Daily Prayer Guide ~ May 2 – Praying as the People of God

Read:

1 Peter 2:4-10

⁴ As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—⁵ you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house ^c to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion,

a chosen and precious cornerstone,

and the one who trusts in him

will never be put to shame.” ^g

⁷ Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

“The stone the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone,” ^j

⁸ and, “A stone that causes people to stumble

and a rock that makes them fall.” ^k

They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Consider:

As a child, I grew up being part of the church and over the years I saw many of the good and bad, beautiful and ugly sides of church life.  For a while as a young man I rejected much of church, based on what I saw, and thought I understood what church was about.  But then the Lord had a way of bringing me back to himself and I had the privilege of rediscovering the beauty and preciousness of it and it had little to do with peoples agendas, or buildings and meetings, and everything to do with Jesus.  I discovered that our understanding of church and God’s understanding and purposes of church are not always the same. 

This passage is so rich in connecting the Old Testament to our place with God and helping us see who we are in Christ today.  The consistency of God through history is a great gift and this passage tells us some very important things about what a church is and how we are to be a part of it.   

God is building us together as followers of Jesus into a living body and he is using our lives to build and establish his church.  He even says that we are members of a holy and royal priesthood, that each member of the church has spiritual responsibility to live making sacrifices to God.

The church is built with Christ as our cornerstone, He is the one who sets the pace, direction and dimensions of our living church.  To us who are part of this living church, having Jesus as our cornerstone is a wonderful and precious truth.  Those who would wish the church to be built on some other foundation will always be disappointed.

As members of his church, God is making us into a holy nation of kingdom citizens.  We are to be distinct from the rest of the world, not like it.  We are special in God’s sight with an extraordinary role in the world, to declare God’s praises to a dark world.  We are to have something unique, distinct and life-giving to offer the world, and it will be found by experiencing God’s mercy through Jesus. 

Today, the church is incredibly precious to me because it is the people of God whose lives he is knitting together to be the holy church of Jesus Christ.  If someone were to say they would like to see Jesus in our world today, they should look no further than the church, because that is where you would find him. 

During this season of coronavirus, the church has been the hands and feet of God in so many communities and in so many ways, gathering tremendous amounts of money, food and supplies to distribute to people who desperately need them.  They have offered prayer and support to people struggling. They have brought healing to hurting hearts and hope to discouraged souls.  All these sacrifices through the hands and feet of God’s people in the name of Jesus is the living church that God is building us to be.

It is right that we long to gather together again, because our hearts have been knit together by God himself to be the body of Jesus in our community.   

Prayer: Father, Thank you for making us to be the living stones that you build together to form the body of Christ in our community.  Forgive us for the times we have been critical of your church and help us to be the royal priests you have called us to be. 

·      In your words, Thank God for his church and bringing you to be part of it.

·      Thank him for choosing us and setting us apart from the world to be his holy people. 

·      Ask him to help you be a priest that makes spiritual sacrifices to him through your life. 

·      Ask that He would cause Pleasant Valley to be the body of Jesus in our city. 

·      Pray for the food drives that are going on to be a sufficient support for those in our city experiencing the loss of jobs due to COVID-19

Father, May we be Your holy people in Your holy nation in our city.  May we be Your hands and feet and be the demonstration of Your presence in our city.   Amen