December 31, 2010

As the year comes to a close, Lord God, help us people to reflect on the year we have spent and how we have been effective or ineffective disciples of yours.

Help us to remember the ways we have hurt and sinned against others.

Lord, forgive us, and help those others to forgive us.

Help us to remember ways in which we have harmed other parts of your creation.

Lord, forgive us, and help us to find ways to repair the ways we have harmed the earth.

Help us to remember the ways we have sinned against you and not put you first in our lives.

Lord, forgive us, and help us to learn how to put you first.

But, Great God, we have not been only poor stewards of your love, but we have also had moments in which we have been the kind of people you want us to be.

Help us to remember the ways we were effective in spreading your love.

Help us to remember the ways in which we loved others and loved your creation.

Help us to remember times that we thought of you and your plan for us in choosing our actions.

Let us celebrate our successes even as we mourn our failures, and let us look to the new year with hope and expectation to be fully your children.

Amen.

December 30, 2010

Sometimes it is hard to know that you hear our cries, O God. We look up, we look out, and we cry to you, yet sometimes it seems as if all our prayers can go unanswered.

We continue to suffer,

We continue to lose loved ones,

We continue to learn of new sicknesses in ourselves and others,

We continue to learn of new wounds that need to be healed.

Lord, God, we know that you are the ruler of the entire universe.

We know that you hold us in the palm of your hand.

Help us to understand the way that you care for us, and help us to know that you truly love us, even in the times when we feel that deep pain. Even in the moments when we see the hurt and wounds in ourselves and others, Lord, help us to never forget the radical truth of your love for us.

Thank you for the grace, O God, to know you are sovereign even when your creation suffers.

And help us to keep from trying to judge you in the terms of human and worldly justice.

Amen.

December 29, 2010

Some days I just cannot understand your plans, God.

When there is senseless loss of life, Lord, why?

When there is tragedy at home or across the world, Lord, why?

When there is heartache, hatred, violence, pain, Lord, why?

What can we learn from life’s distresses?

How can we begin to find logic in the midst of so much strife?

Yet, Lord, were we there when you set the cornerstones of the universe?

No. Of course none of us can understand your ways, whether they lift our hearts or break them.

All we can do is trust in you.

All we can do is believe in your love for us, and we hope one day to spend eternity with you where there will be no more tears.

Amen.

December 28, 2010

Lord God of all the heavens and the earth, I pray for your spirit today.

I pray that you would breathe your spirit into me that I may know you intimately.

I pray that you would pour yourself into me that I would begin to resemble you more.

And I pray that through resembling you more, my will would become intertwined with yours so that I can serve your purposes in this world.

Teach me to show mercy.

Teach me to have patience.

Teach me to give love.

Teach me to be like you.

Amen.

December 27, 2010

Master of the universe, the things you have created are mystifying.

We can see you in everything we encounter.

We look at a leaf, and wonder at the ways the thin layers of cells can produce food and the mazelike veins carry that back in order to feed the entire plant. It takes so many leaves doing their own small part to feed the entire tree, and somehow, even huge trees like redwoods have enough food to live, just as the sapling does.

Then, we look at the order of the universe. It is too large to even see across. To think that we can only see a finite distance in one direction, thirteen billion light years, but that there is no reason to think that the universe stops at those boundaries… It is unimaginable the infinite size of space.

And all of it, from the individual atom or the individual components of an atom to the overwhelming vastness of the universe, is fully under your dominion. You created them all, you ordered them all, in your ways, which are unfathomable to humans.

Lord, You are so wonderful to love and regard all these things that are yours. May we always remember the incredibleness of your majesty, while still knowing that you love us as your children.

Amen.

December 26, 2010

Creator of all things,

Judge of all people,

Giver of all Grace,

We are told that we are inheritors of your kingdom, adopted by you as your children, and thus, heirs to your majesty. How can we begin to imagine the awesomeness of that gift? How can we even start to count your blessings to us.

You have chosen us, but for the adoption to become complete, we must choose you.

I pray, Lord, that I would choose you. Over worldly things, over institutions, over all the many material and non-Godly things that come between me and you.

Help me, because I know that if you choose me, and I choose you, then we will share eternity with each other and all the others who choose you, too. There can be nothing greater than being your daughters and sons, because there can be no greater kingdom, no greater treasure to inherit than what you want to freely give to all who choose you as holy parent.

I ask for your help for me and for all your creation.

Amen.

December 25, 2010

The old song says, “Go, tell it on the mountain!”

The gift of that baby boy so many years ago is the greatest gift the world has ever received.

Yet, we are afraid to talk about it.

Sometimes even among ourselves.

We are afraid to tell people.

Lord, we thank you for the gift of your son,

And we pray that we might learn how to tell others about this gift without fear,

Without doubt,

Without offense,

Without pre-judgment…at least from us.

We pray for opportunities to tell others about Christ when we will not be judged,

When we will not be taken with offense,

When we will not intuitively fear the way we will be received.

Help us to share your gift by telling others of the gift of your Son.

Amen.

December 24, 2010

O Holy Night.

O Night Divine.

Lord God, we thank you for the gift of your baby Son so many years ago.

We celebrate his birth on this night and tomorrow morning, and there is no greater gift that the world could ever receive.

You took human form so that we could have the hope of salvation.

You came to earth so that we could one day come to where you are and spend eternity with you.

So, we thank you for this holy night and the incarnation of your divinity.

We thank you for the ways in which you reached across the chasm created by our sin, and gave us the possibility of redemption.

We thank you for God in human form.

Amen.

December 23, 2010

The psalmist writes for us to sing a new song to you, O God. We should fill our lungs and sing new and fresh praises to you all the days of our lives.

So why do our praises sound old and stale?

Why do the words we use leave us unchanged?

Why do our songs fail to leave us feeling that we have truly worshiped the king of kings?

It just may be that we do not pay attention to the words we sing, or even really understand them.

Our songs have become easy to our lips, but far away from our hearts.

We know that they confess belief in you, but it is a belief that we too often miss in the very words we are singing.

Lord, refresh our hearts and minds.

Help us to see the words we use to praise you anew.

Help us to hear the songs we sing with new ears.

Help us to recognize who you are that we sing to.

Help us to remember the way our hearts are filled when we have our encounters with your essence.

And help us to sing new songs daily, hourly, every moment…Songs that are filled with true praise and not merely a trite turn of phrase.

Amen.

December 22, 2010

In quiet spaces, Lord, speak to me. Teach me to walk in your ways.

In the hectic, business of each day, continue to speak to me. Help me to know what you would have me do.

In the rushed minutes, or sleep-filled hours, help me to be aware of your guiding spirit, always with me, ever helping me to know how you want me to live.

Lord of all, what I need most is to be connected to you. I pray that you would fill me with your spirit that I would live my life only for you. Keep me connected even when I feel distracted or overwhelmed. Calm me and continue to lead me.

Amen.

December 21, 2010

We are waiting for our savior.

Lord God and Creator of all things, including the creation of a means by which we can be atoned to you, in this season of Advent we wait for our Savior.

We look forward to the celebration of his birth, and we await his second appearance with great anticipation.

We remember the words of the prophet that we should prepare the way of the Lord.

Help your church, throughout the world, to be a voice of one crying in the wilderness.

We want to announce your coming.

We want to shout it from the rooftops.

We want to go and tell it on every mountain!

Lord, help your Church to fulfill this calling in the world today.

Amen.

December 20, 2010

Sometimes, Lord, I feel totally overwhelmed by all the need in the world. There are so many people, and so many are in need—real need. I so often feel as if I need more and more, and I forget about all those who can only barely survive each day.

And some did not even survive today.

I feel as if there is nothing I can do to change these problems in the world. I feel that there is no way we can find for people to be satisfied throughout the world.

I know that as one person, who is willing to share my resources, I may not make much of an impact on the world’s economy.

I know that helping in the small ways I can will not change the economic disparities in the world.

But, I also know that I can change the world for at least some people who do not have enough to eat.

I can change the world for anyone I meet who does not know that they are loved.

I can, in small ways, change the entire world for a very few people.

And, I know that if I can inspire others to change the world for a few people, too, that the impact will be greater. And if we keep inspiring others to learn how to share—just like sharing as a tiny child—that maybe no one will ever have to cry for hunger again.

With you all things are possible, right?

Help us. There is enough for all, if we only share.

Help us.

Amen.

December 19, 2010

Lord God, your majesty is more that humans can understand.

It is more than we can even imagine.

You are like a mystery which continues to unravel, yet one never comes closer to understanding.

You are like a great cistern of water that continually flows to refresh the earth, yet remains ever full, never lowering by even one drop.

You are like movement that is continual, despite the laws of inertia.

You are everything that we hope to learn, hope to see, hope to become.

Even as overwhelmingly fantastic as you are, you still regard us finite creatures, with love and care.

You order the universe, and you sustain the tiny creatures on this one small planet within the universe.

You are truly more than we can understand or imagine.

Thank you.

Amen.

December 18, 2010

Lord, like the psalmist of old, I sing of your victories over my enemies. When I was in the valley of those who would hurt me, you were always there with me. Although there were times when I could hardly stand the emotions and thoughts and storms within me, you were always there.

Now, when I remember, I see your guiding hand through those overwhelming times. Thank you for the gift of sight to see how you have brought me through all the storms of life. Because of those victories, I pray that you would help me to devote myself to helping others to the same victories over their own ghosts.

When my hope was lost, you restored me.

When I felt starved, you gave me spiritual food.

When I was more afraid than I had ever been in my life, you comforted me.

Help me to lead others to that comfort.

Help me to show others where they can find spiritual food.

Help me to show the hopeless how to hope again.

Amen.

December 17, 2010

Lord, teach me your ways.

Help me to know who you are and what you have planned for me.

Help me to learn when to let go.

Help me to know when to push harder.

Help me to know when I have stepped in the wrong direction.

Help me to realize when the path I have been walking is pleasing to you.

And teach me, no matter what the circumstance, no matter what I am facing or whether I need to remain idle or fight with all I have…teach me always to trust in you.

Amen.

December 16, 2010

What an awesome God you are!

I want to sing of your greatness!

I want to shout to others that you are mercy!

You have shown the greatness of your power and compassion over the course of the centuries. You created humans and created a world where humans could live and thrive. You gave us life and hope for salvation.

But we turn away, Lord. We tend to forget about all you have done and we lose focus on the things you encourage us to value.

We lose focus on love.

We lose focus on mercy.

We lose focus on service and on healing.

We believe that we have created the things we enjoy—all our technologies and wealth and leisure. We have come to believe that we do not need you anymore.

Teach us, God. Teach us that all we have belongs to you.

Teach us that without your sustenance, we would immediately fall. We would be no more.

Teach us to value the things that you represent. Teach us to value mercy, love, tenderness, graciousness, generosity.

Show us your path for our lives, and teach us to place our footsteps upon it.

Amen.

December 15, 2010

Lord of all things, you look deep into my soul and know all there is to know about me. Please forgive the lack of direction that I have.

Please forgive the tendencies I have to give in to my own self love rather than the love I should have for you and others.

Please forgive the ways in which I have disappointed you in my reactions to others or in my own self absorption.

Yet, Lord, even as I know there are ways I have fallen short of your designs for me, I know that you have loved me.

You have called me your child.

You have promised that I am valued.

You have even provided for the possibility of my redemption at great cost to yourself.

Lord, this is a gift I can never repay, but help me to focus on service to you and others so that I may give myself to your purposes for the short time that I will inhabit this world.

Amen.

December 14, 2010

Great Creator, when I think of all the great cosmos, the stars, the planets, the galaxies, and the huge size of the universe, I am in awe of your greatness. The unimaginable power of the size and scale of all you have created is completely overwhelming.

Yet, when I think of the care you took in the creation of this world in which we live, it is even more amazing. To think that of all the great mass and particles and huge speeds at which things are moving around in the incredible vastness of space, but somehow this little bit of material, at least on a cosmic scale, came together to form a sun and a planet and a moon that, by your design, are the perfect distance from the perfect sized star and orbited by the perfect sized moon to sustain the life of so many types that we have here. To think that the slightest difference in the way the earth and sun and moon sustain and affect each other may have not only greatly affected the type of life we have here in earth, but could have kept life from even being a possibility… This knowledge is so awesome and overwhelming, that I can hardly begin to understand it.

The great cosmic creator had such attention to one single planet that it was able to sustain life, and that life ultimately led, through your guidance, to humanity, and even to me…Lord, God, when I look at life in this way I can only thank you for the gift of my very existence and the sustaining of my life. I owe all of this to you, and I pray that you would help me to dedicate my existence to you as my gift in return.

Amen.

December 13, 2010

All the people, O Lord…

All the people around the world are your creations.

Sometimes we fail to see your face in other people.

Sometimes people who don’t look like we do or don’t pray like we do or don’t love like we do are hard for us to even recognize as your children.

But when we take the time to recognize each other, not just our local neighbors, but our worldwide neighbors as part of the same family as ourselves, we can begin to truly see just how awesome and diverse you are as our Lord.

God, please help us to know that we are all part of a global family, not just small communities that are part of your creation, but a global family, created by you, that is related to each other through your Spirit. Help us to recognize this so that we can truly love our neighbors as ourselves, because through only through loving our neighbors can we learn to truly love you. Whatever the language, sex, color, sexuality, or any other characteristic of others, we must realize how to love them as members of your and our family.

Lord, please be our help.

Amen.

December 12, 2010

God of all things, when Mary learned she was going to be carrying the Christ child, her first words were, “My soul magnifies the Lord!”

I want that same type of excitement in my daily life as your disciple.

I want to magnify you in the things I do and say every day.

I want to carry Christ with me in the world and proclaim the love that you have for humanity through Christ.

How can I possibly magnify you?

What could even begin to make you greater than you already are?

But, Lord, this is my prayer today.

I pray that my life may be lived for you

That my heart and mind may be fixed on you

That I would do all I can to embody the love you have for creation,

So that my soul may magnify you in my life

And in the lives of all those that I may meet.

Amen.

December 11, 2010

A new day. Not just like any other, but a brand new day that has never been lived before.

Thank you, creator of all things, for the creation of this new day in which I can live and move and find my being in you.

Your blessings are all around, sustaining us.

Your mercies are all around, filling us with gratitude.

Your love is all around, or we would not even have existence.

We are nothing without you in a very literal way, Lord, and we thank you for your attention to us even as your attention must also stretch to the entire universe of unimaginable size, variety, and possibility.

Lord God, thank you for this day in which we can remind ourselves that our first goal should be to focus on you.

Instill in us a sense of purpose for today that we may be the people you have called us to be.

Amen.

December 10, 2010

Lord God, thank you for this moment.

There have been innumerable moments before now, an eternity,

And there will be an eternity of moments after this one,

All of which you see with a single glance,

But, Lord, help me to be thankful in this moment for just this one moment.

It is a moment when I can turn my eyes upon you and truly focus on the grandeur of the world you have designed and of the me you have designed.

I am fearfully and wonderfully made, as all the cosmos is also fearfully and wonderfully made.

I am designed to be yours, and for this moment, let me truly be only yours.

Other things will come to fill my mind, heart, spirit, but for just this moment, let me see only you, feel only your presence, hear only your voice.

Lord God, thank you for this moment.

Amen.

December 9, 2010

Each passing year brings new delights

And new troubles.

All the passing times teach us about ourselves,

And, if we are fortunate, they teach us about who you are, O God.

Help us to use the passage of time to continue to come to know you,

To develop our relationships with you,

To learn how to trust and love you more fully,

To become people with a relationship in you

That pleases you.

When we use our time wisely,

We find ourselves growing closer to you each day.

My prayer is that all your people may grow closer to you

Each and every day of their lives,

So that,

In the end,

We can all be together in your presence,

One great body of love through you, O God.

Amen.

December 8, 2010

Death comes to all. It is a change in our being,

Sometimes slowly, sometimes in a flash,

But never in a way that we can be prepared.

We miss those we lose,

And we fear the day that we, too, will leave the earth.

God, I pray this day that you would fill your people with hope.

Help us to have hope in our future, through the deaths of our loved ones,

Through our own deaths.

Hope in the other side of our lives,

Where we will come to know you

More intimately than we can now.

Help us to live in that hope,

That we might be loving and encouraging to others

Who face their ends,

And the ends of those they love.

Thank you for your promises about our deaths

And our new lives,

And help us to meet you there.

Amen.

December 7, 2010

Once again, O God,

I have learned that a small decision

Can make a big difference.

I have learned that a single misstep

Can lead to a lot of unhappiness.

I have learned that I am unable to fix these things alone,

But I must rely on you and your grace.

Please forgive my missteps,

And, although I know I’ll make others,

Please help me to make fewer than before,

And always know I am forgiven,

Through the grace I have received from your hand.

Amen.

December 6, 2010

When will we learn to settle down?

When will we learn how to focus?

Not on the things that distract, as we tend to do all the time,

But on the things that you are to us?

Nothing can be more important than our relationship with you,

And our energies cannot be better spent than on time with you.

Show us how to do this.

We complain there aren’t enough hours in the day,

When actually,

We fill our hours with things of little consequence,

Trying to put you in the leftover moments

That never seem to exist.

Focus us on you.

Reorganize our thoughts

That we may learn to

Place our relationship with you

In the forefront of our time.

Amen.

December 5, 2010

What a blessing to see your creation in children, O God!

Their unique beauty,

Possessed by all children in some way,

Is so inspiring

That all the things that this world throws at us as adults

Can show us that the future can be beautiful,

And innocent,

And even perfect, in the way that our children are perfect—

Loving,

Trusting,

Holy.

May it be so.

Amen.

December 4, 2010

Some days, O God,

I feel like I am running a thousand miles an hour,

And I’m not going anywhere.

Life feels like a massive treadmill,

And I’m not even improving my cardio stamina.

I ask, O God, for some reassurance

That what I am doing,

The work I am performing,

The attempts I have toward loving others

And showing them your love,

Does eventually create some change in this world.

I pray that is not too much to ask.

Amen.

December 3, 2010

Sabbath…

Can it really be a commandment?

I mean, we say we revere those commandments,

Yet we consistently break one…

The Sabbath.

Remind me, O Lord, that most of the commandments

Teach me how to keep from hurting others,

And I find them to be very important…

But the one that is supposed to teach me how to take time to heal,

How not to hurt myself,

I consistently ignore.

Help me, O Lord.

I need Sabbath.

Amen.

December 2, 2010

Send the rain, Lord,

Send the rains of your mercy

To an overwrought,

Hopeless,

Cold and loveless world.

Send the rain to cover all things

And all beings

With your grace,

And let that rain

Soak into our hearts

And into the very fabric of the earth

That we might be loving,

Generous,

Kind people,

Fulfilling your vision for humanity.

Send the rain, Lord,

Send the rain.

Amen.

December 1, 2010

Great God,

Creator of all things present in this age,

I turn to you in thanksgiving

For the wonderful world you have created

And the care with which you have treated humanity,

Your creation.

We think of ourselves as only a tiny step below yourself,

We are proud,

Haughty,

And unmindful of all you have done

To give us life

And hope

And love.

Make us mindful of you

And all you have done to love

And sustain us.

Turn our hearts toward you,

Or create new hearts in us that cannot deviate from loving you,

We pray.

Amen.

November 30, 2010

Lord God,

Enter into this world,

And re-make it.

We have wandered far from your paths…

So far, that many of us cannot find it even when we seek.

We need your help, Dear Lord.

Please, give us the means to find you.

Amen.

November 29, 2010

In the final days of life, O Lord,

Let me show love to your people.

As people have served you for their entire lives,

Or as people have ignored you,

Let me show them your love

And extend to them saving grace.

Let all those I contact

Who are sick or suffering,

Know that the love I offer

Comes from you,

And only in an imperfect way,

But that the love you have for them

Is infinitely greater than I

Or any human

Could offer.

Help me to be this kind of servant to you,

And to those who are fighting their final battles.

Amen.

November 28, 2010

Be with us, O God.

We are tired of seeing the spoils go

To those who seem to be unholy and ungrateful.

We toil away, feeling as if doing the right thing

Is sometimes a fool’s task,

While others who are deceitful

And malicious

Seem always to get ahead.

It is in these times that we need to examine ourselves.

First, we need to remember how filled with iniquity we are

And how far from perfection,

And second, we need to remember what great blessings we do have

Blessings that others around the world would be very grateful to have.

We compare ourselves favorably to others,

But we are sinners, too,

And we rely on your mercy.

Fill us with grace

And humility.

Amen.

Introduction

Over the course of a year I composed prayers for each day.  Some are based on the liturgical calendar, some are based on personal milestones in the life of my family, and some are simply reflective of how I was feeling on the day they were written.  I have decided to begin posting them one per day for the year, beginning with this first Sunday of Advent.

 I hope they inspire the reader and bring joy and peace to all those who seek God.



Peace,
Chris Warren