A prayer based on 1 Chronicles 11.

Jesus,
We humbly bow before You and confess that You are both Lord and Christ.
You are the Ruler over the nations.
You are King over us.
And we worship You.
We give You all the honour and thanks and glory and strength Your deserve.
We recognise how foolish we are, when we do not trust You to be our Shepherd.
You have laid down Your life for us.
You have called us by name.
You have led and guided us.
And You will never abandon us or allow us to perish.
Help us to be faithful to You.
To hear Your voice and obey Your will for our lives.

We praise You that You are building Your kingdom.
For growing and maturing Your church.
We thank You for the wonderful blessings of Your Word, of prayer, and of gathering together to worship You (even when it has to be done online).
We thank You that You have given to this local church all the gifts we need to serve You at this time – all the different abilities each of us have, that can be put to use in labouring for the Lord.
All this has come to us from Your kind hand.
And it is not only right, but it is for our good, that we do all we can to advance Your cause and to fight the good fight of faith.
Even being willing to risk all for Your sake.

Jesus, we confess, that we find this hard to do.
We are weak and sinful.
We repent of all that we have said and done that was wrong.
When we have failed to exercise self-control and allowed ourselves to be driven by our lusts and appetites.
When we have sought to get a good end by impure means.
When we have not given You all the thanks You deserve.

Lord, by Your Spirit,
give us the desire to choose the path of costly obedience;
strengthen us with the power we need to resist every temptation to disobey;
move our hearts with love for You;
equip us in our service of You and each other;
and fill us with gratitude for all the people You have put in our lives, who pray for us, encourage us, teach us, comfort us, speak the truth in love to us, and help us in practical ways to follow You.
Give us a real appreciation for all the ways You use them to enable us remain faithful to You, our King.

Amen.

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A prayer based on Acts 8:26-40.

Our great God,
We give You our praise that Your Son,
the Lord Jesus,
is risen and ascended and seated at Your right hand on high.
You have given Him all authority in heaven and on earth.
Authority to save.
Authority to judge.
We give Him, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords, the glory which is due to His Name.

We praise You that no-one and nothing can stop Him from growing His church.
From seeking and saving the lost that He has died for.
From adding to the church daily those who are being saved.
From opening hearts so that people can respond to the good news about Him.
That He is the suffering servant:
who willingly was led like a lamb to the slaughter – dying like the animals that were sacrificed at the temple in Jerusalem.
who was cut from the land of the living because of the transgression of His people – to pay the penalty their sins deserve.
We praise You that because of Christ’s saving work in our lives, we can enjoy all the benefits and blessings His death brings.

We rejoice to know that:
Our sins have been forgiven.
That we are accepted by You.
That our future in heaven is secure.
That we have a leader who will lovingly guide us.
That we are treasured by You.
How we long for friends and family, those in our community and beyond, to have this joy.
We thank You that it is not too late for them to put their trust in Jesus and be forgiven.

Lord, we know that only You can save people.
And we are glad of this.
Because we, ourselves, would be lousy saviours.
We confess we are lousy speakers of the Saviour.
That we miss opportunities to talk about Jesus.
That we beat ourselves up because we didn’t speak when we should have.
That we worry about saying the wrong words in the wrong way.
That it so often doesn’t occur to us that You have opened a door to proclaim the message of His life, death, and resurrection.
That we are disobedient and refuse to say anything.
Forgive us we pray.

We thank You that all who are appointed for eternal life will believe.
And we thank You that You continue to use us in this process of saving lives.
That our poor and weak efforts can be part of the process of bringing people to repentance and faith in Jesus.

So Holy Spirit, we pray that You would help us to be aware of the opportunities before us to tell others about Him.
To find ways of engaging with those who have yet to respond by trusting Him with their lives and deaths,
And to be ready and able to explain why they need rescue and what Christ has done to save them.

For their good and His glory, we ask these things.

Amen.

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A prayer based on Acts 8:1-25.

Our Lord and our God,
We acknowledge that salvation is from You.
It is You who has chosen us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in Your sight.
It is You who has adopted us as sons through Jesus Christ.
It is You who has redeemed us through His blood and forgiven our sins.
It is You who will one day glorify us.
We worship You our God and Saviour.
We thank You for Your grace and mercy.
We bless Your glorious Name.
And we praise You that our testimony is the testimony of so many people around the world.
That Jesus is saving men and women, young and old from every tribe and nation, people and language.
That all over the world the gospel is spreading and growing.
That those who are lost are being found and added to the number that makes up the church of Christ.

Lord, we thank You that this growth is happening as the message of good news is told,
not by professional preachers,
but ordinary believers as the opportunity arises.
We are eager to see this gospel growth here in this community and our number added to.
We want to join in the rejoicing in heaven when one sinner repents and puts their faith in Jesus.

So help us to be witnesses for Christ.
To not be ashamed to speak of Him or to acknowledge that we are one of His people.
Help us to stop making excuses as to why we can’t share the good news.
Lord, please give us opportunities each day to speak of You, and help us to take that opportunity, even if it is at an inconvenient time.
And give us a real willingness to speak to people who are different to us.
To not see anyone as being out of bounds because we believe the gospel is powerful to save –
that even the vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.
We confess our fear of talking to people about Christ.
We confess our unbelief and doubt that anyone will respond in repentance and faith.
We confess our disappointment that in the past our message has been rejected, or those who did receive the Word have fallen away.

We pray for one another, that God’s Spirit will open a door for us to proclaim the wonder of Christ,
to do it wisely and clearly,
that words may be given to us,
that we would patiently answer any questions people may have,
and that we would do all this fearlessly.
And we pray for those we come into contact with and who we speak to, that they would confess with their mouths, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead.
Yes, that they would call on the Lord and be saved.

Amen.

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A prayer based on Nehemiah 13.

Lord Jesus,
We long for that day when You return to judge the living and the dead.
The day You come to save Your people and welcome them into a new creation.
The day You punish and cleanse the world of all wickedness.
How we long for this future when sin won’t be present in this world or in our lives.

Gracious God,
You know the struggle we have with sin.
That it so easily entangles us.
We so often don’t separate ourselves from the ways of the world.
We err and stray.
We backslide and are prone to wander.
We feel the pull of temptation to embrace the attitudes and actions of our culture and society.
We are not as committed to You.
We are not as devoted to Your church and the cause of Christ in this world, as we should be.
Lord, we so desperately need Your forgiveness.
Lord, we so desperately need Your help to be holy as You are holy.

Thank You Jesus, that You are the perfect Saviour and the only Saviour we need.
That You loved the church and gave Yourself up for her.
Thank You for Your life – Your full obedience to the law of God.
Thank You for Your death – dying in the place of sinners, dying in our place, to take the punishment our sins deserve.
Thank You for Your call to come to You by faith and be rescued.

We thank You that You don’t leave us where we are.
As well as dealing with the cause of our sinful actions, You bring the deep cleansing, heart change, that we need.
You can and will change us so that we are able to resist the pull of sin, to obey God, and to live lives that please HIm.
Expose our sin we pray.
The times we don’t separate from worldliness.
The times we don’t worship You faithfully.
The times we don’t love one another or the lost who so badly need Jesus.
Rebuke us, correct us, convict us as we hear Your Word; when we read it on our own, hear it preached, or spoken to us in conversation.
Draw us back in love to Yourself.
We plead for Your Spirit to help us to not only confess our sins but also to mortify it.
To put to death the misdeeds of the body.
To discipline ourselves so that if our eye cause us to sin, we cut it figuratively out.

And please make this church one that takes sin seriously.
Which will act to discipline us when we fail to discipline ourselves.
May we not hear as a church, our Good and Great Shepherd say to us, “I hold this against You” because we tolerate immorality in our midst.
Instead, knowing that one day we will be presented as a radiant church,
without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish,
increase our desire to be holy and blameless now,
so that Christ is glorified in and by us His people.

Amen.

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A prayer based on Acts 6:8-8:3.

Father,
We praise You that we can draw near to You and meet with You.
We praise You for the confidence we have to enter into Your Most Holy Place because a new and living way has been opened up for us by Jesus;
that through His life and death,
He has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west,
and made us righteous and acceptable in Your sight.

We praise You that we don’t need to be at a special place to approach You;
that we don’t need to go to the temple in Jerusalem or to a church building or up to the top of a mountain to meet with You.
that we can come into Your presence in Christ anywhere, whether that be Jerusalem or Judea or Samaria, or any place to the ends of the earth.
We praise You that You have never been limited to one place.
You met with Abraham and in Ur and Haran before the land of Canaan.
You met with Joseph in Egypt.
You met with Moses at Mount Sinai.
Even when the temple was built, You were not contained in that one place, because You the Most High, do not live in houses made by men.
Heaven is Your throne and the earth is Your footstool.

So, we thank You that wherever we are, we can come to You.
To receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
To hear You speak to us through Your Word.
By Your Spirit, give to us ears that are open to listen to the voice of our Saviour.
Give to us hearts that are ready and willing to obey Him.
We don’t want to be like Your people in the past who resisted Your Word.
Who hardened their hearts when they heard Your voice.
Who didn’t obey Your law,
and who missed out on the blessings obedience brings.

Forgive us for all those times when we are no different to them.
We may not build golden calves or kill prophets, but we have our equivalent ways of rejecting You.
We confess this to You, trusting in the name of Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, who is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Show us mercy.
Show us kindness.
Pardon and purify us of all unrighteousness.
And keep us faithful to Him so that at the end of our lives, we will find like Stephen did, Jesus standing ready to welcome us home.

Amen.

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A prayer based on 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5.

Gracious Father,
we thank You for this local church.
We thank You for all who are part of this fellowship, whom You have saved by Jesus, and who have honoured Him by submitting their lives to Him.
Lord, we pray that the message of His righteous life, substitutionary death, and glorious resurrection, would spread rapidly in this community, through the witness of Your people in this local church, and other local churches in the community;
and that more and more people would honour Him as their Lord and Saviour too.
We pray that we would be bold in our witness.
Give the pastors and elders boldness to proclaim and defend the truths of Your Word, especially when people in the community find them offensive.
May they not shrink back out of fear.
And protect them and protect us when opposition inevitably comes in some form, when we speak of Christ to those who do not share our faith.

Sovereign Lord,
we pray that you would help us as a church family to be obedient to all that the Lord Jesus has commanded.
In what we say and in what we do.
In public and in private.
At home, at work, and out and about in the community.
Help us to love one another with the love You have shown us in Christ.
To bear with each other, and forgive whatever grievances we may have against one another.
To be kind and compassionate to one another.
To spur one another on to love and good deeds.
Especially help to us embrace those who are new or who are different to us.
To welcome them as if we were welcoming the Lord Jesus Himself.
Would our lives individually and together be distinctive and make the gospel attractive to the world around us.
Would our lives be a powerful witness and cause people to ask about the reason for the hope we have, and lead to them praising You.

And sustaining God,
may we not grow weary in serving this community You have placed us in, and in seeking to share Christ with them.
For those we are in regular contact with and who have heard the gospel, but so far are indifferent and yet to respond with faith, may we not give up on them.
For those who once seemed keen but have drifted away, may we pursue them.
Help us to continue loving our community and being witnesses to Jesus to those in it,
so that He might be honoured as the lost are saved.

Amen.

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A prayer based on James 5:7-11.

Our God,
You are merciful and compassionate.
Slow to anger and rich in love.
You are good to all.
And in Jesus, You are so very patient with us.
When we are weak,
when we sin and fail You,
and when our growth in godliness is slow;
You don’t right us off,
You don’t give up on us;
You are gracious toward us.
Enable us, we pray, to show this supernatural patience in our own lives.

We thank You that the fruit of the Spirit’s work in us is that we will be patient,
and we know that there are many times, and many circumstances that require us to show this.

Give us perseverance as we wait for the Lord’s coming.
As we wait for Christ to return and put all wrongs right and to justify our faith in Him,
enable us to keep going,
to not compromise,
to not give up,
to stand firm, for as long as is required.

Give us patience with one another.
Especially when they hurt us, or let us down, or simply get on our nerves.
When our patience is tested, may we not grumble about them: to their faces, or behind their backs, or even in our own hearts.
The same we pray for parents when their kids are frustratingly slow in growing in maturity or stubbornly resistant to change.

Help us to be patient in our witness.
As we speak of the saving work of the Lord Jesus,
and experience the disappointment:
of people rejecting Him;
of seeing no change of heart, no repentance, no response of faith by them;
may we not lose heart,
and may we not think that those we speak to are beyond the scope of Your saving grace.

And Lord, strengthen us to endure the circumstances we find ourselves in;
especially when our prayers are not being answered,
and when our personal situation doesn’t seem to be improving.
Increase our confidence that You are working in all things for the good of those who love You,
and that Your way is always best.
Help us to wait for You our Lord, to be strong and take heart and to wait for You.

Amen.

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A prayer based on Acts 6:1-7.

We thank You our God,
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that all over the world, the gospel, the word of truth, is bearing fruit and growing.
We praise You that men and women, boys and girls, from all nations,
are turning to the living and true God;
are serving Him;
and are waiting for His Son, our Saviour who rescues us from the coming wrath by His death and resurrection,
to return from heaven.

Yet we are aware, that there are many things that can prevent the spread of the good news found in the Word of God.
How hostile opposition can silence Your people.
How immorality in the church can compromise its witness.
But also how division can divert our attention from this great task and privilege of telling lost people of the One who can forgive their sins and make them right with God.

Lord, we thank You that Jesus died to make unity in the church possible.
That through the cross, walls of hostility that divided us from others have been destroyed,
so that as well as being reconciled to God, we are also reconciled to one another.
Holy Spirit, thank You for bringing about this blood bought unity in this local church,
and we ask for Your strength in order to maintain what is already there.
Help us to love one another as Christ has loved us.
Help us to treat one another as those who are one with us in Christ.
Help us to be quick to forgive others mistakes, and to acknowledge when we are guilty of acting in ways that would threaten our togetherness.

We pray too, for our elders, that they would not be distracted from the responsibility they have, of giving their attention to prayer and the ministry of the Word.
Help them to prioritise prayer.
Pleading to You our God, for us, that You would save us and bless us and shepherd us and carry us for ever.
That You would save the lost in our community, in our nation, and around the world.
That all that You our Father have given to Jesus, would look to Him and believe in Him and receive eternal life.
Help them to prioritise the ministry of the Word too.
To preach and teach and train and counsel us with the Scriptures.
In season and out of season.
To correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction.
And may each of us encourage them to make these tasks their priorities.

We ask these things for the good of the church, the salvation of those who do not yet trust in Christ, and the glory of You, our great and good God.

Amen.

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A prayer based on the necessity of Scripture (inspired by 1.1 to 1.3 of 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith).

Lord God,
You who spoke creation into existence,
How we need You to speak to us.
To make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ.
To tell us what we need to know, believe, and do, to be saved.

You have revealed Yourself to everyone in a general way;
through creation and providence and by our conscience.
You have made known:
Your existence,
Your goodness,
Your wisdom,
Your power,
Your order,
and Your holiness.
The heavens declare Your glory.
The skies proclaim the works of Your hands.
Day after day they are pouring forth speech.
Night after night they display knowledge of You.
So, it is true that people have no excuse for rebelling against You their Creator.
Yet creation and providence and our conscience do not tell us how we can be saved.

Therefore, we praise You that You have spoken.
In a special kind of way.
To make Yourself and Your plan of salvation known to us.
In the past through the prophets at many times and in various ways.
And supremely in Your Son, the Lord Jesus:
the exact representation of Your being;
the One who sustains all things by His powerful word;
and who has provided purification for our sins.

We thank You that what You have spoken has been preserved for us in the Scriptures.
In both the Old Testament and the New Testament.
In all 66 books.
We thank You that every single word was written down to teach us and to give us hope.
So that we can know God and how to be saved by Him.

Holy Spirit, help us as a church to have an increasing desire to read and hear and understand God’s Word.
To hear the whole will of God proclaimed to us when we gather.
Give us elders who are devoted to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching,
because faith in Christ come from hearing the message of the gospel which is heard through the word of Christ.
Forgive us for all those times when we downplay or minimise the Bible’s importance and centrality in our lives and the ministry of this local church.
Lord, by Your Word correct, teach, rebuke, and train in righteousness so that we are thoroughly equipped to live godly lives and serve You.

Speak O Lord, because we Your servants are listening.

Amen.

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A prayer based on Acts 5:12-42.

Great and awesome, glorious and holy God,
we are amazed that You, who made the world and everything in it;
who made us,
wants to know us as Your people, and for us to know You as our God.
We praise You that You offer to us:
adoption into Your family;
forgiveness of sins and a right relationship with You;
salvation from perishing in hell;
and the gift of eternal life.

That you would do this, is simply incredible,
because by nature we are all so undeserving of this.
We are sinners who have fallen short of Your glory, and have failed to live the lives we were made to live.
We are rebels who have rejected Your right to rule over us.
We really don’t deserve anything from You, except death and hell.
Yet through hearing the gospel –
this wonderful good news that You love us and have shown much You do, by sending Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ into the world to save us.

We thank You that after a living a life of perfect obedience to Your law, He died for our sins.
That on the cross, He not only died, but He actually stood in our place –
taking upon Himself all our guilt before You;
suffering the punishment, we deserve;
receiving all Your wrath at our sin until it was paid in full.
We thank You that He was raised from the dead so we can know that You have accepted His saving work done on our behalf,
and that one day He will come again to judge the world.

Lord, until that day,
knowing that all who acknowledge their sin and helplessness,
and who put their faith in Christ alone for salvation,
You will forgive, declare righteous, and welcome into heaven,
help us not to stay silent about this good news.
To speak boldly of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and the rescue He gives.
May we make Christ known:
on Sundays when we gather as a local church;
and in our daily lives.
To always be at it, because we want everyone to have a chance to respond to this offer of salvation.

Holy Spirit, help us to make the most of every opportunity we have to testify to what Jesus has done, and the hope we have.
And to not be surprised when people attack this saving message –
taking offense at it.
Or avoiding this saving message –
letting it pass by them,
refusing to investigate the evidence,
take time to consider Christ,
or being unwilling to count the cost.
Also help us to not be surprised when people accept this saving message.
Give us the faith to expect this to happen more,
as there is no reason to think that You won’t do this in the lives of those we come into contact with, seeing as You’ve done this for us,
of which again we are so thankful.

Amen.

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A prayer based on the Church Covenant.

We praise You our great and glorious God for choosing to set Your love upon us.
Though once dead in our sins, deserving of Your wrath,
You have poured out Your grace and mercy upon us,
bringing us to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
forgiving our sins,
adopting us into Your family,
and adding us to this local church.

We pray that You would enable us by Your Holy Spirit,
to live together in a manner worthy of salvation we have receive.
Help us to love one another earnestly from a pure heart;
to rejoice with those who rejoice;
to weep with those who weep;
to bear with one another, forgiving as Christ has forgiven us;
and to seek to encourage and build each other up in the faith.

Give us an eagerness to maintain the unity we enjoy as a local church,
taking care that we are not divisive by what we say or do.
We thank you for the elders Your Son Jesus has given to us;
to teach and to guide us,
to watch over and care for us;
and we pray that You would give us submissive hearts to follow their lead, so that their work will be a joy.

Would You increase our love for Your Word and our desire to hear Christ preached Sunday by Sunday.
May it be said of us, that we are devoted to the apostle’s teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Give us an ongoing desire to meet together and to welcome all who join with us.
Give us too, a spirit of generosity so that we contribute cheerfully and regularly to the ministry of the church.

We pray for the children in this church, that they would grow up to know Jesus as their Saviour.
And as we seek to support their parents in the role You have given them of teaching the Word and setting an example,
we pray that we would be a help and not a hindrance to them.

Lord, it is our great desire that You would save people in Banstead and in the surrounding area.
Bless all our efforts to make Christ known to those we come into contact with as a local church through our various ministry and individually in our daily lives.
Give us the courage to speak of what Jesus has done for us and what He can do for them if they turn to Him.
And give us the strength we need to live carefully in this world,
denying ungodliness,
enduring suffering for the sake of the Gospel,
as we wait for the appearing of our great Saviour.

In His Name we pray.

Amen.

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A prayer based on Acts 4:32-5:11.

Triune God,
One God united as three persons,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
We give to You our praise.
We praise You that You are a generous God, who gives us far more than we deserve.
You have given us life and breath and every single good thing that we enjoy.
But more than this, Father, You sent Your Son into the world to save sinners.
To save us and unite us who trust in Him to You, and to one another.
And that now in Him, we have been given every spiritual blessing.
We praise You that because You are a truthful God, we can be confident and certain that these riches that have come to us by grace, are ours.

Lord, we pray that as a church and as individual followers of Jesus,
You would make us more like Yourself.
That because You are a God who is united and because the gospel unites, we would be making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit.
That You would protect us from stirring up division.
That we would be one in heart and mind and committed to making Jesus known together.

We pray too that we would reflect something of Your generosity.
With our time.
With our money.
With our possessions.
That we would be moved to meet the needs of those in the church and outside the church as we have opportunity.
Being willing to make sacrifices for the sake of others.

And especially we pray that we would be people of the truth.
Help us to be honest about who we are to one another.
Not pretending to be something we are not or creating the impression in the eyes of others that we are more spiritual than in reality we are.
Help us to admit that we are works in progress.
That sin is still a reality in our lives.
And every day we will act in ways that are not worthy of the One who has saved us.
Give us the humility to confess that we are failures who are utterly dependent on Your grace and mercy.

Gracious God, we don’t want to do anything that would endanger Your people,
or let the devil to get a foothold.
So, Holy Spirit, we pray that You would help us to live holy and godly lives.
To maintain the unity Christ has won.
To show the generosity of Christ in our giving of ourselves.
To speak the truth of Christ with our lips and our lives.
And we pray that we would encourage one another in this.
Like Barnabas, we would be known as encouragers, who spur on other members to keep going and growing in their faith.

For the glory of Your Holy Name.

Amen

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