Holy God:
We give you thanks and praise for the many blessings of life. Especially in this season, we who live in this country are grateful for the blessing that the nation in which we are privileged to dwell is a land of political freedom. We are grateful that we are each free to worship according to the dictates of our own conscience, that our faith is a matter of heart and conviction and not one of external compulsion. We are grateful that we are gauranteed the right of free expression and that we can freely share our faith in the public sphere. We are grateful that we are guaranteed the freedom of assembly and that as we gather today to worship you we do so without fear.
So often, we are given to complaining about our leaders, our government, and our culture. Help us to take some time to be grateful. Help us to remember that the fact that we can complain means that we have freedoms that most of the world cannot begin to imagine.
We pray for the nation in which we live. We are citizens first of your kingdom, and citizens of this nation second. And yet, we love this land, not only for what it is, but also because you have called us to it and you have given us your heart, a heart that loves to world enough that your Son gave his life for its sake. Help us to remember that we have been placed in this great country not only as a privilege and a blessing, but, more importantly, with a calling and to be a blessing.
we celebrate freedom, and yet many of us our bound up and imprisoned within. Set us free on the inside. Give us true freedom--freedom to live as fully alive, as you designed us to live. Help us to find the peace, power, joy, and love that only comes through the Son of God who died and rose again to set us free. Help us to live an overcoming life through the power of you Spirit, led by your spirit and walking in new life in your spirit. Give us a kind of freedom that is truly free, no matter what our circumstances may be without.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment