A prayer based on Acts 4:32-5:11.

<aside> 🙏🏻 Triune God, One God united as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, We give to You our praise. We praise You that You are a generous God, who gives us far more than we deserve. You have given us life and breath and every single good thing that we enjoy. But more than this, Father, You sent Your Son into the world to save sinners. To save us and unite us who trust in Him to You, and to one another. And that now in Him, we have been given every spiritual blessing. We praise You that because You are a truthful God, we can be confident and certain that these riches that have come to us by grace, are ours.

Lord, we pray that as a church and as individual followers of Jesus, You would make us more like Yourself. That because You are a God who is united and because the gospel unites, we would be making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit. That You would protect us from stirring up division. That we would be one in heart and mind and committed to making Jesus known together.

We pray too that we would reflect something of Your generosity. With our time. With our money. With our possessions. That we would be moved to meet the needs of those in the church and outside the church as we have opportunity. Being willing to make sacrifices for the sake of others.

And especially we pray that we would be people of the truth. Help us to be honest about who we are to one another. Not pretending to be something we are not or creating the impression in the eyes of others that we are more spiritual than in reality we are. Help us to admit that we are works in progress. That sin is still a reality in our lives. And every day we will act in ways that are not worthy of the One who has saved us. Give us the humility to confess that we are failures who are utterly dependent on Your grace and mercy.

Gracious God, we don’t want to do anything that would endanger Your people, or let the devil to get a foothold. So, Holy Spirit, we pray that You would help us to live holy and godly lives. To maintain the unity Christ has won. To show the generosity of Christ in our giving of ourselves. To speak the truth of Christ with our lips and our lives. And we pray that we would encourage one another in this. Like Barnabas, we would be known as encouragers, who spur on other members to keep going and growing in their faith.

For the glory of Your Holy Name.

Amen.

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