February 1, 2011

Maker of all things,

You have designed humans with many abilities.

The gifts you have given us have sometimes allowed us to believe in our own powers

Above you.

You gave us freedom of choice, and we use it to make plans for ourselves that may be very different

From the plans we expect you might have for us.

My prayer this day is that my will would become one with your will.

I pray that you would transform me into a true disciple.

I pray that my plans which are separate from your plans would pass away,

And that I would be energized to fulfill the plans you have for me.

I pray that as my will becomes more closely fused to yours

That I would grow in faithfulness and in confidence

To bring about your plans for me

And for all those I might come into contact with.

Amen.

January 31, 2011

People all over the world pray for peace,

Lord, I pray for love.

I pray for understanding,

I pray for tolerance.

If all people desired to love each other, rather than simply to be loved,

If all people desired to understand others, rather than make others understand them,

If all people desired to tolerate differences in other, rather than make others tolerate them,

Then, perhaps, we could pray for peace,

And really hope to get it.

Lord, help us to see how our lack of understanding of others,

Keeps us from security for ourselves,

And create in us hearts to truly love, understand, and be tolerant of all others.

Amen.

January 30, 2011

God in Heaven, you are the God of history.

You showed our ancestors in the past the path you wanted them to walk.

You saved them time and again from sure catastrophe.

You showed them love and taught them to love you and each other.

Creator of all, you are the God of the present.

You continue to sustain us in all things.

You teach us to love and you continually show us love.

You give us daily bread and you heal and comfort us through sickness and loss.

Redeemer of all, you are the God of the future.

Even now, years before we can possibly know what you have planned,

You are preparing us for what is to come.

You challenge us now so that we may be ready for greater challenges.

You walk with us and teach us to truly love,

You prepare us for the true love we long for in eternity with you.

Help us to always remember your perfect teaching for

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.

Amen.

January 29, 2011

Fearful respect of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.

May Wisdom rule in this world, as we fearfully respect God and all God’s creation.

Respect seems to be an easy concept,

And it should be easy for me to respect the creator of the universe.

Yet, all too often I stray from the things that I know God wants for me.

I do not love,

I do not treat others in the way I would like to be treated,

I do not care for creation.

Lord, help me to remember respect in my relationship with you,

And even a little fear, too,

So that I may keep my path straight.

Amen.

January 28, 2011

Lord, if we tried to imagine your size, your wonder, your power,

All the imagination of all of us humans put together would be insufficient.

When we think of how mighty, how awesome, how wondrous you are,

Even our best efforts fall miserably short.

At the same time, we recognize that you are within us,

And your majesty was put into our creation.

Lord God, Ruler of all things,

Be in kinship with us and

Help us to claim that spark of divinity you have placed into us.

Help us to fan that spark into great flames

That will share your love with the world.

Amen.

January 27, 2011

God, I wonder why you pursue humanity with such great love.

We respond to you in love, at least some of the time,

But it is you who loved us first.

You created us in your image,

And however we are like you,

I pray that we are like you in our ability to love,

I feel the need for love,

And it is what led me to you.

Help us to know that when we need love, what we are really seeking is relationship with you,

The eternal, all loving God.

Amen.

January 26, 2011

Lord God, you are great beyond all things that can be imagined!

You knew us before we even were born.

You knew us before we were even thought of.

You knew what we would look like, what our personalities and talents would be,

And you gave us the freedom of choice to use our abilities with our own wills.

Your great knowledge of us cannot be expressed.

You know our inner workings infinitely better than we ever will.

The love it took to create us in this way, and still give us the ability to rebel against your love

Is unexplainable.

Help us to respond to you with gratitude

And in love,

Lord, our rock and redeemer.

Amen.

January 25, 2011

Creator of All,

You are all Grace.

There are so many ways that I have sinned,

That I have missed the mark.

I have done things I should not have done.

I have left undone things I should have done.

Help me to fully recognize my own sin.

Make it known, and help me to repent in the truest sense.

Help me to regret the choices I have made,

Choices that have placed me at odds with you and with your creation.

Help me to make amends where possible,

And help me to avoid those same iniquities,

So that I can be as close to being like you

As is possible.

Amen.

January 24, 2011

Some days, O Lord, you seem closer than others.

Some days, you seem so far away.

When we are hurting,

When we are afraid,

When we are sick,

Sometimes those are the times we feel farthest from you.

Please bless us with the knowledge of your intimate presence

When we are in greatest need,

For that is when we need you most.

Come, be with us, live in us.

Amen.

January 23, 2011

Your word tells us to keep our lives as living sacrifices,

Pure and Holy.

Just like the sacrifices of the days when Paul wrote these words,

I want my life to reflect you without blemish.

I want to be worthy of being called your disciple.

But, I know that no one can be perfect,

Blameless,

Spotless.

So, Lord, I pray that you would increase my faith.

Because you regard those with faith as if they are righteous,

As you did your servant Abraham,

So, increase my faith that I may also be considered righteous.

Help me to learn of you,

And grow in knowledge of who you are.

Amen.

January 22, 2011

I will sing a new song to you, O Lord,

Because you are Love.

Love unbounded and free.

Love given to humans who have done nothing to deserve it.

Yet, we are your creation, and as your creation, we know you love us in this way.

So I sing to you this day and all days of your love that reaches me from everywhere that you are.

My prayer is not only to glorify you, but that you would use me to spread your love to all people.

Help me to show others that you love them in the same way that I know you love me.

If I can show others your love for them, their response will be the same as mine:

Love in return.

And that is a life well lived.

Amen.

January 21, 2011

All around me, nature is calling out your name.

You are Holy beyond words.

The mountains, the valleys, the flowers and trees all proclaim your incredible creative power.

The diversity of life on Earth,

The interplay between living and non-living creation,

The views of the planets and the heavens and all the many galaxies in the cosmos…

Who could have dreamed this universe?

Who could imagine the reaches of the night sky?

Who can understand all the space beyond what we can even see?

Only you, O God.

Lord God, help us to always see your magnificence even as we try to be with you in personal relationship.

Help us to know that you are imminent and transcendent.

You are Lord.

Amen.

January 20, 2011

Oh all the blessings you have given to me!

You have blessed me with my family and love.

You have blessed me with stability and hope.

You have blessed me with ability and excitement.

You have blessed me with freedoms unknown throughout may parts of the world.

Thank You, Lord of all the universe.

Even as I thank you, Lord, for the great blessings you have given to me,

I must pray for all those who do not feel blessed.

For all those who do not have family and do not feel that they have love,

For all those who have no stability and have lost hope,

For all those that do not feel they have abilities and lack excitement,

For all those who are deprived of the freedoms I enjoy,

Lord, have mercy and shower grace on all those in need throughout your creation.

Restore them, and show them the same saving power while they are in this world that you have promised for those who love you when they leave this world.

Amen.

January 19, 2011

Sometimes, Lord, I think I have said all there is to say.

My prayers become predictable and half memorized.

I wonder what there is left to pray for or about.

It is then that I realize that I have missed a great lesson about how great you are.

There is nothing that has ever been that does not find its source in you.

So, Lord, all I want to pray today is,

You are Great!

Amen.

January 18, 2011

Today, O Lord, I make a new covenant with you.

Just as the people of old entered into covenant with you, and just as those same people broke covenant with you,

I have entered into covenant with you in the past, and I have broken that covenant.

But, because you are an ever loving, gracious, and forgiving God,

I come to you now,

Acknowledging the ways in which I have neglected my promises to you.

I have not honored you in the ways that I had promised in the past.

I have not loved your people in the ways that I should, and I certainly have not loved my neighbor as myself.

I have neglected your creation and my promises to you.

But you have never wavered in your promises to me.

You have honored your covenant with me.

So, today, Lord God, I re-enter into my covenant with you.

Help me to continue to trust in you, and help me to be worthy of your trust.

Amen.

January 17, 2011

Lord God,

Whatever you do, please keep calling me.

Keep asking me to do your will.

Keep pushing me outside my comfort zone.

Keep showing me people to serve who I don’t know,

And who I don’t want to have anything to do with.

Please use me,

Send me,

Make me to be what you need me to be.

And continue to lead me away from my ease

To comfort those who live in fear, pain, or sadness.

Amen.

January 16, 2011

Gracious God,

We know you have all power.

We know you are all perfection.

And we know where you are is where we want to be.

So this day, I thank you for your grace.

I thank you for the way you made it possible for me to spend eternity with you.

If not for your grace, I would be hopeless,

But through your grace, I am assured of a wonderful future…

A future I will share with you.

Thank you for your Grace.

Amen.

January 15, 2011

Almighty,

Please keep us safe.

All around us we see people in pain.

We see people who have been struck down.

We see people who suffer needlessly.

Help us to be safe from harm.

Help us to dodge the arrow,

Or avoid the spears of mortal illness

That are sweeping through our land.

Help us to enjoy happiness and health.

Help us to know that your spirit is sustaining us.

Whatever the case,

Whether we are stricken or safe,

Hurt or healed,

Never allow us to be apart from you presence.

Amen.

January 14, 2011

Dear God,

What is it you have in store for me?

What do you want me to be?

What things do you want me to do?

I believe you are still speaking to humanity in much the same way you always have.

Why is it that I sometimes do not seem to receive your message?

Lord, my prayer this day is that you would help me to tune my ear to your voice.

I pray that when you speak, I would hear you.

I pray that when I hear you, I would know it is your voice.

And I pray that when I hear your message I would have the ability and perseverance to do whatever it is you ask of me.

Amen.

January 13, 2011

A prayer for those who hurt…

Lord God, we look to you.

This world cannot give us the answers that we seek.

We experience so much pain as we walk the earth—

Lord, can you give us wisdom to comprehend?

We see so many sources of death and destruction.

Current events, worldly wars, personal tragedy,

Loss of function, loss of life,

Lord, can you give us eyes to see hope?

We feel the struggles of simply living in our worlds,

Our jobs, our failures, our losses,

All these things can drown us in deep despair.

Lord, can you give us your spirit to sustain us?

Amen.

January 12, 2011

Our praises to you, founder of the universe!

You set the foundations of the world,

You created all the worlds we see and those we cannot see,

Your creation ranges from super strings that make up the tiniest parts of atoms to

Humongous stars and black holes that can swallow entire galaxies whole!

There is no way for us to understand what you understand.

There is no way for us to see what you see.

There is no way for us to begin to know all that you know.

But it is enough that we can put our trust in you.

Amen.

January 11, 2011

Does it really only take a spark to get a fire going?

Lord, help me to throw out sparks around me as I burn up for you!

You have been faithful to humanity beyond our capacity to understand,

Yet we still turn from you.

If the Holy Spirit is really like a burning fire in our hearts, Lord,

Please turn up the heat.

Help me to burn so brightly that anyone who comes close by will catch fire, too.

I pray that this is the type of disciple you allow me to be:

The kind that lights and stokes and feeds fires that burn brightly in humans

With the light and heat of your Spirit.

Amen.

January 10, 2011

O, Lord, it is good to think of how wonderful you are!

Just to be aware of all the things you have created

And all the ways that you are present with the earth and heavens.

Lord, God, you are overwhelmingly wonderful.

Nothing can possibly compare to you.

We simply want to thank you for the goodness you show to us each and every day,

And we want to be reminded that you are in control no matter what the storm,

No matter what the circumstance,

No matter what we may fear or desire.

Help us to place our trust fully in you.

Amen.

January 9, 2011

Ruler of all, I want to thank you.

Thank you for who I am.

Not only that you have given me life.

Not only that you have blessed me beyond all reason.

But especially because you have made me your child.

I thank you for the gift of being your child,

And I wonder at your grace.

How many times have I failed to be what you have called me to be?

How many times have I disappointed you or myself?

How many times have I turned from your ways in my life?

They are innumerable,

Yet, your faithfulness to me is never ceasing.

You continue to regard me as your child even in times when I reject you as my parent.

So,

Thank you,

God of all,

And source of everything.

Amen.

January 8, 2011

Lord God, creator of the entire universe and sustainer of all that has ever been,

I ask that you would help me to do my part, big or small, in your plan for humanity.

I pray that I would bring peace to conflict,

That I would bring justice to iniquity,

That I would bring charity to those in need,

And that I would bring love to all—especially those who feel unloved.

Help me to show your love to all people and all creation,

Through action, words, and attitude.

Please, God, let the world be blessed through me.

Amen.

January 7, 2011

Your Grace, O Lord, abounds in ways that are difficult for us to imagine.

Though we are all imperfect and fail to walk in your ways,

You make it possible for us to be at one with you.

Your Love, O Lord, is like an overwhelming sea, too deep and wide to measure.

We are your creation, and you are our master,

Yet even when we do not recognize your spirit within us, you continue to bless us.

Your Judgment, O Lord, is beyond our ability to even question.

We believe ourselves to be able to see places where you have mistaken,

But when we realize we cannot possibly see the vastness of things the way you see it,

We are humbled and know we cannot begin to find fault in you.

Thank you, O God, for your faithfulness to us who are unfaithful.

Amen.

January 6, 2011

Hello, God!

I know that you know I am burdened.

I know that you know all my physical, mental, and emotional struggles.

I know that you know all the pain in the world.

I know that we cry out to you all the time for help in our struggles, and I do desperately desire your help in all the things I am going through.

But today, Lord, I pray to hear your voice instead of the other way around.

I pray that I can be still and silent amidst all the hubbub of modern life, and listen for your voice speaking to me.

I pray that you would tell me how I can best serve you, and I pray for the time simply to listen so I may know you better.

Amen.

January 5, 2011

Some days, Most High God, I feel like shouting about the mighty and awesome things you have done.

I feel like spending my time and energy screaming from the highest mountains how great you are.

Some days I feel like sobbing aloud at the things of this world,

The senseless bloodshed,

The lack of generosity,

The void where loving kindness belongs.

Some days I look at the lack of justice, and it inspires me to fight,

Some days I look at continued racism, sexism, and all types of divisions, and it causes me to want to give up.

But I always come back to those days that I want to shout out how wonderful you are.

Lord, please continue to inspire me to make changes in the world where I can,

And remind me there is no injustice too large or too small for you to handle.

Amen.

January 4, 2011

O Blessed Holy Parent,

Words cannot express the thanks that humankind owes to you.

You give us all that we have.

You give us every day,

Every breath,

Every friend and family member,

All good gifts.

All we have belongs to you, O Lord.

With your help, may we learn to lay our gifts before you.

May we learn not to hold anything back, because we know what we give back to you will not diminish the things that we own. They are all yours anyway.

May we remember that every moment is a gift from you,

And may we give ourselves, fully, devotedly, to you.

Amen.

January 3, 2010

Your ways are a mystery to me, O God.

Why do some live and others die?

Why must we continue to suffer and rejoice?

Why does the rain fall on the good and the evil?

Lord, you are all holy, and your judgments are beyond human comprehension.

I trust in your love for us.

But it is confusing that I buried a twenty year old friend this morning, and I will witness the wedding of another this afternoon.

I continue to be at a loss about the juxtaposition of these two events, but I will never fail to trust in you and the way you care for humankind.

May your name be blessed.

Amen.

January 2, 2011

Another beautiful day, Lord.

A day when the world continued to spin, the sun rose and fell, and my life was wonderful.

Thank you God, for the blessings all around me.

Especially the ones I tend to forget, or the ones that even sometimes make me impatient or downright cranky.

Thank you for my wife and beautiful children.

Thank you for my family.

Thank you for the countless people in this world who really want the world to be a better place.

Thank you that I was well nourished today.

Thank you that you created a new day for all of us today.

And thank you for the innumerable ways you sustain your creation day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment.

Help me never to forget these blessings.

Amen.

January 1, 2011

A new year dawns.

It is a time of new possibilities.

It is a time to renew our commitments.

Creator of all things, we renew our reliance on you and we place ourselves into your hands. We ask that you would love and bless us in new and unimaginable ways this year. We ask that we would be the instruments of your peace and love throughout the globe.

May this be the year that humans learn to love instead of kill.

May this be the year that people allow all to fully receive your grace rather that trying to hoard it for themselves.

May this be the year that poverty ceases to be known to humanity.

May this be the year that all humanity learns to love you.

Amen.