Daily Prayer

“Others……….” Hebrews 11:35

Father Hebrews 11 gives a stunning comparison between those where were delivered from trials by faith to those who suffered and died by faith.

Hebrews 11:39-40 (NLT)

³⁹ All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised.⁴⁰ For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.

Father as I think and pray for the community of Paradise, Ca and other communities in California, suffering from such a devastating conflagration and tragic loss of life, it is with a broken heart that I ask for your peace, mercy and grace to be with them. I know that life does not consist with the things a person possesses but of far greater and infinite value is that of the soul. Jesus said: “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” Matthew 16:26 (NLT)

Father I know that you are profoundly moved by the suffering of other people. “In all their suffering he also suffered, and he personally rescued them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them through all the years. Isaiah 63:9 (NLT)

Father, may all of those suffering and grieving sense the presence of your love and the strength of your grace sustaining them today and in the months and years to come. May they by faith in you find you more than sufficient for their every need. In Jesus consoling name, Amen.

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

Surrender

In the midst of the chaotic world we find ourselves in, I can rest secure, knowing I am enveloped by Your love and mercy, surrounded by Your grace and goodness, Your gifts, Your protection, Your provision. I am thankful and praise You for all that You have done in my life. In the circumstances of life, whatever they may be, this is where You have placed me; this is the responsibility You have entrusted to me. You are working in me every moment to become conformed to the image of Your Son. Thank You, Father. Help me to surrender completely as You work out Your good will in me. Give me strength and courage to let go of the what if's, the fears ...whatever holds me back. To You be the glory forever! Amen

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

a prayer for letting go

Dear God,

In this moment, I let go of all thoughts and concerns.

When I let go, I am able to receive.

When my hands are formed into tight fists, I cannot open my hands to receive anything.

When I hang onto tight control,

When I close off my heart and my spirit,

I cannot receive your blessings for me.

I let go to receive your blessings.

Letting go in this moment, I receive your loving presence around me and within me.

Help me to let go when I am feeling overwhelmed, so that I may receive your peace.

Help me to let go when I feel fear so that in fear’s place I may receive love and courage.

I let go of problems and challenges in order to receive your guidance and clarity.

I let go and trust you.

I will not fall.

You will catch me.

I let go and trust in the still, small voice inside of me.

Help me not to struggle but to surrender my struggle to you.

I gladly receive this gift of letting go and letting you lead me and guide me.

Amen

... a prayer shared by Jackie Trottmann at The Guided Life

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

a prayer to slow down

Heavenly Father,

As we enter into a busy season of holiday celebrations, we give you thanks. We praise your name on high, grateful that you are a God who saves. The true God who is present, near us at every moment. The one true God worthy of our worship and love.

Help us to breathe, O God, in this rush. In and out, with deep inhaling and slow exhaling. Let us sit in silence for a few moments each day, to listen, to slow down. To be quiet.

For you guide us, O God, and we must learn to be silent and listen for your voice. To listen for your direction. Most of all, to enjoy you. Teach us to slow down, to be present as we create memories and experiences. To slow down and see all that you are and all that you are doing around us.

Teach us to enjoy you.

Amen

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

OBSESSED WITH FORGIVENESS

Ephesians 4:30-32 "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you."

Colossians 3:13 "Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you."

Last Sunday we shared Communion in our Worship Service. It was a powerful message on forgiveness. II Corinthians tells us to examine our hearts before taking communion and Pastor share how we can tell if we have a sensitive heart. Are we sensitive to our own sin? To the Spirit's leading? Are we sympathetic to sinners and saints?

If we are so aware of God's forgiveness ~~then we will be obsessed with forgiving others! Ouch! That's one that can be hard to obey, but we do it for Christ's sake.

Dear Lord ~ Open the eyes of my heart and examine it. Lord I want you to find it sensitive and sympathetic to saints and sinners. Lord I want to be obsessed with forgiveness because I know what the cost was for you to forgive my sins and set me free. I pray today for a forgiving spirit with a heart full of gratitude for the forgiveness I have received. I love You. Amen.

googleimages.com

Amen

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

Grace Greater Than All Our Sin.

Romans 5:20

“…...But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more…..”

Just the first stanza and refrain from the wonderful song: “Grace Greater Than All Our Sin.”

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt!
Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured,
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilled.

Refrain
Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin.

Father the infinite magnitude of Your grace is beyond measure, and obviously greater than the mind can imagine. But, personally, the power of Your grace in the forgiveness, cleansing and reconciliation of sinners is glorious to behold. And Father this is wonderfully spoken of in Ephesians 1:5-7 (NLT) “5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.”

In deed Father, we exclaim with King David: Psalm 32:1-2 (NLT) “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! 2 Yes, what joy for those whose record the LORD has cleared of guilt….”

Thank you Father for Your gracious forgiveness through Jesus our Savior.

Amen

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

A Prayer for our Nation

Almighty GOD; we make our earnest prayer that You will keep the United States in Your holy protection, that You will incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government; and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the United States of America at large. And finally that You will most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of The Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech You, through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen

This is the prayer of George Washington, which has been adapted to use You rather than Thou.
from http://fourwinds10.com
Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

a prayer for unity

O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son:

Look with compassion on the whole human family;
take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts;
break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love;
and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth;
that all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

-excerpted from the Book of Common Prayer

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

Importunate prayer

I came across a powerful passage while reading a book on prayer by E.M. Bounds.

There was a word that I was unfamiliar with. Importunate. I had absolutely no clue as to the meaning. In fact, I had to look it up on google because I honestly had no idea what it meant.

Here is the definition: persistent, especially to the point of annoyance or intrusion, troublesome.

When put into the context of the passage by Bounds, this is eye-opening.

Importunate prayer is a mighty movement of the soul toward God. It is a stirring of the deepest forces of the soul, toward the throne of heavenly grace. It is the ability to hold on, press on, and wait. Restless desire, restful patience, and strength of grasp are all embraced in it. It is not an incident, or a performance, but a passion of the soul. It is not a want, half-needed, but a sheer necessity.

Wow.

I don't know about you, but that stirs me up. It opens my eyes to the kind of prayers that we need to be uttering to our God.

The wrestling quality of this kind of prayer is not fleshly at all, it is an energy aroused by the Holy Spirit.

Are our prayers filling this quality? Are we persistent to the point of annoyance in our pleadings to our LORD?

We, as Christians, must be cultivating effective, continual prayer in our lives. We must be urgent in our request. Pouring out to Him a 'poignant appeal of need and faith'.

Our hearts must be in our prayers.

"The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results." (James 5:16)

Amen

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

a prayer for guidance as we vote

Father,

You know every challenge we face, every opposition in front of us. You know every desire of our heart, and you know the sins with which we struggle. We have decisions before us, today, O God, and we need help.

Forgive us for all the times we've gone our own ways, and for the ways we've chosen to figure this out on our own, rather than looking to you.

As we go to the polls, we ask for your guidance. Help us to listen to your voice, to ask ourselves hard questions, to be informed as we cast our votes. Our country is divided and wounded, O God. We hurt each other, and we hurt ourselves. We need your deep, abiding presence. We need your powerful healing.

We need your direction, because we are wayward. We need your strength, because we are weak. We often vote with our emotions or our mind, rather than seek your will and turn to your word for help.

Holy Spirit, come, settle here and teach us in the moment. Guide us as we vote, so that we may honor you and you alone.

Amen

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

PREMEDITATED KINDNESS

One good deed is worth more than a thousand brilliant theories. Don't wait for greater opportunities or for a different kind of work. Just do the things you find to do day by day ..... Do it promptly. Do not waste your life thinking about what you intend to do tomorrow. No one ever served God by doing things tomorrow. If we honor Christ and are blessed. It is with the things we do today.
~~Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)

Dear Lord, we know evil is premeditated. Carefully planed and thought out. Lord I pray you will let me premeditate Kindness. To store of kindness in my heart, so when something happens that would cause me to say, or act unbecoming, I will have a storehouse of premeditated kindness to respond with on a daily basis. Thank you that your loving kindness is everlasting, and always available. I love You. Amen.

Amen

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

Happy Hearts

Psalm 43:4 (NLT)
“….I will go to the altar of God, to God—the source of all my joy…….”

Father you are the source, the center, the circumference, the core, the substance and the essence of our joy. Your joy is infinite in that it is eternal and finite in that it is personal. Your joy gives us strength in our trials and hope in our despair. Your joy heals broken hearts and restores shattered dreams. Your joy brings meaning to life and expectation to the future.

How beautiful and with what amazing insight did Habakkuk write: “Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, ¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the LORD! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!” Habakkuk 3:17-18 (NLT)

Father such is the nature of your joy given to us through trusting you. It is your very presence with us and in us that Jesus speaks of in John 15:11 (NLT) “I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!”

Thank you Father for the joy that is ours in Christ as the Apostle Peter spoke of: “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)

With Happy Hearts, Amen!

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

I commit my actions to You, Lord and my plans will succeed… I will overcome evil with good… I can do everything through him who gives me strength… I am content with what I have because You have said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”… I say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”… I humble myself before You Lord, and You will lift me up… My God is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us. To Him be the glory forever…

Dear Heavenly Father, I thank You for Your Word that encourages my spirit. Your Word has the power to bring me peace when I am feeling stressed out and confused. Thank You for guiding and protecting me. Thank You for never allowing me to fall too far away from You. Thank You for being my strength and my shield. By my own power I get lost, but when I meditate upon the knowledge that Your Holy Spirit is within me, I realize that nothing is impossible for You and I can rest upon Your strength to pull me through. Amen

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

A Franciscan Benediction

May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that we may live deep within our hearts.

May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that we may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in this world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done.

Amen.

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.