Lent 40

Lord and God,

You who deal bountifully with your subjects and train us to hear your law, work in us by your Spirit. Long your people have sought to make manifest your kingdom with our own demands, our own eyes, and our own power. We want to be a kingdom like the others, but you are building a kingdom unlike any, a kingdom unseen.

The kings we appoint, though humble at first, become our captors, not our liberators. We cry out “deliver us,” even from our judges. And you, Lord Jesus Christ, say that we must, to see your kingdom, be born again by the Spirit who moves unseen and uncontrolled of men by your gracious will. and your will is gracious, for you did not send Christ for our condemnation. You raised him upon the cross for our salvation. Help us to find in him the only king who will not consume us. Though princes plot against us, let us meditate on the Word who rules us truly and rightly.