Transcription
[Pastor Brian Kiley]
Welcome to Bridgeway Christian Church’s Daily Advent Prayer. My name is Brian Kiley and I’ve been part of the Bridgeway community for 13 years. Today is Friday, December 12th, and on Fridays during Advent we will be praying selections from the Book of Common Prayer, which includes both scripture passages and pre-written prayers.
I invite you to pray along with me as I pray out loud. In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Isaiah 40 verse 3. Let us confess our sins against God and neighbor. Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep.
We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against your holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not have done.
And apart from your grace, there is no health in us. O Lord, have mercy on us. Spare all those who confess their faults.
Restore all those who are penitent according to your promises declared to all people in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake that we may now live a godly, righteous, and sober life to the glory of your name. Amen.
Grant to your faithful people, merciful Lord, pardon and peace, that we may be cleansed from all our sins and serve you with a quiet mind through Jesus Christ our Lord. O Lord, open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise. O God, make speed to save us.
O Lord, make haste to help us. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Praise the Lord. The Lord’s name be praised. Our King and Savior now draws near.
O come, let us adore him. O come, let us sing unto the Lord. Let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and show ourselves glad in him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are all the depths of the earth, and the heights of the hills are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands prepared the dry land. O come, let us worship and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker. For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
Psalm 106. O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is gracious, and his mercy endures forever. Who can express the mighty acts of the Lord, or show forth all his praise?
Blessed are those who act with justice, and who always do righteousness. Remember me, O Lord, according to the favor that you show your people. O visit me with your salvation, that I may see the felicity of your chosen, and rejoice in the gladness of your people, and give thanks with your inheritance.
We have sinned like our fathers, and we have done wrong and dealt wickedly. Our fathers regarded not your wonders in Egypt, neither did they keep your great goodness in remembrance, but were disobedient at the sea, even at the Red Sea. Nevertheless, he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his power known.
He rebuked the Red Sea, and it was dried up. So he led them through the deep, as through a wilderness. And he saved them from the adversary’s hand, and delivered them from the hand of the enemy.
As for those who troubled them, the waters overwhelmed them, there was not one of them left. Then they believed his words, and sang praises unto him. But soon they forgot his works, and would not wait for his counsel.
A craving came upon them in the wilderness, and they tempted God in the desert. So he gave them their desire, and sent leanness into their soul. They were envious of Moses also in the camp, and of Aaron the holy ones of the Lord.
So the earth opened up, and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram. And fire was kindled in their company, the flame burnt up the ungodly. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen. Luke 1, 68 through 79. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel.
He has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty Savior, born of the house of his servant David, through his holy prophets he promised of old, that he would save us from our enemies, from the hands of all who hate us. He promised to show mercy to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant.
This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham, to set us free from the hands of our enemies, free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight, all the days of our life. You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins, in the tender compassion of our God. The dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness, and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet in the way of peace.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us.
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. Amen.
O Lord, show your mercy upon us, and grant us your salvation. O Lord, guide those who govern us, and lead us in the way of justice and truth. Clothe your ministers with righteousness, and let your people sing with joy.
O Lord, save your people, and bless your inheritance. Give peace in our time, O Lord, and defend us by your mighty power. Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgotten, nor the hope of the poor be taken away.
Create in us clean hearts, O God, and take not your Holy Spirit from us. Blessed Lord, who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning, grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and the comfort of your Holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross, that everyone might come within reach of your saving embrace. So clothe us in your Spirit, that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you, for the honor of your name.
Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we, your unworthy servants, give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving kindness to us, and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life, but above all, for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace and for the hope of glory. And we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts, we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen. Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God. Glory to God, whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to him from this generation to generation in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever.
Amen.