched the surface of reason for gratitude. Yet again, I dare not think that I could make mention of that demands my gratitude. Thus I am thankful that You overlook my taking for granted the vast majority of Your blessings. Yet I am also thankful that You grant some of the earthly blessings I crave – health, shelter, food, family safety, etc. I know that as I seek first Your kingdom, all these things will be added to me as well. And so I am thankful. I’m thankful for life, for Your sustaining it despite the corruption of the world, thankful that You have a purpose in doing so for the sake of redemption and restoration and a return to glory. I’m thankful for my body and the elements necessary to sustain it; though frail, it works so fluidly, taking in air and food and water, and processing those things unto life, all the while fighting off deadly germs. It’s unlike any machine mankind can build with all the wisdom of the world. I thank You for my past, which You have used not only to make me who I am today, but also to teach me for living in the present, and hopefully, in the future. I thank You for my wife. How can it be that You blessed me with a Christian woman, pure, and humble, and able and willing to deal with someone like me? She is for me, and I know by her that You love me. I am thankful for my four children – two boys and two girls – unique yet similar. I am learning great things about You from being blessed to be their daddy. I thank you for our family – the extended family of parents and grandparents and sisters and cousins. They are blessings to us, supporters of us in many ways, and I pray that we would in no small way be blessings to them. Thank you dearly, so dearly, for our friends. We have an amazing group of friends, likeminded, and living for Your glory. I thank You for our home, clearly ordained to be ours at this time through the gymnastics we went through to end up here. You have enabled us to make it cozy and hospitable for visits from family and friends; thank You. I thank You for my job, which sustains us such that my wife can remain with the children throughout the day. I am thankful for that as well, and I pray that You will use that reality not only to make our children into the people You’d have them become, but also that they would rise up years from and call their mother blessed. Thank you Lord for prayer, that I can speak to You and have You listen; thank You for drawing near to me as I draw near to You. Thank you for the fruit of the Spirit, for spiritual understanding, for wisdom and discernment while living in but not of the world. Thank you for Your word, the word of truth, which by grace and by the Spirit, guides me in all truth. Thank you for working in me; please continue to do so; let me not hinder You; overcome me. Thank you for providing all we need and much of what we want. Make our desires align with Yours. There’s much more. And not to skip over anything, but I can’t possibly mention it all. Thank you for who You are. Could You be different? Would You still be God? I don’t know. I’m thankful that You’re You – displaying Your attributes to Your creation for the good of those who love You and are called according to Your purpose – for Your glory.

How can make requests of You, O Lord? You have given immeasurably more than I could ask or imagine. But to add to Your glory, to desire to bless us by granting our requests. You are no genie in a bottle; You are the sovereign Lord of the universe. Yet You tell us to make requests, supplications on behalf of the saints. And so we do. We pray for our families, that they would desire to know You more, and that they would seek You aright, learning from Your word and Your people, rather than attempting to find You where only false teachers dwell. We pray for our friends the prayer of Paul, that they would be filled by You with the knowledge of Your will in all wisdom and understanding, that they may live a life worthy of You and pleasing to You. I pray this for myself Lord; You have blessed me with what I believe to be a sound understanding of Your word, increasing as I study, but I desperately need You to conform my behavior, my lifestyle, to the truth. Let my sound doctrine be applied to my life, that Your word would not be maligned and that You would be glorified for Your work in me. I pray that I might somehow be used to forward Your kingdom, even if only in the lives of my children and wife. I log for their salvation, and I trust You for it. I long for their purity, and I trust You for it. I long for them to desire to know You, to crave pure spiritual milk, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to seek You while You may be found, and to find You early in life and never to stray from the sure and solid foundation of Your truth. I pray for the contentment of my wife, that she would be patient and satisfied in the reality that Your will would be done. I pray that she would be strengthened to carry out the works You have prepared in advance for her to do. You know the desires of my heart, Lord. But Lord, do not grant those requests that do not align with Your will. You know what’s best; we do not. You know all things; we know only what You have shown us. And we ask that Your will be done, O Lord, as Jesus taught us in word and deed. Let Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Take this cup, the cup of Your wrath, away, but not my will. Yours be done.

You said, “Ask and you will receive, whatever you need.” You said, “Pray, and I’ll hear from heaven, and I’ll heal your land.” You said, “Ask, and I’ll give the nations to you.” O Lord, that’s the cry of our heart. Thank You for America, our nation, and thank You for her godly heritage. But Lord, I confess that she has, we have, sinned and strayed. Abortion, drugs, divorce, greed, war, rampant immorality and idolatry have had their way in this nation for the past 60 years. Would You heal our land, O Lord? For the sake of our children? For the sake of their children? For the sake of Your children? For the sake of Your name? I know You have people here; I’m no Moses or Abraham in terms of interceding for Your people, but I know that You can spare our nation. This is the National Day of Prayer, and many people will pray today. Sadly, not all, and maybe not even most, will pray to You; they will lift up the name, “God,” but in their minds is a false god. They will call on “You” to heal our land; though they don’t acknowledge their sin and Your holiness, would You consider their prayer. Perhaps You might correct them and show them who You are, so that their prayers would be directed to the only God, the God of the Bible, the Great I AM.

Economic woes, political division, moral corruption, post-modern relativism – the situation seems hopeless. But we don’t hope in the nation; we don’t’ expect government to lead us safely apart from You. You may choose to heal our land using the government. You may choose not to heal our land and prove it using the government. Time, no doubt, will tell. But my hope, along with the hope of many of Your people in this nation, lies in You alone. Thy will be done in America. Amen.