Our Prayer (2022-12-25)
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Emmanuel – God is with us!
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we join with the heavenly choir, and the billions of Christians everywhere in singing and praising,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to those on whom God is pleased.”
We will go everywhere and tell of this Good News, this greatest gift and mystery,
that Christ, our new born King is born,
born is the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
born that we may die no more,
born to raise us from the earth,
born to give us second birth
to usher in a new Kingdom of justice, peace and joy
So we bow down and worship you. We pray for Your Spirit to awaken and enlighten our hearts and minds to ponder on this glorious mystery, to be in touch with all God’s reality, that all the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in Christ and nowhere else!
But we are also painfully aware of all the troubles, diseases, wars, pains, sufferings, sins and evils in the world, and in our midst. We groan together with the whole creation while we wait eagerly for the redemption of our bodies. O listen to our cry,
“O Come, O Come Emmanuel!
to ransom captives that mourn in lonely exile here,
O Free us from Satan's tyranny, and save us from depths of hell.
O remind us that You are Emmanuel, the God who is with us, and for us
You are born to be the Suffering Servant, to be despised and rejected,
born to be a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,
Born to suffer and die for our sins, so that we may be healed and made whole again.
So while we have troubles on earth, you are the Emmanuel who will always be with us, strengthening us and forever praying for us. So we praise you and thank You, O Emmanuel, and we rejoice even in our sorrows, knowing that our this light and momentary troubles is preparing for us an eternal glory beyond all comparison.
So in faith and hope we declare,
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel! Come and be born in us!
As we celebrate your first coming, we pray earnestly for your second coming,
Come in Your full honor and glory,
to judge all peoples, nations and governments,
to right all wrongs, to renew the whole creation,
and to cast out sin and death forever,
that the Kingdom of this world will become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ:
and that He shall reign for ever and ever.
O come O come Emmanuel!