Daily Prayer

a prayer to endure

Dear Father,

These seem to be days of struggle and uncertainty.

I come to you seeking your strength to press on in hardship.

The path seems too difficult and the burdens seem heavy.

Even so, I sense that you are with me in this journey of faith.

Remind me when I struggle, that you are directing my steps.

Grant me to have the courage to endure when I am faced with obstacles.

Help me to trust you, your love and your goodness when the path is dark.

I confess you as my Lord and as my friend.

In Jesus' name, Amen

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when life seems dark and hope is far away

Today is the Winter Solstice - the longest night of the year. I post this meditation (written in 2001 by Rev. Diane Hendricks) every year as a reminder that things are not always as they seem. Darkness eventually gives way to light and night transitions to morning. And we can have hope in the darkest of times.

Longest Night Meditation

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Only it's not.

Not for everyone.

Not when there is an empty chair at the table.
Not when your body is ravaged with illness.
Not when the depression is too much to bear.
Not without her voice joining yours on the Christmas carols.
Not when you feel all alone even in a crowd.
Not when you are not sure you can even afford the rent or mortgage,
let alone the presents.
Not when they are trying their best to get the best of you.
Not when another Christmas party means he will come home drunk again.

It's the most wonderful time of the year?

No, it's not.

And trying to smile and say Merry Christmas is more than difficult.

It's pretty near impossible.

C.S. Lewis once wrote:

"No one ever told me that grief felt so much like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid. The same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning..."

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

Only it's not.

Not after he has died.

Not after the doctor gave you the news.
Not after they told you they would be downsizing.
Not after... you fill in the blank.
Not after September 11.
Not when there is so much violence and destruction in the world.

In truth, it has never been the most wonderful time of the year. Certainly not in the days surrounding that first Christmas so long ago. The story of the birth of Jesus is not to be told with a jolly voice and a merry ho-ho-ho.
It is the story of a teenage girl, pregnant with a child that is not her husband's.

It is the story of a child born in a dirty animal stall.
It is the story of a family of refugees who had to flee their homeland so that their child would not be killed.
It is the story of one sent into the world in peace who was condemned to death.
It is the story of a light sent to shine in the darkness, which the world snuffed out.
It is the story of God's never-ending, self-giving mercy which was rejected and condemned.
In the great work the Messiah, Handel quotes the prophet Isaiah, proclaiming that Jesus was "despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." One great theologian reminds us that we cannot come to the manger without acknowledging that it lays in the shadow of the cross.

It is not the most wonderful time of the year.

Only it is! It is:
If we forget about the tinsel and the trees.
If we forget about the holly jolly tidings.
If we forget about the presents and the ornaments and the trappings.
And remember. Remember the story.
Mary was alone and afraid.
But God was with her and exalted her among women.
Joseph was disgraced.
But God revealed in Joseph's cause for disgrace God's plan to save the world.
The world was in darkness.
But God sent the light of life to shine.
The lowly were imprisoned.
But Jesus set them free.
The blind wandered aimlessly.
But Christ gave them eyes to see.
The lame were rejected.
But through the Holy One they were made to leap and dance.
The deaf were confined to the silence.
But the song of life unstopped their ears.
The sorrowful grieved.
But God wipes away our tears.
We were alone.
But in Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God is with us.
The people rejected God.
But God embraces us.
The world crucified Christ.
But God would not allow that to be the last word, and gave us the sure hope of the resurrection.
It is the most wonderful time of the year, not because you have to be cheery and happy and merry.

But because you don't.

You can have heavy spirits and shattered dreams. Broken hearts and deep wounds.

And still God comes to be with you.
To comfort you.
To redeem you.
To save you.
To restore you.
To empower you.
To strengthen you.
To grant you peace.
To be raised for you.
To hold you in the communion of saints with those whom you have loved and lost.
To store your tears in his bottle.
To offer you eternal life.
It is the most wonderful time of the year.
For Christ is born.
Love has come.
God is with us!
Thanks be to the Lord our God.

Amen

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A prayer of thanksgiving and commitment this Christmas

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a prayer to risk again

Dear Lord,

This morning I am hopeful but fearful.

Give me the courage to try again.

Help me to be patient as I take one step of faith today.

Bless me that I might not be controlled by past failures.

Help me to trust you and follow in your footsteps.

Guide me Holy Spirit as I seek to hear your still small voice.

I am your servant. Lead me in the way of love.

Amen.

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a prayer for sympathy and guidance

Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning.

Give attention to my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray.

Thank you O Lord, for hearing me when I pray.

Thank you for being a pure Father, one with absolutely no evil.

Give me grace O Father to be humble, pure in heart and a truth teller.

Help me to be a forgiving person and one filled with honesty.

Praise be to Your name for Your steadfast love.

I worship You with much awe.

Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness; make your way straight before me.

Cause me to be one with truth in my mouth; and not flattery on my lips.

Give me wisdom to live in a sinful world and to shine before others.

Help me to bless those who do not know You and bless me to love them.

Let all who take refuge in you rejoice and let them ever sing for joy.

Spread Your loving protection over all.

Let who love Your name exult in you and praise your name.

For You bless those you love and cover them with favor as with a shield.

Amen

... a prayer based on Psalm 5

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A prayer for protection and direction

Lord, Be Thou within me, to strengthen me; Without me, to keep me; Above me, to protect me; Beneath me, to uphold me; Before me, to direct me; Behind me, to keep me from straying; Round about me, to defend me. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, our Father, for ever and ever.

-Lancelot Andrewes (1555–1626)

Note:
Lancelot Andrewes was an important clergyman in the Church of England. He was a theological statesman and court preacher. His goal was to cause people to think about scripture and reawaken them. Andrewes was one of the translators for the King James version of the Bible.

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Prayer has POWER

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a prayer for peace

Heavenly Father,

Your good and gracious heart for Your people is the reason we are able to have peace.

While the world is in chaos, when violence is the norm and fighting is expected, we long for peace between all those created in Your image. When thank you for the peace Jesus brought between us and You. Glory to God in the Highest!

Show us ways to be at peace with others, give us hearts for loving and not fighting with those we disagree with, and give us an open spirit for peace to reign in our hearts at all times.

Amen.

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a confession of trust

Dearest Father,

My life is hard and my days are lonely.
Even so, I will trust you Lord.

Sickness has consumed my world and tears adorn my eyes.
Even so, I will trust you Lord.

Friends have left me and I feel forsaken.
Even so, I will trust you Lord.

Each day seems darker than the day before.
Even so, I will trust you Lord.

I will trust you Lord because you love me.

I will trust you because your heart is good.

I will trust you knowing that you are with me.

I will trust you because I love you Jesus.

Amen.

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a prayer to make a difference

Blessed Lord,

I confess that I too often overlook the people who need Your love and healing. Consumed with myself and my schedule, I don’t make time to listen for Your leading and to watch for opportunities to give Jesus to those around me.

Forgive me, Father.

In a world of lonely, frightened people, give me a heart that is broken for the things that break Yours. Give me compassion for a lost and dying world, for people You love. Give me an unquenchable love for Your gospel, for Your Son, for Your Word, for You. Use me to make an eternal difference in the lives of people all around me.

Amen

... from a prayer by Anne Graham Lotz

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open our hearts to your plan

Dear Father God,

Open our hearts to your plan for us so that we may live good lives.

You have given us family, friends and others who radiate your wisdom.

Open our hearts so that we may embrace their words of guidance.

Help us to be humble and loving towards all we may encounter.

That our eyes and our hearts might be open to embrace your ways.

We pray in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

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God may want to use you to answer your prayer

O Lord, I beseech thee, let now Thine ear be attentive to the prayer of Thy servant, and to the prayer of Thy servants, who desire to fear Thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, Thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.—Nehemiah 1:11.

WHEN Nehemiah began to pray I have no idea that he thought he himself was to be the instrument in God’s hand of building the walls of Jerusalem. But when a man gets into sympathy and harmony with God, then God prepares him for the work He has for him. No doubt he thought the Persian king might send one of his great warriors and accomplish the work with a great army of men; but after he had been praying for months, it may be, the thought flashed into his mind:

“Why should not I go to Jerusalem myself and build those walls?”

Prayer for the work will soon arouse your own sympathy and effort.

Source: Moody, D. L. 1900. The D. L. Moody Year Book: A Living Daily Message from the Words of D. L. Moody.

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a prayer to be content

Dear Father,

I am not content with my life.
I am in pain and hurt most of the time.

Help me to find grace in hardship.
Help me to lean into trust and love.

Empower me to not compare myself to others.
Empower me to be thankful for what I have.

Teach me to be a person who looks to you.
Teach me to see with my inner eyes of faith.

Bless me with courage, hope and endurance as I struggle.
Bless me to learn to be content with things out of my control.

I choose to live a life focused on love and peace.
I choose to be a person with a heart for you.

Amen.

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Prayer time to be alone with God

He went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when evening was come, he was there alone.” (Matt. 14:23.)

THE man Christ Jesus felt the need of perfect solitude—Himself alone, entirely by Himself alone with Himself. We know how much intercourse with men draws us away from ourselves and exhausts our powers. The man Christ Jesus knew this, too, and felt the need of being by Himself again, of gathering all His powers, of realizing fully His high destiny, His human weakness, His entire dependence on the Father.

How much more does the child of God need this—himself, alone with spiritual realities, himself alone with God the Father. If ever there were one who could dispense with special seasons for solitude and fellowship, it was our Lord. But He could not do His work or maintain His fellowship in full power, without His quiet time.

Would God that every servant of His understood and practiced this blessed art, and that the Church knew how to train its children into some sense of this high and holy privilege, that every believer may and must have his time when he is indeed himself alone with God. Oh, the thought to have God all alone to myself, and to know that God has me all alone to Himself!

—Andrew Murray.

Lamertine speaks in one of his books of a secluded walk in his garden where his mother always spent a certain hour of the day, upon which nobody ever dreamed for a moment of intruding. It was the holy garden of the Lord to her. Poor souls that have no such Beulah land! Seek thy private chamber, Jesus says. It is in the solitude that we catch the mystic notes that issue from the soul of things.

A MEDITATION

My soul, practice being alone with Christ! It is written that when they were alone He expounded all things to His disciples. Do not wonder at the saying; it is true to thine experience. If thou wouldst understand thyself send the multiude away. Let them go out one by one till thou art left alone with Jesus. … Has thou ever pictured thyself the one remaining creature in the earth, the one remaining creature in all the starry worlds?

In such a universe thine every thought would be “God and I! God and I!” And yet He is as near to thee as that—as near as if in the boundless spaces there throbbed no heart but His and thine. Practice that solitude, O my soul! Practice the expulsion of the crowd! Practice the stillness of thine own heart! Practice the solemn refrain “God and I! God and I!” Let none interpose between thee and thy wrestling angel! Thou shalt be both condemned and pardoned when thou shalt meet Jesus alone!

—George Matheson.

Source: Cowman, Lettie B. 1925. Streams in the Desert. Los Angeles, CA: The Oriental Missionary Society.

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