Daily Prayer

Prayer for life and wholeness

I WILL RELEASE LIFE AND WHOLENESS INTO YOUR LIFE

Let your heart be glad, and rejoice in Me. Let your flesh rest in hope, for I will not leave your soul in Sheol or allow you to see corruption. I will show you the path of life, and in My presence you will find fullness of joy. I will meet you with the blessings of goodness and give life and length of days to you when you ask. I will prolong your life and make your years as many generations. You will abide with Me forever, for My mercy and truth will preserve you.

PSALMS 16:1–11; 21:3–4; 61:6–7

Prayer Declaration

Father, You have granted me life and favor, and Your care has preserved my spirit. My life and breath are in Your hands. Goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Your loving-kindness is better than life, and my lips will praise You. I will bless You while I live. I will lift up my hands in Your name.

Source: John Eckhardt, 2011. Daily Declarations for Spiritual Warfare.

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

Empower us LORD

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

Oh, LORD, our prayer is that we will always be alert and on guard to the attempts of the enemy to distract. Help us to remain vigilant in our walk. Steadfast in our spiritual lives. Help us to keep our eyes opened to the TRUTH.

Our desire is to be HOLY and GODLY in every area of our lives. Empower us and strengthen us to keep our focus on You and You alone. May we bring You glory and honor in our words and our actions.

You are worthy of it all,

a blessing for the new year

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

we press on

When the valley is deep
When the mountain is steep

When the body is weary
When we stumble and fall

When the choices are hard
When we're battered and scarred

When we've spent our resources
When we've given our all

In Jesus' name, we press on

Dear Lord, with the prize clear before our eyes

We find the strength to press on

In Jesus' name, we press on

Amen

-lyrics from a song by Selah

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

a prayer for transformation

Dear Father,

We are thankful that you have mercy on everyone.

Empower us each to be transformed into the image of your Son.

Kindle in us the fire and love of your Holy Spirit.

Cause our hearts to be tender and compassionate.

Lead us and bless us as we follow you.

Amen.

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

Rememering back to childhood school days when a new year would begin, and we were each given a brand new yellow pencil with a pink eraser on top. A brand new notebook with all clean pages. It was a Fresh Start.

A new year is upon us and many are looking for a Fresh Start. I think the best way to get that start is making a decision to do a Daily Bible Reading through the Bible. I've done the One Year Bible (New Living Translation) for five years, I plan on making it six in 2024.

Dear Heavenly Father, give us a fresh start as we begin a new year. The Bible tells us You are the owner of everything, this world and all that is in it! I pray that 2024 will be a year that I remember this truth, and start every day fresh, in Your WORD, and living it out in my life. May this be the prayer of all of us. In the precious Name of Jesus. Amen

Remembering the love of Jesus

We remember your love, O Jesus, as it was manifested to us in your holy life, from the manger of Bethlehem to the garden of Gethsemane!

We track you from the cradle to the grave, for every word and every deed of yours was love.

Especially, O Jesus, we remember your love to us upon the cross!

We gaze upon you with your hands and your feet nailed to the accursed tree.

We remember your love that you manifested through your poor, bleeding hands, and feet, and side.

We remember this love of yours until it invigorates and cheers us:

the love that you have exercised since your death,

the love of your resurrection,

the love that prompts you continually to intercede before your Father’s throne,

that burning lamp of love that will never let you hold your peace until your chosen ones are all safely housed, and Zion is glorified, and the spiritual Jerusalem is settled on her everlasting foundations.

CHARLES SPURGEON (1834–1892)

John 3:16–17 (ESV)

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

a holiday blessing

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

A Christmas Prayer

The day of joy returns, Father in Heaven, and crowns another year with peace and good will.

Help us rightly to remember power and meaning of the birth of Jesus, that we may share in the song of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and the worship of the wise men.

Close the doors of hate and open the doors of love all over the world?

Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting.

Let Your goodness Lord appear to us, that we made in your image, conform ourselves to it. In our own strength we cannot imitate Your majesty, power, and wonder nor is it fitting for us to try. But Your mercy reaches from the heavens through the clouds to the earth below.

You have come to us as a small child, but you have brought us the greatest of all gifts, the gift of eternal love.

Amen

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

as we celebrate your coming to us

Dear Lord,

We celebrate the coming of Light into darkness.

We proclaim your coming to our fallen world.

We declare that the babe in manager is our savior.

With the heavenly host, we sing praises to you.

Glory to you in heaven. And peace on to us on earth.

Bless us that we might be bearers of your gospel.

Help us to be people who manifest the love of Jesus.

Amen.

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

in our longest night

A few days ago we experienced 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

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

A prayer as we await Jesus' return

O Lord Jesus Christ, who by your holy angels promised that you would come again in like manner as you were taken from us,

even so come, we ask you, and fulfill the desire of your Church.

Lord, we wait for you day by day.

Give us the graces of your Holy Spirit, that we will not be unready when you appear;

watchfulness, that our loins may be girded and our lights burning;

zeal, that we will not be slothful, but followers of those who inherit your promises;

singleness of heart, that we will not be unfaithful stewards of your manifold gifts.

And thus, O Lord, may we wait for you,

not unwise, but understanding what is your will,

walking circumspectly, because the days are evil.

Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

- HENRY ALFORD (1810–1871)

Acts 1:10–11 (ESV)

10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

a prayer for the holidays

Please visit The Prayer List and pray with us.

A Prayer to Find Joy

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for the joy that entered the world when Jesus was born.

Thank you for becoming God with us.

Lord, sometimes it’s difficult to live joyfully, especially in difficult or busy seasons. Please purify our hearts this day and remind us that You’re in control. Help us to consider it joy when we experience trials of any kind because we know You’re creating something beautiful and eternal.

Fill our souls with renewed strength, hope, and joy. May our circumstances not become the focus of our hearts, but instead, may we fix our eyes on You so that we may find true joy.

Amen