A prayer based on Acts 6:8-8:3.

<aside> 🙏🏻 Father, We praise You that we can draw near to You and meet with You. We praise You for the confidence we have to enter into Your Most Holy Place because a new and living way has been opened up for us by Jesus; that through His life and death, He has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west, and made us righteous and acceptable in Your sight.

We praise You that we don’t need to be at a special place to approach You; that we don’t need to go to the temple in Jerusalem or to a church building or up to the top of a mountain to meet with You. that we can come into Your presence in Christ anywhere, whether that be Jerusalem or Judea or Samaria, or any place to the ends of the earth. We praise You that You have never been limited to one place. You met with Abraham and in Ur and Haran before the land of Canaan. You met with Joseph in Egypt. You met with Moses at Mount Sinai. Even when the temple was built, You were not contained in that one place, because You the Most High, do not live in houses made by men. Heaven is Your throne and the earth is Your footstool.

So, we thank You that wherever we are, we can come to You. To receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. To hear You speak to us through Your Word. By Your Spirit, give to us ears that are open to listen to the voice of our Saviour. Give to us hearts that are ready and willing to obey Him. We don’t want to be like Your people in the past who resisted Your Word. Who hardened their hearts when they heard Your voice. Who didn’t obey Your law, and who missed out on the blessings obedience brings.

Forgive us for all those times when we are no different to them. We may not build golden calves or kill prophets, but we have our equivalent ways of rejecting You. We confess this to You, trusting in the name of Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, who is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Show us mercy. Show us kindness. Pardon and purify us of all unrighteousness. And keep us faithful to Him so that at the end of our lives, we will find like Stephen did, Jesus standing ready to welcome us home.

Amen.

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