Yet Lord, we are confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in us will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. We are confident that our God shall supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Lord, You tell us to be anxious for nothing. Lord, we have sinned. We have been anxious. We admit it. We are ashamed, but we admit it. We confess our sins before You today, and where else should we begin but with our lack of faith. We have worried ourselves about things that You forbid us to worry about. How sinful we are. We have not trusted in Your word. We have not prayed about everything, making our requests known to You in supplication and thanksgiving. If God decrees it all before we pray, why pray? - we ask ourselves! Lord, such thinking is a trick of the devil himself. It is through our prayers that You have decreed that Your will shall come to pass. If we don't pray, it won't happen, and we can only blame ourselves. Help us to be constant in prayer, praying in every place and at all times.

Our Father, we pray for the Church at large today wherever it exists throughout the whole world. Christians suffer persecution in other lands. Our brothers in Christ who love You as we do, find themselves sometimes facing harm because of their faith. Grant Your mercies upon those who suffer for the faith in foreign lands.

We pray for our own Church, that really is not our Church, but Your Church. We are small, but Lord we don't put our hope in numbers. We put our hope in what God can do through those who love Him whether they be great in number or small in number. We pray that you will continue to give us the joy of fellowship in the Lord. Being small, we are a family. We are close. We know each other by name. We weep when others weep and we rejoice when others rejoice. Keep us sound in doctrine. Give us faithfulness to Your word whatever the cost may be. Yet, Lord, give us the grace that considers others as more important than ourselves. Give us boldness to confront sin, but give us a gentleness to live with weakness in others. May we never compromise the truth, but may we learn to live with differences among good men.

Lord, grant Your mercy upon the sick and suffering. Some suffer in their hearts. Some have been broken and cast down in spirit. Some suffer in their physical bodies. Lord, the Fall in the Garden of Eden affected everything. We grow old and we lose our youth. We advance in years and life changes for us. We pray that as we age in years that our hearts may become more abounding in grace and beauty. May our love for the flock grow greater as the number of days come upon us. Lord, there is nothing more precious than a gracious heart, especially in those who seem to be the object of trials and troubles all their days. Lord, may the suffering saints find hope in Thee and may their faith carry them through this world filled with devils. May we be reminded that ultimately our hope is in the resurrection of a new body, and not the renovation and repair of an old body.

Our Father, grant your grace upon our covenant children. What a blessing it is to see them confess the Lord with their mouths from the time they are able to speak words in our presence. What a blessing it is to see them love the Lord that we love. What a blessing it is to see them believe in their hearts as we have believed in our hearts. Lord, your promises at their baptisms, we see fulfilled year after year. If we raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord, when they are old they will not depart from it. Lord, we must arm another generation with the knowledge of the Lord. We must not die without leaving the legacy of the Lord with them. The things of this world will bring them no happiness, but the things of God will give them eternal life. Keep them from deception. Keep them from leaving the Church. More than that, give us young saints who can replace us when we are gone. May their zeal and service to the Church even exceed our own. May we see their faces in this Church as much as we see the light that shines into our Sanctuary.

O God beyond all praising, we worship you today and sing the love amazing that songs cannot repay. Whether our tomorrows be filled with good or ill, we'll triumph through our sorrows and rise to bless Thee still. We will marvel at your beauty and glory in your ways and make a joyful duty our sacrifice of praise. (Hymn by Michael Perry, 1982)

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. We find our resting place in Thee. As the deer pants for cooling streams in the heat of summer, so longs our soul, O God for Thee. Refresh us with Thy grace.