The following prayer was written to enable congregational response to a sermon on the Tenth Commandment, "Thou shalt nor covet." It interacts with these words of James chapter 4.1-3
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, you did not covet the highest place or desire the biggest name
Instead for love’s sake you gave up position and reputation.
R. Teach us to covet that same loving obedience and to desire your “Well done”.
Lord Jesus, wherever you went you brought hope and a new future
Feeding the hungry, healing the broken, embracing the stranger.
R. Teach us to covet hope for others, and to desire the gift of hope-building.
Lord Jesus, you went about doing good, and giving yourself for others,
Living and giving as the embodied love of God.
R. Teach us to covet generosity, and to desire the gift of giving ourselves away.
Lord Jesus you came as God’s peacemaker and reconciler,
Teaching forgiveness, bearing sin, rebuilding ruined relationships.
R. Teach us to covet a forgiving spirit, and to desire the ways of peace.
Lord Jesus your food was to do the will of God, always and everywhere,
Telling and showing the ways and the cost of the kingdom of God.
R. Teach us to covet a willing obedience, and to desire your will, done on earth.
Lord Jesus you are the Bread of Life and the Living Water,
You nourish our hungry souls and refresh our thirsty hearts.
R. Teach us to covet the daily bread of faithful obedience to your call,
And to desire the living water of your Spirit, springing up to eternal life.
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