Our church celebrated Pentecost Sunday a week early. Here is a prayer I offered for the occasion, which tied in nicely with the scripture I preached, Acts 1:6-8; 2:1-21.
God of wind, word, and fire, we praise your holy name for life, love, eternal life, the promise of resurrection, and—on this day, especially—for sending the light and strength of your Holy Spirit. We often find that trusting in you is difficult—it’s much easier at times to trust in things that we can see and feel; it’s easier to trust in the false gods of money, popularity, possessions. But we know that nothing other than you can provide for us what we truly need. So we want to trust, even though we find it difficult.
Deliver us from the mistaken idea that we muster faith on our own, that we simply draw upon our own resources in order to be faithful to you. In reality, you’ve sent us a helper, an advocate, a teacher. You’ve sent us One who sustains us with life at every moment and equips us to accomplish the good work that you call us to do. You’ve sent us your Holy Spirit.
In all honestly, we need more of your Spirit. We confess it’s our own fault for being so needy. When you made us your beloved children by grace through faith, you also gave us your Spirit to live within us, and we seemingly do all we can to quench the Spirit’s power. Forgive us. Enable us to repent. Let everything we do this morning, and, indeed, in our lives outside of church, stack the dry wood and kindling of your holy Word in our hearts. Give us patience to wait for you to light the fire. And we will wait for you. And we will expect you to do that—by your grace. Set us on fire for you. Let our lives give light to a world of darkness. Through Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.