Prayers of Adoration

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.

This is engineering at its best.

            We praise You Father because it is good and fitting.  You build us up; You gather us together.  You heal the brokenhearted and the hurt. You determine the number of the stars and give them all their names.  You are great and all power is Yours.  All understanding, intelligence and wisdom are Yours.  Everything that happens is from You..  You lift up the humble and cast the wicked to the ground.

            Thank You for providing for us Father!  Thank You for the peace and prosperity we enjoy.  Please bless our government and all who are in authority so that it may last.  Please bless our worship now and make it accomplish Your purposes.  Make us know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Amen!

Heavenly Father,

You are great and good. You are most excellent, most righteous, most loving, merciful, kind and compassionate. You are also most holy and most indignant against evil. You hate evil with perfect hatred and perfect justice.

We fell foul of Your justice and deserved wrath but You saved us by sending Your Son as a man to take Your wrath upon Himself. He came, He served, He suffered and died. You raised Him from death to life and gave Him Your name, Yahweh, most high God. He now rules with You, utterly sovereign over all creation.

You gave us Your Spirit and made us share in His death and in His new life. Thank You! You promised His life will grow in us until we are perfect. Thank You! You promised that we will be eternally satisfied in Your presence. Thank You!

Please help us live like people with this destiny. Make us believe You and do what You say. We love You Father, in Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Pastor Wilson has been quoting a lot of Charles Spurgeon’s criticism of pastors lately.  Now this in which Spurgeon lambastes the tendency to address one’s congregation in prayer rather than God.  He rightly condemns strutting and showing off but I wonder.  One of the purposes of prayers in worship is to bless and edify the congregation.  I guess that should be a side effect though and not the thing aimed at.