Short prayers based on the book of Luke
<aside> 🙏🏻 “So it also seemed good to me, since I have carefully investigated everything from the very first, to write to you in an orderly sequence, most honourable Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things about which you have been instructed.” (Luke 1:3-4)
Our God, we praise you that we can know with certainty who Jesus is, what Jesus taught, and what Jesus has done for us because we have in your Word the accounts of what the eyewitnesses saw and heard written down for us. We praise you for those who first told us these things and introduced us to Jesus. We are so grateful for parents or grandparents, friends, pastors or Sunday School teachers who shared the gospel with us and explained how Jesus can save us from our sins if we repent and believe in Him. We pray that you would be pleased to use us today to do the same. Give us opportunities to speak of the Saviour to someone who doesn’t know you so that they might turn to Him and be saved. Amen.
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<aside> 🙏🏻 “Blessed is the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has visited and provided redemption for his people.” (Luke 1:68)
We bless you, the Lord God of Israel. There is none greater than you. You are perfect in your nature and in all your ways. And we give thanks to you for the mercy you have shown to us by visiting us in Jesus Christ and providing salvation by His blood. We thank you that as you visited Israel in the past and delivered them from slavery in Egypt, so you have rescued your people from sin, Satan, and death. We thank you that this redemption that is ours is from all condemnation and wrath to come, and includes every blessing in it. We praise and glorify you for the certainty we can have that we are justified, forgiven, adopted, sanctified, and that eternal life is ours. Amen.
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<aside> 🙏🏻 “But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: Today in the city of David a Saviour was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11)
Father, we thank you that you so loved the world and that you showed this by sending your Son to be the Saviour that the world needed. We thank you that the coming of the Lord Jesus is good news of great joy for all people because all people need saving. We thank you that anyone from any nation, both Jew or Gentile, who turns to Him as Lord will be saved. So, Father, help us by your Spirit to comprehend more and more the length and width, height and depth of your love and that of your Son Jesus who loved us and gave Himself for us. And we pray that we would love you in response to this love you have first shown to us. Amen.
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<aside> 🙏🏻 “Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance.” (Luke 3:8)
Help us, gracious God, to bear fruit that is consistent with repentance. As those you have set free from the power of sin, we ask for your strength to keep turning from sin, to show that we are your followers, and that our repentance is true and genuine. Lord, we confess that we are prone to giving into certain temptations and turning back to certain sins. We need the enabling only your Spirit can provide. We pray that for your glory and our good, you would fill us with your Spirit that we may have power we need to live how you want us to. Amen.
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<aside> 🙏🏻 “As the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear God’s word, he was standing by Lake Gennesaret.” (Luke 5:1)
We pray, Lord, that we would have such an eagerness to hear the voice of Jesus speak God’s Word to us. We are so blessed to have access to the Scriptures and so many opportunities to hear it read and preached, and yet to our shame “pressing in…to hear” does not describe our attitude. Increase our appetite for your Word. May we crave after it as newborn infants desire milk. Grant a dissatisfaction with a shallow faith that we strive to grow in our knowledge, and by your Spirit give us understanding of what you have revealed to us. Help us to treasure your Word in our hearts and meditate on what we have read and heard from it during the day. Amen.
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<aside> 🙏🏻 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things I say? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. When the flood came, the river crashed against that house and couldn’t shake it, because it was well built.” (Luke 6:46-48)
Lord Jesus, when you speak, you speak with the authority of the King, and so we can trust that what you say is true and should be obeyed. We are aware that it is possible to be someone who is a member of a local church, who enjoys listening to your Word being read and preached, who appears to be one of your followers, and yet not be because they don’t listen to you in the right way. We want to be like the wise man who built his house on the rock. We want to be among those who will survive when the flood of God’s judgment at sin comes. Help us to listen in the right way and act on what you say by repenting and turning to you, and then displaying the fruit of our repentance by walking along the narrow road of obedience to all that you have commanded. Amen.
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<aside> 🙏🏻 “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” (Luke 7:34)
God, help us to follow the example of your Son, by being a friend to sinners, to outcasts, to those who are normally rejected and excluded by the society around us. We pray that we would be a welcoming community of your people, who love and care for everyone who comes into our midst, who are hospitable towards them, and who reach out to them with the good news that they can be saved from their sins. Guard us from having an attitude that looks down on people, and protect us from being proud and thinking we are better than them. Forgive us for those times when we have done this. We praise you that you are saving people from all kinds of backgrounds, and may our actions be consistent with this reality. Amen.
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<aside> 🙏🏻 “Go back to your home, and tell all that God has done for you.” And off he went, proclaiming throughout the town how much Jesus had done for him.” (Luke 8:39)
Lord Jesus, you have done so much for us. We praise you for all the benefits that are ours. You have forgiven us. You have rescued us from hell. You have set us free from slavery to sin. You have made us holy in God’s sight. You have set our feet on the path of righteousness. You have given us your Spirit. And you have promised that you will come again to take us to be with you for eternity. What love and what grace you have shown to us because none of this is deserved. We pray that we would be ready to tell anyone we meet all that you have done for us, and would this lead to them turning to you in repentance and faith and receiving these blessings as well. Amen.
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<aside> 🙏🏻 “When the days were coming to a close for him to be taken up, he determined to journey to Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51)
Father, we thank you that in obedience to your will, your Son set His face towards Jerusalem knowing what would happen to Him when reached there. We praise you that He went willingly to His death knowing that it was the only way we could be saved from our sins. Christ Jesus we thank you for your determination to go to Jerusalem to bear our sins, to take the curse of the law, and to satisfy the wrath of God against us. May we, we pray, have the same desire to follow your example by obeying your Father in everything as a way of showing how grateful we are that you went to Jerusalem to lay down your life for us. Amen.
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