Pastoral Prayer: Victory through God Alone

Our Father and Lord,

We are insufficient for the work that You have called us to. Should we presume to slay the dragon? Should we presume to make a hard heart soft?

Would we, Adam’s sons and daughters, presume to righteousness when our hearts are corrupt and our lives divided? Would we call to the dead and expect them to rise? Would we minister to mountains and think they would move?

In our sin, we speak of slaying giants. In our sin, we speak of overcoming. In our sin, we speak these things believing that it is our faith, our planning, our strength, and our wisdom that can bring them to pass.

Lord, let us not presume to do anything by our names but by Yours alone. Your are the King of Israel. You are the Commander of Angel Armies. You are the Healer and Redeemer and Judge and Savior. In Your name we come out, ready to do battle with the cosmic powers and rulers and principalities, the forces of spiritual darkness that lies behind this world. In Your name alone could we ever hope to stand.

This day, Lord, win the victory by Your hand. You call us to fight, but the fight is fruitless without You. You call us to bear witness, but our words are powerless without You. You call us to live new lives, but our strength is weakness but for Your resurrection power moving in us. Choose our efforts, our words, our strivings, and bless them with Your working. Slay our flesh, save our souls, and through us bring Your kingdom to this world.

We are helpless but for Your work, and yet we name these promise: that You have begun a good work in us, that You will continue to work through us, and that Your great work will be carried forward though all the world rages against us till the day when You bring it to completion in Christ Jesus.

Be at work in our struggles, overcoming them, but even more through them working in us sanctification and perseverance.

Be at work in our needs, meeting them, but even more through them teaching us humility and displaying Your glorious grace at work in these jars of clay.

Be at work in our efforts, blessing them, but even more through them showing us that we are weak and that You alone have the power to save.

To You belongs all power and glory and honor, for You do all things well.

AMEN