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Lord's Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

Prayer for the Morning

Oh Lord, most heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who has safely brought me to the beginning of this day; I give you thanks for my creation, preservation, and all the blessings of my life. Grant that this day I fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all my doings, being governed by your will, may be righteous in your sight. Through Christ our Lord, I pray.

Prayer for Grace and Strength

Lord God, I pray that you will fill my heart with the blessing of your Holy Spirit. Grant me this day the strength to be temperate in all things, diligent in my duties, and patient under my afflictions. Direct me in all my ways. Give me grace to be just and upright in all my dealings; quiet and peaceable; full of compassion; and ready to do good to all people, according to my abilities and opportunities. For the sake of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,

Community of Prayer

Heavenly Lord, I know I am not alone saying these prayers or reading your Word this morning, but many people unknown to me, from all stations of life, have joined together in this brief moment of devotion. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be among the community of all who pray in the name of Christ this morning, and remain among us always.

Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.

(Additional prayers may be found at Prayers for All Occasions.)

Faith

Romans 6:12-14 (ESV)

Grace Expressed in Righteousness

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Notes on the Scripture

We see what happens to people who do not believe in God. Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, their lives are given over to baseness. In our society, we have a shared morality, but it didn't come from the minds of men; it came from centuries of slow growth in a society where people were ruled by Christ.

Moral atheists do not understand where their morals came from. In Roman times, murder was not inherently wrong, because human life was not thought to have intrinsic value. There is no natural law proscribing the killing of another human being. Atheists who believe that murder is immoral do not understand that their belief came from God; and because they do not understand the origins of their morality, they do not understand that the secularization of morality must ultimately destroy it.

Without God, there is no morality. It has no anchor. In the Jews, it lived in the law; and in Christians, it lives in grace. We are dead to sin; as Paul previously showed, we died to sin when we were baptized.

If we have God's grace, then, why would we offer our bodies to Satan? We know that we will sin sometimes, because death to sin comes from grace, not from a spotless life. Grace is forgiveness of sin, not its total absence. But this does not mean we should give ourselves over to it.

Much the contrary. Once we are given God's grace, it is up to us to lead our lives as if we were the children of Christ. How can we preach God's righteousness if we do not show it in our own lives? How can we plead Christian values if we do not live them ourselves?

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