A prayer based on Acts 4:1-31.

<aside> 🙏🏻 Triune God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, We lift our voices to You with one accord. We pour out our hearts to You. For without You we can do nothing.

We praise You, Father, that You are the Sovereign Lord. The One who is in control of all things. You rule and You reign over everything. You are the all-powerful Creator – you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. And it is so comforting to know that we can pray to You as our Father. That we can turn to You when we are afraid and in trouble and going through trials, confident that You hear us, know what is best for us, and will answer us accordingly.

We praise You that You have sent Your Son, to be our Saviour. Our only Saviour. Because salvation is found in no-one else. Because there is no other name under heaven given by which we must be saved. How we need to be rescued for we have sinned against You. We have rebelled against Your rule. We have rejected Your commands. We have, like sheep, gone astray and turned to our own way. We will one day face Jesus as Lord and Judge to give an account. So, we thank You that before that day we can be and have been saved through faith in Him.

Lord, we want everyone to hear of the rescue from the wrath to come that is available to them. We long that sinners would call on the name of Jesus. So, we pray Your kingdom come. Jesus, keep Your promise to build Your church. Seek and gather in the lost. Cause the gospel to advance in all nations. And fill us with Your Holy Spirit so that we can play our part: by speaking the Word of God boldly, and by living lives that commend the gospel.

We thank You that we can follow You and tell of You without facing any serious opposition. Yet we confess that we are too often silent about our faith. We are not as bold in our witness as those first followers in the early church were. We are afraid of how others will respond. We don’t like to be rejected. Forgive us we pray. Give us the boldness to open our mouths and to speak of the only One who can give salvation from sin and eternal life after death. May we not hold back from telling sinners, that they are, sinners. That they need to be rescued. That they can’t save themselves.

We pray for this boldness for our brothers and sisters around the world who are being persecuted, who are facing all kinds of threats, because of their faith in Jesus. We do pray that the governments, and those who rule over them, would allow them to live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness, But whether that happens or not, we pray that Your Spirit would enable Your servants in those places to speak Your word fearlessly. And that they, as well as, we, would be convinced: Father, that You are ruling over this world. Son, that You are saving Your people. Holy Spirit, that You are empowering for service.

Amen.

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