GREETING
Blessed are those who love you and enjoy your company, God;
for beauty, peace, joy, life and your love will be forever theirs.
Be our blessing today, God of grace and glory. We love you.
HYMN 160/161 “Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart”
PSALM 119:169-176
PRAYER
(Consider some of the following concerns of people for prayers of thanksgiving, intercession, and petition. Follow with your personal prayer list.)
For a heart that is pure For those tainted with immorality
For a heart that is full of love For those with conflicting desires
For a love that is pure, unmixed, untainted For those trying to serve two masters
For pure motives in all we do Free us from distractions
For pure thoughts Free us from temptations
To be totally in tune with God For a pure understanding of our faith
To will God’s will For a clear vision of God
To totally surrender to God’s love For clear knowledge of God
For other hearts totally given to God For a church that enables purity
To be chaste and virginal For pastors with pure hearts
To recover a chaste heart after straying For secular leaders with pure hearts
That God purify us and purge all our sin For a pure-hearted nation and world
For purity in our marriages and families ______________________________
For purity in the work we produce ______________________________
For purity in our recreation and entertainment ______________________________
THE LORD'S PRAYER
SCRIPTURE LESSON
(Choose a passage of scripture to read. It can be a chapter, a paragraph, or a particular story. Daily lectionaries are available online or in print that assign a lesson each day from the gospels, epistles, Old Testament and psalms on a three-year cycle. Or you can create a plan to read a book of the Bible, or the whole Bible. Then follow the steps below.)
Read a passage of scripture. Read it out loud, very slowly and carefully as if for the first time. Continue reading until a word, phrase or sentence captures your attention. Stop there to repeat the word, phrase or sentence over and over, listening to it deeply in your heart.
Reflect on why the passage got your attention. Consider the area of your life to which this may apply. Is God saying something to you in this passage? Take time to listen carefully to whatever God may be saying to you.
Respond to God in prayer (or with journaling, music, art or whatever you choose) about what you have heard. Ask questions. Open yourself to God’s will for you.
Rest in God’s company. Be still and quiet. Move beyond thinking, practicing interior silence. Let yourself be open to God’s presence. Savor this moment with God.
PRAYER
God of all blessing,
Jesus said that the pure in heart are blessed, and indeed they are.
But the pure in heart are hated by the people in this world,
because our purity is not self-centered and addicted as they are.
Those who waste their lives partying, hate those unwilling to join
in their drunken, addle-brained, life-wasting depravity.
The adulterers, fornicators and other perverters of sexual holiness,
hate those who want to remain pure for their marriage.
The politicals, ethnic elitists, religious extremists and nationalists
hate anyone who will not join and support their causes.
The living dead, sinking their lives into entertainment of screens,
care nothing for those discovering life is best elsewhere.
The retailers shout over and over that we must buy their products,
because the flotsam they peddle will make us well-loved.
Many there are who campaign and press for ownership of our hearts,
but, by your grace, we are keeping ourselves for you alone.
God of all blessing,
Jesus said that the pure in heart are blessed, but we wonder.
You have forgiven us, and washed away our pollution,
but can our hearts be pure if they stand empty, void of care?
Is there any purity standing unengaged and without compassion
for the hungry, the poor, the powerless and the sick?
Is there any purity found in locking ourselves away from it all?
Is this not just another impure form of selfishness?
Where is the purity in dodging getting our hands dirty working
to pull to safety those drowning in the world’s filth?
Can a pure heart, commanded by you, stand by, doing nothing?
Some of our best prayers are spoken with our sweat.
Can our hearts be truly pure if we refuse to stand beside sinners,
as we flee their contagion and neglect their wounds?
Jesus’ pure heart was revealed to us when he refused to shun sinners.
Surely our hearts can only be pure when we imitate him.
God of all blessing,
Jesus said the pure in heart are blessed, that they will see you.
Test our hearts. Purge them of any compromising sin.
Let the refiner’s fire burn away any impurity you find in us.
Cast out anything in us tainted, immoral, self-serving or unholy.
Make us true to your loving way through and through.
Let our deeds echo our words, and our words echo our thoughts.
Let our whole being echo your loving and holy will.
And let it be plain for all to see that our hearts burn for you, God.
Yet save us from needing the approval of other people.
Keep our purity untainted, but at the same time, also unreserved.
Let ours be a purity that is poured out in loving service.
Refine our hearts with total love for you and total surrender to you.
Grant us virtue like that of Christ, chaste and righteous.
God of all blessing,
Jesus said the pure in heart are blessed. Make this true in us.
As you review our integrity, we pray you will discover
our character in plumb, our morals sterling, and love genuine.
Amen.
SILENCE AND COMMITMENT
(Pause to reflect and listen. Work to push out of your mind any distracting or irrelevant thoughts. Concentrate your thoughts on the words of the hymns and choruses you have sung, the prayers you have spoken and the scriptures you have read. Be aware of what you are feeling. Listen for anything that God might be saying to you in this time you have spent together. As God responds to your prayer-time, seek guidance for how you can best respond to God’s will. Then commit to serving God’s will for you.)
HYMN 402 “Lord, I Want to Be a Christian”
CLOSING PRAYER
God who takes yesterday’s evil,
and turns it into today’s blessing,
help us to see what Christ sees
when troubles trample over us.
Help us live today trusting you
to know the way to all goodness.
Send us out in faith to see you
working to turn evil into good.
Reveal to us the many wonders
you initiate everywhere around us.
Help us hold to the eternal truth
that you will love and care for us,
and this day can bring us no evil
that you cannot turn to a blessing. Amen.
Copyright 2020. Robert D. Ingram, 32746 Jourden Rd., Albany, Ohio 45710 (dr.bobingram@gmail.com). Used by permission.
