We thank you, Lord God and Father, Creator of heaven and earth, 

    for all your good gifts which we, O Father of lights, 

    have received from you, and receive daily from your generous hand 

    you who have clothed our bodies with the needed covering

    and satisfied them with the natural bread

    through Jesus Christ, your dearly beloved Son, our Lord, 

We humbly pray, dear beloved Father, that you would look upon us, your children,

     persecuted for the sake of your holy Gospel,

     and earnestly desiring in our weakness to live devoutly in this world.

Be pleased to keep us in your Word, in fatherly fashion,

     in order that to the end of our days we may remain constant in your Gospel,

     revealed by you to the plain and simple

     and hidden to the wise ones in this world.

 

Menno Simons, 1496-1561, Dutch Anabaptist leader & founder of the Mennonites

2000 Years of Prayer freely modified

 

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Every good and perfect gift is from above, 

    coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights,

    who does not change like shifting shadows. 

He chose to give us birth through the word of truth,

    that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.