A prayer for maturity

The Mark of Maturity

Read Philippians 1:6–10

 This is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ. (Philippians 1:9–10)

Paul found joy in his memories of the friends at Philippi and in his growing love for them. He also found joy in remembering them before the throne of grace in prayer.

This is a prayer for maturity, and Paul began it with love. He prayed that they might experience abounding love and discerning love. Christian love is not blind! The heart and mind work together so that we have discerning love and loving discernment.

The ability to distinguish is a mark of maturity. When a baby learns to speak, he or she may call every four-legged animal a “bowwow.” But then the child discovers that there are cats, mice, cows, and other four-legged creatures.

One of the sure marks of maturity is discerning love and loving discernment.

Something to Ponder

With daily decisions, do you tend to seek what is good, or do you try to discern what is truly best?

Source: Wiersbe, Warren W. 2010. Pause for Power: A 365-Day Journey through the Scriptures. Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook.

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God, You are my Saviour and my Lord.

Help me to grow in maturity so that I may please You in all that I do.

Teach me to love others the way You love me.

In my daily decision-making, give me discernment to know not just what is good, but what is the best.
Help me to grow in maturity by giving me discerning love and loving discernment.

In Jesus' Name

Amen

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a prayer for trust

Heavenly Father,

It feels impossible to feel steady right now. Sure. 

Sure that anything is going to be alright. 

Lord, convict me of my own desire to trust of people, in countries, in systems. may my one desire to be to trust in You alone. 

Teach me to trust You in the steady and the instead times. The times that are unsure, uncertain, and chaotic.

May Your fear comfort and guide me in my own fear. May Your faithfulness be what I put my trust in.

Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, my soul. 

I will praise the Lord all my life;    

     I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. 

Do not put your trust in princes,     

    in human beings, who cannot save. 

When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;

    on that very day their plans come to nothing. 

Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,     

    whose hope is in the Lord their God. (Ps. 146:1-5)

Amen

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a prayer of submission

Dear Lord,

Our hearts are filled with your presence.

We cannot help to pray.

We come renouncing our pride and seeking your humility.

Your love consumes us and your compassion fills us.

You have given us everything we need.

We ask you today for help to lead lives worthy of your calling.

When we struggle help us to remember that you are there.

When our lives seem easy open our eyes to see those who need us.

We submit ourselves to you and to your ways.

We ask for your kingdom to come and your will to be done in us.

To you be all glory and honor.

Amen.

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help us to walk together in peace

O God,

Challenge us to do more than sing and pray, but go out and work as though the very answer to our prayers depended on us and not upon Thee.

Help us realize that man was created to shine like the stars and live on all eternity.

Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace; help us to walk together, pray together, sing together, and live together until that day when all God’s children, Black, White, Red, and Yellow, will rejoice in one common band of humanity in the kingdom of our Lord and of our God, we pray.

Amen.

- from a prayer by Martin Luther King Jr.    

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The Spirit of God Prays in Us

The Spirit of God Prays in Us

Silence means rest, rest of body and mind in which we become available for him whose heart is greater than ours. That is very threatening; it is like giving up control over our actions and thoughts, allowing something creative to happen not by us but to us. Is it so amazing that we are so often tired and exhausted, trying to be masters of ourselves, wanting to grasp the ultimate meaning of our existence, struggling with our identity? Silence is that moment in which we not only stop the discussion with others but also the inner discussions with ourselves, in which we can breathe in freely and accept our identity as a gift. “Not I live, but He lives in me.” It is in this silence that the Spirit of God can pray in us and continue his creative work in us. . . . Without silence the Spirit will die in us and the creative energy of our life will float away and leave us alone, cold, and tired. Without silence we will lose our center and become the victim of the many who constantly demand our attention.

Henri J. M. Nouwen

(source: You are the beloved by Henri Nouwen)

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Romans 8:26–30 (ESV)

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

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How long

Do you ever feel like this deep down in your spirit?

How long, O LORD???

Do you ever pray and wonder if the LORD is listening? Does He hear?

Does He care about the anguish in your soul? The heartache? The pain?

One thing I have learned in my Christian walk is that He does listen and He does hear. He does care about our brokenness. Our deepest hurt. Our confusion.

Never give up. Never quit praying. Never stop crying out to God.

He loves us with an everlasting and incomprehensible love. A love we can trust. A love we can depend on.

We may not always be able to see that He is working, but we can know deep down into the depths of our being that He is.

Because His Word tells us this truth.

"In my distress I called to the LORD, and He answered me." (Psalm 120:1) CSB

Hang on to the promises of His Word. Hang on to His love.

And cry out to Jesus.

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help us to seek you

Dear God,

You are more than we can ever comprehend.

Help us to seek you in our day to day lives.

Teach us and guide us as we pursue your ways.

Deliver us from our egos and our selfishness.

Bless us that we might surrender our wills to yours.

Cause us to be a people who are known for love.

We sing glory to your name for you are worthy.

Amen.

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a prayer to radiate divine love

Help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go,
flood our souls with your Spirit and life.

Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly
that our lives may only be a radiance of yours.

Shine through us and be so in us that every soul
we come in contact with may feel your presence in our soul.

Let them look up and see no longer us but only Jesus.

Stay with us and then we shall begin to shine as you shine,
so to shine as to be light to others.

The light, O Jesus, will be all from you.
None of it will be ours. It will be your shining on others through us.

Let us thus praise you in the way you love best
by shining on those around us.

Let us preach you without preaching not by words, but by our example by the catching force the sympathetic influence of what we do the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you.

Amen

...a prayer of Mother Teresa    

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a blessing of tears, discomfort and holy anger

May God bless you with a restless discomfort about easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.

May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.

May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed with those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you really can make a difference in this world, so that you are able, with God's grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.

And may the blessing of God the Supreme Majesty and our Creator, Jesus Christ the Incarnate Word who is our brother and Saviour, and the Holy Spirit, our Advocate and Guide, be with you and remain with you, this day and forevermore.

Amen.

... a Franciscan blessing    

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What is prayer? (The Westminster Larger Catechism)

What is prayer?

Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, (Ps. 62:8) in the name of Christ, (John 16:23) by the help of his Spirit; (Rom. 8:26) with confession of our sins, (Ps. 32:5–6, Dan. 9:4) and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies. (Phil. 4:6)

Source: The Westminster Larger Catechism: 

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Oh to be HOLY

Oh, we read the words of scripture and we don’t TRULY see. 

We don’t see that we are commanded to be HOLY.

We are instructed to be like HIM.

We have been GIVEN the example to WALK like He walked.

And yet, we falter in our steps…

LORD, help us to strive for HOLINESS in our daily lives. Enable us to draw on your STRENGTH when we are WEAK. Empower us to rid ourselves of UNHOLY and UNGODLY behaviors. Help us to SEE TRUTH through Your eyes. And give us the DESIRE deep down in our spirits to LOOK like You. 

Oh that we would be HOLY as You are HOLY. 

Remove our fleshy desires and replace them with an INTENSE longing for the SPIRITUAL…

Minister to our hearts and spirits today and fill us with Your beautiful MERCY and GRACE….

Amen

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Fill us so we may pour out

Creator God, source of all good things,

Author of all created beings, of all joy and happiness,

We are grateful you've made us to worship you.

Make us a people that provide...

comfort for all those who mourn,

restoration to those caught in sin,

hope to those in despair

joy to those in sorrow,

and love to those who have wandered far.

Blow away the ashes of unbelief by the breath of the Spirit, 

and give us light, fire, and the warmth of love.

We need spiritual and physical comforts that are...

gentle, 

peaceful, 

mild, 

refreshing;

comforts that slow our minds and bodies into surrender before You, 

so that we may rest in Your presence. 

Fill the garden of our souls with the wind of love,

that the scents of the Christian life may be wafted to others;

so they may come and gather what each needs.

Amen.

(Adapted from "Things Needful" by the Valley of Vision)

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shake us from our slumber

When our eyes do not see the gravity of racial justice,

Shake us from our slumber and open our eyes, O Lord.

When out of fear we are frozen into inaction,

Give us a spirit of bravery, O Lord.

When we try our best but say the wrong things,

Give us a spirit of humility, O Lord.

When the chaos of this dies down,

Give us a lasting spirit of solidarity, O Lord.

When it becomes easier to point fingers outwards,

Help us to examine our own hearts, O Lord.

God of truth, in your wisdom, Enlighten Us.

God of hope in your kindness, Heal Us.

Creator of All People, in your generosity, Guide Us.

Racism breaks your heart,

break our hearts for what breaks yours, O Lord.

Ever present God, you called us to be in relationship with one another and promised to dwell wherever two or three are gathered.

In our community, we are many different people; we come from many different places, have many different cultures.

Open our hearts that we may be bold in finding the riches of inclusion and the treasures of diversity among us.

We pray in faith.

Amen.

- a prayer by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.    

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help us to love as you love

Bless us with Love, O Merciful God; that we may Love as you Love!

That we may show patience, tolerance, kindness, caring and love to all!

Give me knowledge; O giver of Knowledge, that I may be one with you!

O Compassionate One, grant compassion unto us; that we may help all in need!

Bless us with your Love O God.

Bless us with your Love.

Amen.

- Author Unknown    

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