A Guided Liturgy on Hope for Your Personal Worship Today

The following is a sample day’s readings from Daily Liturgy Devotional: 40 Days of Worship and Prayer, a 40-day liturgical devotional for daily worship and prayer.

A Liturgy on the Topic of Hope

Through these biblical and ancient Christian prayers, offer your adoration and gratitude to God, confess your sins, and ask for help to read his word and live the Christian life. If it helps, pray aloud and with physical gestures, such as raising your hands (1 Tim. 2:8) when you praise God’s holy name or kneeling (Dan. 6:10) or lying prostrate (Luke 5:8) when you confess your sins. Using different postures to pray can engage your body and mind in new ways! “Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting” (Neh. 9:5).

Daily Liturgy Devotional

Douglas Sean O'Donnell

Helping believers make a habit of daily connection with the Lord, the Daily Liturgy Devotional offers 40 reflective daily readings filled with content for prayer, worship, and Scripture reading.

Adoration

Pray the prayer below. Then pause to praise God for who he is and what he has done.

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights!
Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his hosts!
Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars!
Praise him, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens!
Psalm 148:1–4

Lord, I join the angels in heaven, the heavenly lights—the sun, moon, and stars—and all creation in the highest heaven to lift up your holy name. To you—Father, Son, and Spirit—be all honor and glory and praise! Amen.

Confession

Pray the prayer below. Then take time to ask God through Jesus to forgive specific sins.

Almighty God, unto whom all things are open, I set myself before you. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed with the dead, you are there! If I dwell in the deepest part of the sea, you are there! Darkness and light are alike to you. You observed me before I was born, and in your book all my days were written. There is nothing hidden from you. And I take great comfort in this—for you know me intimately and care for me deeply. Yet your loving knowledge also disquiets my soul. I can fool others (and I do), I can fool myself (and I do), but I cannot fool you! Your intimate knowledge of me demands honesty. You have seen my outward sins, which I now confess: my deceptions, lies, gossip, hurtful words, loveless actions, my “me-first” self-focus, my irritability, my anger. Hear my confession of these sins. I also confess my inner sins, the attitudes contrary to the fruit of the Spirit, my jealousies, hatreds, and malice. Hear my confession of these sins too, Lord. Amen.
Based on Psalm 139

Thanksgiving

Thank God for the truth that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9), then pray the prayer below. Finally, take time to thank God for specific blessings in your life. Also feel free to offer Psalm 118:1 (“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!”) as a repeated refrain as you list off (and lift up!) to God people, events, gifts, and circumstances for which you are thankful.

I give thanks to the Lord, my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. I will remember his mercy, for he is gracious and compassionate. Thank you, Lord, for calling me to faith in Christ, for putting your Spirit within me, for giving me the mind of Christ, for gathering me into your church. I thank you, Lord, for extending your grace to me, for calling me to a life of gratitude, for calling me to service in your kingdom. Thanks be to God! Amen.
Worship Sourcebook (Blick and Witvliet)

Supplication

After you pray the prayer below, feel free to add your own specific requests.

O Lord, take away that which is mine, which is all naught, and give me that which is yours, which is all good. You are called Christ; anoint me therefore with your Holy Spirit. You are called a physician; according therefore to your name, heal me. You are called the Son of the living God; according therefore to your power, deliver me from the devil, the world, the flesh. You are called the resurrection; lift me up therefore from the damnable state wherein I most miserably lie. You are called the life; quicken me up therefore out of this death, wherewith through sin I am most grievously detained. You are called the way; lead me therefore from the vanities of this world and from the filthy pleasures of the flesh unto heavenly and spiritual things. You are called the truth; suffer me not therefore to walk in the way of error but to tread the path of truth in all my doings. You are called the light; put away therefore from me the works of darkness, that I may walk as the child of light in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. You are called a Savior; save me therefore from my sins, according to your name. You are called Alpha and Omega, that is, both the beginning and the end of goodness; begin therefore a good life in me and finish the same unto the glory of your blessed name. Amen.
Thomas Becon

Prayer of Illumination

Deal bountifully with your servant,
that I may live and keep your word.
Open my eyes, that I may behold
wondrous things out of your law.
Psalm 119:17–18

Scripture Reading

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
1 Thessalonians 4:13–18

Concise Commentary

Throughout Paul’s letters the theme of hope is featured. For example Paul includes hope in the triad of key Christian virtues—faith, hope, and love (1 Cor. 13:13)—and he often uses the word to refer to the “hope of eternal life” (Titus 1:2; 3:7), which he also labels “our blessed hope” (Titus 2:13), “the hope laid up for [us] in heaven” (Col. 1:5), “the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27), “the hope of righteousness” (Gal. 5:5), a hope that will be met with “the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13), and the hope of sharing in heaven “the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:18). On that day our bodies and souls will then be without sin and perfectly glorious! Paul exhorts us to “rejoice in” this “hope” (Rom. 12:12). He also in 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 reminds us to “encourage one another” (1 Thess. 4:18)—especially those grieving the loss of loved ones—with the hope of heaven. We should “not grieve as others [unbelievers] do who have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13), for the ground of our hope is solid. “Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again” (4:14), we can be certain that those who have died “in Christ” will “rise” with Christ (1 Thess. 4:16). And, when Christ does return, he has promised to gather his people together to be with him always: “We will always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17).

Prayer Prompt

Take time to ask God, through his Spirit, to thank God that, in Jesus, we have the answer to the question Job asks: “Where then is my hope?” Jesus is “our Savior and . . . our hope.” Thus, “rejoice in hope”!
Based on Job 17:15; 1 Timothy 1:1; Romans 12:12

This article is adapted from Daily Liturgy Devotional: 40 Days of Worship and Prayer by Douglas Sean O’Donnell.

Douglas Sean O’Donnell (PhD, University of Aberdeen) is the senior vice president of Bible editorial at Crossway. Over the past twenty-five years he has helped train people around the world to read and teach the Bible clearly. He has pastored several churches, served as a professor, and authored or edited over twenty books, including commentaries, Bible studies, children’s books, and a children’s curriculum. He also wrote The Pastor’s Book with R. Kent Hughes and The Beauty and Power of Biblical Exposition with Leland Ryken.

“Liturgy Saved Me”

Douglas Sean O'Donnell

October 03, 2024

Life is full of moments where our emotions—love, joy, sorrow, confusion, hurt—render us speechless before God. Liturgy provides structured prayers that give us a voice when our own words fall short.

5 Myths about Liturgy

Jonathan Gibson

December 20, 2021

Given that liturgy concerns the order of worship elements in a church service, it’s not whether a church has a liturgy; it’s just which liturgy the church has.