(Intercession/Petition) Expression of dependence on God’s grace for specific people, circumstances, and issues, drawn from 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3: 
 
We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; 3 constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father, 

Father,  

We praise you that you have drawn us together today by your providence. We thank you for your sustaining grace, your justification in Christ, your work through the Spirit, and the instrumentality of the prayers of this congregation for each other that finds us here, worshipping you. 

We thank you for those who have labored in quiet diligence at their workplaces, in their families, in their neighborhoods, and among this congregation, in encouragement, in rebuke and exhortation, in discipleship, and in testimony of the Gospel. We thank you for the immediate fruit of their labors, visible in our assembly today in our growth and perseverance in Christ, as well as in the future returns that you will yet raise up for your own glory. 

We rejoice, knowing that there are many here who have selflessly, lovingly, perhaps even despairingly, ministered through the sharing of their time, energy, and wisdom in the instrumentality of your bringing us together in perseverance and worship. We praise you for the great work that you are doing among us. 

Each of us has trials, hopes, fears, sorrows, needs, circumstances, and joys that are known to this Body, as well perhaps to only a few, or only to you, Father. Through the ministry of your Word and our pursuit of the privilege of discipling and being discipled, we ask that you would draw us together this morning in greater dependence on your grace and certain expectation that you will keep every promise that you have made, that you will sustain every Believer in their every need, and that you will work all things for good, which is your glory through our deliverance by your faithfulness. 

Continue to burden us in prayer for each other and for believers throughout the world, and may every circumstance ultimately be a joyful testimony of your sovereign Providence. 

Through our worship, our fellowship, and the exposition of your Word, we ask that you would draw our eyes away from ourselves, wean us from carnal expectations, strengthen us in our work of faith, increase our labors of love, direct us in steadfastness and in hope, and sharpen our reliance on our Lord Jesus Christ, given for us by the grace of the Father.  

This we pray in Christ’s name,