Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you today for your grace and mercy in calling us out of the world to a life spent with you. To walk with you and talk with you, and to declare to others the same grace and mercy you have given us. Help us to live a life so full of your Spirit that we are a light to the dark world around us, that they may see you in us and praise your name. Help us to never do anything to gain the praise of others, but may our motives always be pure, that we might point others to you so that they see you and receive you and walk with you, too. That those who scoff – as Paul did himself at one time, but then saw you in Stephen, our beloved brother, and was called by you to live a life of love and service by which we are still blessed and comforted and ministered to this day – will see you in us and through us and by your grace be convicted and brought to repentance that their souls will be saved and you might do great things through them, too. And that those who do know you will see you in us and be drawn to an increasingly closer walk with you. May your voice within us speak volumes louder than anything we say ourselves. Thank you, Father, for the amazing life, and after-life, you’ve given us. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
