Good morning,
The topic that I will be addressing in my prayer is that of "Community Values and Corporate Ethics." But before I begin, I would like to read a portion of Scripture that I believe is fitting. Eccles. 12:13-14 says,
Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether it is good or evil.
Let us pray.
Our Father in heaven,
We come before you acknowledging that we are miserable and wretched men, wholly inclined to only evil all the time. And that is why we cry out to you.
You know our hearts, how we are utterly unable and unwilling to know and do your will. You know the depth of our depravity; how we are prone to rebel against your Word, to murmur against your providence, and altogether disposed to do the will of the flesh and of the devil.
Because our hearts are so inclined, we recognize that we have the ability to destroy our lives and the structures of society. Indeed, we have the potential in and of ourselves to quench all that makes for life and happiness.
Certianly it is the case that you have already begun to give us over to our sin; we have already created for ourselves our own little hell.
To what else can we attributed the economic downturn? Are we not reaping the fruit of the seeds of greed and personal pleasure that we have sown? Instead of craving you and seeking our satisfaction in you, we have hungered for power. As a result you have made us weak. Instead of thirsting for righteousness, we have sought unlawful and excessive gain. So you have made us lean.
But if our sorrows were limited to the financial realm alone, we would still have reason to rejoice. But we know that our poverty reaches far beyond the financial sector.
Lord, our nation and our community suffer deeper wounds because we have attacked its basic building block. We have sought the destruction of the family, and so we have sought the destruction of our culture.
Why is it that the towers of America are falling? Is it not because we have sacrificed millions of our children to the gods of convenience and self-pursuit? Is it not because we have rejected and redefined the sacred institution of marriage? Is not the soul of our nation perishing because our men have abdicated their roles as fathers, husbands, and leaders?
Lord, we admit before you that we have valued what is worthless and we have embraced that which will lead to our destruction.
But in view of our sin and the untold misery that is associated with it, we come to you and ask that your mercy would be upon us. We pray, O God, that by your Spirit we would experience renewal in our land, in our homes, and in our churches. And so we beseech you to you would take away from ourselves and those around us all blindness, weakness, and perverseness of heart. We pray that you would purge from our midst all atheism, ignorance and idolatry, and that by your grace we would be able to know, do and submit to your will in all things.
My prayer is that you would help us to mimic the angels that do surround you in heaven. These creatures delight to do your bidding at every moment. They in take joy in submitting to you in all things. It is my desire that you would quicken our hearts so that we might copy their zeal, their sincerity of heart, their cheerfulness in action, their constancy and diligence.
For this we ask in the strong name of Jesus Christ, who alone can save us from our sins. Amen.
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