Pray Concerning Joy and Meaning

 

               Read Philippians 4:4-9. 
⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. ⁵ Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸ Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹ Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

 

               Today and every day, Lord, I want to feel joy and meaning in my life.  Help me to be wise enough to appreciate and use the wisdom of all those who have gone before me, who wanted and needed the same things I want and need.  Many of them found what they sought. Now the road they traveled and marked lies at my feet, waiting for me to walk in it.

                May there be in my life today the joy and meaning that knowing can bring.  I need some new piece of knowledge I did not have yesterday, some small improvement in a skill, some obedient yielding to the leading of curiosity and wonder.

                May there be in my life today the joy and meaning that loving can bring.  I need the steady awareness that my journey will be bleaker than you mean it to be if I try to travel alone.  I need the readiness to pay my full portion of the dues of love. I need the willingness to open the book of my life to my family and closest friends and to be trustworthy when they open the book of their lives to me.

                May there be in my life today the joy and meaning that serving can bring.  I need the recognition that people who need the help I am equipped to give have a claim on me.  I need the lift of the heart that comes from honoring that claim, and the sensitivity to help in a way that sustains the self-respect of the person helped.

                Keep me, Lord from ever seeing these gifts that bestow joy and meaning as being less than they are, as less than gifts of your grace.  However, keep me, too, from ever seeing them as being more than they are, since they are no more than just echoes and foretastes of the ultimate joy and meaning of knowing, loving and serving you.  Amen.