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