Pastoral Prayer for the beginning of the corporate worship of Hope Baptist Church in Springfield, Missouri on the eighth day of November, the year of our Lord, two thousand twenty:
John 6:35
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
O Lord God, we gather together today as your people, and around your dear Son, who is the Bread of Life. As we are yet imperfect and fallen people full of sin, and while we are those who have tasted of the sweet bread of eternal life, we have not delighted nor daily partaken of Christ, to the degree that we ought. We have sought to have our hungers satisfied by rotten morsels of the world, and our thirsts satisfied by bitter wells of sin. We have neglected to perfectly partake of the gospel spread you have set before us in your Son. Lord, why would we ever desire and seek after anything other than the perfect nourishment we can have in Christ? Lord, forgive us for being so foolish.
As we come to partake of the gospel feast you have spread before us in Christ, give us faith to take and eat of your Son, and to take and drink of His blood. Lord, satisfy us in what you have provided, that our tastes for things of the world would be bitter, and that we would neglect that which is so bad for us, and dishonoring to you. Lord, help us to taste and see that you are good. May we eat and drink of Christ today, in the means of grace you have provided, that we may never hunger, and never thirst again, for any other.
We thank you Father, that your precious Son tasted the bitter taste of your wrath and punishment for our sin, so that we might not have to. We thank you that Christ has swallowed death once and for all, that we may live forever on what you provide. As we gather here today, we thank you that you remind us, that it is you who always provide for your people. May we not spurn your provision or grumble in our hearts, but gladly receive with empty and open hands what you have for us.
We ask Lord, that as we receive from you today, that you would look upon our thankful eating of Christ with happiness, that you would be pleased with us as you are with your Son, in whom we are your sons. We ask that you would take joy at our responses of joy and praise for the gospel meal you have prepared for us to eat. May we spit our sin and repudiate our fleshly desires, to be satisfied in nothing and no one but you today.
May you bless your Word as we pray it, sing it, read it, preach it, and receive it today, that we might respond in humble obedience and conformity to it, so as to result in such an occasion and spirit of feasting and celebration on this both special and ordinary Lord’s Day.
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