Heavenly Father – we thank you today for the righteousness of Christ. Today Lord, we acknowledge our corrupt, deceitful desires that were all part of our old former lives, and ask you through the spirit of God to renew our minds. Thank you Lord, that while we were still in our sins, you demonstrated your love for us by dying for rebels like us. Help us today to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Lord, conform Your children into the image and likeness of the Lord Jesus through the working of the Holy Spirit. Help us to look to Jesus and live as He lived in spirit and truth – seeking only to do Your will and to live a life that honours You. Help us as a church to make the right choices in our lives.. the choices that honour You.

Help us Lord, to be COMPASSIONATE -

Lord, we know you had compassion on the multitudes and fed them and cared for them. Lord, please open our eyes. Help us to see those around us that are in need of our compassion. Compel us to listen to them, to hear their needs. Give us the heart to be interested in their troubles and the ability and readiness to help where we can. May ‘New Life Church’ have a passion for the lost, like you did Lord, ministering not just to their physical needs, but also to their spiritual needs with the gospel of Jesus Christ. May we never forget that we too were once dead in our trespasses and sins. Please give us an understanding and compassionate heart that we will always be kind and more and more like Jesus in every way.

Help us to show KINDNESS.

Father, we are grateful for the kindness and generosity you show us every day and we ask that you help us to see those around us in the same way you do – as loved and treasured people. Teach us to respond in love and not in fear, to offer kindness even in our anger, to listen before lashing out. You have given us a spirit of love, kindness, gentleness and self-control. Show us Lord, what it means to offer these gifts to our neighbours and each other with confidence, conviction and a sound mind. Teach us as a church Lord to be kind, gentle, generous, loving, giving and forgiving wherever we may go.

Jesus, Teach us HUMILITY.

Gracious Father, reprogram our souls with your Word to remember the world is all about Jesus and not us. Help us not to think more highly of ourselves than we should, but to delight in regarding others as more important. Rescue us from the self-deception of pride by giving us a realistic view of our sinful nature and a more grateful attitude of your amazing grace, which rescued us from the wrath we deserved.

Father, as we battle against pride, keep us from a false humility that fails to recognize Your gracious gifts. Rather, help us steward what you have given us as faithful servants—servants ready to wear the garment of humility and serve you in whatever capacity would best serve the local body of New Life Church and bring praise to Your Name.

Lord help us submit to our elders as those who are guardians of our souls. Help the husbands amongst us lead with sacrificial love and the wives serve with humility out of reverence for Christ, and the children to honour their parents, reflecting the humility of Christ to all around us.

Lord, Your Son left the pleasures of heaven for a life of service on earth—and He gave his life for undeserving and ungrateful people. Help us have His attitude, remembering that You oppose the proud and give grace to the humble. You must become greater; we must become less.

Lord help us to live with MEEKNESS

Lord you have said in your word that ‘Blessed are the meek...’. Help us to be gentle, by not asserting ourselves over others in order to further our own agenda and get our own way, but rather to trust in you to direct our paths. Lord remind us that the only way we can restore a brother or sister who has fallen into sin is with a spirit of meekness and gentleness, by remembering our own spiritual bankruptcy and depravity. Father, draw us into meekness, soften our hearts, that you would show us through Jesus how to live in love day by day. We pray that you would forgive our sins and open our eyes and hearts to forgiveness for others in our lives. We ask that you would help us to guard our speech, that the words we say would be life-giving and glorifying to you.

PATIENCE

Thank You for Your loving patience with us dear Lord, in not giving us what we deserve and being long suffering with us. Help us echo this kindness in our relationships with each other at NLC, by not being petty as we interact with others, but instead overlooking minor faults with the love that “covers a multitude of sins”.

God, teach us what it means to have faith in silence. When we face trials that are beyond our understanding, help us to find peace because of a confidence in your character. Help us to be a church that is joyful, hopeful and patient in affliction. You set all things in accordance to your time. Remind us to wait patiently, pray constantly and find peace in your perfect plan. 

Lord we bow before You in loving allegiance, confessing You as Lord over all of our lives and all of creation. The fact that we all belong to one and the same church; that we have been redeemed by the same blood, and chosen by the same grace, and that we are all brethren in Christ, may this beautiful truth lead us to manifest a spirit of compassion, kindness, gentleness, humility, patience, meekness, unity and love to the praise of Your glory and for the joy of your people, in Jesus name we ask.

Amen.