Lord Jesus, when we survey your wondrous cross, we can’t help but to see who we are and who you call us to be. If you died on the cross for us, then that must mean that we are worth dying for. You have created us in your image and we are your beloved children. Thank you for seeing us in a way that we sometimes struggle to see in ourselves, that we are unconditionally loved by you and we are more than capable to respond to your calling in our lives.
And when we survey your wondrous cross, we also can’t help but to notice how our hearts are not always aligned in being the people you have called us to be. And so, as we survey our hearts in this Season of Lent, remove anything within us that is keeping us from being your loving, hope-filled, gracious, peace seeking, confident, and caring disciples. Remove our selfishness and replace it with empathy. Remove our stubbornness and replace it with an open mind. Remove our insecurities and replace them with an awareness of the gifts and abilities you have entrusted to us.
Even now, you call us to lift our hearts in this time of prayer on behalf of those who are on our church’s prayer list as well as others who are in need of your healing, guiding, protecting, and comforting presence. And during this very unsettling time in the Middle East, we pray for your peace and your justice to prevail not only in our troubled and hurting world, but also in our own hearts as well.
May this holy season where we survey your wondrous cross and your empty tomb, lead each one of us to say along with Isaac Watts, “love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”
Together, let us pray the words that you taught us to pray 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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