Daily Prayer: October 2019

with a grateful heart

Thanksgiving is just four weeks from today. It reminds me of the beautiful words of "Give Thanks, a song by Don Moen. I invite you to pray these words from the song.

Give thanks with a grateful heart

Give thanks to the Holy One
Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son

And now let the weak say, "I am strong"
Let the poor say, "I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us"

Give thanks
We give thanks to You oh Lord
We give thanks

Amen

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Pray for opportunity

(Our new friend Eliberto in Jinotega, Nicaragua)

There is opportunity to bless those in need all around us. We simply have to open our eyes. Open our hearts. And be receptive to the leading of God’s voice..... it isn’t our place to judge the authenticity of the need, it is simply our place to be the authenticity of Christ.

Lord we lift up those in need. Send someone to bless them. To meet their need. Help us to be aware of those around us and give us willing hearts to be Jesus to them.
Amen

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God is Holy

Father,

We acknowledge that you are powerful.
We acknowledge that you are gracious.
We acknowledge that your name is greater than all names.
We acknowledge that you are faithful.
We acknowledge that you are always present.
We acknowledge that you are wonderful beyond all that we can see or imagine.

We acknowledge that you are HOLY.

Your strength and power are unmatched. Your grace is greater than our sin. There is no one like you.

Amen.

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Prayer for California

Father, we pray for the folks in California who have been affected by the wildfires. Please comfort those who have lost loved ones or who have had their homes destroyed. Bring healing to those who have been injured. Please provide and protect as they try to put their lives back together. Amen

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thankful for ordinary things

As we enter a time of thanksgiving, let us not forget to give thanks for ordinary things like peace and hope. I invite you to pray with me.

For the quiet that surrounds me and your promise of peace deep within me, for the stillness of sleep for my body and the hope of healing for my soul, thanks be to you, O God.

Amen

-J. Philip Newell, Celtic Benediction

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for spiritual growth

Father we ask you to increase your influence in our lives.
Help us to factor you in to every decision.
Help us to know your presence and love each day.
Lord speak to us of ways that we can bless others.
And help the people that you have put in our loves.

Amen

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when the path is uncertain

My Lord God,

I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Amen

- a prayer of Thomas Merton

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a prayer for our brokenness

Father,

Lord, you have loved us with an everlasting love. In your wisdom and power, you have made a way for us to be with you in eternity. You have chosen us before the foundation of the world. You wanted us before we could ever want you.

And we often want the wrong things. Our hearts are broken, seeking all but what we should: You.

May we seek light instead of darkness, redemption instead of abandonment, truth instead of lies, justice instead of injustice. May we look for the lovely, the excellent, the pure. May we chase after you in our brokenness, for in that we are made whole in Jesus Christ.

Amen

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a prayer for hospice patients

A friend is receiving hospice care and is traveling the last days of her life. Would you please join me in prayer for her and all those who are climbing these final steps?

God, thank you for being with us right now.

We confess that we don’t understand why things happen the way they do.

We don’t understand why illness comes into our lives, but we do know that you walk every path of life with us.

Remind folks that are in the end stages of life that you are walking with them right now.

Remind them that you love him, no matter what they are going through.

I also pray for their family.

Give them your strength as they care for their loved one.

God, we thank you that you never leave us, that you never forsake us, but you love us.

We trust you, and pray this in your name.

Amen.

- adapted from a prayer at Crossroads Hospice

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God can...

Pray for all those who feel as if they are too dirty. Too broken. Too far gone. Too guilty. Too worthless...

Pray that God will open eyes. Enlighten minds. Heal hearts.

God can do the impossible in anyone’s life. Give them to Him. Put them in His hands.

Pray.

And let God work.

Amen

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a prayer for release

Father,

Thank you, Lord, for being kind and gracious to us. For offering grace and forgiving to us when we need it.

We ask for strength and courage to release all that we hold more dearly than you. May our eyes be opened to what idols we cling to and what comforts of this world we turn to more frequently than you. We are fickle people, and often look to the wrong things to heal us... to complete us, to make us happy. We acknowledge your compassion to us in our sin. Help us look to you alone to satisfy our deepest longing.

Holy Spirit, convict us of all the ways we put other people and things above the one true God. Center our hearts on you and you alone.

Amen

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Prayer for the Syrian Christians

Father, we lift up your children in Syria who, through no fault of their own have been thrown into the middle of the hatred in that part of the world. Even though they may feel betrayed by those they thought were their friends, remind them that you are with them always. Protect them, meet their needs, and strengthen their faith. Amen

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prayer of surrender

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
all I have and call my own.

You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours;
do with it what you will.

Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.

Amen

... a prayer of Ignatius of Loyola

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a healing petition

May God heal me, body and soul.

May my pain cease, may my strength increase,

May my fears be released,

May blessings, love, and joy surround me.

Amen.

-a prayer by Naomi Levy

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To Increase in Love

The love of God has been shed abroad in my heart. Father, would You cause me to increase and abound in love for others and for all so that my heart would be strengthened in holiness to be blameless before You, my God and Father when Jesus Christ returns. Amen
Amen

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for joy to increase

I pray. O God, to know thee, to love thee, that I may rejoice in thee.

And if I cannot attain to full joy in this life may I at least advance from day to day, until that joy may came to the full. Let the knowledge of thee advance in me here, and there be made full.

Let the love of thee increase, and there let it be full, that here my joy may be great in hope, and there full in truth.

Amen

...Anselm of Canterbury, 1033-1109

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for hope

O Great GOD,

You are the God of all hope, who sent his Son to us, to offer the greatest hope this world could ever know. You are the God of this present hope, as we see the way you are continuing to redeem and heal this world. And you are the God of future hope, as we wait and long for the second coming for your Son, when he will return to take his rightful place as the King of this world.

So with this hope we wait. We are sure of you, when nothing else is sure. We find hope in a world that often feels hopeless. But we know it's not, because you are here, doing powerful and wonderful work in the hearts of your people.

Help us cling to this hope, Father. Help us to push back despair with the hope that is only offered in your son Jesus Christ. May this hope sustain and fill us this day.

Amen

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prayer in a scary diagnosis

My wife was initially diagnosed with MS in 2002. Six years later her diagnosis changed to neuromyelitis optica. I think this prayer, by Canon Andrew White, speaks to what it is like when one first hears the news of their disease.

Lord they tell me I have MS and at times I am afraid; my future, my family, my ambitions are all full of uncertainties, my body will not function as it used to and I no longer feel in control; at times, though surrounded by masses, I feel so alone.

In my fear will you enable me to trust you, in my vulnerability may I know your power and in my loneliness will you assure me of your presence.

Amen

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to be released from fear

Father, I give my fear to You. I have been crippled and poisoned by fear for too long. I reject it. I release it. I
choose faith instead of fear, believing in Your good plans for me. I choose love instead of fear, trusting that Your “perfect love” will cast out all fear (1 John 4:18). I choose Your light and truth instead of fear, accepting Your Word, which says I “need not fear terror that stalks in the night, the arrow that flies in the day, plague that strikes in the darkness, or calamity that destroys at noon,” because you are with me (Psalm 91:5-6, ISV). Amen

-a prayer offered by Bob Hostetler at Guideposts

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submerge me in your love

God,

Submerge me in the darkness of your love, that the consciousness of my false, everyday self falls away from me like a soiled garment.

May my 'deep self' fall into your presence knowing you alone carried away into eternity like a dead leaf in the November wind.

Amen

... Thomas Merton, The Ascent to Truth

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Lead me

Amen

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