My Prayer for the Church in America

Holy Heavenly Father,

Show us more of You. Reveal to us where we are obeying you. Help us define obedience Your way. Are we even supposed to worry about or define success? We define both by growth in numbers and outward behavior. We talk about evangelism, transformation, missional living, discipleship, serving, etc. Are we doing what You want? Are we being who You desire us to be? Are we off track? Help us know how to accept a lesser role; be humble, so we can give You honor, praise and glory.

Are we measuring the right stuff? What if our metrics, ROI, budget expenditures, etc. are not according to Your will? How can we know? When You put roadblocks in the way and we go around them calling it perseverance, show us the truth. When You say, "No," give us ears to hear. When You say, "Go," give us ears to listen, hearts to obey and follow.

You are perfect. We are not. Only You are.

• Forgive us for getting this backwards; or at least, acting like it.
  
• Forgive us for thinking and acting like You cannot solve our problems.
• Forgive us for simplifying Who You are and limiting You & Your power to our small minds.
• Forgive us for sinning and thinking it is fine or justified.
• Give us grace to understand the Bible, help us understand theology, give us gentleness towards those we disagree with.
  

You called us to love one another. This will prove that we are Your disciples. It will be our greatest witness.

• Forgive us for being self-righteous and indignant, judging wrongly.
• Forgive us for assisting the accuser while pretending to be the Holy Spirit.
• Forgive us for being too insecure to love. We call it other things: being busy, focused, introverted; when really we are just scared or don't care.
  

Jesus prayed for the unity of Your followers.

• Forgive us for failing to fulfill Jesus' prayer. We should pay more attention to this since it was Jesus' last prayer before the cross.
  
• Forgive us for putting a positive spin on our disobedience and inability to get along across generations, races and cultures.
• Forgive us for dividing over methods, music styles, programs, etc. when You wanted us to work through differences for the greater good of answering Jesus' prayer.
• Forgive us for fighting over spiritual gifts; their use, whether certain gifts are still around or not and, the misuse or faking of those same ones. After all; they are Your gifts.
  

You called us to sacrifice and care for the poor, needy, widows and oppressed. You called us to love mercy and act justly.

• Are we spending your resources of money, time, talents and gifts wisely? It is all Yours.
• Forgive us for hording these resources or spending them on ourselves.
  
• Do our buildings for Your church use your resources rightly?
• How can we better care for the hurting?
• Show us what we need to change here.

You sent Jesus to rescue us and show us the way to You.

• Forgive us for doubting Your love.
• Thank You for adopting us when our father was the devil and our fallen flesh.
• Thank You for choosing us when we were at our weakest and worst.
• Thank You for being patient with us; even when, we are not with ourselves or others.
• Thank You for the incarnation, teachings & parables, healings & miracles, the cross, the blood, the death, the burial, the resurrection.
• Thank You for life transformation, grace and a future with You.