National Day of Prayer for the Church
Today was the National Day of Prayer and I was asked to pray(which was a real honor) for the Church in Buffalo down at Niagara on the Square. I had several people ask for a copy of it so here it is…
Father God we come before You today in a posture of brokenness and humbleness of heart. We declare it is Your Church… not ours and that You are the only one to be praised. You have loved us so much that you saw our great need and you didn’t just see our need but you moved on that need and you relocated and became flesh through Your Son Jesus Christ on earth to save us and redeem us for your honor and fame but for our great and eternal benefit!
We the Church in Buffalo confess to You that we have not been… or are we yet all that you have called us to be and to do. We confess that we have made idols of our buildings and programs and denominations. We confess that we do not seek the shalom of this city you have died for… like we should. We confess our pride, our self-centeredness and at times our laziness. Forgive us of hoarding so much of the time, talent and treasure you have given your church for just a few of us.
Father we thank You that You are not through with your Church yet… that Your grace and mercy and power are opened up for us to receive and to take every single day and so on this day help us to re-imagine what Your Church in Buffalo could be and do.
Father help us to imagine a church that is not defined by a place or race, suburban or urban, big or small, by tradition or no tradition… but to imagine the Church at Buffalo to be so influenced by the power of the gospel that it seized every opportunity to proclaim and live out the gospel for the good of our city.
Help us to imagine that Your Church in Buffalo physically and spiritually served the poorest of the poor, but also lovingly but strongly rebuke those who would want to take advantage or ignore the plight of the poor and marginalized in our city for their own gain and prosperity.
Help us to imagine that Your Church in Buffalo would begin to be reconciled not only back to You but back to each other. Help us to imagine Your church to begin to see the needs of all as our responsibility and to see the just and equitable redistribution of Your Churches resources of people’s time, talent and treasure into this city by both Word and deed… that we would see your business men and women and your power brokers learn to have a “double bottom line” so they could run a profitable business IN ORDER to support the work of Your Church and meet the needs of our city.
Help us to imagine that Your Church in Buffalo caring for and advocating for the elderly, those of special-needs, the orphans, the father-less, the un-wanted and uncared for children of our city, the refugee’s who are landing in our city from all over our world.
Help us to imagine that Your Church would be a God-honoring, gospel-loving Church where the Word of God is the primary motivator for doing the work of God… that your church would realize that it will take every man of us, every woman of us and every child of us to plant the seed of the gospel in every home, on every block, in every school, in every store, in every office in every neighborhood in every section of our city.
Help us to imagine Your Church joined in unity for the sake of the mission of Your son Jesus Christ.
Help us to imagine that Your Church in Buffalo as the epicenter of a straight-up, God-fearing, Spirit-filled awakening, that every man, woman and child would be able to get a repeated chance to hear and see the life-changing message of Jesus Christ and we would be able to partner with the Holy Spirit… leading thousands of people to eternal life in Christ Jesus… who would believe in their hearts that Jesus Christ is Lord and confess with their mouths that You Oh God raised Him from the dead.
We pray this not only for our city but for all cities and towns and villages all over our country and all over the earth.
Let Your name be forever praised Oh God, for it’s in your precious Son’s name we pray.
Amen
