July 30, 2023
O God, we offer to you our songs of praise and thanksgiving out of gratitude for your many blessings in our lives. Whenever we struggle to find the right spoken words to offer to you in prayer, may the hymns of our faith be our prayer. Thank you for hymn writers and poets like Isaac Watts, Fannie Crosby, and Charles Wesley who help us to express what is deepest in our hearts and minds. Thanks to them, there is within our hearts a melody.
And especially on this Sunday, we are reminded of just how grateful we are for those who offer to you their gift of music on our behalf and to your glory. Thank you for Jared who accompanies our hymns, who provides beautiful special music, and music that helps prepare our hearts for worship every week here in worship.
O God, just as the psalmist from our call to worship this morning encourages us to “come into God’s presence with singing,” we do so because of your steadfast love and faithfulness. We reflect back on our week, and we can see how you were there for us when we were dealing with a difficult situation at work, or when we got an unexpected bill in the mail, or when we were just feeling a little down and discouraged and we needed some encouragement, in so many ways, you were there for us. Together, we rejoice, we give thanks, and we sing our praises to you.
Our prayer hymn this morning is reminding us to pray when the Spirit says pray and so we lift up to you, O God, the joys and concerns that have been shared this morning including the many names that are on our prayer list. Be with each of these persons, and even in this very moment, may they know of our love for them and that they are not alone. Just as your are present with us here in worship, we are grateful to know that you are also reaching out to them with your guiding, caring, protecting, encouraging, and healing love.
O God, may we always sing when the Spirit says sing, and may we always pray when the Spirit says pray just as you are inviting us now to pray the words that Jesus taught us to say together…
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
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