A Prayer for Hope
04/03/2020
Dear Father,
You are faithful, and you never fail. You comfort and give hope. You turn my darkness into light. You restore, redeem, and rebuild the broken places in my life. You are the river in the desert and I am the blossom that has learned to receive its nourishment from your Living Water.
To hope in God – You tell me in Romans 15:13 that you are the God of hope and will fill me with all joy and peace as I trust in you, so that I may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. My hope rests in your character. You are the God who will see me through, answer my prayers, overcome the world, forgive every sin, and promise never to leave me nor forsake me. My hope in you is my cure for depression, despondency and despair. No financial crisis, weakness, challenge, emotional pain or trouble is too large or difficult for you to handle and take on. This hope armors me, defends me, protects and safeguards my life. It makes me unstoppable, unbeatable, unconquerable as I serve you and live with zest and joy. When I have bad days, may I say as the Psalmist did, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.”
To be a source of hope for my children and loved ones - Anchor and ground me making me a stabilizing force in the lives of my children, husband, neighbors and loved ones. May Hebrews 6:19 be true of my life that “This hope that we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil” keeps me in perfect peace. May I pass on to my children this inheritance of steadfast, anchoring hope that You are my conquering King and that you have won this raging battle. You will restore and redeem the broken areas of my life and give me new purpose and meaning.
To have hope for my future – May my God-given hope be a healing ointment for any hardship and especially the one I am facing now. May my hope be willing to wait on Your timing, your way, and your will with a childlike trust that culminates in amazement at Your faithfulness. May hope in You carry me through health struggles, marital conflict, my struggling child, and financial needs. May hope become the physician of each misery (quote by Sally Clarkson). Give me eyes to see the future with joy and light. You say in your word, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” You tell me in Proverbs 23:18 that “Surely there is a future, and our hope will not be cut off,” so Father, instill in me hope for my future.
To choose to cultivate hope - Today, I choose to cultivate hope. I am committed to applying myself to grow in hope; to allowing your Holy Spirit to develop this beautiful attribute in my life. Open my eyes to see that I can choose to throw in the towel, to give up or to choose to hope. May I invest my life in knowing You and Your word because You are the Source of my hope. I seek hope in so many illicit places – finances, a full bank account, talents and skills, the government and leaders but help me to see that You are my Source of Hope. Some may see my hope and call it escapism or wishful thinking, but You tell me that it is one of the things a Christian is meant to experience.
As I go about my day, may I “prepare my mind for action, and be sober-minded, setting my hope fully on the grace that will be brought to me at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” I Peter 1:3
In the name of Jesus, my Hope,
Amen.
A Prayer for Love
04/06/2020
Dear Heavenly Father,
We are learning through this worldwide crisis that Christianity is no insurance policy against trouble, but rather the assurance that You will be with us in trouble. For as long as You are by our side, loving us, guiding us, helping us, we have nothing to fear. Because you are our Shepherd, we are like the tender little sheep that never have to worry about being poorly looked after. Because you are the Prince of Peace, we have peace that passes all understanding even in the greatest trials of life. Because you are the Sun of Righteousness, you rise with healing in Your wings. You are the rebuilder of the broken-down walls of human life. Lord, You more than anyone know that we need rebuilding. Because of these astounding attributes and your unfailing love, we open our hearts to you now and pray that your Spirit may give us faith to believe what you have tell us in Your Word. We can trust you, O God, to rebuild, redeem, restore, and resurrect!
You say in I Cor. 13, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am nothing.” Some of us are spiritually wise and full of spiritual insights and knowledge, we can quote many verses, and we are serving faithfully and doing many things for you, and yet you say, even if we have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, we are nothing. And if we give away all we have, and if we deliver up our bodies to be burned,[a] but have not love, we gain nothing. Father, we are aware of the poverty of our love. Will you give us the gift of love? Not human love, which often runs out, but Agape love, which flows freely and generously from the fountain of heaven. Honestly, Lord, some in our lives are not easy to love and are hard to live with. And yet you ask me to consider, am I easy to love and easy to live with? Prick my conscience if I am not.
I spend so much of my time rehearsing the weaknesses, faults and failure of others and then ask to be given mercy.
I don’t fulfill my promises and then become angry when someone lets me down.
I get my feelings hurt when my every whim and fancy are not met and yet become annoyed and harden my heart when legitimate needs present themselves.
Father, we need your mercy. Create in us that warmth of mercy that supports others as they seek your strength for their weaknesses. Make us sweet inside, that we may be gentle with others, gentle in the things we say, kind in what we do. (Peter Marshall)
You say in I Corinthians 13, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
When we wake up one day and these beautiful qualities are our knee jerk reaction, when the pressures of life squeeze us and these loving qualities flow freely from our hearts, we will know that You have transformed us and we have found the destiny to which we were called…to love as you have loved us.
In regards to our husbands and our marriages, help us to leave any changing that needs to be done in Your hands. Where love has died, create new love between us. Show us what unconditional love looks like and how to communicate it in a way that each of us clearly feels. Through COVID-19, you are putting us in situations where we are no longer able to pursue separate and independent lives, but are having to learn to work together, building one another up and overlooking faults for the greater good of the marriage. Make us the people you describe in Romans 14:19, “perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” Help us to see our husbands with new eyes, new appreciation, new love, new compassion, and new acceptance. (Stormie Omartian) May the outcome of this crisis not be what it is in China where divorce rates are skyrocketing after 3 months of forced lock down together, but may our story be one of great revival in homes where our commitments to our marriages are stronger than ever before. And, when things are not going as we’d hope, remind us to “not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” (Gal. 6:9)
May Proverbs 24:3,4 be true of our homes: “Through wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.”
May love be the most precious and pleasant feature in our home. Use us to bring this divine attribute into every single room. In the beautiful and precious name of our loving Lord and Savior, Amen.
A Prayer for Tender Loving Care
04/08/2020
Dear Heavenly Father,
When You inspired King David to pen this Psalm 3,000 years ago, he described You as our Shepherd, and a thousand years later you showed up and proved that you are the Good Shepherd and that the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep through the person of our beloved Jesus. Some of us understand the significance of this in our minds, but sometimes when answers to prayer delay in coming or we deal with painful circumstances year after year after year, our hearts begin to doubt. Some of us have been blinded by this doubt and need our eyes to be opened to understand and experience You as our Good Shepherd. We can see clearly that we are very much like sheep! We frantically run around looking for green pastures and still waters, hunting and foraging in desperation. We clearly understand what it’s like to be sheep, we experience this every day more than we like or care to admit. Sometimes we are blind to the peace, power and presence You promise to give us. Life, as we know it, has imposed upon us incredible tension and pressure under which we are forced to live, and like frightened little sheep, we desperately and widely run to binges on Netflix, scrolling for hours on Facebook and Instagram, obsessively working on projects with attempts to drown out the pain in our hearts, and rummaging through our refrigerator and pantry for a bag of chips, a bowl of ice cream, a chocolate bar or two as a way to feed the starvation and malnutrition of our souls. Deep down we know they will never satisfy, and yet we keep running to them over and over again. We are pinned and trapped to the empty promises of these despicable idols. Always, always, always, as soon as the last bite is savored, the last show watched, the unsatisfiable hunger and longings return. We have fallen in love with empty promises that continuously grieve you and subtract from our own happiness.
But, when we ponder this Psalm of the Shepherd, we experience hope that things can be different for each one of us. You, the good Shepherd completely understands that we, Your sheep are lost, distressed and frantic without You, and so You come to our rescue every single time. You makes us to lie down in green pastures.
You leads us beside the still waters.
You restore our soul.
You lead us in paths of righteousness
for Your name's sake.
In this Psalm, there is not one phrase that speaks to what we, the sheep must do, perform or accomplish. It speaks only to that which You, the Shepherd promise to perform and accomplish for us, the sheep. Dear Jesus! You, are our Good Shepherd and You make us to lie down in green pastures all we do is rest. You lead us beside the still waters, all we need to do is drink. You restore our soul, and lead us in path of righteousness…all for Your name’s sake.
Because of these promises, we humbly and gratefully come to You this morning with open hearts, receiving the fresh, strong deliverance of our souls that results in refreshment, cleansing and perfect peace.
May we now rest in You knowing that even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, or the valley of the shadow of COVID-19, we will fear no evil, for you are with us; your rod and your staff, they comfort us.
Help us to understand that your staff serves as a symbol that we too can find rest when we lean on You, and the staff leads us to places where we can find peace and restoration amid the chaos in our lives. We ask you to be the Good Shepherd for our children and loved ones. Throw around them the golden aura of Your protecting, shepherding presence. (Peter Marshall)
Give to them that joy and happiness that will enable them to go out to meet life, resting in Your care for them. May they be convinced that even before they reach up to you, you are reaching down to them and will meet every need because that is Your character, the character of the Good Shepherd.
May we now receive the fresh breath of heaven reminding us that You anoint our heads with oil; our cup overflows. We are truly, abundantly loved and cared for beyond even our needs or wants.
Surely goodness and mercy will follow us, mercy and goodness will go with us wherever we go and whatever we do, even in unfamiliar places, all the days of our lives, and even though we can’t go to a church building to worship, we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Because we are now in Christ and Christ is in us.
In the name of Jesus, our Good Shepherd,
Amen.
A Prayer for Strength
04/0/2020
Read: Psalm 27
Dear Heavenly Father,
You are our burden-bearer and that’s why we’ve come this morning: to give you our burdens. And, they are many Lord! You are the Power behind our faith and You are our strength and stability. You are concerned about two billion of your children all over the earth, and yet You are concerned about each one of us here as if we were an only child. (Peter Marshall) Remind us, Lord, that even when you are silent, you have not resigned. You are actively involved in each one of our lives down to the very minutest detail. Your thoughts of us are more than the sand on the seashore. Not a second goes by when we are not in Your thoughts and in Your presence.
We come today asking for strength. On Monday, March 15, businesses closed and our husbands came home, our children stopped going to school and education fell on the shoulders of those who never thought they would wear those shoes. Socially invigorating gatherings ended, and our place of worship fastened and secured their doors. At that moment, many new roles and responsibilities fell into our laps. We now have much output and not much input, and that’s why we’re here treasuring these few moments we have with one another and with You before the pressures of the day begin.
Father, today we are asking you for supernatural, miraculous and inexplicable strength. King David said this of you in 2 Samuel 22:32-37,“It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; He causes me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You make your saving help my shield; your help has made me great.”
If You could train David for battle and give him so much supernatural strength that his arms could bend a bow of bronze, then you can help us to wake up in the middle of the night with the baby or our sick child, get meals on the table, dirty dishes cleaned up and mounds and mounds of laundry washed, folded and put away. But, Lord, you didn’t stop there! David continues to boast of Your power in I Samuel 17:37 when he declared, “The LORD, who delivered me from the claws of the lion and the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” If you gave him so much capacity and competence that he killed the lion and bear and the giant Goliath, then You can surely help us in the disciplining, training, and educating of our children, tending and caring for our aging parents, the budgeting of our money, and leadership we are to bring to our businesses and ministries. You are the all-powerful, Architect of the universe and the Manager of all times.
Strengthen our conviction that your hand is on us, Your power is in us, and Your plan accomplished through us.
May we never confuse strength with pushiness, force, control or coercion.
You say in Matthew 5:5, Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Our human nature insists that it’s the aggressive and not the meek that will inherit and possess the earth. Make us like You, Father, the perfect example of meekness, having great strength, and yet showing patient restraint, not willing to argue or express your opinion in a forceful way. Father, make us soft; gentle; not easily provoked or irritated. Help us to remember that it is “Your gentleness that has made us great”, like you say in Psalm 18:35.
There will be times when we will need to settle an argument, address a sin in another person’s life or admonish a wayward child. Help us to keep our passions under control and our heart open to You, that the power and strength we will need at that moment, will be the power of the Holy Spirit. May we be released from the pressure to force someone to repent and change their ways, but instead may the power of the Holy Spirit flow through us so mightily that You can use us to be an instrument of healing and restoration in Your time and in Your way. When we have the truth that another needs to hear, may we not hit them over the head with it, but rather use it as a lamp to lighten the dark places. (Peter Marshall)
Father, forgive us for going about our day in our own strength. May we stop denying our weaknesses and push them away, but instead may You unravel this truth in our hearts that “Your grace is sufficient for us, for Your power is made perfect in our weaknesses. Therefore, we will boast all the more gladly of our weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon us.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
You give strength to the weary and increase the power of the weak. (Isaiah 40:29)
When my flesh and my heart fail, remind me that You are the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:26)
May each one of us walk today in your strength and experience greater fruit than we’ve ever experienced before.
In the strong name of Jesus,
Amen
A Prayer for the Holy Spirit
04/10/2020
Read: Psalm 139:1-16, John 14:26-27, Romans 8:1-31
Dear Heavenly Father,
As we commemorate this week of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem over two thousand years ago, we acknowledge You as the One who triumphed over death, giving victory to each one of us who give our hearts and lives to You. In Luke 4:19 we see your prophecy fulfilled concerning Your son, Jesus, “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” These promises and purposes are still ours today. You bring us good news every day. The good news of liberty to those of us in captivity to negative and destructive thought patterns, recovery of our sight to discover You in everything instead of immediately jumping into despair and hopelessness, and releasing us from oppression of our past and sins committed by us or against us. We praise you and thank you that this is the God we are communing with at this very moment.
Our hearts ask of you the same request that Peter Marshall, Chaplain to the Senate, said over 70 years ago, “We pray, O God, that you will fill this sacred minute with meaning, and make it an oasis for the refreshment of our souls, a window cleaning for our vision, and a recharging of the batteries of our spirits.” Let us have less worry and more trust, less bitterness and more forgiveness, less apathy and more love. In other words, we need more of your Holy Spirit. Actually, Father, we don’t need more of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit needs more of us.
Thank you that in John 16:13, You promise us that “when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” Father, some of us need the truth about ourselves and our loved ones. Some of us have destructive habits and sinful ways of responding that were set in motion through trauma, abuse or injury of some kind and sometimes just because we are plain ol’ sinful. We have these knee jerk reactions that spills out of us when rejected, pressured or angered and they hurt us, they hurt others and displease You. Convict us, Father, of our sinful responses and habits. In John 16:8 You say, “And when the Holy Spirit has come, He will convict the world of sin,” It is a gift to experience conviction of sin, but some of us have taken this a little too far and some of us and our loved ones are walking in the darkness of shame and condemnation for way too long. Remind us, Lord, that as your children, shame and condemnation have no place in our lives. But our inheritance is this…“But we have been washed, we have sanctified, we are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God,” 1 Corinthians 6:11.
In Romans 8:2 You say, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death.” Because of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, we are no longer enslaved to sin, shame and death, but we are free! Set us and our loved ones free, Holy Spirit, once and for all, as You guide us into truth.
Holy Spirit, teach us to have a moment-by-moment dependency on Your Spirit. As we begin to walk in the Spirit and respond to Your promptings, may we begin to bear the distinctive features of the virtues You unfold to us in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.” Help us to understand that this fruit is not environmentally-sensitive. It sure is easy to have peace and joy when everything is going our way! Father, may Your Holy Spirit make us independent of outward circumstances. May your bright light shine within us when it is all dark without. (Spurgeon) It’s one thing to be loving and kind to our children when they are obedient, but it’s another thing to be loving and self-controlled when they are out of control and hard to love. Protect us from attempting to manufacture these virtues, but to realize they will be freely poured into our hearts as we submit and walk in Your Spirit, confessing quickly when we stray into old sinful habits and patterns.
Thank you that you are our Comforter, our Helper, our Advocate, our Intercessor, our Counselor, and our Strengthener. In John 14:26, You said to us, “But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
Each of us have nights in which we cried ourselves to sleep. I pray that when days like these come, and they will, that as we drift off to sleep, Your Holy Spirit will gently wipe the tears from our eyes, soothe our furrowed brows, and minister to our aching souls breathing renewed hope, resolute faith and crystal clarity for decisions that may need to be made knowing You have a plan and with You there is no uncertainty. Romans 8:26-27 ~ ”Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”
Holy Spirit, thank you for helping us in our weaknesses, helping us when we don’t know what to pray. Thank you for searching our hearts and making intercession on our behalf according to the will of the Father.
And Father, we recommit our body and spirit once again to You, to be the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God and the advancement of Your Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. May You work through the power of the Holy Spirit in us to accomplish Your will in our home, our city, our nation.
Give us grateful hearts for the incredible gift of the Holy Spirit.
In the name of Jesus,
Amen
A Prayer for New Beginnings
04/13/2020
Dear Heavenly Father,
As we turn our attention to heaven, we are reminded that You are Sovereign and Supreme, you are all-knowing, you are all-powerful and You know how this is all going to turn out. You are saying to us, For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a good future.” Open our eyes to see that this situation we find ourselves in is not the end, but is the start of a fresh, new beginning which will usher in one of the greatest works we’ve ever seen You accomplish in our lives and in our nation. We are now being told that in this coming week the numbers of infection and death will peak. It is not a coincidence that the moment of greatest crisis is colliding with the week of greatest hope! As we fondly reminisce of our Easter celebrations of yesterday, we remind ourselves that Jesus said, “I am the Resurrection and the Life”, and then He proved it when He came back to life and won the victory of sin and death. As we enter this week, may we ride at the cusp of the transformations you are creating in our homes, communities and nation. May we be on the threshold of these new beginnings You are designing and creating.
Father, before these new beginnings could appear, You had to be busy exposing the false foundations we have built our lives on. Busyness and the comforts of life have kept us from seeing clearly in what we have trusted. Unfortunately, it hasn’t always been You. Many times it has been our money and resources, our achievements and talents, and our own reasoning and understanding. All of these have been stripped and shattered. Help us to see that this is not the end, but are seedlings of new beginnings. Greater beginnings than anything we could have dreamed up or imagined.
A new beginning to be people who are gentle, walking softly with one another.
A new beginning to be understanding lest we would contribute to the pain in those around us and cause tears to flow needlessly from their eyes.
A new beginning for a broader vision of the needs of our neighbors, and deeper willingness and compassion to generously fill those needs.
A new beginning for letting go of bitterness and unforgiveness and extending a hand of friendship and grace to those who have wounded or offended us causing grief and sorrow.
A new beginning for seeing ourselves as “ministers of mercy and ambassadors of kindness.” (Peter Marshall)
A new beginning for a desire and vision to be creators of loveliness, goodness and beauty in our homes, neighborhoods and community.
A new beginning for inner peace, tranquility and composure which no tragedy or misfortune can destroy.
A new beginning for overcoming and resisting temptation that we may become virtuous, noble and clean.
A new beginning for emotional fortitude, perseverance and grit empowering us to remain loyal to our call of duty.
A new beginning to dream of greater, more powerful and more meaningful courses of action we can take to share the Gospel and serve and minister to our families and our world more effectively.
Through this crisis, our hearts and the direction of our wills have been changed. We are now seeing that Your plan and desire for us and our world is not our comfort, pleasure and security, but usefulness, fruitfulness and purpose.
Help us to clearly see that Your desires are…
I Timothy 2:4 that “all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
Hebrews 13:21, You desire to “equip us with everything good for doing Your will, and You want to work in us what is pleasing to You.”
Ephesians 5:15 To “be very careful, then, how we live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 To not be foolish, but to understand what Your will is.”
Micah 6:8 “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with You.”
And, Hebrews 10:36 "You need us to persevere so that when we have done Your will, we will receive what You have promised."
When we become frustrated and discouraged and want to give up and go back to Egypt, to our old ways of thinking and believing, remind us that You are still holding things together, that You are not giving up on us, but that You are making all things new.
Forbid us, Lord, from giving up on You and the work You are doing in our heart because the results are small and we don’t see much happening. For You say in Your word in Zechariah 4:10, “Do not despise the day of small beginnings.” Give us eyes to see that new beginnings are going on all around us and we can join You in them or we can be restless and unhappy because things aren’t going our way. Make our hearts strong, trusting and brave resting in Your Supreme care over every detail of our lives.
Give us eyes to see what You tell us in Isaiah 43:19 “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
You are doing something new and we can rest that it is something good.
In the name of Jesus, the One who is the Resurrection and the Life,
Amen.
A Prayer for Wisdom
04/14/2020
Dear Heavenly Father,
How splendidly simple we live when we trust You for wisdom. How liberated we become when we don’t have to figure everything out, but rest in the promise that You give us in James 1:5 that “if any of us lacks wisdom, we should ask You, who gives generously to all without fault, and it will be given to us.” Take us, Father, to Your garden of wisdom where the flowers of understanding flourish and the choice fruits of insight are ours for the taking and enjoying. Open our eyes to see that in Your garden, the trimmed and watered herbs of knowledge and understanding offer protection, true riches and a long and pleasant life, but the poisonous and bitter weeds of leaning unto our own understanding and refusing to seek wise counsel leads to grief and regret. Our prayer this morning is that “our love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that we may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Your Son, Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:9-11
Sometimes we call to You for direction and wisdom and it seems as if You will delay forever because we receive no answer. We echo the cry of Charles Spurgeon, “Our prayers, dear Lord, have knocked at the golden gate, but it has remained immovable, as though it were rusted upon its hinges.” The unanswered petition for crystal clear leading sometimes results in confusion, tantrums, tears and anger, much to our regret. Slowly but surely, You begin a work of breaking and rebuilding our hearts and this gives way to You allowing you to grow in us the increase of trust, resilience and tenderness. We begin to understand what you say in Isaiah 55:8, that “Your thoughts are nothing like our thoughts, and Your ways are far beyond anything we could imagine.” Our eyes are opened to see that we have come full circle from the starting point of frustration and anger to a posture of relinquishing and submitting to Your will, and it is in those moments the answer comes and we realize that we would have never been ready to obey if we had not gone through this perfect process. Answers to prayer is a door that cannot be pried or forced open, but is flung wide open when we surrender to Your will. May our hearts continuously declare, “Not my will but yours be done” and find that this is the secret to a life well lived in wisdom.
Our eyes, dear Father, cannot see the future and so we ask you to give us and our loved ones, wisdom, discernment and courage. Empower us to see the world through Your eyes and to think, speak, act, and respond accordingly. Some of us have businesses or ministries that are struggling right now. The needs are great and the returns not so great. They used to be sources of income that have now dried up. Save us from despair and lead us into greater skills, ideas and creativity that will serve others even better than before. Open up doors that no many can shut. Help us to see that this hour of need is Your moment to shine. Lead us to partnerships with others that will multiply and expand our influence and effectiveness. “Give us singleness of mind and stability in all that we do. Help us to be decisive and make good decisions” like you say in James 1:8.
We know of no better way to demonstrate our trust in You than to rededicate ourselves, our marriages, our families, our ministries, our businesses and our future to You. We resolve to obey You and ask that you would “Let Your spirit rest upon us. Give us the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord—that We might delight in the fear of the Lord. Do not let us judge by what we see with our eyes, or decide by what we hear with our ears, but let us act with righteousness, justice and faith.” Isaiah 11:2-5
“Cause us to have a healthy fear and respect for you since this is the beginning of wisdom. Cause us to know you, and to understand Your perspective on any situation. Add years to our life, and give us the reward of the wise.” Proverbs 9:10-12
Your wisdom and help are our only hope. Make us want to wait for Your wisdom and make wise choices knowing that You will not turn away from those who seek You.
In the name that is above every name, Jesus, our Source of wisdom,
Amen.
A Prayer for Longings
04/15/2020
Dear Heavenly Father,
You are the perfect One. In You there are no mistakes. You give perfect love to us. You are more beautiful than anything we could ever comprehend and one day we will see You face to face.
You have created us with intense emotional longings and soul hunger that when they unexpectedly get a hold of us, we soar to the highest mountain top when fulfilled, and when unfulfilled, we can plunge into the deepest, darkest valleys of sorrow and despair. This national crisis has especially called attention to this aspect of our humanity. You have created us with longings for freedom, for work, for purpose, and for warm and loving relationships with profound and intimate connections and many of these are going unfulfilled. Most of the time we don’t even realize that we are walking through life numbing ourselves to the ache these unfulfilled longings create. We find that we can drown ourselves in busyness, running from one meeting to another, putting out fires that keep us far away from the anguish we feel deep, down inside. And yet today, we stand here before You with hearts quieted and exposed and we are forced to listen to the hunger we have for more. You are awakening for the first time in a long time, these hungers for what could be but is not, for what we could have, but we don’t.
Some of us long to hear words of approval and affirmation from our parents, “I love you and am proud of you”, but it is too late, they are now in eternity.
Some of us long for our emotionally distant spouse as we drift off to sleep night after night, alone in our bed, rarely experiencing a heart-felt conversation or sweet fellowship.
Some of us are longing for our lost child through miscarriage, and even though we know they are in the arms of Jesus, we yearn to hold our baby in our arms and watch them grow into adulthood.
Some of us long to have peace and trust with our rebellious and alienated child who is walking in sin, and we long to show them the beauty of the Gospel in comparison to the deceitful riches of this world that we know will leave them bruised and wounded.
Some of our children have illnesses or limitations that make life hard and leave us desperate and longing for a day when our child will no longer experience pain and suffering and be able to run, jump and play once again.
Some of have us spouses with aging minds or bodies with injuries and limitations, and we long to see them free from these thorns of the flesh that slow them down and drain them of energy and motivation.
Some of us are lonely and have never experienced what it is like to be known and loved in spite of vulnerabilities, flaws and failures, and we long to experience true and lasting friendship and community.
And, for the many longings which I haven’t named, You know what they are.
Father, in Ecclesiastes 3:10-12, You leave us an account of the wisest man who ever lived, King Solomon, who shared his thoughts on this dilemma of the human condition when he said “I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race.” You knew from the very beginning of time that these longings would be burdens almost too much to bear.
But you don’t leave us without reprieve. I pray that we would understand what you said in 2 Corinthians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction,” in all our longings.
From our human perspective, there is ugliness in the events of our lives. We see that our lives are like the underside of a quilt with knots and twists, one big tangled mess, when in reality, You, dear Lord, see the beautiful masterpiece You are weaving on the other side of the quilt.
Teach us, Father, that “You have made everything beautiful in its time.”
Open our eyes to see that we were not created for this world, but for eternity with You, and these longings make us long for more of heaven and more of You. Remind us that “You have set eternity in the human heart; and no one can fathom what You have done from beginning to end.”
“Open our eyes that we may discern what You are doing and our ears that we may hear what You are saying.” Peter Marshall
Remind us when we feel the ache, You are inviting us “to ask, to seek, to knock” and to keep doing so until You give us an answer because “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what You have prepared for those who love You”— Who knows what amazing answers You have in store for us?
Thank you that Solomon finishes out his thoughts in verse 12, “I know that there is nothing better for people than to rejoice and to do good while they live.” Teach us this truth: that even in spite of unfulfilled longings, we can still be cheerful and enjoy the blessings of life with a thankful heart knowing that these longings are shadows of our longing for You.
“Open our eyes that we may discern what You are doing and our ears that we may hear what You are saying.”
You promise to satisfy us with Your presence, as you clarify for us in I Peter 1:8-9 that “at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom we having not seen, we love; in whom, though now we see him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
Show us that You desire to meet the deepest level of longing of our soul. Prove to us what you proved to the woman at the well when You said “but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
May we drink deeply from Your well today and see our unfulfilled longings fulfilled in You.
In the name of Jesus,
Amen.
A Prayer for Forgiveness
04/17/2020
Dear Heavenly Father,
You are the Great Physician, the Healer of our souls. Some of us need healing this morning. Honestly, some of us are stuck. We are soul sick. We’ve allowed offenses in our lives to turn into fences that separate us from our husbands, our children, our parents, and our fellow Christian brother and sister. Some of us have marred our relationships with an inability to forgive. Erecting fences that keep others out is not how we were meant to live, but for some of us, this has become the norm. We ask that o You begin tearing down these fences, one offense at a time. Let there be reconciliation where there is alienation. Let there be accord where there is discord. May there be connection where there is disconnection.
Father, You know about the misunderstanding that has caused a wedge between us and our friend, our spouse, parent or child.
You are saying to us this morning that You would be far more pleased with our efforts of reconciliation than with all our sacrifices of unselfish service for You.
As soon as this prayer time is over, make us willing to leave our gifts here at this altar, and go and be reconciled to those in our lives where roadblocks of sin and misunderstanding have driven a wedge between us, so that next time we enter into our time of prayer, our conscience is washed and clean. Matthew 5:23-24
Empower us to let go of our pride. “Give us the grace of the outstretched hand and the open heart. Give us the courage that will enable us to go and be the first to say, I have been wrong. I am sorry. Forgive me.” (Peter Marshall) Go ahead of us, smoothing the path before us, as we extend our hands to build a bridge of goodwill, and may Your Holy Spirit even now be disassembling and dismantling the accumulation of dysfunction and hurt.
Father, for some of us, we have not been the one to transgress and offend, but have been the one who has been violated. The sins committed against us have been so grievous that we now say, “this one deserves no forgiveness”. The poison of a punitive and bitter spirit has set us in danger of losing Your peace, power and presence. Our bitterness has become such a way of life that we no longer notice nor care that Your Holy Spirit fire has been quenched and put out.
Lord Jesus, we ask You to give us willing hearts, eager to forgive. Even now, our hearts are split in two, one half seeks to forgive, the other is reluctant, doubtful it will make any difference at all. Gather up our divided hearts and make them the sum total of one, wholly committed to obeying You.
Father, we can forgive others because of Your forgiveness towards us. In Jeremiah 33:8, You declare that You will “cleanse us from all our iniquities by which we have sinned against You, and You will pardon all our iniquities, by which we have transgressed against You.”
As we bow our heads together, we ask You to bring to mind the one who has sinned against us. We plead that as we pray this prayer of forgiveness, that You would wrestle the bitterness out of our hands, cleanse every contemptible and excusing thought, and heal every recess of our wounded and broken heart.
May our hearts join together as we pray this prayer of forgiveness: (Take a minute and allow the Holy Spirit to bring to mind those you need to forgive.)
“Lord, I forgive _________________. I give you permission to take the judgment and bitterness out of my heart. I do not want this in my life. I surrender it to You and ask You to remove it—to heal me where I have been wounded, to forgive me where I have sinned. I choose not to blame or hold the actions of others against them. I hereby surrender my right to be paid back for my loss by the one who has sinned against me, and in so doing, I declare my trust in God alone as the Righteous Judge. Father God, I pray that You will bless them in every way.” (Prayer by Charles Finck)
I pray that this prayer will be memorized and on the tip of our tongue so that we may continuously receive your healing and forgiveness for those who sin against us. Because offenses will always come.
Thank you for cleansing us from all filthiness of bitterness and the idol of unforgiveness, for we are now washed and we are sanctified and justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
May You now work in our relationships and “cause the waste places of our lives to be rebuilt” as you say Ezekiel 36:33.
May the offender see that our eyes no longer hold hate and contempt, but love and kindness; may they marvel that our words no longer cut down but build up; and may they be watchful of our hands that once sought vengeance, are now filled with grace, honor and goodwill, knowing that it was Your kindness that led us to repentance, and it is our kindness that will lead and persuade others to You.
In the name of Jesus, our Great Physician and the Healer of our souls,
Amen.
A Prayer for Being Present
04/20/2020
Dear Heavenly Father,
Some of us are experiencing nostalgia. We are aching and craving to go back to the way life was before –
When we didn’t have to worry about how to pay the rent or put food on the table, but could provide financial security by cause of working hard in our flourishing businesses with the added bonus of a booming economy.
When we could catch up with friends and have a heart to heart over cups of tea and a scone in our favorite coffee shop.
When we could get a reprieve from preparing another meal and cleaning up dishes by taking the family out for dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant down the street.
When we had a reason to dress up on Sundays and drive to our house of worship to serve and worship alongside our Christian brothers and sisters.
When we didn’t have to worry about being the sole job holder of our children’s education, cultivation and emotional well-being now that schools, clubs, sports, youth group and friends are no longer at our disposal.
And yet some of us, are longing for the future—for the quarantine to end, so we can get on with life. Some of us are praying, Hurry, hurry, hurry, Lord! Get us out of this horrible mess and move us into the next season of life!
But, You are saying to us, “Be still and know that I am God.” Your greatest desire for us is that we don’t waste this God-given opportunity to be present with You and with our family. Protect us from missing the miracles of today because we are so busy dreaming of the past or longing for what’s to come.
I pray Hebrews 2:1 over each one of us, that “we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard (from You), lest we drift away from it.”
Satan has a strategy and that is to distract us from being present with You. He will use anything…worry and fear, zoom meetings and Netflix, cleaning and remodeling projects, all distracting us from asking the question “what are you doing, God, in this season, in my heart and in my family?”
Protect us from Jacob’s reality after wrestling all night with You, when he said, “Surely, God was in this place, and I didn’t know it.” May we not miss this moment in history when You have hit the reset button for us, granting us the opportunity to survey the land of our lives, opening blind eyes to the need to establish new maps and boundaries for our time, our family and our passions and ambitions.
Protect us from seeking to be devoted to that which means nothing to You, and apathetic to the things which mean everything to You.
For some of us, You have flipped a switch and turned on a light. We are seeing for the first time, lurking in the deepest recesses of our hearts, the dust of indifference to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and the cobwebs of doubt in Your word. Some of us have a false sense of intimacy with You and with others and You are calling us to go “further up and further in. You are taking us,” as C. S. Lewis said, “into the land we have been looking for all our lives, though we never knew it till now!”
As You take us to this new land, may You affirm to us what You declared to Jacob, “Look, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Genesis 28:15
Thank you, Father, that You will not leave us until You have done what You have promised to do…
To refresh our souls. (Psalm 19:8)
To bless the one who takes refuge in You. (Psalm 34:8)
To bestow favour and honour on us. (Psalm 84:11)
To give strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. (Isaiah 40:29)
To give us hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)
To make the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)
May our response be the same as Jacob’s was once He realized God was right there with him, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven!”
As we surrender to You, our exasperation and displeasure of being stuck in our homes, may we experience them in their proper and rightful position as the house of God and the gate of heaven, and may our hearts cry out as Jacob’s did so long ago, “How awesome is this place!”
As we turn our attention to You, dear Father, we see that You desire to do awesome things in our homes and in our hearts.
Give us eyes to see and ears to hear these words.
In the name of Jesus,
Amen.
A Prayer for Grief and Distress
04/22/2020
Dear Heavenly Father,
We come to You this morning with tears in our eyes and grief in our hearts. We are brokenhearted and in desperate need of Your grace. Some of us can see nothing beyond our own heartbreak, agony and sorrow. We are experiencing what has been labeled the dark night of the soul. There has been some form of death in our spirit and we cannot bring ourselves back to life. Only You can remove this winter of spiritual death and turn it into spring.
Many of us are experts at concealing the pain deep in our hearts. Proverbs 14:13 perfectly describes some of us: “Laughter can conceal a heavy heart, but when the laughter ends, the grief remains.”
We wish there was a grave in which we could bury our grief and remember it no more. But for some of us this grief is a living, breathing heartache that afflicts us day in and day out. We feel that “Your arrows have pierced us deeply, and Your hand has pressed down on us.” Psalm 32:4.
We are Your children whose hearts have been wounded by
The adult child who has abandoned his or her faith we sacrificially and fastidiously attempted to pass on to them.
The husband and child who has a stronghold of lies fortressed in their minds which the enemy has used to cash in on and they are now addicted to pornography, drugs and alcohol.
The husbands, children, mothers and fathers some have buried, who were the joy and delight of our lives, and we can find no explanation for why they were taken.
Our loved ones, who wander through life with pain-glazed eyes, and have amassed countless days weak in bed or hidden away inside a hospital.
Even the never-ending, seemingly small misunderstandings, conflicts and annoyances that hack away at our peace and sense of well-being until all we see are dark skies filled with hopelessness and despair.
We are not coming to You this morning, Father, asking that we just endure, repressing our feelings and resigning ourselves to live in silent suffering. We are coming today asking that You will “Take the very hardest thing in our lives - the place of difficulty, outward or inward, and that You would triumph gloriously in that very spot.” (quote by Lillias Trotter) May 2 Corinthians 2:14 be true of us, “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.”
This does not entail us “being ignorant of the affliction we are experiencing” nor burying our heads in the sand, nor masquerade our true feelings beneath a pat answer, but instead You desire for us to be honest, authentic and sincere acknowledging that there are times we are “utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death.” But You desire for us to follow through with the conviction that these afflictions are to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” 2 Cor. 1:8,9
You specialize in bringing that which is lifeless and dead back to life. You are the Master Redeemer of that which the enemy steal, kills and destroys.
May we learn through our afflictions what a gentle, kind and wonderful God You are. May we learn that “because of Your mercy we are not consumed because Your compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23.
May we grasp how “outrageously gracious You are.” That this grace You offer us is not (only) “a point of doctrine or a point of theology. It’s a Person—Jesus Christ. It’s only the Cross of Jesus Christ—His shed blood—that gives us any hope. You want us to have sweet revenge against the enemy, so You gift us with Your grace through Your Son, Jesus Christ. The very thing that is keeping us in bondage, You will take and form into a weapon that You will use against the enemy.” (Quote by Ted Roberts)
As we blend together the beautiful character of our Lord Jesus and His mighty power, may we have the courage once again to believe that even though “many are the afflictions of the righteous, You Lord delivers us out of them all.” Psalm 34:19
Not only do You deliver the righteous but You but You—
“provide for those who grieve, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
We will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.” Isaiah 61:3
And Just there You will bring our souls into blossom.
In the mighty name of Jesus, our Gracious Healer,
Amen.
A Prayer for Trust
04/24/2020
Dear Heavenly Father,
You are an absolute. You never change. We ask that You guide us into continuously living between Malachi 3:6 where You say, “I the Lord do not change,” and Hebrews 13:8, where You remind us that You are “the same yesterday and today and forever.” We dare to pray that something profound will happen in our hearts when we fully grasp that You are
always reliable—consistently good in keeping Your promises
always trustworthy—able to be relied on as honest or truthful
always loving—You have an absolutely pure desire to care for, share, and give to us
always peaceful—free from disturbance; tranquil
always joyful—causing great pleasure and happiness
always gentle—having a kind, tender character; not harsh nor severe
always merciful—blessing us when we deserve punishment
always powerful—able to do anything You will; not limited in any way
Open our eyes to see that you are a God of absolutes— absolutely free from imperfection; having no exception nor restriction; standing alone and standing apart. “Among the gods there is none like you, Lord; no deeds can compare with yours. All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord; they will bring glory to your name. For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God.” Psalm 86:8-10
Protect us, Father, from Satan’s shrewdest strategy which is to distort, conceal and cover Your exquisite and unblemished character so that we will continuously run about in distrust, dismay and fear.
Shatter and demolish these caricatures and distortions of our assumptions and opinions of Your character and nature. May we live out 2 Corinthians 10:5, in which “we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”
May our hearts be so confident and assured of Your brilliance that it compels us to rise up and live above, and not be trampled and beat down by our circumstances. May we truly understand Deuteronomy 31:8, that “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
Father, if we never discover the spiritual power of trust in Your absolute character and nature, we will never discover what our faith is capable of producing. We will continue to be restless and unhappy, never able to move courageously forward if there is a constant stream of lingering doubt. We will continue to question “will You do it for me?”
To those of us who lack trust You are saying, “when you ask, you must believe and not doubt my character, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” James 1:6 .
You must be grieved, O Lord, when we never seem to learn to rest in You and become unstable, like the waves of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. We open our hearts to You and declare that we want to trust in You Lord with all our hearts, we don’t want to lean on our own understanding; we want to in all our ways acknowledge You, and then to trust that You will direct our paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6
May the Holy Spirit, the custodian of our heart, help us to keep short accounts with our suspicion and doubt, ignorance and arrogance that curdles and corrodes our trust in You.
May we learn from the father of the demon possessed boy in Mark 9:22-25, when he came to Jesus, for healing. The demon “has often thrown (my son) into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” May we never forget Your astonishing response: “If you can’?” “Everything is possible for one who believes.”
Help us, Father, to discover that wherever You are, there is hope, help and healing…it is Your nature…it is who You are.
May we cry out as this father did, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
May we discover the beauty of resting and trusting wholly in You, for there is no other like You.
We have no other on earth that can do for us what You have done. “Lord, to whom else shall we go? For You have the words of eternal life.” John 6:68.
In the name of our absolutely perfect Savior, Jesus,
Amen.