Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life.

Everlasting God,

From our earliest days as children, many of us have known of you through your scriptures, we have seen how it has illuminated our path lighting the way for our feet. We have known it to be a delight when we meditate on it day and night. In this time, grant us to hear your word, whether read in the scriptures, illuminated in the sermon, or revealed to us by your Word who was and is and is to come, that we might learn what you have for us, binding it on our forehead and marking it on our hearts.

God of hope,

Give us the strength to hold fast to your promises as revealed in scripture, as revealed in your Word, that we might not lose hope but in your embrace find ourselves comforted. Many in our lives suffer this day, many in our world experience evil this day, many in our community, just outside our own doors, know too much that is not of you this day. Meet them at the intersection of their life and your hope. Make us ambassadors of your hope. As you reveal yourself to us in scripture and your Word, reveal yourself through us, through our every lives, that this church might represent you at all the intersections of life.

Holy God,

It is in this hope that you might be revealed through us that causes us to recommit ourselves to sanctification this day. Bring us to deeper commitment to seek you through the means of grace that you have given us: your scripture called the Bible, your community called the church, your Word called Christ, your speech called prayer; through your very presence in our lives called the Holy Spirit that we might be an encouragement to all who encounter us, for in encountering us, they encounter you.

Amen