Prayer: Unwrapping people (Revelation 6 and 7)

Heavenly Father,

We are amazed at your majesty. You are the God of Eternity, the God of Existence, the God of Power and Greatness and Salvation. You are so much bigger than we can understand or comprehend. And yet you talk to us.  You are so strong that sin and suffering and death are things that you can bat away with the back of your hand. You are so amazing that you can use the prayers of little children to defeat your enemies.

In the face of your greatness, we can only ask why? Why would you even deign to pay any attention to human beings at all? We are just one part of your grand creation. We only live a short time. We cause lots of pain and suffering. We ignore you, and seek to oust you from our lives. We rail against your rightful rule, and rebel against your good and perfect plans.

And yet not only do you listen to us; you love us. You glorify us and honour us with your attention. You make us in your image, and you give us freedom. You choose us, you set us apart. You lift us up over the rest of the earth, giving us power to shape it and change it and improve it; to be creative and innovative, just like you. You deputise us to look after what you have created. You treat us with dignity and respect.

We're sorry that we don't always treat you the same way. We apologise for all that we have done this week that has disrespected you, that has gone against your plans for us, that has caused us to push ourselves away from you. We also pray on behalf of our families, our communities and our leaders, all of whom may have turned against you in some way this week, may have caused harm and injury to others, may have plundered the weak or frustrated the poor, been unjust to the innocent or oppressed the powerless. We come to you pleading for those who are suffering, that you might be with them, comfort them, and bring an end to their sorrow. Tonight in particular we pray for the Chapman family, and for Bruce's recent diagnosis of cancer. We pray for your comfort of their family, your healing of Bruce, and that the hope you give us might bring them joy.

And we thank you that despite all this, you sent your Son to walk as one of us - to be human as we are human; but to be perfect as you are perfect. We thank you that in Jesus we can see the relationship that you so desire from us. And we thank you that you work your perfect plans through his life, his death, and his resurrection. You have redeemed us from the curses of death and judgment by Christ becoming a curse for us. And then you have destroyed these enemies once and for all through his great resurrection. We thank you for your promise to us that there will no longer be crying, there will no longer be mourning, no more hunger, pain or death. What a great God you are to clue us in to your plans, to give us that hope, and to let us start living for you now.

And so we praise you together, Lord Most High. We praise you not as slaves to sin and death, but as children and heirs in your eternal family. Help us, in all that we do, to proclaim your wonderful deeds. May our lives mirror those amazing actions of Christ, so that the earth might be filled with your glory.

In all these things we pray by the authority of Jesus Christ,
Amen

Prayer: Eternity Unwrapped - Revelation 21 and 22

Heavenly Father,

We praise and adore you as the one who is before all things, who always was, always is, and always will be. You have the whole of history at your fingertips, and every day of the future is an open book to you. For you there are no mysteries. And not only do you know all that has happened, all that is happening, and all that will happen, but you hold it all in the palm of your hand. You are the architect of the future, building and furthering your plans through every decision we make, right or wrong. You are so great that you can turn our worst mistakes into your biggest blessings. You even turned our rebellion against you and our denial and murder of your son Jesus Christ into our eternal salvation. You are just that amazing.

But even though you can see the beginning, and the end, and you know what came before, and what will come after, you still dwell here with us in the now. You care about every one of us, and our momentary concerns. You want us to call on you when things get tough. You tell us to ask you when we are sick, to complain to you when life is hard, to question you when things just continually go wrong, and in all that to continue to have faith in you that you've got everything under control. And you do, Lord God. Because you don't hide your plans from us. We hate sickness, we abhore injustice, we avoid pain and we are upset by death. And you have shown us that these things will not last. You will last forever. We know that. But you call us to live with you forever, to live a life with you where there is no sickness, there is no injustice, there is no pain and there is no death. That's your plan, and you have shared it with us. And you have told us that these words are trustworthy and true. Our pain and our shame and our grieving will all be done away with. And we can trust you to do it, because you are our God.

And so we pray to you about all these things, as you have told us to. We pray for the sick in our midst, and those in our lives who are plagued with illness. We pray for those who face injustice, unfairness and oppression, both in our community and across the world. We pray for those who are wracked by pains, whether from physical hurt or from guilt, shame and betrayal. And we pray for those who grieve because of the loss of loved ones. We pray for all these things because we know you care about them. Give comfort and strength, encouragement and support to your people, so that we might see for ourselves these glimpses of your eternal kingdom. And then let us take those lights out into the world, where others might too see your glory through the comfort and strength and encouragement and support we offer others, as we pass on this testimony of your Son that you have given us - the time is coming, and it is coming soon. We praise you because you promise to accept anyone who wishes to take your free offer to live with you forever.  These words are trustworthy and true.

We rejoice in the thought, and we pray together, "Come, Lord Jesus." And we ask that the grace of the Lord Jesus be with your people. Amen.