2.0 KiB
Context
Scripture Reading: Exodus 13:1-6
Sermon Text: Luke 2:21-40
Prayer
Father,
We were born in bondage to sin. Though sin was a malevolent master, we clung to it and regarded You as our enemy. But for those of us who are called by Your name, You have delivered us from that domain of darkness to the kingdom of Your beloved Son.
Yet even now, we are forgetful of what You have delivered us from, and we look back to a life of not trusting You. We fail in devoting what You have given us to Your kingdom and glory. We at times even purpose Your gifts to our old master, sin.
We forget what You have done for us, and thereby fail in having grateful hearts. We forget to ponder the enormity of what You have done for us. We neglect Your prescribed reminders of Your grace to us. Often, we partake only by mere accident of being here on the right day, and even then, too often with thoughtless boredom.
In what we speak about, we are too often people marked by lesser loves, but not a love of Christ and his people. We should be overjoyed with Christ, such that we cannot stop talking about Him. But our excitement often falls short of looking to the ultimate Treasure.
We live as though You have not made us stewards of the Truth that is foundational to why all things were created. We live as though You have not given us a great calling to live lives that speak incessantly to the great hope for which creation groans.
We do not delight as we should in the King that You have given. We live for lesser kings, for sports, for movies, for games, for family. We live for our own kingdoms, for prestige and money, for our own accomplishments. We live for lesser delights.
Now, on the grounds that You gave Your Son to redeem us, to pay the debt to Justice accrued by our sins, we ask that count our record clean. Based on Your promises, please allow us to take for ourselves the righteousness of Your Son, Jesus.
It is in His great and holy name that we ask this. Amen.