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Wednesday, August 24 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:4–7 ESV) O Merciful God, we praise you for the great gift of peace. Because of Jesus, we may have peace with you; we know that you will not hold our sins against us but will be faithful and just to forgive us. Because we have peace with you, we may also experience increasing peace within ourselves and peaceful relationships with other people. But Lord, there are many among us who struggle daily with anxiety. We may be anxious about our own health, the well-being of our family members, the security of our jobs, our finances, the pandemic, or the international situation. At times we are anxious and do not even know why. Our hearts pound, our thoughts trouble us, and we feel we are about to be overwhelmed. Help all of us to learn what it is to give our anxieties to you. Teach us to use prayer and thanksgiving to draw close to you and share with you our burdens and cares. Help us see clearly the difference between the things we can influence and those we cannot. Let us work diligently in all areas where you have given us power, and let us trust you in all areas where we are helpless. May your peace, which surpasses understanding, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. We continue lifting up our prayers, casting our own cares on you and also praying for our friends who are anxious and troubled: In Jesus’ name, amen.
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Thursday, August 25 “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36 ESV) Lord Jesus, our True Shepherd, we praise you today for your care for your people. You know each of us intimately. You understand the needs of our bodies and the needs of our souls. You know how to lead us to streams of living water. You know how to make us lie down in green pastures. We thank you that we may go through this life as your sheep. Many people live without relationship with you. They are lost and do not know they are lost. But you have revealed yourself to us and caused us to love you, and we thank you for this. Lord, we also know that you are constantly looking at the crowds of people who do not yet know you, and your heart goes out to them. Today we pray specially for the incoming class of freshman students at Tunghai University. Because of the pandemic, many welcoming events for freshman will be different than usual. But this means that they will have even greater need to be cared for and helped. Give wisdom to us as a church, and to the coworkers of the Chaplain’s Office, to know how to reach out to them. Let Christian teachers also show their concern for students, so that students who feel harassed and helpless will know where to turn for help. Lord, we pray that many, many of this year’s class of students will come to know you during their years at Tunghai. Show us how we may serve them. We continue lifting up our own prayers, especially for young people beginning college this fall: In Jesus’ name, amen.
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Friday, August 26 “Daniel answered and said: ‘Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.’” (Daniel 2:20–22 ESV) Our God, Giver of Wisdom, we come before you with thanks and praise. May your name be blessed forever and ever! May you continue to give wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. May you reveal deep and hidden things. May you remove kings and set up kings. We ask that here in Taiwan, the media may do their part in providing voters with access to the information they need to vote wisely. We ask that politicians and commentators will lead according to truth and conscience. We pray that your wisdom will be expressed in the choices the voters make. In Jesus’ name, amen. |
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Saturday, August 27 “And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” (Revelation 5:8 ESV) O God in whose image we are created, we praise you that you made us for communion with you. We cannot be fully satisfied until we know you, and we cannot live well without maintaining daily communication with you. Although you know all things, you have given to us the gift of prayer, so that we will repeatedly lift our thoughts and hearts to you and seek your face. Lord, you have said that you regard our prayers as if they were incense filling bowls in your heavenly throne room. In this way, you show us the importance and dignity of prayer and invite us to call on you yet again. Today we pray for the prayer life of our own church, Tunghai Church. These two months of special prayer will soon be over, but we ask you to help us to keep praying. We ask that as a church we may love to seek your presence. We ask that we may learn to intercede for one another, for other churches, for the lost, and for Christians who are suffering. We pray especially today for our church members who because of age or physical disability find it difficult to serve the church in traditional roles. Lay upon their hearts a burden to serve you through a special ministry of prayer. We continue lifting up our own prayers, especially for the prayer life of our church: In Jesus’ name, amen. |
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Sunday, August 28 “One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, ‘Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.’ And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.’” (Luke 23:39–43 ESV) In the following paragraph, please change all the singular pronouns to plural. “Let us learn… We are sinners… etc. Our faithful God, let me learn from the thief on the cross. He knew he deserved death; let me remember that the wages of sin is death, and I am a sinner. He had nothing of which to boast; let me remember that even my most righteous deeds are like filthy rags in your sight. He realized that Jesus was his only hope. He could not serve God with his hands or feet, for they were nailed to the cross. He could not devote his life to you, for he had only hours left to live. All he could do was look to Jesus and believe in him, nothing more. But that was enough! He joined Jesus in paradise that same day, and he has been rejoicing there ever since. Lord, let me learn from this. I do want to serve you with hands and feet, with mind and voice. I want to commit the remainder of my life to you and bear witness to you wherever and whenever I can. I want to be Jesus’ true disciple. Nevertheless, I know that I can add nothing to what he did for me on the cross, and so I humbly say, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” We continue lifting up our own prayers, especially for our own spiritual renewal and growth. In Jesus’ name, amen. |
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Monday, August 29 “The LORD is king forever and ever; the nations perish from his land. Father of the fatherless, defender of the oppressed, we thank you today for your vast compassion and your perfect justice. Throughout these two months, we have used Mondays to pray for the needs of the world. Today we pray for an end to terrorism and genocide. We ask that children may no longer be stolen from their homes in Nigeria. We pray that Uighur children in China may no longer be forcibly separated from their parents. We ask that Afghanistan may not again become a haven for terrorists. We pray the government of Syria may no longer bomb its own people. We ask that the rule of law may prevail throughout the world, that international disputes may be resolved through diplomacy, and that in times of war, civilians may be protected. We know that these prayers will not be answered fully until Jesus comes again, but we pray them nevertheless. Please make this world a better and safer place than it is now, even as we wait for the day when you will ensure that “man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.” We continue lifting up our own prayers, especially for people who are suffering because of terrorism, genocide, or war: In Jesus’ name, amen. |
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Tuesday, August 30 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matthew 19:3–6 ESV) God of Adam and Eve, we are living in a time of great confusion over sex and gender. At its heart, this confusion is the result of rebellion against your will. But in the lives of many people, including Christians, it is experienced as a severe inner struggle. Many are afflicted with same-sex attraction. Some men feel that they should have been born women, and some women feel they should have been born men. All such persons deserve our compassion. Make us gentle and tender-hearted. Take away our tendency to stereotype and judge. Help us be true friends to those who struggle in these ways. At the same time, Lord, give us also courage to speak the truth. Sin has affected all people. We all have disordered desires. The path to healing is not to give into those desires. It is to trust in you and become obedient to you. Let us be people of compassion. Let us be people of truth. We pray now for specific individuals we know who are confused about their sexuality or gender. In Jesus’ name, amen. |
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Wednesday, August 31 “Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.’ And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, ‘We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.’” (Revelation 11:15–18 ESV) Lord God Almighty, we yearn for the day when we will shout with all the redeemed, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” It is your kingdom that we have been seeking as we have prayed together these past two months. We have prayed for ourselves, our families, our church. We have prayed for the sick, the troubled, the lonely, the poor. We have prayed for our political leaders, for the evangelization of the nations, for your presence with those who are persecuted. All of these prayers are expressions of our desire that your kingdom should come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We thank you for empowering our prayers this summer. We thank you for strengthening our habit of prayer. We ask that the things we have learned and the changes we have experienced may continue to guide us in the months and years ahead. Lord God Almighty, take your great power and reign in this world and in our hearts! We continue to lift up our own prayers, especially for our individual and corporate spiritual growth. In Jesus’ name, amen. |