 Good morning, everyone. Welcome to morning prayer. If you're here with us in the prayer room, would you stand and those of you who are at home joining us welcome. I want to encourage you right now if you would to just grab your Bible, your journal, your cup of coffee, whatever it is and let's really come in not just even with our physical presence but even with the focus of our heart this morning. Let's draw near to the Lord and over the next several moments I really believe that God's going to intersect us with his presence and invite us to draw near to him to not only minister to his heart which is our primary calling as sons and daughters of God but also he's going to minister to us in a way that only the Father can. Jesus made reference to asking the Father for our daily bread. You know one of the awesome things about our Father is that he knows exactly what we need today even when we don't know what we need today he knows and he knows how to take care of us he knows how to nourish us and how to sustain us and prepare us and strengthen us for the the good works and the purposes that he has for us. Psalm 33 says shout for joy to the Lord oh you righteous praise befits the upright give things to the Lord with the leer make melody to him with the harp of ten strings sing to him a new song and play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts for the word of the Lord is upright and all his work is done in faithfulness he loves righteousness and justice and the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. Today that's what we're waking up to we're waking up to the fact that there's nowhere in this world there's no place we can go that his steadfast love isn't already waiting for us there's no alleyway there's no office there's no moment there's no conversation there's no moment in your car there's no closet you can climb into where his steadfast love is not waiting to overtake us and to bless us and to impact shape our lives so we're drawing near to that that father today and our response the heart overflow of our life is to rejoice it's to worship him and it's to offer up our shouts our praise our worship and our love and our affection so wherever you're at this morning let's just go before him today prepare our hearts father today we draw near to you the steadfast one the faithful one the one who is faithful to his covenant promises even to a thousand generations you're faithful to us you're faithful to our families you're faithful to our children our grandchildren you're faithful to those that are near to us and those that are far from us because there's no place that we can run from your presence and there's no place that the enemy can withhold your steadfast faithfulness and your love or today we are here to minister to your heart knowing that in you are all the springs and the fountains of life Lord we want to drink freely from your presence we want to touch your heart and in response we want to receive light from you today we worship you father you're so good you're so glorious you're so faithful any description good beyond our capacity to comprehend closer than the next breath that we take stronger than any weapon that the enemy could ever forge against us our faithful father what a joy it is to draw near to you and offer to you our shouts of joy songs of worship and adoration or today would you rejoice over us the presence in the nearness of the land this great apostolic prayer that Paul prayed for the church beginning verse number nine he says it's my prayer that your love may abound so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and the praise of God inspired in scripture and we're saying you have your promises Lord would you do this in us so Lord we're asking today that this prayer that Paul said this is what I want and this is what I will do you'll ask me for it I'll do it so today we come to call you in the remembrance of your word we ask father would you cause the love that we have for you as it is called us to as our first command the way that we can love you with all of ourselves without you own strength our love is weak our love is small our love is conditional our love is circumstantial but the love that we have for you is the result of the love that you have since it encounters your love the more our heart loves you back increase this morning in us personally that wherever we're at today we're at in our journey of following Jesus Lord would you increase our capacity to love you and to love others more love is patient love is kind love does not keep record of wrongs done it does not self-seeking Lord would you take that agape kind of love that you've loved us with would you increase it in us today the second great commandment which is to love our neighbor as ourself father in an age where so many the heart has become hardened isolated bitter unforgiving and even hateful or those of us who are marked by your presence filled by your Holy Spirit called by your name Lord would to have a greater capacity the increase of our ability to love one another that the world might know we were your disciples you said let it be according knowledge and all discernment increase in our knowledge of your will your desire and your presence Lord the great price you paid to love us Lord would you give us discernment to be able to see people the way you see them to be able to discern your emotions towards us and towards others Lord that our heart would not grow cold Jesus said that in the last days the love of many would grow cold we want our heart to be white hot our love for increase not decrease not even to stay stagnant the Lord for there to be increased and in response Lord that we would also have discernment see others the way you see them that we're able to love them the way you love them that we have supernatural revelation and knowledge that enables us to love them because we see through an eternal perspective and Lord in the middle of our circumstances in the middle of our battles and challenges do not allow our hearts to become hardened and shut off but Lord would you turn on the the pipeline of eternal kind of love to love you and to love others Lord we say that we're so limited in our natural capacity to only see through the flesh but we want to see through the eyes of your Holy Spirit's leadership that we can love you and love others with a greater capacity Holy Spirit would you help us do of what is excellent Christ Lord on that day that we stand before you we want to be like you hey when we stand before you don't want to be caught off guard by who you are and by the graciousness the goodness Lord we want that now that causes us to love the things you love love the people that you love Lord would you put an excellent spirit within us and cause us to walk in purity cause us to walk blameless before you now and not just on that day Lord in where there's areas where we need to forgive there's areas that we need to repent we're asking that you would grant us repentance says that the kindness of the Lord leads us to repentance and the places that we become offended at you or bitter towards others places that maybe we've sinned against others Lord today help us to walk in a spirit of purity before you God that your love may have no hindrance to flow in us and to flow through us remove all hindrances today all barriers to your love Lord sin and hindrances those things that weigh us down we want to walk blameless spotless pure and fully spirit the great sanctifier would you do a work in us would you do a work in your church today to refine us to purify us to highlight those things that maybe are in our life that are not pleasing to you we say your will be done Father your kingdom come we only want to do those things that we see you doing we only want to say what you're saying anything that injures your heart Lord we want to surrender it quickly and we want to walk in purity before you give us spotless and blameless heart today Jesus name by ourselves we've tried it by ourselves we turn back to you and say Lord we need you would you break our hearts for what breaks yours break our hearts Lord for truly what breaks yours Lord as you drew near to Jerusalem that you wept over the city over them God you cried pray that you would give us eyes to see our city the way that you see our city Lord give us eyes to see people the way you see people Lord give us eyes give us your eyes and Lord I pray that you would give us tears that when you give us your eyes that we would soak our city with tears that we would truly lament over our city over the brokenness over the pain over the devouring of our children God over the enemy that is surrounded our city God would you give us eyes to see Lord would you give us eyes to see give us eyes Lord to see what you see it's eyes God our own vision for far too long and we have made a greater mess because of it Lord would you give us eyes would you give us your eyes would you give us tears God would you give us your tears Lord God may we not miss this hour missed it 2000 years ago God give us eyes Lord give us eyes Lord to see give us tears to cry give us your heart Lord God just begin to ask the Lord for eyes to see your city eyes to see wherever your city is at begin to ask for eyes to see that city or give us eyes that we may weep over our city Lord God for Kalamazoo not with pity Lord God but with a burden with the burden that you have for the city give us eyes to see Richland Plainwell Ossego Portage Three Rivers God Vicksburg Battle Creek Lord Augusta Lord give us eyes drive by people and not see them God but give us eyes Lord eyes that weep for people and may those tears Lord God be deep authentic prayers Lord for them Lord give us eyes we ask for eyes God to see your people that you so love that you came and that you gave your life for Lord give us eyes give us eyes what breaks yours Lord for our sons and our daughters Lord for what they're going through let our hearts break for what breaks yours Lord for our marriages Lord let our hearts break for what breaks yours Lord family members let our hearts break for what breaks yours for the lost and the forgotten let our hearts break for what breaks yours Lord for the addicted the depressed the fearful Lord let our hearts break for what breaks yours for our city Lord let our hearts break for what breaks yours God let our hearts God break our hearts Lord we invite you to break our hearts God give us ears Lord the very senses that you have of our bodies to encounter you to experience you and know you Lord God use them to move us God to motivate us to stir to stand God as watchman to be the people that you have us to be a prayerful hearts Lord for what breaks yours break our hearts God as said in Matthew chapter nine it says that when he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion for them because they were like sheep that had no shepherd they had been abused they'd been stricken and he told his disciples to pray the Lord of the harvest to raise up laborers to go out into the field harvest is plentiful the laborers are few i want you to take just 30 seconds right now and in your own words we get to ask the father to open the eyes of your heart to be able to see your city community people that are around you in close proximity to you that are far from christ to see them the way he sees them jesus we want to see like you see we want our heart to be moved with compassion like your heart is moved or do we want to drive through our city drop off our kids at school go to work places that we shop though people that we walk by downtown Lord we want our hearts we want our emotions and our spirit to come into alignment with yours as you see those who are lost who have been taken captive by the enemy to do his will we want our hearts to be moved like your heart is moved just ask him use your words to say father would you give me a heart like jesus lives today we say be lifted up being salted in this city today jesus be lifted up by the people who bear your name you said if i'm lifted up i will draw all men to myself jesus says we lift you up today in this city we declare from farthest corner to the nearest neighbor the name of jesus will be glorified in this city that through our lives that we give you the praise and the glory and the honor for it in jesus name thank you for joining us this morning if you're at home we remind you as we always do that we're a praying church morning noon and night lifting up praise intercession and exaltation from the center of our city we would love for you to join us down here at the radiant city center come and let's let's have eyes and faith to really see the difference our prayers make and our hearts be impacted as we seek him together have a great day