Prayers of Adoration

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Imagine having P. J. O’Rourke deliver your commencement address.

Gracious Heavenly Father,

You created us and gave us paradise but we were not content.  We took the one thing You did not give us and so we ruined ourselves.  We made ourselves unfit to live, much less to live in a perfect place.  But You had mercy on us and gave us Your only Son to die in our place.  He paid the penalty for our sins.  You included us in His death and in His resurrection so that we now live in Him.  You gave us hope, joy and peace.  You made us start to become good.

Thank You Father!  Thank you for all that You have given us and for all that You have not given us.  Please make us receive in faith both the abundance You shower upon us and the pain and unsatisfactoriness we must face.  Please reveal Yourself to us and glorify Jesus in our presence.  Make us know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.  Amen.

Gracious Heavenly Father, 

You made us good but we rebelled and ruined ourselves.  You created us to love You and our neighbor but we made ourselves hate You and each other.  We were dead in sin but You sent Your Son to save us.  We were vile but You put our sin on Jesus and crushed Him.  You raised Him from the dead.  You made us believe and put His life in us.

Thank You Father.  You are the God who hates evil with perfect hatred.  You are the God who takes that hatred upon Himself in order to save us. 

Please fill us with Your Spirit and make our worship pleasing to You.  We love You Father, in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.

You made us. You saved us by sending Jesus, Your only Son, as sacrifice for our sins. And You will finally bring every knee to bow in submission to Him.

Thank You for making us delight to bow to Him now, to sing His praise and submit to His word. Please fill us with Your Spirit and make our worship pleasing to You. Please spread Your kingdom among us and make it grow until it takes over the world.

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!

To You, who sit on the throne, and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!

Amen.

Client 9.

My favorite: “He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any one I know.”
—Abraham Lincoln

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Gracious Heavenly Father,

You made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them.  From the structure of space and time down to the chemistry of our D.N.A, everything declares Your glory and shows Your power to bring things into being.  All things show Your marvelous imagination and joy in complexity and diversity.  Your work is magnificent and beautiful.

You made us in Your own image to copy in miniature the way You love and create but we rebelled.  We tried to kick You off the throne and install ourselves as supreme authority but we only succeeded in making ourselves useless for anything good.  We defiled ourselves.  Our best efforts and intentions now stink and we cannot make ourselves clean again.

You came to earth as one of us and saved us.  In Your Son Jesus You gave Your own perfect self to be tortured and executed by us.  You hung humiliated and naked for all to see and so bore the guilt that would have destroyed us.  You went through the judgment and death we earned and rose again to life.  You gave us this life.

Thank You Father!  Please fill us with Your Spirit so that we can worship You properly.  Manifest Yourself to us and magnify Your holy name.  Make us know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.  Amen.

Thank You Father that You work all things together for good for Your children. Thank You for our troubles because You work them for good too. They are from your loving hand though they hurt. Please make us get the benefit of them. You know what You are doing; You know how to make a man; You know how to make a woman. Give us strength in Your Spirit to suffer joyfully and to place all our hopes and fears in Your most competent and faithful hands.

Father, we are not worthy to be Your children but You have taken all our sin and put it on Jesus. Evil spirits and evil men conspired to kill Him but You planned it all from the beginning. You crushed Him. You made Him suffer the most horrendous evil in all creation and turned it into the most glorious revelation of Your character. You are the God who hates evil and destroys it utterly. You are the God who takes that destruction upon Himself in love to save us from it. You do not spare Your own son but graciously give Him up for us all. Thank You Father. Amen.