Prayer: Thank you for the gift of family

Gracious Lord, I thank you for the gift of family. I thank you for the gift of my biological family. I thank you for the vast family of your children baptized into this faith. I thank you for those who have parented me in my spiritual journey. They have encouraged me to grow. They have modeled healthy relationships. They have taught me the ways of Christ. I thank you for those who stand strong when family lets me down, as they inevitably will do. I pray for the brokenness afflicting family. I ask you especially to bring healing and restoration where family relationships have strain and severing. I ask for you to bless me as I endeavor to walk as a faithful disciple within family, whether biological or families of choice. I ask this to the praise and honor of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Prayer: Lead on, Lord and Savior

I ask you to lead me, Lord and Savior. If I do not have your leading, I would not know which way to go. Without you, I will stumble, wander aimlessly, and search for something I could never find. You have found me. You picked me up and set me on a path that leads to life. You did so through the pastors, teachers, and other servants within the Body of Christ. I have the hope that eventually you will guide me to your home forever. In the meantime, I will follow you. Sometimes, other paths of life seem clearer. Yet, I trust your leadership above all, even when the path is foggy, ambiguous, and unclear. Lead on, gracious Lord and Savior. Amen.

Prayer: The Pain and Suffering of this world are overwhelming

Lord, the pain and suffering of this world are overwhelming. I turn on the TV or open the newspaper, and I see death, disease and despair. At what point do I just throw my hands in the air and quit? However, this present suffering cannot compare with your future glory (Romans 8:18). When I pay attention to the other parts of nature, I see it also struggles with its pain and suffering. I wonder if at some level, its creatures long for its pain and suffering to end. Lord, how much longer must humanity wait, how much longer must humanity suffer? No matter how deeply I hope, hope does not cure the sick or end wars. Lord, many of us in the community of the faithful seek your glory, your presence here and now. We want the power of your Spirit to fill our entire being to overflowing. We are simply one part of your vast creation. As part of your faithful community, we long from the depths of our souls for the lifting up and revelation of the children of God. What this means, of course, is that I must wait. I am impatient at times. I wait with pain. Yet, I also wait with the firm hope in your Son, who has already experienced the glory to come in resurrection. So today, I wait and offer thankful praise for the glory to come. Amen.

Prayer: Creator help me to create

Lord, you are a loving Creator. I ask that you help me to create with you. As I humble myself before you in prayer, I thank you for the seeds of faith you have planted in me when I was a child. I thank you for the Sunday school teachers, preachers, music leaders, parents, siblings, and other adults you brought into my life who have encouraged the growth of your word in me. Grant to me the courage to release the things in my life that choke me and prevent me from growth. You know what hinders me. Make me aware of the hindrances of my life and help me to clear a pathway for you. In those now uncluttered spaces, help me to fill up with your strength.  Nourish me with the sacramental life of the Body of Christ so that I might give to others your patience, hope, and love so that others may grow like seeds free of the weeds that might stifle their growth. Thank you for the gift of your grace that has allowed me to flourish in spite of the load I have carried. I am grateful that you are always present to me. I ask for your help that I might be present today to the people I meet, so that I can feed and nourish others. Thank you for showing me what love looks like in Jesus, the Jewish Messiah and the Savior of the world, who taught us to pray …

Prayer: My life stretches ahead of me in its brevity

Lord, you are everlasting. The span of my life, long or short as it may stretch ahead of me today, is brief, a mere candle flame burning to the edge of the taper, when compared with the vastness of creation and the eternal quality of your divine life. My life is temporal. Regardless of when the end of my time comes, the end is always close to me. The end troubles me. The sense and awareness of the eternal quality of your divine life gives me some assurance and peace. In quiet moments, I ponder the seasons of my life, its progress and its steps backward, its dramatic changes or its slow but persistent change over time. I see mysteries around me. I ask your help to look and listen to your creation. I am uncertain of what the end of my life will bring. Yet, when I look to your Word, your Son, and his life, death, and resurrection, I approach my end with hope. Is death really a birth into a fuller life than I can imagine here? I trust your Word. Such trust will lead to life on earth with greater readiness to follow where your Spirit leads me. Amen.

Prayer: I confess failure in the pressure of the moment

Lord, I have a confession to make. At times, the pressures and stresses of the moment catch me off guard. I act hastily, rashly, and thoughtlessly. I say and do things I later regret. In the heat of the moment, I can allow my temper, impatience, and selfishness overcome the goodness and compassion you have brought into my life. I respond in ways that hurt others and dishonor you. I confess that though I long to have the mind of Christ and respond in all situations as Jesus modeled for me, I fail too often. I admit that I am shortsighted, forgetful, and fearful. I ask your forgiveness, Lord. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and the love of humanity. Amen.

Prayer: I have rejected your word when it did not suit my agenda

Lord, you are mighty and merciful. I must confess, though, that I have rejected your revealed word when it did not suit my agenda. I have settled for fitting you in my life, rather than have my life conform to you. In my pride, I have failed to repent of my sins or even acknowledge their existence. I ask your forgiveness. Give me eyes to see your Son as he is, ears to hear his truth, a heart captive to his will, and hands that draw others into the presence of the Son. I pray these things, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer: I have a conflicted heart and will

Lord, you are holy. I have a conflicted heart today. My intentions are often good. Yet, I still find a way to fail to do what is right. I usually want to do what you command, but I also find it tempting to figure out a way around it. Even if I do feel some guilt, I want to justify my actions rather than take the difficult steps toward making amends. I ask your divine forgiveness for the harm I have caused when I have followed my will and strayed from your teaching. Strengthen me today so that my heart and will unite in the desire to do what is right. Amen.

Prayer: Help me to open my door to those in need

Lord, help me to open my door to those in need. You know me, Lord. I fear those who are different from me. I am suspicious of the stranger. I do not want the other to use me. Yet, Jesus taught us to show hospitality, to welcome others, and to give a cup of cold water (Matthew 10:40-42). Prod me beyond my closed door. Give me the courage to reach out to those in need. You have given me so much. Help me to share what you have given me with those who have less. Remind me that so many people are strangers to the love of God. In your Son, Jesus, you broadened your promises to Israel to include humanity. You invited all persons to become part of the people of God. You have an open door to us. You welcomed us. Help me to welcome others in the same love you have shown to humanity. Amen.

Prayer: I pray for the courage of an open heart

Lord, I am grateful for your love. I pray today for the courage to have an open heart as I come to you in prayer. I admit my weaknesses. I know I will receive your loving understanding and leave this quiet time strengthened because by this conversation with you. Here are a just a few of my weaknesses.

• For the times I have been less than patient with other people in my life.
• I regret the instances when I have not given others the mercy they extended to me.
• I am sorry that I have trivialized the important issues and exaggerated the small stuff.
• Forgive me for all the occasions when I become extremely angry.

In spite of the weaknesses I can name and the weaknesses of which I am not even aware, help me to have gratitude today for the people in my life who love me anyway. I ask you, as one who loves me, to grant to me the grace to forgive myself. Help me to let go of the times when I have been less than my best. When others have forgiven me and when you have long forgotten, I still harbor feelings of shame and remorse. Help me to let go and love myself anyway, just as you continue to love me. I pray the lessons of the past might give me hope for the future. I pray these things in the name of the one who came that we might follow the way of love and life eternal. Amen.

Prayer: I live with the results of my sin and brokenness … Liberate me

Lord, I know that you are gracious. Yet, I live with the results of my sin and brokenness every hour. I see the results of human sin in a world full of violence, abuse, disease, poverty, discrimination, hatred, and fractured relationships that litter this world. I see how some people suffer loneliness, isolation, dislocation, hunger, depression, and addiction. Still others experience plagues caused by their regrets, failures, angers, or fears. Yet, I see so many who cling to the familiar patterns even though they cause pain and hurt to the ones they love. I see as well that I have done some of these things in my life. I am blind to the self-destructive behavior in me, even while I seem to see it so quickly in the lives of others. Am I still doing some self-destructive things? Becoming a slave to old attitudes, old ways of thinking, and old ways of acting is so easy that they (and I) do not even recognize the master they (and I) serve. Yet, you offer a different way. You are so gracious that your grace can help my find my true freedom. Set me free, I pray, to be the person you have designed me to be. Liberate me from all that threatens to keep me trapped and bound. In you alone, I will find the freedom to be what you created me to be. [See Romans 6:12-23.]

Prayer: I need to reorient myself to the truths of faith

Lord, you are mighty, the creator of the universe, the one who sustains life, and the future redeemer of the world. I am in awe that one who is majesty and mystery is willing to receive my humble worship, hear my prayers, and care for my concerns and burdens. I need to reorient myself to the truths of faith.

• Life is more that I can see or touch.
• Love can conquer hate.
• Forgiveness of my enemies is not only possible but a command.
• I embrace the truth that I find hope in Jesus Christ rather than anything in which I might trust in this world.
• I embrace the truth that the foundation of life rests on Christ rather than anything I am or do.  

Thank you for meeting me here, in my place and my time. I pray for your Spirit to speak to me and renew me by your divine grace. Amen.

Prayer: Before reading the Bible, I pray …

Lord, too often I see only as if I had the dimness of the twilight light. However, when I come before the Word made flesh, I want to come so open that I will see and hear something that will surprise me. Silence my agendas. Banish my assumptions. Cast out my casual detachment.  Confound my expectations. Clear the cobwebs of my ears. Penetrate the corners of my heart with your word. I know you can. I pray you will. I wait in these quiet moments with you in quiet anticipation. Amen.

Prayer: I confess the mixture of virtue and vice I find in myself

Lord, you are good, forgiving, and overflowing in unwavering love. I confess this is a beautiful contrast with the mixture of virtue and vice I find in myself. I am a mixture of good and bad, forgiveness and grudges, and faltering love. My sins are too heavy to carry, to real to hide, and too deep to undo. Forgive me for what my lips tremble to name, what my heart can no longer bear, and what has become for me a consuming fire of judgment. The pardon you have already offered to me in the cross of Jesus is my hope. Yet, in the quiet and urgency of this moment, set me free from a past I cannot change. Open me to a future that I know I have the ability to change. Give to me the grace I need this day to grow more and more into the likeness and image of your Son, Jesus Christ, who is the Light you have given to the world. Amen.

Prayer: I can make much trouble for myself and others

God of unity and peace: I can talk much about unity and peace. At the same time, I can make much trouble for myself and for others. Quarrelling seems too natural to me. Whether in church, at home, at work, and even between nations and religions, quarrelling is part of my life. I can be so loyal to things and ideas. I can be loyal to my country. Yet, I must never allow such loyalties surpass my loyalty to Jesus Christ. The wisdom of this world is sometimes a parable of the rule of God that Jesus announced. Yet, I must never allow the wisdom of this world to look better to me than your Word. I can think of myself as so good that the humiliation of the love of God shown in the cross of Jesus is something from which I want to hide. Yes, today and every day, I need your forgiveness and mercy. Embrace me today with the power of your Spirit of reconciliation. Fill me with a powerful light that shines with love into the world. I want this day to show increased commitment to leading the life of a follower of Jesus. Amen.

Prayer: Help me to be a good steward of what you have made

Lord, help me to appreciate your abundance. You created all things and granted human beings dominion over the earth. Help me to become a good steward of what you have made. Form me into a responsible caretaker of water, earth, and sky. Shape me into a protector of beasts that creep and birds that soar. Help me to offer shelter to others: infant, child, woman, man, stranger, and friend. Most of all today, help me to be a good steward of myself. I need to be a good steward of the gifts, aspirations, and limitations I have. Use the gifts I have to bring your rule on earth. Amen.

Prayer: Prepare me to hear from the Bible

Lord, prepare me to hear from the Scriptures. Sometimes it can be easy to dismiss a passage that seems familiar. I have heard it before and so I disengage. Yet I know that your word is powerful and that it is calling me to live like Jesus. Do not let me turn off my ears so quickly. Help me to listen well and to respond with obedience. Let me see what you are doing through the Scriptures. You are working and I want to join you. Amen.

Prayer: Help me to appreciate rest for the journey

Lord, help me to appreciate the fact that you give me a resting place. God and I can pause, renewing myself for the journey. I know I will need to take to the road again. You told us as your followers to go into the world. This pause enables me to ready the sail. My true homeland is not here. In one sense, we as Christians are strangers in every land. We are pilgrims moving toward the abiding city of God. That is also true of me as an American follower of Jesus. No matter how much I love this land and its mission of the spread of liberty, it remains my temporary home. As I go, I will pray. As I go, love will be my song and life will be my celebration. I have the privilege to be one small part of the house of God that God is fashioning. I want to go with God this day. Amen.

Prayer: I take your gifts to me for granted

 

           You are the God of all creation and the maker of all things. You have gifted your church with uncountable talents and provided many of us with comfortable living spaces. As for me, sometimes I am wise and use my talents for good purpose. I invest them, foster them, and watch them grow in usefulness to the reign of God. Yet, too often, I take what you have given me for granted. Rather than using your gifts wisely, I bury them to keep them safe, or squander them on things I do not really need. I fall into the temptation of debt, putting my wants ahead of my true needs, and my desires ahead of what you desire for me and your rule. In my selfishness, my eyes and ears close to the very ones you call us to serve and care for. Forgive me, Lord, when I hide or squander your gifts. Strengthen me and help me stand firm in your ways. Teach me to be a wise steward of all that you give me. The Body of Christ needs all of its members for the ministry you place before each of us. I trust that you have supplied the needs for the part of the Body of Christ in which I participate. Therefore, inspire your church to use these gifts in ways that bring pleasure to God. Give me courage to invest myself and to overcome the fears that inhibit the work of the rule of God.

            Amen.

Prayer: Give me a heart like Jesus

            Lord, I ask for a heart like that of Jesus. Give me a heart increasingly more ready to minister to others than to have others minister to me. Give me a heart increasingly moved by compassion toward the suffering and struggle of others. Give me a heart for seeing your presence in this world.

            I find it easy to focus upon my needs. Instead, raise my sights toward all those in my community and around the world that need to see the light of Christ through me. I pray for those lacking the basics of human life. I pray for the sick. I pray for prisoners. I pray for soldiers. I pray for those experiencing some form of alienation in our society. I pray for the lonely. I pray for the worried and anxious. I pray for persons living faithful lives in obscurity. I pray for the church here and around the world that faithfully carry out your calling.

            Give me a heart so full of love for Jesus Christ that my love overflows toward others. People will have more openness to hear what I say about Jesus when it comes in a package wrapped in love. I pray that this part of the body of Christ in which I participate may increasingly reflect the love that God has for the world. Grant that if the lines of my life fall upon pleasant places today, I will not become less sensitive to the needs of others. Rather, make me more inclined to help heal the burden they carry. If any adversity comes my way, help me to not brood upon it, as if I am the only person in the world who suffers. Give me the grace of involving myself in compassionate service to others that may need the gifts and graces I have.

            Amen.

I recoil at the notion that suffering is a natural part of this life

Lord, I admit that I recoil at the notion that suffering is a natural part of this life. I go to great lengths to avoid it. I want to spare those I love the pain, struggle, and discomfort of a human life. Yet, despite my best efforts, when suffering crashes upon me, I do everything in my power to mitigate its impact. I can try to anesthetize it. I may watch too much television. I may turn to alcohol. I may shop until I drop. I may distance myself from people or events that may offer the consolation and guidance I need. I ask today that you grant me the wisdom to embrace suffering as a gift. Help me to receive the lessons that only suffering can bring with a thankful heart. Help me to submit to the growth and maturity that difficulty can bring in my life. I ask for the courage to follow the footsteps of Jesus in this way as well, as he greeted his suffering with dignity, humility, and grace. Amen.

I am in this moment of prayer at your invitation

Lord, I am in this moment of prayer at your invitation. Your invitation met a longing of my heart for meaning, significance, and wholeness. I may not have known I searched for you, but I do now. You graciously came to me. You reached out to me, grabbed me, embraced me, and called me. You have done so in the words of a friend, in the words of a sermon, in unexpected moments of insight, in ordinary and extraordinary ways, you have shown yourself and called me to into your service. I am here in this moment of prayer because you have claimed my life. I ask you to stir up the gifts and passions that reside within to fulfill your call. Amen.

I ask forgiveness for my words

Lord, you are merciful. I ask your forgiveness for my words. I am grateful for the ability to speak. Through speaking, I communicate my hopes and dreams. I communicate my care for other people and the society in which I live. Through listening to the speaking of others, I come out of myself just a little, and engage in the world as another person sees it. Yet, so often, what I say is hurtful. I use words to tear down relationships, to make fun of others, and to show how incredibly witty I am. Sometimes, I know it the minute I say it. Other times, I may have fooled myself into thinking what I say is for their own good. Forgive me, Lord. Help me use my language to build up instead of tear down. Allow my words to show kindness and graciousness to others. Help me to live in love, as Christ has loved me. Amen.

Prayer: I bring to you persons who have sadden hearts

Lord, in Jesus your Son you have born the burdens of people and comforted the sorrowful. I bring to you today the persons in my life who have saddened hearts: _____, _____, and _____. Help me to mediate your strengthening sympathy to them. I ask you to grant that my companionship with you may continually refresh me so that the burdens of the world may not crush me. You are the one who bears the burdens that I cannot. You are their redeemer in a way I could never hope or desire to be. Only the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ can carry in your strong heart the woes of this world. In this faith, teach me to do my duty today, as I see it be your will, and save me from the depression of those who try to carry more than you have made people to bear. I look to you for help, O Lord. O Lamb of God, you are the one who bears the sins and burdens of this world. Amen.

Prayer: Fill me with love

            Lord, I ask you to fill me with love in such a way that I become an instrument of your divine healing grace today. Show me the particular ways in which I need to give this love today. Reveal to me the people in my life whose needs I may need to meet by the exercise of that love that you have awakened in me. Energize me, I pray, in doing those acts of love that can make this world a better place for the people in my life. Amen.

Prayer: Be Patient with Preachers

            Lord, be patient with those of us whom you have called to preach. I know I have fallen short. Sometimes, I have been too busy and therefore not responded in the best way to circumstances. Sometimes, I have been too lazy to do my homework. I know I have failed you when this has been true. I pray, then, for energy of body and mind with which to keep the faith you have called me to do. Even in retirement, I may have another way to fulfill your calling. I give thanks to you for this calling and pledge to renew my efforts to be faithful to that calling. Amen.

Deliver me from my unloveliness

            Lord, your love is unending. Deliver me from the unloveliness of this age. Empower me to love as deeply, broadly, fully, and as completely as you love me. When I encounter the shortcomings and failures of other people, endow me with a spirit of compassion and patience. When I meet those whose perspective or lifestyle is radically different from my own, enable me to see the limitations and inadequacies in my life. When other people disappoint me, remind me of all the ways in which I disappoint you by what I have done and said. Therefore, I might need to throw the mantle of charity over the weaknesses of others. When my sin saddens me, when my failures and shortcomings become clear to me, give me some measure of charity toward myself, even as you have shown unbounded charity toward me. Loving God, I would not know love had I not received your love. I am able to love because your love has flooded into my life in a way that redeems, sustains, and changes. I love because you first loved me. For your never-ending and forbearing love, I give thanks today and every day. Amen.

Prayer: Lord you have made me, but …

Lord, you have made all things. You have made me. You hold me in your keeping. You have made my body and have meant it to be whole.  Be with me when I am bewildered by sickness and by pain.  Let me trust the power of your healing; and above all and through all let me trust your love that does not fail.  When I am injured or sick, give me back I pray, health and vigor, that I may set my hands again with gladness to the unhindered tasks of life; but if this may not be, then teach me still to serve as best I can with bent or broken tools.  May any suffering I must undergo teach me sympathy with all who suffer; and may every gift of life renewed send me forth with a thankful heart to greater consecration; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.

Prayer: you are truth, but lying still tempts me

Lord, you are truth. You value truth in me. Yet, I have a confession to make. Sometimes I am tempted because cheating seems to be the easiest and quickest way to get what I want.  Forgive me for the times I have told lies, kept miscounted change, or misled my friends.  Grant that I shall come to love truth and hate lies – especially my own.  I want all my words and deeds to be free of sham and make-believe.  In the classroom, in games with my friends, as I trade at the store, help me to be trustworthy.  Day by day, I want to live in such close friendship with you that nothing will exist in my life that is counterfeit or insincere.  Amen.

Prayer: I thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit

Lord, today and every day, I thank you for the gift of your Spirit in me and in the world. Your Spirit can work in me with a soft but insistent voice, telling me that my life is empty and meaningless, but that there are chances of a new life waiting before the door of my inner self to fill its void and to conquer its dullness.  Your Spirit can work in me, awakening the desire to strive towards the sublime and against the profanity of the average day.  Your Spirit can give me the courage that says “Yes” to life in spite of the destructiveness I have experienced around me and within me.  Your Spirit can reveal to me that I have hurt somebody deeply, but can also give me the right word that reunites the other with me.  Your Spirit can make me love, with the divine love, someone whom I profoundly dislike or in whom I have no interest.  Your Spirit can conquer the sloth towards what I know is your aim for my life, and can transform my moods of aggression and depression into stability and serenity.  Your Spirit can liberate me from hidden enmity against those whom I love and from open vengefulness against those by whom I feel violated.  Your Spirit can give me the strength to throw off false anxieties and to take upon myself the anxiety that belongs to life itself.  Your Spirit can awaken me to sudden insight into the way I must take our world, and can open my eyes to a view of it that makes everything new.  Your Spirit can give me joy in the midst of ordinary routine as well as in the depth of sorrow.  Your Spirit can create warmth in the coldness I feel within me and around me, and can give me wisdom and strength where my human love towards a loved one has failed.  Your Spirit can throw me into a hell of despair about myself and then give me the certainty that life has accepted me when I felt totally rejected by others and even when I rejected myself.[1] I thank you for the gift of your Spirit. Amen.

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[1] Based upon Paul Tillich, Eternal Now, 1963. 

 

 

 

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