St. Nicolai Notes

 PRAYERS FOR FEBRUARY 2023

February 5

Sermon Text: Matthew 5:13-20

That we may help preserve the vitality and goodness of your creation while giving a taste of your goodness

God of all creation, enable us to be salt that seasons and preserves the vitality and goodness of your creation, including all your creatures, human and otherwise.

May those who encounter us get a taste of your goodness, mercy, and love.

May we be light that brightens our own households and communities. May our lives illuminate the uniqueness and beauty of all that You have made while lighting the way into your wondrous presence because they are fully energized by and aligned with your word.

Forgive us when we think that we can be your faithful witnesses, who show forth your glory, when we take your instruction and commands lightly. Forgive us when we believe that we are a law unto ourselves, or when we descend into lawlessness altogether.

Enable us to practice goodness with boldness. But let all of our efforts to practice kindness, mercy, and justice be done solely for your glory and not for the praise that others may offer us.

By your Spirit, enable us to walk as Jesus walked, in utter dependence upon You, and in absolute obedience to You. Amen. 

 

February 12

Sermon Text: Matthew 5:21-37

That Jesus’ example of deep obedience will characterize our lives

God of all, enable us to follow Jesus with gladness and joy even though he calls us to a more difficult way than the law that he came to fulfill.

Eliminate our angry thoughts towards others.

Purge our scornful, insulting, and dismissive speech.

Remind us of our offenses against our sisters and brothers and prod us to act quickly, even interrupting our acts of worship, to reconcile with them.

Root out lust by which we imagine that others are objects for our dominance, manipulation, or pleasure.

Forgive us for discarding key relationships, especially our marriages, due to our hard hearts. Strengthen our resolve to practice enduring fidelity.

Enable us to speak directly and truthfully, avoiding all attempts to manipulate the perceptions of others by vain oaths or elusive speech.

Transform our hearts to make such faithfulness possible. Instruct and guide us by your Spirit. Protect us from foolish choices and hurtful actions. We pray in the name of Jesus who instructed us and modeled deep obedience that gave You glory. Amen. 

 

February 19

Sermon Text: Matthew 17:1-9

That we may listen and follow Jesus’ most difficult instructions as a response to the glory You bestowed upon him

Jesus, even a glimpse of your glory overwhelms us. We are easily dazzled when we gaze upon your presence. We are often smitten with an awareness of our guilt and unworthiness before You.

We do not know what to do. We fall down in dread and think we must understand and respond to You within the categories to which we are accustomed. We often fail to see that You both fulfill and transcend the categories of prophecy and divine instruction and command. You transcend every category of goodness and beauty.

We acknowledge that the voice of the Holy One, which we encounter in worship, preaching and instruction tells us over, and over again, to listen to You—You who are identified as God’s beloved Son. We are called and instructed to follow You who are worthy of our most diligent devotion. But we are slow to learn, slow to trust, slow to obey, slow to follow, slow to be the people whom You have created and enabled us to be by your Spirit.

Enable us to trust You and obey You. Enable us to speak boldly of your glory since You have been raised from death to life by the Most Holy One whom You trusted until the very end.

We trust in your presence and aid in everything as we listen to You.

Amen.

 

February 26

Sermon Text: Matthew 4:1-11

That we may immerse ourselves in your word and gain understanding and endurance from your Spirit

God, our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, we are dependent upon You in ways that we don’t even perceive. Some of the experiences that we would prefer to avoid are real opportunities to receive your provision and guidance, though we don’t always see them in that way.

Your Spirit generated Jesus’ life in Mary’s body. Your Spirit came upon Jesus at his baptism. Your Spirit led him into the wilderness for testing. And your Spirit surely aided him by helping him remember the scriptures he came to fulfill and embody as he countered the tempter who wanted him to use his identity as license for presumptuous and self-serving acts that would draw attention to himself and divert it from You.

Jesus’ life was, through and through, directed and empowered by your Spirit. Jesus’ life was, from start to finish an expression of your abundant grace.

Jesus calls us to follow him on his way to the cross, but that call is, from beginning to end, a call to walk with knowledge of the scripture and in the strength and guidance of your Spirit. May we immerse ourselves in your word, gain understanding and endurance as we trust your Spirit, and receive generous comfort and provision from your heaven-sent messengers. May we walk with Jesus in your abundant grace. Amen.