Almighty and merciful Father,
May your name be sanctified in Minneapolis, revered, admired, honest, especially names, in church, in politics, in sports, in music, in theater, in business, in the media, in paradise, or in hell. absolute truthfulness, be the greatest treasure of our lives. And that your eternal and divine Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord?crucified by sin, risen from the dead, reigning for ever and ever, be known and loved as the best person in this city.
- It was not a compliment to the city of Nineveh.
- But it was a great mercy when the Lord told his grumpy prophet Jonah: Who cannot discern between the right hand and the left hand?(Jn 4:11).
Oh, how kind the Lord feels about our madness, rather than pleasing our pride; Jonah did not understand his mercy. His desire was the fire of judgment, and the Lord knocked him out and exasperated him with the impact of forgiveness.
And we do not hear his Son, shouting at the city that would kill him: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, kill the prophets and the stones that have been sent to you?How many times have I wanted to gather your children, like a hen gathers its chicks under its wings, and you didn’t want to?(Mt 23:37).
Oh, how great is your heart compared to cities in their sins and their misery.
Yes, we have heard the Lord declare mercy to the great cities. Didn’t the Lord say in Jerusalem, “Jerusalem will serve me by name, praise, and glory, among all the nations of the earth who hear all the good I do to them??” Jr 33. 9). But the Lord is a merciful God, “merciful and patient, and great in mercy and fidelity” (Exodus 34:6).
And that we’re the debtors. Whose only hope is grace. Because we were never able to return the honor we stole on your behalf. How precious is the flash of truth? (1 Tim 1. 15).
And why did the Lord save us, Father, for what purpose did the Lord forgive, cleanse, deliver, and strengthen his people?The Lord told us: “To show, in the coming centuries, the supreme richness of his grace, in goodness to us, in Christ Jesus. (Eph 2. 7) Yes, it’s better, the Lord is your best gift to us.
But it’s a long way, sir, what are we going to do now?We live in Minneapolis, not paradise. This is our home away from home. We love our city, do we love your winters? And we’re enjoying your spring. We love its great river and its parks, its stadiums and its teams. We love its lakes and its crystal clear air, we love its beautiful urban landscape. We love its green neighborhoods, its industry, its arts, its restaurants and its recycling system.
And we love your people. Your former Swedish immigrants and your new Somali immigrants; its African Americans, its Asians, its Latinos; We love those who have so many genetic roots that they don’t know which genetic box to mark; do we love its diversity? Every human being precious, because the Lord has made everyone Lord and for his glory.
This is our home away from home. We are pilgrims and foreigners in this city (1Pe 2. 11), so we ask ourselves again: why did the Lord save us, here and now?
Open our hearts to hear your answer, Lord: “Seek peace in the city where I have banished you and pray to the Lord for it; because in your peace you will have peace. ?(Jr 29. 7).
Yes, sir. Yes, it’s our love for Minneapolis, we’re looking for your well-being. We pray for him.
For those who knew George Floyd closely and loved him more, bring his comfort and direct his heart to the God of comfort.
By Derek Chauvin, who put his knee on Floyd’s neck for seven minutes until his death, we asked for mercy on repentance and the judgment of justice. For officers Thomas Lane, Tou Thao, and Alexander Kueng, who stood next door, we pray for that sadness. and fear will bear the fruit of righteous remorse; and that the seriousness of the murder and cowardice of complicity find the right sanctions.
For the superiors of the police, who saw the ten minutes of the unbearable video of Floyd’s death, and who consider it horrible?And “inhuman” and they find it incredible that Chauvin, for seven minutes, would not say a word to man. under his lap begging for his life and that they lament, with frustrated hopes, that they must begin to rebuild, from “the starting box”, the low confidence they hoped to gain?Through these worthy servants of our city, we pray that you may know the patience of the patient Jesus Christ, who suffered the accusations of what He had not committed.
For Chief Of Police Medaria Arradondo, Hennepin County District Attorney Mike Freeman, Our Mayor Jacob Frey, and our Governor Tim Walz, do we ask you for the kind of wisdom that only God can give, the kind of wisdom King Solomon had when he said: child in two?”(1R 3:16-28) and discovered the true mother.
May our leaders love the truth, seek the truth, stand firm in the truth, and act on the truth; may nothing, Lord, be swept under the carpet, prevent any power or privilege from distorting, distorting, or concealing the truth, even if truth brings with it the privileged, the rich, the powerful, or the poor from the darkness of evil in the light of right.
For those who hate, bitter, hostile and slanderous? Of all the races we pray that they may see the light of the gospel of Christ’s glory?(2Co 4. 4). Do we pray that the light will remove the darkness from their souls?The darkness of arrogance, racism and selfishness. We pray for broken hearts, for it is the broken spirit; Contrite and humiliated heart, will you not despise him, O God?(Salt 51:17).
We pray that our city will experience miracles of reconciliation and lasting harmony, rooted in the truth and ways of justice. Shall we pray for peace? The ultimate enjoyment of the shalom, a descendant of the God of peace and bought at an infinite price by the heartbroken disciples of the Prince of Peace.
And while the COVID-19 scourge, which has already killed a hundred thousand people in our nation, continues to kill twenty people a day in our state – most in our city – as the virus wreaks havoc on our economy, disorder transforms entire professional lives. in smoke and the structure of our life in common is broken, we pray that this mixture of pain will not aggravate our sins, but send us running to the resurrected Savior, our only hope, Jesus Christ.
Oh Jesus, that’s why the Lord died! That you can reconcile desperate and hostile people with God and with each other. The Lord has done this for millions, by grace, by faith. Do it, Lord Jesus, in Minneapolis, we ask you. Amen.