A Prayer for the Lord's Day

Living God, on this first day of the week we remember that Christ was raised from the dead through your glory, and that death no longer has mastery over him. We thank you that we have been united with him. We went down into his death and we were raised to walk in newness of life.

Forgive us for the times this past week when we let sin reign in our mortal bodies, when we obeyed its desires as if it still had authority over us. Teach us to count ourselves dead to sin and alive to you in Christ Jesus, not because we feel it, but because it is true.

Take our hands and our eyes and our words. Take the hours of this coming week. We offer them to you as those who have been brought from death to life. Use them as instruments of righteousness and keep them from being instruments of anything else.

We rest today in the promise that sin shall not be our master, because we are not under law but under grace. Let that promise carry us into Monday. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.