A Prayer for Sunday Worship: Ephesians 1:15-23

15For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.

17I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

19and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Tags: Christ, Ephesians 1:15-23, Prayer, Sunday Worship, Worship

St. Patrick’s Morning Prayer: The Lorica

The following prayer by St. Patrick has been variously titled Morning Prayer, The Breastplate, or The Lorica. Some question whether St. Patrick actually wrote it, or whether someone else penned it years later and it was ascribed to St. Patrick. However, for centuries it has been associated with his name and his ministry.

Various versions and translations of assorted lengths are in existence. This is my collation.

Morning Prayer

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through the belief in the Threeness,

Through confession of the Oneness

Of the Creator of Creation.

I arise today

Through the strength of Christ’s birth with His baptism,

Through the strength of His crucifixion with His burial,

Through the strength of His resurrection with His ascension.

I arise today

Through God’s strength to pilot me,

God’s might to uphold me,

God’s wisdom to guide me,

God’s eye to look before me,

God’s ear to hear me,

God’s word to speak for me,

God’s hand to guard me,

God’s way to lie before me,

God’s shield to protect me,

God’s host to save me

From snares of devils,

From temptations of vices,

From everyone who shall wish me ill,

Afar and anear,

Alone and in multitude.

I arise today

Christ to shield me today

Against poison, against burning,

Against drowning, against wounding,

Christ with me,

Christ before me,

Christ behind me,

Christ in me,

Christ beneath me,

Christ above me,

Christ on my right,

Christ on my left,

Christ when I lie down,

Christ when I sit down,

Christ when I arise,

Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through belief in the Threeness,

Through confession of the Oneness,

Of the Creator of Creation.

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Tags: Lorica, Morning Prayer, Prayer, St. Patrick, St. Patrick's Day, The Breastplate, The Lorica

Praying the Lord’s Prayer: CHRIST

We can use the acrostic CHRIST as a memory guide for praying the Lord’s prayer. For a printable version, download Your Daily Prayer Guide.

Prepare to Pray: Meditation—“Our Father Which Art in Heaven” 

C Commune with God: Adoration—“Hallowed Be Thy Name”

H Honor the King: Intercession—“Thy Kingdom Come”

R Radically Commit: Submission/Direction—“Thy Will Be Done”

I Invite God-Rescue: Supplication—“Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”

S Savor the Savior’s Grace: Confession—“Forgive Us Our Sins”

T Triumph Over Temptation: Petition—“Lead Us Not Into Temptation”

Confidently Trust God: Glorification—“For Thine Is the Kingdom”

 Prepare to Pray: Meditation—“Our Father Which Art in Heaven”

1. Meditate on the perfect fatherly character of God: Our Father in heaven.

2. Contemplate the nature of God’s fatherhood: Our Father of holy love.

3. Reflect on the Body of Christ: Our Father, not only my Father.

4. Enjoy God the Father’s full attention and acceptance: Bask in His fatherly grace.

 Commune with God: Adoration—“Hallowed Be Thy Name”

1. Praise God for Who He is: Worship, magnify, exalt, and glorify your heavenly Father.

2. Thank God for what He does: Express your gratitude for all His grace-gifts, for His works.

3. Pray that the whole world would be in awe of God: All the earth grasping, enjoying, and exalting the character (name) of God.

4. Set apart God as the supreme desire of your heart: Let your daily mission statement be to exalt God by enjoying God.

 Honor the King: Intercession—“Thy Kingdom Come”

1. Pray for a deepening of God’s rule in your heart: Surrender to God’s governance.

2. Pray for a widening of God’s rule in all people’s hearts: Salvation.

3. Pray for a deepening of God’s rule on planet Earth: Christian living (make a difference).

4. Pray for the soon return of Christ: Second Coming.

5. Pray that you will live for God’s kingdom and not for your own: Total allegiance.

 Radically Commit: Submission/Direction—“Thy Will Be Done”

1. Pray for the right pleasure: That everything you do is motivated by the desire to bring God pleasure.

2. Pray for calm assurance: The understanding that God’s glory and your good are inseparable, that the Father’s will is always good and best.

3. Pray for clear discernment: That you will know God’s will for your personal life, family, church, work, community, country, and world.

4. Pray for radical obedience: That God would grant you the courage to do His will.

5. Pray for supernatural power: That God would empower you to obey His will.

6. Pray with brutal honesty: Share the desires of your heart, any confusion, doubts, and perplexity with your heavenly Father.

7. Pray with other-centered focus: That family, church, community, national, and world leaders would know and do God’s will.

 Invite God-Rescue: Supplication—“Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”

1. Confess humbly (Give): Acknowledge your spiritual poverty, admitting that without God you are and have nothing. Pray for the faith to believe that all you need is God and what He chooses to provide.

2. Asks unselfishly (Us, Our): Pray for others and for yourself.

3. Request wisely (This Day, Daily): Pray for today’s needs. Trust God for today’s supply. Ask God to give you nothing more and nothing less than exactly what you need and can handle.

4. Entreat practically (Bread): Pray for physical, material, emotional, mental, relational, and spiritual needs. Pray for freedom from worry as you trust God to supply your every need.

 Savor the Savior’s Grace: Confession—“Forgive Us Our Sins As We Forgive Those Who Have Sinned Against Us”

1. Seek enlightenment: Specifically confess known sins and ask God to reveal hidden sins.

2. Repent humbly: Your debt is immeasurable; His grace is infinite.

3. Enjoy forgiveness: Claim Christ’s forgiveness and acceptance. Your slate is wiped clean!

4. Grant forgiveness: Forgive all those who have hurt you/sinned against you physically, emotionally, mentally, relationally, and spiritually.

5. Seek reconciliation: Go to anyone who you have sinned against to restore the relationship.

 Triumph Over Temptation: Petition—“Lead Us Not Into Temptation, But Deliver Us From Evil”

1. Seek protection: Ask God not to allow Satan even to tempt you to sin.

2. Seek boundaries: Ask God to keep you from situations where you are most prone to sin—your besetting sins, areas of vulnerability, temptations, etc.

3. Seek victory: Ask God to defeat sin, the world, the flesh, and the devil in your life.

4. Seek faith: Ask God to help you to trust His awesome power as your only hope for triumph.

 Confidently Trust God: Glorification—“For Thine Is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory Forever, Amen”

1. Trust God (For): Believe that since God is the Almighty, Eternal King that He can answer.

2. Glorify God (Thine): Pray that God will be glorified by your prayers.

Tags: Lord's Prayer, Prayer, Prayer Guide, Praying, The Lord's Prayer

A Prayer for Sunday Worship: C. H. Spurgeon

There is One who Bears the Names of All His Redeemed… 

LORD, we would come to Thee, but do Thou come to us. Draw us and we will run after Thee.

Blessed Spirit, help our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought.

Come, Holy Spirit, and give right thoughts and right utterance that we may all be able to pray in the common prayer, the whole company feeling that for each one there is a portion.

We are grateful as we remember that if the minister in the sanctuary should not be able to pray for any one of us, there is One who bears the names of all His redeemed upon His breast, and upon His shoulder, who will take care with the love of His heart and the power of His hand to maintain the cause of all His own.

- A Prayer of Charles Spurgeon

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Tags: C. H. Spurgeon, Prayer, Spurgeon, Sunday Worship, Worship

A Prayer for Sunday Worship: From John Wesley

O merciful Father,

do not consider what we have done against You;   

but what our blessed Savior has done for us.

Don’t consider what we have made of ourselves,

but what He is making of us for You our God.

O that Christ may be “wisdom and righteousness,

sanctification and redemption”

to every one of our souls.

That His precious blood may cleanse us from all our sins,

and that Your Holy Spirit may renew and sanctify our souls.

May He crucify our flesh with its passion and lusts,

and cleanse all our brothers and sisters in Christ across the earth.

O let not “sin reign in our mortal bodies,

that we should obey it in its lusts.”

But, “being made free from sin,

let us be the servants of righteousness.”

Let us commend our hearts to you,

and let all our ways be pleasing in your sight.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who live and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

- John Wesley

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Tags: John Wesley, Praise, Prayer, Sunday Worship, Worship

A Prayer for Sunday Worship: Psalm 92

A psalm. A song. For the Sabbath day.

1 It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, 

2 to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night,

3 to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp.

4 For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD; I sing for joy at the works of your hands.

5 How great are your works, O LORD, how profound your thoughts!

6 The senseless man does not know, fools do not understand,

7 that though the wicked spring up like grass and all evildoers flourish, they will be forever destroyed.

8 But you, O LORD, are exalted forever.

9 For surely your enemies, O LORD, surely your enemies will perish; all evildoers will be scattered.

10 You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; fine oils have been poured upon me.

11 My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries; my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes.

12 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;

13 planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God.

14 They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green,

15 proclaiming, “The LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth

Tags: Church, Praise, Psalms, Sunday Worship, Worship