 Welcome to morning prayer on this beautiful day that the Lord has made, that we have the intentionality and the awesome privilege of rejoicing and be glad in it. In Psalm 97, the Psalmist writes, the Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice. Let the many coastlands be glad. Clouds and thick darkness are all around him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around. His lightnings light up the world. The earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. This morning we have the high honor of rejoicing. Scripture just said that the whole earth rejoices and right now we have the privilege and the honor of being a part of that sound and that cadence and that incredible noise that gets to come forth. And so regardless of what we are going through this morning, I want us to enter into his presence with rejoicing, to literally let the overflow of love be poured out before him. So Jesus we come before you Lord and regardless of what we're going through and regardless of what we're thinking, regardless of what has happened and regardless of what we're walking into despite not knowing that we're walking into it Lord. We make the purposeful choice right now Lord to rejoice. Lord we rejoice in you. You are good Lord. You are awesome Lord. You are loving. Your steadfast love endures forever. And so Lord because of who you are, we rejoice Lord. Lord I pray this morning that we would be like the mountains that melt like wax before you as we gaze upon you, as we set our eyes upon you Lord God with all of our hurts and pain literally melt away like wax. As we set our attention, as we set our hearts upon you with the posture of rejoicing in your goodness and rejoicing in your awesomeness and rejoicing in your kindness and your compassion. Lord God we make the choice to rejoice. Like Paul said rejoice again I say rejoice. So we rejoice Lord. We rejoice Lord you reign. Our problems don't reign you reign. Our pain doesn't reign you reign. Our situations don't reign you reign. You reign above it all Lord. You reign Jesus. You reign. And so Lord because you reign we rejoice. We rejoice Lord. We can walk into this day knowing that since you reign we can rejoice. So we rejoice Lord. In the midst of the pressure God we rejoice. In the midst of the tension God we rejoice. In the midst of the loss Lord we rejoice. We rejoice because you reign. You reign Lord. And so we rejoice in you. We rejoice in you God. We rejoice in you Lord. We rejoice. We rejoice God. We rejoice Lord. We rejoice. We rejoice Lord. Feel this power for lack of a, around the phrase my Jesus. My Jesus. You're my Jesus. My savior. Lord there is none like. So Lord with every breath, with all that we have, with all that we are, Lord we worship you. We lift up your name. My Jesus. My Jesus. Tell Him that. Just say those words to Him. Tell Him that. You are my Jesus. My Jesus. My Jesus. My savior. Lord there is none like you. We are here this morning because we love you. But we're in this room because we love you. That's why we're here. Because we love you. Because you are worthy. And Lord, I pray right now that the personal reality of who you are, that you are my Jesus, that you are each of our Jesus. Lord I pray that that would become more and more public. Oh Lord God, that Kalamazoo would know you as my Jesus. That Portage would know you as my Jesus. That Richland, Ossego, Plainwell would know you as my Jesus. Lord God, may the reality of who you are to us, in us, with us and through us Lord God. May it come out of us. May it come out of us Lord God and may we lead others to know you. Lord, would you rise a holy conviction within all of your sons and your daughters Lord God to share the personal love that we have and that we've experienced that we've come to know in you Lord God. May the love of Jesus that reigns within your people in this area Lord God in Southwest Michigan become more and more public Lord God. Would we truly Lord raise up a shout? A shout for you? Would we truly rejoice in you Lord God? May it not be quiet any longer. May it not be contained any longer. May it not be put into the basement of our hearts Lord God. Any longer but Lord may become more and more public. May the reality of who you are become more and more public within us and outside of us Lord God. Jesus, we love you and we want others to come to know you and love you too. So Lord would you provoke us, would you shake us? Would you even agitate us Lord God? To be the people that you have for us to be. Jesus, would you shake us, would you shake us? As I was driving in, I had this theme on my head about rain and I don't know why. And then I got downtown and it started to spit on the windshield and I was kind of second guessing what I was feeling or thinking. Then the spit started to happen on the windshield and so I felt like that was a whisper from the Lord to go that direction in Hosea chapter 10 verse 12 and 13. It says, so for yourselves righteousness, reap steadfast love, break up your fellow ground for it is time to seek the Lord that he may come and reign righteousness upon you. You have plowed iniquity. You have reaped injustice. You have eaten the fruit of lies because you have trusted in your own way. Jesus, Lord, right now we acknowledge that we have eaten from the fruit of lies. We have intentionally and unintentionally gone to the fruit of lies, gone to the tree of lies Lord God and taken its fruit. And that fruit has grown within us and we've trusted our own way. We've bought into the lie of following our heart, following our emotions. Lord, right now, Jesus, we repent. We repent of eating that fruit and trusting our own ways and trusting our own thoughts. Lord God, right now we turn away from that. We turn away from that tree. We turn away from trusting our own way, Lord God and we come to seek you. Lord, we are here to seek you. And Lord, I pray that right now as we intentionally redirect our minds, redirect our hearts, redirect the posture in the way that we are facing Lord God. Lord God, I pray that you would rain down all around us. Lord, rain down. Rain down in Kalamazoo. Rain down in Plainwell, Otsego and Southwest Michigan, Lord God, would you flood our streets, Lord God, with revival, would you flood our streets with righteousness and steadfast love, Lord God. Just like sometimes it's a little bit difficult to break up the soil because it's become so dry and compact. Lord God, I pray that you would begin to spit down from heaven and that would loosen up the soil and that we would break up the follow ground, Lord God that has become hardened over time from us trusting our own ways, thinking our own thoughts, following our own ideas, Lord God, eating from the fruit of lies, Lord. So Jesus, rain down, rain down, Lord, in our lives, rain down in our homes, rain down on our streets, Lord God. Would you rain down, Lord, all around this area, would you rain down, God? Rain down, Jesus. We ask for heavenly righteous rain, Lord. Rain down. We're to ask for rain from you. And Lord, you promise us that when we do, you will give us showers of rain, so Lord, in accordance with your word, in response to who you are with faith and hope and trust and belief, Lord God, we ask for you to rain down. Lord, your word says, ask and it shall be given. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door will be open to you. So Lord, we ask for rain. Lord God, we seek you for rain. We knock on the door for you to rain, Lord God, on our city, on our lives, over the people of this land, Lord God, would you rain down, or would you truly rain down? Lord, oh, that you would rend open the heavens into sin and make the mountains shudder at your presence, God, rain down. Lord, would you rain down all around the area, Lord God, rain down, rain down the floodgates of heaven and rain down, rain down we ask and we seek and we knock right now, Lord God, for you to rain down. Rain down, Lord God, break up our follow ground, Lord God, break up our heart and hearts, Lord, break up our preconditioned minds, God. Lord God, would you rain down and would your rain bring restoration to broken families, hurting marriages? Lord God, would you rain down on men across this area, Lord, so you have them to be? Rain down on them, God. Lord, would you wash the shame of the men in this area? Would you rinse them clean of the shame that is covering them of the shame that is crushing them, God? Would you rain down, God? Rain down, Lord, all around this area. Rain down, open the floodgates of heaven, Lord. Rain down, God. Fix our eyes on you, sacrifice you may that brought us close to you by the blood of Jesus, by the blood of Jesus, by the blood of Jesus, so the man can wear his righteousness and know the beautiful shadow, the beautiful shadow. You saw my heart's condition and with joy through stuff. Acts 319 says, repent therefore and turn back that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus. So Lord, will you just blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross for our sins? We pray for a season of refreshing to pour out over our homes, over our families, over our marriages, over our work. Lord, that it's not just isolated to our homes, but that it flows from our homes into the streets. Lord, you said that a time of refreshing will come from the Lord. We pray against the lies of the enemy, the powers and principalities of darkness that say that refreshing can only come from pleasure in this world, that it can only come from the things that grant momentary pleasure or momentary releases from pain. Lord, we say that it is alive from the enemy. We proclaim Jesus is the only way to true refreshing. So Lord, we turn back from the ways that have held us captive. We turn back from our sins and Lord, we lay them at the feet of Jesus. We give them over to you. We don't give them to you at arm's length where we can just reach back out and take them. But no, we give them to you freely and say, Lord, take my sin, take my brokenness, mold me, make me, shape me into your creation, into what you have designed me to be. Lord, there is no greater purpose than serving you. There is no greater purpose than giving you everything that we have to see your kingdom come and your will be done. Lord, remind us that as we go out, that we may be the only Jesus that people see. Lord, let our actions, let our words, let how we treat others mirror how you would treat them. So Lord, in Jesus' name, we declare a refreshing today in Jesus' name from the throne room of God. Let it be so in us from now on. We turn back from our sinful ways. We turn back from the lies of this world. We say Satan has no place in our lives, in our homes, and anything that we do, we give it to you, Lord, in Jesus' mighty name. Turn back to their children, return back to their fathers and mothers. Oh, the times of refreshing would come that we would see prodigals come home. Prodigals who have eaten from the fruit of lies and prodigals who have listened to their own thoughts, followed their own ways. Oh Lord, we pray for our prodigals, Lord God, that they would return home. Bring home our sons and daughters, Lord God, who have strayed, who have wandered, who have gone after the things of this world, only to be left more empty and more hungry, who continue to eat in the pig pen of the world, Lord God. Lord God, would you awaken them? Would they come to their senses just as the prodigal son came to his senses, God? Would they come to their senses, Lord? And would they say, I need to go home? I need to go home. I'm tired of wayward living. I'm tired of wasteless living. I need to go home, God. Would you awaken their hearts, God? Would prodigals, Lord God, come home? Would they repent and turn back home? Oh, the times of refreshing may come, Lord God, to our homes. To the hearts of broken mothers and broken fathers, Lord God. Oh, the prodigals would come home, God. Would you rain down, Lord, and bring a time of refreshing to Kalamazoo? Would you rain down, Lord God, and bring a time of refreshing to Southwest Michigan, Lord? Rain down, Lord, all around this area. Rain down, all of heaven, rain down. Lord, don't let us just get a sprinkle here and there, Lord God, but I pray for a mighty outpouring. One that we can't keep up with measuring. It's just so big and so strong. Rain down, God, rain down in a way that almost knocks prodigals off their feet and sweeps them back home. That they get caught in the current of your love, of your kindness, of your compassion, of your mercy, of the father's embrace that they would return home, God. Sweep them up their feet. May there be a flash flood, Lord God, of repentance. Pray this over our city, over every family, in John 4, verse 10, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Lord, we pray that Kalamazoo, that all of Southwest Michigan, would ask you for something to drink, that they would stop drinking from the rancid poison of this world and that they would come to you and say, Jesus, give me something to drink. May many turn to you, Lord. Would you give them something to drink? Would you give them living water, the only water that truly and fully satisfies? Lord, I pray that as we go about the rest of this day that we would continue to sing and rejoice and prophesy over the people that we pass by, over the people that we drive by, over the homes that we walk by, that we would prophesy life, refreshing, abundant life in Jesus. Lord, we love you. We thank you for this day that you have made. We choose to rejoice and be glad in it, in Jesus' name. Thank you for joining us today. We will be back in the prayer room at noon and at 6.30. Otherwise, we'll see you tomorrow on the live stream. Have a blessed day.