Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For You have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe. I long to dwell in Your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of Your wings. For You have heard my vows, O God; You have given me the heritage of those who fear Your name. Increase the days of the king’s life, his years for many generations. May he be enthroned in God’s presence forever; appoint Your love and faithfulness to protect him. Then will I ever sing praise to Your name and fulfill my vows day after day. [Psalms 61]
Holy Spirit Your word says: “You are the Rock, Your work is perfect; for all Your ways are justice, You are a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is who You are.” “When Christ was reviled, He did not revile back; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but He entrusted Himself to Him who judges righteously. He, Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness. By His wounds, I am healed. For I, like others, are as sheep going astray, but now have been returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of our souls. [Deuteronomy 32:4; 1 Peter 2:22-25]
Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit I know as You see our world and its current condition, justice, and freedom hardly exist anymore. Sin has been running rampant and we are like in the days of Noah, Lot, and worse. We as people of many nations realize that we are few but mighty through You. Help us to demonstrate Your justice and to let You be the judge of people and not us. Help us to do all we can to bring Your kingdom here in the hearts of the people in our communities. Help us all, and especially me, give our lives as living sacrifices so that You can use our talents and fulfill the ministries assigned to us from when we were formed. Help me to pray with conviction for my community, my state, my country, and most of all my family. Let me be successful in the little I have around me so that joined with my brothers and sisters we can change the world. Let us be known not for hypocrisy but for how we demonstrate love, faith, and hope. Help us to be doers of the word not just listening with no desire to do.
I am now praying with Christ who said: “Now I’m returning to you. I’m saying these things in the world’s hearing so my people can experience My joy completed in them. I gave them Your word; the godless world hated them because of it because they didn’t join the world’s ways. Just as I didn’t join the world’s ways. I’m not asking that you take them out of the world but that you guard them from the Evil One. They are no more defined by the world than I am defined by the world. Make them holy—consecrated—with the truth; Your word is consecrating truth. In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world, I give them a mission in the world. I’m consecrating myself for their sakes, so they’ll be truth-consecrated in their mission. I’m praying not only for them but also for those who will believe in me because of them and their witness about me. The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind—Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, So they might be one heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that you sent me. The same glory you gave me, I gave them, so they’ll be as unified and together as we are—I in them and you in me. Then they’ll be mature in this oneness and give the godless world evidence that you’ve sent me and loved them in the same way you’ve loved me. Father, I want those you gave me to be with me, right where I am, so they can see my glory, the splendor you gave me, having loved me long before there ever was a world. Righteous Father, the world has never known you. But I have known you, and these disciples know that you sent me on this mission. I have made your very being known to them—who you are and what you do—and continue to make it known, so that your love for me might be in them exactly as I am in them.” (Amen) John 17:13-26, the Message