9/11

This was the prayer our pastor, Bill Hawk, prayed yesterday at church. He says it's a combination of his own words, John Piper's & Scottie Smith's. I appreciated it greatly.

Prayer on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11

We lift our hearts to You, our King with one voice this morning. And with that voice we acknowledge:

That You alone are God

That You alone are King

That You alone sit on the heavenly throne ruling with wisdom and power.

That "though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet…"

Today we grieve at how far we have fallen and how fully the peace of creation has been violated by sin and brokenness…Nothing in our lifetime has made that more real than the memory of what happened 10 years ago today.

We grieve at the loss that so many people suffered on that day. We pray that they will be comforted by You and your people today as they remember that painful day of loss.

Even as we remember that day of terror, we also choose to remember You, Lord Jesus. You are the Prince of Peace. You are our Peace – the One who destroys all hostilities; those between God and man and man and man. You have come to restore broken things "as far as the curse is found".

You did this by transforming the very worse day of sin and terror into a day of salvation, redemption and hope. The very day when humans tortured and crucified You, You made it a day of salvation by taking the curse of the cross upon Yourself so that we would not never have to face the curse of sin and death. Your death was the death of death itself and the promise of eternal peace.

Because of You, terror is terrified and defeated, we do not have to live in fear. Because of you there will be no more tears and brokenness. So, we do not grieve as those who have no hope, but as people of Hope. Because of You there will someday be no more war, evil, and sorrow.

So, our work and witness for You, King Jesus, is not in vain. We can live as peacemakers, sowing Gospel peace with the absolute assurance that a harvest of righteousness is being raised up and will be reaped. Knowing that as Your Word says, the knowledge of Your glory will cover the entire earth as the waters cover the sea, including Manhattan, Bagdad and Tehran.

So we say, "Maranatha!" Come Lord Jesus, come! Until that day, give us all the mercy, grace, forgiveness and peace that we need for this day.

Hearts and minds turn toward the Muslim world with longing- the kind of longing that brought Jesus to the cross. They don’t have the son, they reject the son, our prayer is that their eyes would be open, see the glory of Jesus and embrace Him as Lord.

We bring this prayer to You through our High Priest who suffered and died so that we might have eternal Hope. Amen.