TAKING A RISK

(Mark 14:3-9)  This woman took a risk in order to touch Jesus.  She interrupted a dinner party to perform a public act of lavish, extravagant adoration that you will remember forever.  O Lord, help me to worship like that - not for others approval, but for the deepest springs of my heart, with acts and expressions of overwhelming devotion and awe.  By Your Spirit, Lord, teach me how.

 Down at Your feet, oh Lord

In the most high place

In Your presence, Lord

I seek Your face

I seek Your face.

 

There is no higher calling

No greater honor

Than to bow and kneel

Before Your throne

I'm amazed at Your glory

Embraced by Your mercy

Oh Lord, I live to worship You.

(No Higher Calling 1989)

 

 Image from googleimages.com

Amen

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God's Purpose in Our Suffering

Job 36:15 (NLT)
     But by means of their suffering, he rescues those who suffer. For he gets their attention through adversity.

Father you get our attention in suffering. You refocus our attention with suffering. You reward our attention by deliverance from suffering.

So then we may say with the Psalmist: “My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees.” Psalm 119:71 (NLT)

And we can more sincerely pray: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. ²⁴ Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”  Psalm 139:23-24 (NLT)

Thank you Father for your plan that surpasses our understanding but accomplishes your purpose for us in our suffering. For we know: “…..our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!“ 2 Corinthians 4:17 (NLT)

Amen.

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When God Hides

Why do You stand afar off, O LORD?
Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble? (Psalm 10:1)

Have you ever prayed something like this? Most of us have. Often when we are hurting it seems that God is no where to be found. I find that these times are the ones that cause my faith to grow. When God is in full view there is not a great need to exercise faith. When He appears to be hiding we are challenged to trust him and press into our faith.

Father we come to you asking for grace. For perseverance. For mercy.

Like many who came before us, we pray for your rescue and deliverance. 

Deliver us from depression. From loneliness. And from the enemy. In Jesus name.

Amen

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praying in secret

The angel said, “God has heard your prayers. He has seen that you give to the poor, and he remembers you. (Acts 10:4)

These words were spoken to a soldier named Cornelius. God saw his generous heart and how he sought him in prayer.

Often life is like this. We do what we know to do. We give to the poor. We pray. And sometimes we feel unnoticed. But God sees what man cannot - our secret prayers.

We ask you Father to pour your grace on us today. Cause us to be faithful when no one is looking. Encourage us to persevere in hard times. Help us to honor your Spirit in our lives. Thank you for your influence and power in our lives.

Amen

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Ascension

O, God, the King of glory,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:

Do not leave us comfortless,
but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us,
and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God,
in glory everlasting.

Amen.

Book of Common Prayer

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Prayer by John Baillie

O Thou to whom I owe the gift of this day's life, give me also, I beseech Thee, the spirit to use it as I ought.  Forbid that I should stain the brightness of the morning with any evil thought or darken the noontide with any shameful deed.  Let Thy Holy Spirit breathe into my heart today all pure and heavenly desires.  Let Thy truth inform my mind.  Let Thy justice and righteousness make a throne within me and rule my errant will.  Let Christ be formed in me, and let me learn of Him all lowliness of heart, all gentleness of bearing, all modesty of speech, all helpfulness of action, and promptness in the doing of my Father's will.

Cast down, O Lord, all the forces of cruelty and wrong.  Defeat all selfish and worldly-minded schemes, and prosper all that is conceived among us in the spirit of Christ and carry out to the honor of His blessed Name.   Amen.


This prayer by John Baillie in his book "A Diary of Private Prayer" may be a little hard to read because of the old English style of writing and speaking in the days this was written.  But the message is loud and clear, and I've been blessed over a couple decades of reading and praying these Morning and Evening prayers. 

Amen

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Sweet Freedom

Exodus 12:14 (NLT)
     “This is a day to remember. Each year, from generation to generation…..”

Father this weekend we will once again remember those who throughout our history have made the ultimate sacrifice to secure and sustain the freedom that is so precious and priceless to us. Thank you for the men and women, from all walks of life, that answered the call to serve and for so many who sacrificed their life for the ideal of freedom. Sweet freedom, the air of heaven, the hope of earth, and the right of every human being. Father help us to never fail to remember our history, our heritage and our responsibility to be guardians of this treasure we call freedom.

Thank you Father that you remind us where freedom came from and the infinite price at which it was purchased. “So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.” John 8:36 (NLT) Thank you that in Christ Jesus we are free from the penalty of sin, from the power of sin and someday we will be free from the very presence of sin.   

We will remember this weekend the freedoms we enjoy and all those who made it possible. In the Name of “….him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood Revelation 1:5 (ESV)

Amen!

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praying with confidence

We thank you Lord that you long to hear our prayers. And that we can be confident that you are working behind the scenes even when our prayers fall short.

We so appreciate your heart for us and your desire that we succeed in life.

We thank you for your many blessings.

We pray in confidence knowing that your love for us is the foundation of the trust that we have in you.

Amen.

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graduation prayer

Thinking about students who are missing graduation ceremonies.

“God, today is like any other. The sun rises. The winds blow. Rain falls. Rain does not fall. People are born. They laugh. They cry. They dance. They die. Today “chronos” time is as it has been since You gave it beginning, and will be as it is until you bring things to an end. Today is like any other.

Today is also fresh and new, and like no other day. Today is a “kairos” moment of opportunity that has come and will pass in a moment. Today is a passage from one epoch to another. Today is a gift from you. Grant grace to see it and seize it.

Today is a graduation, a passage, a completion, an inauguration. Today we pray for all those who have met the challenge and kept the faith to the commitments of their studies. Now they have a new “kairos” before them. We first offer thanks for the success of their journey. We thank for you granting them focus and direction and then strength and endurance. You created the knowledge and understanding they have mastered. You have created the curiosity and capacity determination that led them in pursuit. All these good things came from you. Thank you.

Today we also pray for tomorrow. This graduation opens another door to another time. As you have led in the past, lead now into the future. Give them focus and clarity and a calling from you to understand their purpose and the courage to respond and step toward that purpose.

We pray in the words of scripture: “Bless them indeed. Expand their territory. Let your hand be with them. Keep them from evil, that they will not cause or experience pain.”

In Jesus, we bless our graduations…”

Amen

... a prayer originally posted at beliefnet

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He is our Everything

LORD, help us to keep our focus on You. Help us to rely on Your Strength. Your Power. Help us to remember that man doesn’t know the beginning from the end but You do. 

May our Faith always be in You. Our Creator. Our Authority. Our Sovereignty. 

May we look to You in times of uncertainty with the full knowledge that You are in control. All Power belongs to You alone.

Amen

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a prayer for waiting

I will stand at my watch
    and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me,    and what answer I am to give to this complaint. - Habakkuk 2:1

Father,

We don't understand what You are doing, and we desperately want to. We are searching for all the information, then we distrust the information. We are looking to every place we can for answers. And sometimes, we even think we've found them. Then the next week, another answer comes that's different. It confusing. it's maddening.

We just want to understand.

Father, teach us to surrender to the goodness of Your will, and please show us the way of humility when it's Your will to not clue us in to all of your inner workings. As we seek to understand You, may we remember that Your ways are not ours, and our thoughts are not like Yours. And that's okay! Because we trust that you are good and faithful. You are for us, not against us.

Teach us to wait like Habakkuk, after presenting our questions... to be patient enough to trust that You will answer when it's best for us to know. And give us faith to accept that You may choose never to answer our questions.

Amen

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Prayer for Unity

Father, as we look at the unknown future unify your church in love, mercy, and compassion. Let us lead the way in our reasonableness and concern for others. Amen

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THE GOOD SHEPHERD

Sometimes we just need to get back to the basics!  What could be more basic than the 23rd Psalm at this time of unrest and frustration in our nation.

Dear Holy Shepherd, I praise you that my needs are met daily from Your loving hand. You bring me rest in green pastures and give me cool water to drink.   When I feel lost, You restore my soul.  When I feel unworthy, you lead me in the path of Your righteousness.  You do this for YOUR name sake.

When I don't know what to do, You walk hand and hand with me through those dark shadows and give me strength to fear no evil.  Thank You Father that you are with me, your discipline and love comfort me and show me the way. 

You prepare a table before me, and show me I don't have to fear my enemies.  Because of your precious healing oil, my cup runs over and Your goodness and mercy follow me where ever I go.  And when this life and troubles are over, I will be with my Good Shepherd forever in Your house that has many rooms.  Rooms for all who know the Good Shepard. Thank You Father.  I love You.  Amen.

No Worries

Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT)
     ⁶ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. us.

Father in these stressful times when so much uncertainty grips our minds I thank you for the peace you make available to us. Your peace is stronger than our fears, greater than our finite understanding and more enduring than our feeble defenses.

You guard our hearts and minds with the security of your wisdom and the power of your love. You say to us “fear not” and so we will not fear because of our simple trust in Your Word. Your peace is greater than anything that may assail our life or trouble our hearts today.

Thank you Father that through Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we can have no worries in this restless world. It is truly the peace that passes all understanding.

Amen.

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come, loving source of our life

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a prayer on my birthday

God of all creation, on this my birthday, 

I offer you grateful praise for the gift of my life. 

For all of the ways that you have helped me,

I give you my dedication and adoration.

I am particularly thankful for my wife.

Help me to be a blessing to those close to me.

In the year ahead I ask for your guidance.

I appreciate your continued presence in my life. 

I place my trust in you dear Father.

Help me to release control of it to you.

In all times and in all ways,

May I please you with my words and actions.

I love you Lord.

Amen

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a prayer for fear and faith

Gracious Heavenly Father,

You are with us. With us in the fire, in the storm, in the battle, in our homes and in the streets. You are our shelter in times of trouble. You calm the wind and waves and make our hearts be still.

Thank you for giving us the emotion of fear, for it helps keep us wise and safe in times of trouble.

Thank you for the gift of faith, bestowed upon us only by You through Your Son Jesus Christ.

Teach us to stand in the truth that faith and fear are not opposites. Help our fear to drive us to a deeper faith in You, not to be reckless with our lives and the lives of others, but with a surety in who You are and what You ask of us. Teach us that the opposite of faith is being fickle, and remind us of the steady truth of who You are.

That You are for us, not against us.

That You are good and kind, just and powerful.

That You love Your children deeply.

May this be the truth in which we stand, sure of who You are.

Deepen our faith through our fear, learning that you are our refuge and strength.We may fear an outcome, but we trust in You. Teach us to lean into the right find of courage and faith.


Amen

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MOTHER'S DAY PRAYER

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless Your Holy Name.

From your hand we are given blessing after blessing.  One of those blessings is a Mother's love.  From the time a newborn babe snuggles at a warm breast for nourishment and love, so Father, from the time we snuggle close to You for love and nourishment from your Word, we are satisfied.

Thank You Father, that Motherhood was Your idea, and you graced her with a heart big enough to love all those you would give her.  Thank you for mothers all over the world that demonstrate Your love.

At this difficult time in our Nation, please look down on tired distressed, and discouraged Mothers, and pour out Your grace and mercy and love.  Lord may all mom's feel Your loving arms around them.  I love You.  Amen












Amen

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The Wonder of Wonders

John 1:1-3 & 14 (NLT)
    ¹ In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He existed in the beginning with God. ³ God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. ¹⁴ So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

Matthew 1:23 (NLT)

     ²³ ….. they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”

Galatians 2:20 (NLT)

     ²⁰ ….. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

2 Timothy 1:14 (NLT)
     ¹⁴ Through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us,

John 14:23 (NLT)

     ²³ Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.

     Our God and Creator it has always been a wonder to me and far beyond my comprehension that the infinite, Triune God, whom the universe cannot contain, lives in me. It is a Biblical truth I believe but cannot explain. It is a mystery that thrills my soul and floods my life with the experience of your divine presence. It is in the words of the Apostle Peter: “You love him even though you have never seen him. “Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.” 1 Peter 1:8 (NLT)

     Thank you God that though we live in your presence we have the greater wonder that You live in us. It truly is the wonder of wonders. The song “How Big is God” expresses it so amazingly and personally.

Though man may strive to go beyond the reach of space
To crawl beyond the distant shim'ring stars
This world's a room so small within my Master's house
The open sky's but a portion of His yard

How big is God? How big and wide His vast domain
To try and tell, these lips can only start
He's big enough to rule His mighty universe
Yet small enough to live within my heart.

Ray Price

     Thank Father for Your love and presence with us. Thank You for the sacrifice Jesus made to make that possible and for the Holy Spirit who guarantees it with His indwelling presence. Amen.

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prayer of serenity

Living one day at a time,

Enjoying one moment at a time,

Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,

Taking, as Jesus did,

This sinful world as it is,

Not as I would have it,

Trusting that You will make all things right,

If I surrender to Your will,

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,

And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

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a call to persevere

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all up hill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is strange with its twists and turns
As every one of us sometimes learns
And many a failure comes about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow—
You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out—
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell just how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit—
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

Amen

- by John Greenleaf Whittier

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a prayer for patience

Father,

In the midst of a changing situation, we are unsure what to do. And that makes us frustrated. We like answers, plans, knowing, surety.

We know we can trust You and be sure in You. But that doesn't take away our impatience in getting back to our lives as we know it. We feel this tangibly. And many of us don't know what to do in the midst of this emotion.

So Lord, we simply ask for patience. We ask for a deep abiding in You, and a deeper understanding that because this is not within our control that it provides an opportunity to stretch our patient hearts and minds. Make our restless hearts be at peace in who You are, and at peace in knowing that because You are good, we can trust Your sovereignty.

Help us not to act out in irrational ways because of our impatience. Help us speak only life-giving words to one another. Teach us in our impatience and anger to put that energy into prayer for the person or situation causing these emotions.

Help us to love our neighbor, pray for our neighbor, and be content in all circumstances.

Amen

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Good Shepherd

OGod,
whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people:

Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him
who calls us each by name,
and follow where he leads;

who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns,
one God,
for ever and ever. Amen

From Scot McKnight

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A PLACE OF SAFETY




Stained Glass ~Watercolor by Wanda


Psalms 71:1-3
"In You, O Lord, I put my trust; Let me never be put to shame.  Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape.  Incline Your ear to me and save me.  Be my strong refuge, to which I may resort continually.  You have given the commandment to save me. For You are my rock and my fortress..."

Father God, you holy scriptures tell me that if I put my trust in You I will never be put to shame.  It's Your righteousness not mine that causes me to escape.  In these times of unrest and fear with so many people, help us to remember Your promises that You are our Rock, our Refuge, our Fortress.  We need no more.  Thank You for holding us in the palm of Your hand, and hiding us in the cleft of the Rock.  Our safety is in YOU.  I love You, Amen.

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The Kindness of God Seen Through Us

2 Samuel 9:3 (NLT)
       The king then asked him, “Is anyone still alive from Saul’s family? If so, I want to show God’s kindness to them.” 

Father there is nothing more that moves my heart to overflowing joy and deep humility than the expression of your kindness. As I see you act, personally in kindness, or demonstrate through others (like King David) acts of kindness, it is profoundly inspiring.

Father, as we continue to struggle with disease and difficult trials it is so helpful and hopeful to witness so many reaching out to those in need of daily necessities. 

What a great testimony this is to your kindness and it reminds us of what Jesus said: “For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home.³⁶ I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’  ³⁷ “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? ³⁹ When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ ⁴⁰ “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’  Matthew 25:35-40 (NLT)

Father, help us, in your Name and for the sake of others to always show Kindness of God.

In the name of Jesus, who is kindness incarnate, we pray.  Amen.

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go in the strength of weakness

The Lord be with you in all the places where your go.

Go then:

      go where there is ignorance;
      go where there is need;
      go where there is danger;
      go where there is pain;
      go where there is narrowness;
      go where there is fear;

Go in courage; go in doubt.

Go in the wisdom of knowing and the wisdom of not knowing.

Go in strength, and in the strength of weakness.

Go in the joy which overcomes sorrow; and in the love which casts out fear.

Go – and the blessing of God go with you.

Amen

... Charles Price (Virginia Theological Seminary, Fall 2009)

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