Christmas Prayer 2009

Dear Lord, our Gracious Heavenly Father, we come to You this Christmas, on tip-toe, breathless with wonder, filled with expectancy.

We realize You are the God Who said, "Let Light shine out of darkness," and You have shown Your Light in our hearts. You’ve given us the Light of knowledge, the knowledge of Your Glory.

At this wonderful moment of Christmas, we feel the quietness and stillness of Your Presence, and sense fear and apprehension losing their terrible hold on us.

We are discovering…that You are at work, fashioning us into the likeness of Him, we name the Savior.

We thank You for those who are near to us, for those physically present, and for those who are near, though in distant places, and those who have come home to you.

We thank You for the fellowship of believers in Christ the world over with whom we are truly family…brothers and sisters in Christ.

We are here in this beautiful home now, as many of us have been here before, and some of us coming for the first time.

With the old year just about gone, and a new year arriving with fresh opportunities, new beginnings, and the promise that You will be our Vanguard and lead the way…so that we may safely step into what You have awaiting us…so that we may become

GREAT…in Service to You
GREAT…in Holiness
GREAT…in Love, and
GREAT…in Venturing into new directions

Afresh with the certainty that Jesus was born…to die…that by His shed blood we are made well, whole, and clean again, and the Day, that Grand Day, will arrive when we shall see Him Face to Face.

With our thanksgivings, we want to bring to You our confessions: the miserliness of our devotion and the oft times frailty of our faith.

Our lives are cluttered with memories of faults and failures.

There have been pains which made us cynical, when they should have made us penitent and humble.

There have been sorrows that made us petulant and complaining, when they should have made us tender, kind, and sympathetic.

There have been those close to us who have been harmed by our words and our manner, when they should have found in us an encouragement to undertake the chores of honor.

We come to You, O Savior, with all this heavy baggage of regret that impairs us for the journey ahead.

By Your Grace, on this Christmas Day, and before this Table, remove the burdens of our remembered wrongs, and in Christ our Lord, give us His kindly yoke by the removal of our transgressions.

Speak peace to our hearts now…the peace which would pass all understanding…speak that Peace to all the world…so engulfed in turmoil, yet the object of Your Love.

Establish our land in justice and in truth with Christ as the standard of what justice and truth should be.

Be the helpful friend, and the transformer of life, for all in this house tonight, and loved one far away.

Now Lord, turn our hearts to Victory…the Victory that has already been won…and the Victory that will be won…on that day when every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess, that Christ alone is Lord of all.

Even so, Lord, come soon! For we pray as You taught us: Our Father, Who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, forever. Amen.