Responsive Prayer: Regeneration

This responsive prayer is an adaptation of “Regeneration” from the Valley of Vision. It is a prayer of thanksgiving for the new life we’ve been given through Christ and a prayer of petition that God would help us live as new creatures.

O God of the highest heaven,
You are worthy to be
praised with every breath,
loved with every faculty of soul,
served with every act of life.

We were once dead in our sin,
having no eyes to see You,
no ears to hear You,
no taste to relish Your joys,
no intelligence to know You;

But Your Spirit has made us alive!
You have brought us into a new world as new creatures!
You have loved us, adopted us, and called us Your own.

Let us lay aside every sin of this world;
Help us to walk with You
that we may be salt of the earth and a blessing to all.
Amen.

Responsive Prayer of Confession

This responsive prayer of confession deals with the sin of idolatry and failure to love our neighbors. It would work well in a wide variety of worship contexts.

God of everlasting love,
we confess that we have been unfaithful
to our covenant with you and with one another.
We have worshiped other gods: money, power, greed, and convenience.
We have served our own self-interest
instead of serving only you and your people.
We have not loved our neighbor as you have commanded, nor have we rightly loved ourselves.
Forgive us, gracious God,
and bring us back into the fullness
of our covenant with you and one another.
Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Responsive Prayer of Confession for Children

This responsive prayer of confession would be especially useful for children.

Father, we are sorry for the many times we have left you and chosen to satisfy our own selfish desires.
For the times we have hurt the members of our families by refusing to do our share of the family tasks.
Father, we have sinned. Forgive us.
For the times we were unkind and impatient with those who needed our time and concern.
Father, we have sinned. Forgive us.
For the times we were too weak to stand up for what was right and allowed others to suffer because of our cowardice.
Father, we have sinned. Forgive us.
For the times we refused to forgive others.
Father, we have sinned. Forgive us.

The Life Look

O God,
We bless you for the happy moment when we first saw your law fulfilled in Christ,
wrath appeased, death destroyed,
sin forgiven, our souls saved.

Ever since, you have been faithful to us:
daily have we proved the power of Jesus’ blood,
daily have we known the strength of the Spirit, our teacher, director, sanctifier.

We want no other rock to build upon than that we have,
desire no other hope than that of gospel truth,
need no other look than that which gazes on the cross.

Forgive us if we have tried to add anything to the one foundation,
if we have unconsciously relied upon our knowledge,
experience, deeds, and not seen them as filthy rags,
if we have attempted to complete what is perfect in Christ;

May our cry be always, Only Jesus! only Jesus!
In him is freedom from condemnation,
fullness in his righteousness,
eternal vitality in his given life,
everlasting union in fellowship with him;
In him we have all that we can hold;
enlarge us to take in more.

If we backslide,
let us like Peter weep bitterly and return to him;
If we are tempted, and have no wit,
give us strength enough to trust in him;
If we are weak,
may we faint upon his bosom of eternal love;
If in extremity,
let us feel that he can deliver us;
If driven to the verge of hope and to the pit of despair,
grant us grace to fall into his arms.

O God, hear us, do for us more
than we ask, think, or dream.

Amen.

The Great God

O Fountain of All Good,
Destroy in us every lofty thought,
Break pride to pieces and scatter it to the winds,

Annihilate each clinging shred of self-righteousness,
Implant in us true lowliness of spirit,
Abase us to self-loathing and self-abhorrence,
Open in us a fount of penitential tears,

Break us, then bind us up;
Thus will our hearts be a prepared dwelling for you, our God;

O Holy Trinity, three Persons and one God,
inhabit us, a temple consecrated to your glory.

When you are present, evil cannot abide;
In your fellowship is fullness of joy,
Beneath your smile is peace of conscience,
By your side no fears disturb,
no apprehensions banish rest of mind.

Nothing exceeds your power,
Nothing is too great for you to do,
Nothing too good for you to give,
Infinite is your might, boundless your love,
limitless your grace, glorious your saving name.
Amen.

Responsive Prayer: A Believer’s Bible

O God of Truth, we thank you for the Holy Scriptures, their precepts, promises, directions, light.

In them may we learn more of Christ, be enabled to retain his truth and have grace to follow it.

Help us to lift up the gates of our souls that he may come in and show us himself when we search the Scriptures, for on our own we cannot fathom its depths, or soar to its heights.

By his help may we be enabled to explore all its truths, love them with all our hearts, embrace them with all our power, instill them into our lives.

God, may all grains of truth gathered from your Word take deep root and be harvested to our joy and your praise.

Help us to see your Word as treasure beyond all treasure, as a fountain which can replenish our dry hearts.

From it show us how our words have often been unfaithful to you, injurious to our fellow-men, empty of grace, full of foolishness, dishonoring to our calling.

Then write your own words upon our hearts and inscribe them on our lips; so shall all glory be to you in our reading of your Word! Through Christ, the living Word, we pray. Amen.

Prayer of Confession from Psalm 25

Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.

Do not remember the sins of our youth or our transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember us, for your goodness’ sake, O LORD!

Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.

For your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon our guilt, for it is great. Turn to us and be gracious to us, for we are lonely and afflicted.

Relieve the troubles of our hearts, and bring us out of our distress.

Consider our affliction and our trouble, and forgive all our sins. Amen.

-adapted from Psalm 25
from The Worship Sourcebook, ©2004, Faith Alive Christian Resources

God the Source of All Good

O Lord God, who inhabits eternity,
The heavens declare Your glory,
The earth Your riches,
The universe is Your temple;
Your presence fills immensity,
Yet You have of Your pleasure created life,
and communicated happiness;

You have made us what we are, and given us what we have;
In You we live and move and have our being;

Your providence has set the bounds of our habitation,
and wisely administers all our affairs.

We thank You for Your riches to us in Jesus,
for the unclouded revelation of him in Your Word,
where we behold his Person, character, grace, glory, humiliation, sufferings, death, and resurrection;

Help us to feel a need of his continual saviorhood,
and cry with Job, ‘I am vile’,
with Peter, ‘I perish’,
with the tax collector, ‘Be merciful to me, a sinner’.

Subdue in us the love of sin,
Let us know the need of renovation as well as of forgiveness,
in order to serve and enjoy You forever.

We come to You in the all-prevailing name of Jesus,
with nothing of our own to plead,
no works, no worthiness, no promises.

We are often straying,
often knowingly opposing Your authority,
often abusing Your goodness;

Much of our guilt arises from our religious privileges,
our low estimation of them,
our failure to use them to our advantage,

But we are not careless of Your favor or regardless of Your glory;
Impress us deeply with a sense of Your omnipresence,
that You are about our path, our ways, our lying down, our end.

Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

God the All

O God whose will conquers all,
There is no comfort in anything apart from enjoying You
and being engaged in Your service;

You are All in all, and all enjoyments are what to us You make them, and no more.
We are well pleased with Your will, whatever it is,
or should be in all respects,
And if You would have us decide for ourselves in any matter,
we would choose to refer all to You,
for You are infinitely wise and can do no wrong,
as we are in danger of doing.

We rejoice to think that all things are at Your disposal,
and it delights us to leave them there.
Then prayer turns wholly into praise,
and all we can do is to adore and bless You.

What shall we give You for all Your benefits?
We are in a strait between two, knowing not what to do;
We long to make some return, but have nothing to offer,
and can only rejoice that You do all,
that none in heaven or on earth shares Your honor;

We can of ourselves do nothing to glorify Your blessed name,
but we can through grace cheerfully surrender soul and body to You,

We know that You are the author and finisher of faith,
that the whole work of redemption is Yours alone,
that every good work or thought found in us is the effect of your power and grace,
that Your sole motive in working in us to will and to do is for Your good pleasure.

O God, it is amazing that men can talk so much about man’s creaturely power and goodness,
when, if You did not hold us back every moment, we should be devils incarnate.
This, by bitter experience, You have taught us concerning ourselves.

Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

The Trinity

Heavenly Father, blessed Son, eternal Spirit, we adore You as one Being, one Essence, one God in three distinct Persons, for bringing sinners to Your knowledge and to Your kingdom.

O Father, You have loved us and sent Jesus to redeem us; O Jesus, You have loved us and assumed our nature, shed Your own blood to wash away our sins, brought forth righteousness to cover our unworthiness; O Holy Spirit, You have loved us and entered our hearts, implanted there eternal life, revealed to us the glories of Jesus.

Three Persons and one God, we bless and praise You, for love so unmerited, so unspeakable, so wondrous, so mighty to save the lost and raise them to glory.

O Father, we thank You that in fullness of grace You have given us to Jesus, to be his sheep, jewel, portion; O Jesus, we thank You that in fullness of grace You have accepted, espoused, bound us; O Holy Spirit, we thank You that in fullness of grace You have exhibited Jesus as our salvation, implanted faith within us, subdued our stubborn hearts, made us one with him forever.

O Father, You are enthroned to hear our prayers, O Jesus, Your hand is outstretched to take our petitions, O Holy Spirit, You are willing to help our inﬁrmities, to show us our need, to supply words, to pray within us, to strengthen us that we faint not in supplication.

O Triune God, who commands the universe, You have commanded us to ask for those things that concern Your kingdom and our souls. Let us live and pray as those baptized into the threefold Name.

–adapted from “The Trinity” (The Valley of Vision)