Praying for your Church #2

Praying for your Church
1 Peter 2:1-12
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. ² Like newborn babies, crave the pure spiritual milk of the Word, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, ³ now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.⁴ As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— ⁵ you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ….⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.¹¹ Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. ¹² Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
Peter’s exhortation is in the context of the Church. Your local Church is a spiritual house, a royal priesthood. The Church is built on the rock of Christ and we are living stones. We are to repent of sin and long for the Word of God. We are to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Believers in Christ are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation; we are God’s special possession. Because of our new identity, we are to declare His praises, live good lives and bring glory to God by our witness to the pagans. All of this is expressed in and through the new community of the Church. Your Church.
To be a believer in Christ is to receive a new identity and a new calling. The community of the Church is where we worship, grow and corporately witness the gospel to the world. Let’s pray that we live out our identity and fulfill our calling.
Prayer

1. Acknowledge to Jesus that He is your Lord and that you are a worshiper, a servant and a disciple
2. Thank the Lord for being made a new person and being connected to a new community, the Church. Thank the Lord for your Church
3. Ask Jesus to make your entire congregation hungry for His Word and eager to bring your offerings and sacrifices to Him in worship
4. Pray that every believer understands, receives and lives out their new identity in Christ and shines the light of Christ to everyone
5. Pray that by your good deeds and by your bold and loving words, you are witnesses of Christ to your neighbors, your community and the world
6. Pray for your Church to be in every way the Church described in 1 Peter 2:1-12

Praying with you and for you,
Pastor JP