Tag: worship

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For the Blessings of Accessibility in Worship

Heavenly Father,
Sundays are sacred. Thank you for the many technological advances that make worship accessible to so many. Those physically unable to gather in person for worship can watch or listen along online. Smartphones aid the visually and audibly impaired in truly amazing ways, removing so many barriers that would have hindered their worship in the past. A screen can assist the single parent managing multiple little ones, as well as the elderly whose arthritic hands might otherwise struggle with heavy hymnals. A printed service folder may allow an unfamiliar first-time worshiper to follow along more easily at first. Numerous apps and online services both expand the ways we can give while also simplifying the gift-giving process. Thank you for all of these advances. Give us prudence to utilize them wisely, and lead us to regularly rejoice over so many channels by which so many have access to their Savior and his grace. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For Churches Facing Closure

Lord of the Church,
Thank you for establishing so many churches all over the world where your Word is proclaimed and the Sacraments are administered. While you promise that your Word will always endure, you make no such promise about individual churches. Like everything else in life, churches have a life cycle – they are planted and grow, they bear fruit for a time, and eventually they close their doors. Be with those churches near the end of their life cycle, as they struggle with difficult ministry decisions and limited resources. Comfort those carrying memories of a full church and active membership with the assurance that their ministry was never in vain, and that you used it to serve souls. Give pause to those inclined to make hasty decisions, so that they are sensitive to their fellow saints with treasured recollections of their church. Make them open to considering how they might still continue to bless other churches or ministries with their means or manpower, so that your kingdom still comes through their support of gospel efforts. Remember your people gathered in these sacred spaces, Lord, and the many years of faithful service they rendered to bring honor and glory to you.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

Whoever’s Thirsty Clenches What Quenches

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(John 7:37-39)

You don’t need an app for it. There’s no take-home test to help you determine if you test positive for it. You don’t need to schedule an appointment with your doctor to confirm it for you. You know when you’re thirsty. It’s not difficult to tell. Your body recognizes its need to be hydrated because it can tell when you’re depleted. It knows when you’re lacking. 

You also know what to do when you’re getting those signals. When your sweaty body craves something to guzzle, when you’ve been snacking on something salty, or when something just feels off and you realize you have hardly had any water all day, you know just what to do: get a drink. You provide your body with what was lacking, and it is satisfied. The experience of thirst is common to all people. Everyone knows what it’s like to be thirsty, to lack hydration; everyone knows what it feels like to address that thirst; and everyone knows the satisfaction that comes along with getting a drink. 

So it doesn’t surprise us at all to see Jesus, the master Teacher, use a very well-known and very familiar experience, common to everyone, to teach a spiritual truth. It’s something we can connect to, an experience we’ve had, a feeling of lacking, the need to address it, and the feeling of being satisfied.

When he spoke the words in John 7, Jesus was already at a point in his ministry when he had become very divisive. Actually, it wasn’t Jesus who was divisive, but people were divided over how his message was being received. Jesus already had enemies wanting to kill him, but he also had disciples encouraging him to take the next step in putting himself out there so that more people would know who he was. As they saw it, if he was going to be a somebody, he had to make himself known. He needed more exposure. And they viewed the Feast of Tabernacles as a great opportunity for him to gain some recognition. People from all over would be in town for the religious fall harvest festival, where temporary tents and booths were put up for a week for people to live in as they remembered the Lord’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt. 

Although his disciples encouraged him to come along with them, Jesus told them to go on ahead to the Festival without him. However, he ended up attending shortly after anyway. He wanted to arrive under the radar, not in the public show the disciples had hoped for. Nevertheless, once he arrived, he couldn’t help but teach. After all, it’s why he came.

As divided as people were over his teaching, he offered a simple litmus test for people to apply in order to determine if his words and teaching should be trusted (and one that still works today!). He explained, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own” (John 7:16-17). Jesus was in essence saying, “If you’re not sure about what I’m saying, try it out. Believe what I say, do what I call you to, live as I call you to live, and you will find out for yourself if my teachings are just tall tales or if they’re really from God.”

Later on in his teaching, Jesus extended another invitation. Not only did he provide an additional reason to “test-drive” his teaching, but he also made the unique connection to the occasion that Christians still observe today, the Festival of Pentecost. “Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them’” (v.37-38). It was an invitation. And it was a promise.

While Jesus extended the invitation to everyone, it’s really only for some; it is only for those who acknowledge they are thirsty. It’s only for those who realize something is lacking. It’s only for those who realize something is missing.

And that’s most people. Most people look at their lives and feel that something is missing. That explains why contentment is so elusive. We may not be very good at identifying precisely what we’re lacking, but many will go their entire lives pursuing whatever it is, hoping they’ll know it when they find it. Relationships, recreation, or retirement. Vacation or volunteering. Career or kids. We can add endlessly to the list, which only underscores the general awareness many people have that something is, in fact, missing from life.

While they may be willing to spend the better part of their lives looking for it, many often refuse to look to the One who actually extends the invitation and attaches a promise to those who take him up on it. People are pretty willing to give anything a try if it might just possibly address what’s been missing in life. Yet some, for the life of them, refuse to be open to the possibility that the life they’re searching for, the satisfaction for their thirst, might just be found in Jesus. They permit any number of obstacles in their lives that keep them from finding living water in Jesus. Maybe one bad experience in church – or an entire childhood of it. Maybe a bitter interaction with a hypocritical believer turned them off to any further interest in Christ or Christianity. Maybe their own intelligence keeps the door shut to the humility necessary to consider the truth of Jesus’ words. Whatever it might be, there is no shortage of obstacles that stand in the way of receiving the living water Jesus offers.     

But see what Jesus offers to those who do thirst? “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” (v.38). Rivers! Jesus promises an abundance of living water, not just barely enough to get by on. Not a few drops, a slow leak, or a trickle, but rivers of living water!

And Jesus backed up his promises with Scripture. Did he have Isaiah 58:11 in mind? “The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.” Was he thinking of Zechariah 14:8? “On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem…”

John explains for us exactly what Jesus had in mind with his invitation and promise. “By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified” (v.39). Jesus was promising the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, the very event described in Acts 2. Until then, while the Spirit had certainly worked faith in countless believers throughout history, there had not been a special outpouring like the Day of Pentecost. It was the very event prophesied by Joel, as Peter pointed out in his Acts 2 sermon. It was the Spirit washing over believers like a rushing river, flowing and going with the gospel, providing living water for everyone dying of spiritual dehydration. The Spirit was poured into believers, and then flowed out of them as the church carried out its work of preaching and teaching the gospel, so that, as Peter stated in Acts 2, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (v.21). 

So… why hasn’t the Church looked much like Act 2 since, well, the events of Acts 2 took place? Where are the mass conversions of thirsty people coming to faith because they’ve finally received the living water that is theirs through faith in Jesus?

What if… we’re contributing to the problem? Jesus said “rivers,” but isn’t it true that a drop or a leak or a trickle is maybe a more accurate description of how the Spirit flows out of me? And if so, why does that happen? Isn’t it because I’ve kinked the spiritual hose that is supposed to flow into me and fill me up? And if that happens, is it because we’ve forgotten how spiritually thirsty our sin leaves us, or is it because we’ve fallen back into thinking something else in this world can satisfy that thirst? 

Do we need to take to heart Jeremiah’s warning to God’s people in the Old Testament, so that we don’t suffer the same consequences? “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13). Later on the prophet Jeremiah warns yet again, “Lord, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water” (Jeremiah 17:13).

We come to churches, to Christian schools, to Jesus, who naturally appeals to all who are thirsty, but then… we turn back to digging our own cisterns and thinking we can satisfy our thirst elsewhere. Something has changed in our job, in our kids’ schedules, in our social lives, etc. And it’s true – something has changed! But it’s not what we think.

What has changed is our priorities, which have caused the kink in the hose of our connection to the Spirit. Sunday morning worship doesn’t work for us anymore. Small group conflicts with other family activities. Serving together with my fellow believers has run its course and been replaced by other responsibilities. The Spirit is no longer satisfying our thirst, we reason, when in reality, we don’t see that we’ve forgotten how thirsty our sin makes us – how damaging and destructive it really is. Maybe we’ve gotten too used to the gospel. We’ve taken forgiveness for granted. We know that we’ll always be welcome back here, so there’s no rush to return, and the spiritual dehydration has divided us from the source of living water. 

Friends, it’s not too late. The living water still flows. The gospel of forgiveness and the grace that satisfies your thirst is still here. Take Jesus up on his invitation. Again. And again. And as often as you need to, for the Spirit will not ever allow the well of God’s grace to run dry. Plug up those other cisterns you’re digging up to satisfy your thirst. They won’t cut it. They will fail. 

But Jesus doesn’t fail. The Holy Spirit, who gives us Jesus and points us to Jesus, will never cease. You know when you’re thirsty. Find what your soul thirsts for in Jesus, and cling to him to satisfy it.

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For My Home Church and Church Family

Heavenly Father,
Sundays are sacred. Thank you for the blessing of being able to worship in my home congregation. Whether away for school, traveling frequently for work, or simply being unable to attend in person for one reason or another, it is a joy to worship in our own church. We get to smile at familiar faces, share laughs, and catch up with our church family. The sanctuary itself is a sacred space, a collection of ministry milestones and memories over the years that will forever be held in our hearts. Siblings were baptized, co-workers finally confirmed, family friends joined in marriage, and saints with secret struggles were renewed by your Body and Blood to keep battling. These are all woven together to form the unique and beautiful patchwork of people who are yours – and people I am blessed to call mine, too, for they are treasures to me. Thank you for each and every one of these trophies of grace who make up my church family, and for the cherished space where we gather.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Avoid Political Idolatry

Almighty God,
While not without its faults, we are blessed in so many ways to have the government and political system that we do, based on such an impressively written document as the Constitution. However, as our society has gradually set you aside, someone or something else inevitably fills the vacuum to be idolized and worshiped. For many in our nation, that void has been filled by politics. Citizens on both sides of the political aisle deify their own party and demonize the other. One side is savior, the other is satan. One side is the cause of all the problems, the other has all the solutions. Guard us as Christians from idolizing politics, elevating it to a position of prominence that only you deserve. Guide us to avoid extremist views and hold a balanced perspective. Help us to truly appreciate the government you’ve given us, without ever forgetting that it’s you who has given it to us. Let us honor, respect, and obey those to whom you’ve given the authority to govern, but let our hearts and our worship be always and only directed to you. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For Mothers

Heavenly Father,
Sundays are sacred. We gather on this day of worship to praise and adore you, and to be fed and forgiven by you. In addition to those blessings, today we have the opportunity to thank you for your gift of mothers, and to celebrate how you enrich our lives through them. We thank you for the tender care that so many grew up receiving from their mothers, while also acknowledging those who were not fortunate enough to experience that kind of love. Heal the wounds of those scarred by sad or painful memories associated with their moms, and make them whole by your abiding grace and presence. Grant patience and perseverance to those longing to be mothers, consolation and comfort to all mothers who have experienced the loss of a child, and peace and calm to all feeling overwhelmed by motherhood. Thank you especially for mothers who faithfully bring Jesus to their children in their homes, and their children to Jesus in his home through worship.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For the Elderly in Worship

Heavenly Father,
Sundays are sacred. You gather people of all ages and every generation to breathe life into them through your Word. While everyone deals with different hindrances that could keep them away from worship, the elderly face challenges unique to their stage in life. Good sleep isn’t always a given, medications can have troubling side effects, and physical decline can slow everything down and result in frustrating limitations. When we consider all of these hurdles, we ought to beam with joy every time older believers faithfully fill a seat in your house. Continue to give them the strength and resilience to overcome their challenges and use them to encourage and model faith in action for younger generations by how they prioritize worship. Reward their time in worship with the treasures of Word and Sacrament, and let congregations show great honor and respect to these gifts to your church. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Expose Error and Restore Truth

Heavenly Father,
Sundays are sacred. We rejoice that there are so many places of worship for believers to gather and be fed by your Word. However, we also know that not all of them stand faithfully on the Bible. Whether a church deviates from Scripture a lot or a little, no amount of false teaching is insignificant and always causes damage to souls. Bring rebuke and correction wherever they are needed, so that your people are not led astray, and the message of the gospel is not compromised. Equip your people with the discernment to identify false teaching and empower them to speak up when they become aware of it. Expose error and restore the truth so that your church continues to stand on the solid foundation of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, revealed in Scripture alone. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

Your King Comes to You

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(Zechariah 9:9-10)

Rejoice and shout – two things that weren’t very prominent during the six weeks of the season of Lent. Even with the additional services on Wednesday evenings, the spirit of worship was not so much one of rejoicing and shouting, but rather repenting and sorrow. While this is an appropriate attitude and approach during a season marked by penitence and confession, Zechariah now implores us to turn the frowns upside down and rejoice and shout. And Palm Sunday, marking the start of Holy Week, certainly sets the tone for such exuberance, amidst processions of palms accompanied by shouts of Hosanna. 

Indeed, isn’t it always true that God’s people can rejoice and shout? Whether times are good or bad, the believer has every reason to rejoice and shout, doesn’t he… doesn’t she?

Or not? Is there too much gloom in our lives, clouding our view and keeping us from rejoicing or shouting? Does some past sin with its present consequences still haunt you today? Or does it trouble you that your sins don’t bother you more? Are you right now dealing with something so heavy that it feels like you’re in a fog and life just continues, not slowing down to wait for you to catch up? Is life in general just really putting the squeeze on you right now, so that one thing just seems to keep piling on another?

We often feel like this because we’re not so great at keeping the spiritual at the forefront of our lives. I tell people I have the easiest job in the world, which is true, but at times it’s also the most frustrating, because of how easily overlooked the spiritual side of things is in our lives. I get to listen a lot, so I hear lots of struggles and challenges. And, while I don’t want to diminish the role of pastoral care of discernment, as important as they are, I will say that an awful lot of what I do and say as a pastor is simply asking questions like, “Does the Bible say anything about that?” “Did Jesus provide us with any promises that might apply to that?” So what is the frustrating part? That we sometimes seem to be so incapable as believers of incorporating such questions and considerations into our day-to-day lives. 

Others may be better at looking to their Savior and his Word during such times… and still struggle to find reason to rejoice and shout. When we feel that way, it is probably for one of two reasons: 1) we’re trying too hard, or 2) we’re not trying hard enough.

We’re trying too hard when we imagine that Jesus came to make heaven possible, but that it now depends on us to get there. This can show itself when our own perfectionist tendencies don’t allow us to live in the joy of unconditional grace. We want the both/and of grace and rule following, and procedure, and policy, and consequences, and… etc. What may really get under our skin is our constant observation of others not really measuring up as Christians. “A Christian shouldn’t… a Christian should… that’s not very Christian… etc.” We know the Bible says Jesus did it all, but what that really means in my mind is that he’s now watching to see if I do my part. We’re trying too hard, and insist that the joy of Christianity is not found mostly in what Jesus did, but mostly in what he calls me to do. No wonder such Christians seem to lack joy in their lives!

We’re not trying hard enough when we treat forgiveness as an endless commodity that frees us to be lazy and unconcerned about living good lives. So, rather than allowing grace to spur us on and drive us to live stand-up lives, we’re quick to gloss over our sins with, “It’s OK, we’re forgiven.”

No, it’s not OK! Yes, we are forgiven, but sin is never OK, and never should we be OK with it or even comfortable with it. That’s not at all why God extends his grace to us. And when we try so little in our Christian living, and our effort is so minimal, should we wonder why grace and forgiveness have lost their luster? We no longer stand in awe of how loving and gracious our forgiving God is because we’ve lowered the bar so much in our Christian living. We don’t even realize how much we’re dragging God down and diminishing him when we do that. So why would a believer in that case find reason to rejoice or shout?  

God’s people at the time of Zechariah didn’t see much reason to rejoice or shout, either. They had already been centuries removed from their golden age under King David. Their nation had split in two, with the Northern Kingdom going into exile first, followed by the Southern Kingdom being transplanted to Babylon. Now that a contingent had been allowed to return back to their homeland, it was a far cry from what they had recalled. Not only did their homes need rebuilding, but what was left of the temple, their place of worship, only served as a painful reminder of how far from glory they had fallen. What was there to rejoice about? Why shout anything other than laments and cries of despair? 

Zechariah gave them a good reason to rejoice and shout. “See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (v.9). With remarkable precision, Zechariah brought into focus the blurry image of the future, the time when God’s people would experience a glory that wouldn’t simply rival that of King David, but would surpass it. That time would be when David’s greater Son, the Messiah, would arrive to fight the most important battle ever to be fought – the battle that would determine where souls spend eternity.

Zechariah gives us a good reason to rejoice and shout. Let’s avoid either extreme of trying too hard or not trying hard enough and look with fresh eyes and ears at what the prophet Zechariah is actually telling us. “See, your king comes to you…” (v.9). Pause. Let it sink in. Take note of the careful word choice the Spirit led Zechariah to use. This is not just any king, but “your” king. This is not some foreign superpower coming for conquest, coming to conquer you and subject you to his wrath or oppression; he is your king. 

And he is coming to you. That’s not the way it’s supposed to work! If there is a need or a request, it’s brought to the king. The people of the kingdom go to the king and humbly beg an audience with him to plead their case. They hope their request is not unwarranted or out of order, so that it doesn’t result in punishment or wrath. That’s how the relationship is supposed to work. The king sits atop his throne and hears this case and that as they are brought before him.

But the king Zechariah speaks of comes to us! What does that say about you and me? What does that say about him? How highly the king must think of his people to approach them and not the other way around (as it is with all other religions)!

And, how does he come? Backed by an army to destroy us and make us his subjects? Not at all, but righteous and victorious. To those trying too hard to stake a claim in their salvation by earning it, what is left to earn or work for if the king of righteousness – your king of righteousness – comes for you? He brings his righteousness with him, for you. He has no need of your attempts at righteousness. Ours will never measure up to his anyway. He alone is perfect. Holy. Righteous before God. Stop trying so hard to earn the righteousness he alone has secured and which he alone freely gives. Instead, rejoice! Shout! 

And to you not trying hard enough, can you really go about your life unaffected and unfazed by the victory he came to win for you? Can you treat it so casually and with such indifference that it doesn’t cause you to want to eagerly be his subject and serve and thank him in every way possible? Can we be so unresponsive and uncaring toward our king who came to bring us security and safety by his victory? Can we go through so much of this life without a yearning desire to know this king better and to prioritize our relationship with our victorious and righteous king?

Especially when we know him by name. We have the unique and blessed privilege of seeing Zechariah’s depiction come to life in Matthew’s Gospel. In chapter 21, Matthew tells us the crowds shouted (cf. v.9) and that the whole city was stirred (cf. v.10). Zechariah’s prophecy was unfolding on the first Palm Sunday! Yes, it was Jesus on the first Palm Sunday who entered Jerusalem “lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (v.9). Rejoice! Shout!

We know that Zechariah was talking about Jesus, and we know that Jesus came just as Zechariah said he would. And, we know why Jesus came into Jerusalem. It was to fulfill the rest of what Zechariah promised God’s people. Our king promised, “I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth” (v.10). But for Jesus to proclaim peace, he had to first secure it.

For those in Zechariah’s day, nor even in Jesus’ day, our king didn’t come to us to secure that peace on a battlefield or by some ground-breaking military strategy. It wasn’t a peace from worldly rulers like Pilate. It wasn’t to overthrow Rome. The peace he came to bring would require a cross and a sacrifice – his own.

You sense the crowd’s disappointment over the course of Holy Week as this reality sank in. The king of righteousness and victory rode into Jerusalem to finally restore Israel to its former glory, only to end up in what looked like defeat at the hands of Rome, hoisted up on display like so many others who tried to challenge Rome’s mighty power. 

Little did they know, and little do far too many still today know, he was victorious! He did secure peace! By the very cross that looked like failure, he extended not just his arms to die, but his very life to forgive the sins of all people, bringing reconciliation between rebel sinners and their righteous God. Yes, the events that unfold this Holy Week are why he is – and we are – able to proclaim peace to the nations. Rejoice! Shout!

Let that peace first dwell in your own heart. It will, when you take your foot off the gas and stop trying to manufacture the perfect life/marriage/family. It will, when you stop pretending that what you’re really looking for is on the other side of overspending, over-scheduling, over-working, and over-exerting yourself. You’ll find that peace when you stop looking for it and realize that in Jesus, it has already found you. “See, your king comes to you…” (v.9).

He came to you. He comes to us in baptism. He comes to us with his body and blood. He comes to us through his Word. Peace isn’t found in pretending our own self-righteousness gets you closer to him; it’s found in realizing he brought his righteousness and victory to you. That peace in Jesus, your king, is yours right now. Isn’t it time you started actually living in it? 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For Focused Worship

Heavenly Father,
Sundays are sacred. Nevertheless, they can also be filled with distractions. On their own, such distractions would pose difficult enough challenges for us, but when coupled with our short attention span and inability to focus, worship requires work! Minimize distractions for us while also sharpening our focus and attention. Let the texts of our songs and hymns touch our hearts. When the Word of God is read and preached, enable us to dial in with both our ears and our minds, giving thought to what you are revealing to us. Draw us into a deeper dialogue with you when praying. Make us mindful of the gifts we bring as offerings to you. Take hold of our hearts this morning in worship, and fill them richly with your divine grace and blessing.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.