Father, in Jesus name, we bless and praise you our God and our King for there is no one who infinitely comes close to comparing to You! As the song 'Build My Life' declares, You are holy! There is no one like You and there is none besides You. Open up our eyes in wonder and show us who You are, and fill us with Your heart, and lead us in Your love to those around us. And we will build our lives upon Your love for it is a firm foundation. We will put our trust in You alone and we will not be shaken.
O God, we can not even begin to fathom how awesome and great that You are. For Your greatness is unsearchable. You are the self-existing, eternal, self-sufficient, unchanging, God, the Creator of all things who has chosen to make human beings so that we could have a personal relationship with You. Yet we've chosen to go our own way and do our own thing. And in our rebellion, we are deserving of Your wrath. Thank You for loving the world so much that You gave Your one and only Son Jesus to come into the world to save us from our sin and reconcile us back to You.
Father, it is absolutely amazing to think that the eternal Son of God (Jesus) who shared glory with You from before the foundation of the world would leave from His throne in heaven where He was worshiped by angels. Thank You, Jesus, for coming down from heaven into this fallen world filled with people in rebellion against God not to condemn the world but to save it. When we consider what it says about You in Philippians 2:6-8, we are not only blown away by Your greatness but by Your humility (neither of which our minds can begin to fathom).
Jesus, You willingly left from the highest of heights to plunge to the deepest of depths to demonstrate the Father's love for us through Your death on the cross for our sins. Because of Your obedience to the Father's will, You have been raised to heights unimaginable as the eternal God-man forever. Would You continue to keep us in complete and utter awe of who You are and what You have done? Do not let us take You for granted. That no matter where we are, what we are doing, who we are with, and the topic on the table may You and You only always be the issue.
Give us hearts, like the Apostle Paul, where everything is about Jesus and nothing is about us. For Paul it was not about his comfort, fame, fortune, popularity, reputation, results, and rights - it was about Christ and those that Christ came into the world for (people). Like Paul, bring us to the place where knowing Jesus is our greatest desire.
God, search our hearts and show us our impure motives, our desires for comfort, fame, popularity, a good reputation among men, our desire to be liked and applauded by the crowd, where we are demanding our rights because it is more about us than about You and others. By Your Spirit, help us to see the sinfulness of these things like never before and help us to put them to death. Help us to see the heights from which we have fallen away from You, to repent of our sin, and to return to You our first love with our whole hearts. Revive Your Church and use us in even greater ways in the days ahead to show forth the reality of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, to the world. In Jesus' name, Amen!!!