A prayer based on John 1:10-13.

<aside> 🙏🏻 Father in heaven, We praise You for Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word who became flesh, because in Him, life and light has come into this world. We praise You that He is the One who can give spiritual life to those who are dead in their transgressions and sins, who are objects of God’s wrath, and who are deserving of His judgment. We praise You that He is the One who can give spiritual life to those who are in darkness, showing to them how they can be saved. And we praise You that He came into this world, this world in rebellion, this world without hope and not in relationship with You, with an incredible invitation: The invitation for people to be children of God and to have You as their Father.

We thank You for the immense privilege we have of being called Your children. We don’t deserve this right. We don’t deserve this access to You. We don’t deserve any of the good gifts you give to us, the love and care we can count on You for, the work You are doing by Your Spirit in our lives to grow us in Christlikeness, nor the security of knowing that our future is in Your heavenly home; for, these blessings have come to us, because You have been so gracious and merciful. They have not come because we were born into the right family or in the right country. They have not come because of anything we’ve done or will do. They are only ours because by Your Spirit, You have opened our blind eyes to see Jesus, You have unplugged our death ears to hear the message of Jesus, and You have changed our hearts to respond in faith to Him. We will be forever grateful for the new birth we each have experienced.

And yet we are grieved at the sheer number of people in our country, and especially in our community, who have not received Christ by believing in His Name; who do not see Jesus as He truly is, who do not trust Him with their lives and deaths, who will not worship Him as their King. For those who are unable see Him, who have been kept from recognising Him because of their sin, whose minds have been blinded; show them Your glory in the face of Your Son. For those who are unwilling to see Him, because they love the darkness; show them how evil and wicked sin is, and how unsatisfying and dangerous is it because it leads to death. For those who are too proud to admit they need saving; humble them so that they cry out for rescue. We pray this especially for those we are witnessing to at this time; who we are seeking to tell the good news about Jesus Christ to. Would they not reject the offer of life – new life, spiritual life, eternal life – and instead come to Jesus who is the way, and the truth, and the life.

Amen.

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