(Intercession & Thanksgiving) Praying for the Bride of Christ, drawn from Ephesians 5:25-27: 

Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 

Almighty Lord and Heavenly Father,  

We praise you for your eternal purpose to save a people for yourself from all nations, through the redeeming sacrifice of Christ. We praise you that your purpose is not merely prospective, but that you have effectually called your chosen out of their sin, death, and destruction and have redeemed, discipled, purified, and esteemed us. As we are met together in Word, and in song, and in prayer, we ask that your Spirit would confirm in our minds the true faith, to the end that we would praise and glorify you through your son, Jesus Christ, and be presented holy and blameless to him and through him. 

We thank you for Summit Woods Baptist Church, and for the hope that we have in your name. You humble the proud, turn the raging of the nations to naught, and will destroy every false philosophy. You are the protector of our souls, and we rejoice in you as your people, for you have given us salvation, identity, fellowship, cleansing, belonging, and the stability of your sovereign purposes. 

We thank you for the great freedoms that we enjoy, and in which we meet today openly, publicly, and unperturbedly. We ask that our hope would be in you as the giver of these freedoms of worship and speech, rather than in those liberties, themselves. Grant us faithful stewardship of these freedoms in our worship and in our exaltation of you. 

We pray for your churches all throughout the world. In freedom or in oppression, grow your churches in faith, guard them in hope, protect them in love, multiply them through Gospel testimony, and grant all of us faithful endurance and steadfast testimony amidst the oppression of temporal persecution and doctrinal corruption.  

“Grant that, in unity of voice and heart, we may glorify and praise your great and majestic name—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—both now and forevermore.”

All this we pray in the name of Christ, our head and savior, Amen.