A Prayer for Paradisiacal Living

Heavenly Father, Source of All Communion, we lament the bastardization of Your creation and decry the dissolution we have caused with our rebellion. We tried to play You and sullied both natural and spiritual bonds You put in place. Now our families are broken. Our congregations are splintering. And our nations are divided. 

We long for the communion You designed. Grant us a sense of reverence for Your common grace and the common good that holds Your masterpiece together. Give us a fierce sense of responsibility to seek Your original ordinances and consummate plans. Help us to now be agents of integration, not segregation. Repairers, not tearers. 

Lord Jesus, Head of the Church, we pray against the carte blanche judgmentalism and hostility that is in our hearts and we carry to the pew. Silence the counsel of the quarrelers and those who seek to stir up your members against one another. Make us full of charity and concord—arms and legs that know how to work together in Your Whole Body.

Soften our hearts of stone and steer them toward postures of harmony. Help us to see You, the Truth, in everyone we meet, and to witness to Your present reign as we point out it’s breaking forth wherever we look. Grant us the courage and peace to shrug off offenses, suppress bitterness, and not harbor any grudges.

Holy Spirit, Adopter of All Children of God, remind us of Your reconciling work in every difficult encounter we have. Disappoint the machinations of those who have been co-opted by the Accuser. Give us compassion toward wrongdoers, and liberate us from our consumeristic and devilish desire that has plagued every age since the fall: to rise above all and tear down everything.

Give us clean hands and pure hearts. Teach us to be comforters and restorers of the street. When we misuse goods and gifts that belong to you, convict us. When we ostracize others created in your image, chastise us. When we miss opportunities to be Your salt and light, turn us around.

Come, triune God, come. Come and regenerate our hearts. Come and renew the face of the earth. Come and restore Your paradise. And shepherd us into Your Kingdom for the sake of the world and as a blessing to the nations.

In Christ’s name—Amen.