PRAYER

"You are our Heavenly Father. I love and know my earthly father, but he does not know me as You do, nor does he have the power You do. You dwell in heaven, far above this earthly sphere. And You love us and care for us all in the same way, but in an infinitely greater magnitude, than our earthly fathers. You are our Father--the true Father of us all--in heaven.

"Your name is holy. Twice in the Scriptures You are addressed as thrice-holy, for You are set apart and completely above any level of perfection we may know here. You are righteous, You are without sin, You are spotless and infinite in power, in love, and in justice. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

"May Your kingdom come. How long, O Lord, how long will You endure the scoffers, the sinners, the injustice, and the sinful crimes against Your people? How long until You establish Your reign in the hearts of mankind? You patiently wait until all come to repentance. We agree with Your will that it would happen now.

"May Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In heaven, there was a rebellion, and You won the victory and cast out the mocking, proud adversary, along with every one of his rebellious angels. In heaven, there is no sin, and no death. No weeping, for that matter. Lord, do here on earth what you do in heaven.

"Give us our daily food. I don't ask for myself alone, or even for my family alone; nor my community or country, but for all of us. We ask for healthy crops and a vibrant economy. We are not asking for banquets of gluttonous waste, but for bread. And we do not ask for tomorrow's supply. Each day has enough need of its own.

"Forgive us of our sins in the same way that we forgive those who have sinned against us. I know that is bold, and actually self-incriminating most of the time. But I really want to be clean and forgiven in Your sight, and that motivates me to realize that my little slights and hurts from others are nothing compared with You. So I forgive, and I ask forgiveness.

"Do not lead us into temptation. You have promised never to tempt us beyond what we can handle, and You are not in the business of making life hard on people. So again, we agree with Your will that we want to walk in the paths of holiness, of righteousness. We want no evil thing before our eyes, so that we will avoid even the temptation to sin.

"Deliver us from the evil one. He prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking to devour us. He knows our areas of weakness, he exploits us through the doorway of sensuality, or of pride, or of greed. We want to destroy him, but we find ourselves impossibly overmatched. We need Your deliverance, so that we can take our stand against the devil.

"The kingdom belongs to You. You are Lord, and You reign over the earth. We recognize Your lordship. Every knee will bow and every tongue confess Your kingship. It is all Yours, Lord.

"The power belongs to You. You are omnipotent, and You can do anything. In fact, all that has been done from before creation itself is because of Your will. It is all Yours, Lord.

"The glory belongs to You. You dwell in inapproachable light, perfect and glorious. Our motto is that we should be less and You should be more. All of it, all of us, is for Your glory.

"You exist and will exist forever. You never change. Eternal, immortal, unchanging, Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, over death and time and matter. Everything is swallowed up in You.

"Amen. We see it. We agree with it. We agree with You. We want this to come to be. Do Your will, Your way, in Your time, to Your glory. Submitted according to the witness of the Spirit."