Praying with Paul

1 Corinthians 14:13-25



Dear Father, God of intelligibility and peace,
Let our praying, singing, and preaching be aimed at informing the minds and spirits of others, that they may be built up and respond, "Amen."
Give us the attitude of Paul, who said, "I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue."
Let us be babies when it comes to evil, but not in our thinking. In our thinking, may we be mature, and may...

 

1 Corinthians 14:1-12



Dear Father, God of intelligibility and peace,
Thank you for reversing the curse of Babel when you poured out your Holy Spirit on believers in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost.
Even in the confusion of many tongues you proclaimed your Good News to every tribe and nation under heaven, with every person hearing it in his or her own language.
Thank you too for the gift of prophecy in the common language, believers speaking to one another for their...

 

1 Corinthians 13:8-13



Dear Father, O God of love!
Let me possess love, for love never ends. I know that prophecy, tongues, and knowledge will pass away, for they are all incomplete and unfinished.
When the complete and perfect comes, everything incomplete and unfinished will be gone.
Enable me to put away the things of childhood - the way I reasoned, the way I spoke - and help me become mature. Now I see through a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part...

 

1 Corinthians 13:4-7



Dear Father, give me love!
May I one day possess fully all the qualities of love, as did your son, Jesus, the Messiah!
May I be patient and kind, not jealous or boastful, not arrogant or rude, not insisting on my own way, not ever irritable or resentful.
May I rejoice always in what is right, never in anything that is wrong.
Help me to bear all things and endure whatever I must, to trust in all circumstances, and to be hopeful in all trials.
By...

 

1 Corinthians 13:1-3



Dear Father, O God of love,
If I could speak in all the languages of men and angels, and did not have love, I would be no more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I had all prophetic powers, and could understand all mysteries and all kinds of knowledge, and had all faith, so as to remove mountains, and did not have love, I would be nothing.
If I gave away all that I possessed, and delivered my body to be burned, and did not have love, it would...

 

1 Corinthians 12:12-30



Dear Father, God of order,
You have invested the inferior parts of the body with greater honor. You have given the weak parts of the body indispensable roles. You have given some who are unpresentable a greater modesty.
Your ordering of people in the body of Christ is altogether wonderful. You have called all of us to be humble, loving, caring. You want us to prefer one another in honor and to count others better than ourselves. Help me to be this...

 

1 Corinthians 12:1-11



Dear Father, great, good and generous giver,
Thank you for making me part of the body of Christ, his church. Thank you that there are no unimportant parts to the body. Thank you that all of us are interconnected and interdependent.
We have a variety of gifts from you, but all have the same spirit.
We have varieties of service, but all have the same Lord, Jesus Christ.
We have various ways of working, but it is you, O God, who inspires all of it...

 

1 Corinthians 11:33-34



Dear Father, giver of bread and wine,
Give each of us perfect courtesy toward others, even more, perfect love. When we come together, may we wait on each other.
May each of us satisfy our hunger at home rather than behave as gluttons in the assembly of your people!
May we come together not to be condemned, but to build each other up, and to be nourished by that bread which is life indeed, Jesus Christ.
In the name of Jesus, who is the daily bread...

 

1 Corinthians 11:27-32



Dear Father, giver of bread and wine,
May I never eat the bread or drink the cup in an unworthy manner, lest I profane the body and blood of the Lord. Teach me to examine my heart and mind thoroughly before I eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
Keep me from eating or drinking judgment upon myself by failing to discern the body of the Lord, and thus become weak and ill, or fall asleep.
May I judge myself truly, so that I will not be condemned...

 

1 Corinthians 11:24-26



Dear Father, giver of bread and wine,
Cause us to remember that in the same way he blessed the bread, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."
Help us, giver of the heavenly bread and the heavenly wine, to eat and drink, as often as we do it, in proclamation of the Lord's death until he comes.
In the name of Jesus, who is the daily bread and wine of...