Your Prayer Guide for the Week of Sunday, March 8

​Welcome to the Week

Lent is not a season for the faint of heart, but neither is it a season for the proud. It’s a time to go deep, to strip away the noise and the pretense, and to stand honestly before the One who already knows us completely. We are now three weeks into this holy journey, and perhaps the initial resolve has begun to soften. Perhaps the busyness of life has crowded in. That’s precisely why we return to prayer this week: not because we’ve performed well, but because we belong to the God who answers us in the deeps.

Come as you are. Come with your weariness, your questions, your half-kept intentions. The God who holds the new creation in his hands, the One who promises that weeping and distress shall be no more, this same God bends his ear to you this week. He’s not waiting for your eloquence. He’s waiting for you.

“God always answers us in the deeps, never in the shallows of our soul.” (Amy Carmichael)

This Week’s Scripture

• Isaiah 65:17-25
• Psalm 118
• 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
• Luke 21:5-19

Adoration

Psalm 118:28-29

You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
you are my God; I will extol you.
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever!

We Believe in One True God (verse 1)

We believe in one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
ever present help in need, praised by all the heavenly host;
by whose mighty power alone
all is made and wrought and done. (Tobias Clausnitzer)

Take time now to offer God your praise and worship.

Confession

2 Thessalonians 3:11-13

For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.

The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. May the almighty and merciful Lord grant us remission of all our sins, true repentance, amendment of life, and the grace and consolation of the Holy Spirit. Amen. (The United Methodist Book of Worship)

As David did in Psalm 139, ask the Lord to search you and know you through and through. Confess the sins God brings to mind, knowing you are forgiven and that He will cleanse you from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Thanksgiving

Sovereign Father, Creator of all things, we give you praise that even now you are preparing a place for your children, that one day you will bring us to be where you now are. You will one day bring forth the new heavens and a new earth. The thought of such a perfect place overwhelms us, and yet we still cry out to you in praise and gratitude for who you are and what awaits those who know and love you. Let us be marked as those who are glad and rejoice in you forever. We humbly thank you that one day weeping and the cries of distress will be no more. We will eternally live with you and others in perfect fellowship, harmony, and peace. Indeed, the wolf and lamb shall graze together. In your loving power, we ask you to enable us to begin to realize such a promise of future days in our own day. For it is in the name of the Prince of Peace we pray. Amen. (based on Isaiah 65:17-25)

Spend some time reflecting on the prayer of thanksgiving above and then thank God for who he is and the many ways he has poured out his goodness and grace in your life.

Prayer Prompts

Use the following prayer prompts to encourage you to pray beyond your usual prayer requests. These prompts are included here to help get your own creative juices flowing and not to be regarded as strict and legalistic requirements. Use them or do not use them according to your need. May the Lord bless you as you go deeper with him in the holy communion of prayer.

Petition – prayers for yourself

• Help me to grow in wisdom and become who you created and redeemed me to be.
• Renew my mind and enable me to cultivate a godly perspective and attitude regarding the various spheres and circumstances of my life.
• Today’s events and interactions with others, planned and unplanned.
• Other needs

Intercession – prayers for others

• My family, immediate and extended
• Those struggling with sin, illness, or difficulties in their workplace
• Other needs

Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices kindness, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

A Word as You Go

The deeps you entered this week in prayer are not empty spaces, they are the very places where God meets his people. You came with your weariness, and he was there. You came with your confession, and he was faithful. You came with your thanksgiving, however small, and he received it. You met with the living God, and it was holy and grace-filled.

As you carry this week’s scriptures with you into the days ahead, let the promise of Isaiah linger in your heart: that the same God who is fashioning a new creation has not forgotten this one, or you in it. He is still making things new, including you. Do not grow weary in doing good. The road is long, but the One who walks it with you is faithful to the end.

Go in his peace.

Want to go deeper?
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