Monday Prayer:
Loving Lord God, I worship you. Amid the jumble of concerns, preoccupations, conflicts and confusions of life, send today your discerning Spirit, I pray, that I may rest in you, trust in you, and perceive you acting in my life and in your conflicted world. Amen.
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Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old. — Jesus (Matthew 13:52)
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Christmas Day Prayer:
Lord God of time, history, and redemption: Thank you for the coming of Jesus, the one who takes away the sin of the world. As we sing of “fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains” repeating “the sounding joy” of Jesus’ reign, so may we today join all creation in praising you and joining you in mission. Amen.
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Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise. — Isaiah 43:18-21
Tuesday Prayer:
Jesus, perfect Savior, I worship you today. When I am discouraged with myself for not being more like you, remind me of your promise to be in me and with me forever. Help me draw closer to my brothers and sisters in Christ, not to withdraw into myself, I pray. Strengthen me by your Spirit. Amen.
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Jesus put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” — Matthew 13:31-32
Sunday Prayer:
Lord Jesus, as you have said to love one another the way you loved your disciples, I open my heart to the ministry of your Spirit that you would pour your love more fully into my heart. Holy Spirit, love others through me today. Strengthen my compassion and care for all your disciples and for all earth’s peoples, I pray. Amen.
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I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. — Jesus (John 13:34-35)
Friday Prayer:
O Lord, open the wisdom of your written Word to me daily, more and more. Give me that godly wisdom and perspective that come solely from you, so that I can freely dismiss all the distracting, misleading messages that constantly call to us through worldly media. Teach me your ways, O Lord, Living Word, Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. — Jesus (Matthew 12:50)
Wednesday Prayer:
All praise be yours, Holy Three-One God! Blessed Father, awaken the church and the nations to your fiery holiness and your wrath toward sin. O Jesus, reveal your grace and transforming love in new ways today. Holy Spirit, convict us of our godlessness and self-focus and spiritual blindness. Awaken your church and remake your wandering world, I pray. Amen.
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Here is my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. . . . He will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick until he brings justice to victory.— Isaiah’s prophecy of Christ (Matthew 12:18, 20)
Sunday Prayer:
Lord God of truth, I worship you! Please keep me today from heedless and needless self-indulgence. May I be disciplined in my walk with you, and in all I do. Form Jesus’ steadfast, purposeful character in me by your Spirit and through your body, the church, I pray. Amen.
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The steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. — Psalm 103:17-18
Friday Prayer:
O Lord, even as I worship you and seek to serve you, I know I am vulnerable to self-deception. So I commit myself fully, body and spirit, conscious and unconscious mind, into your hands. Purify my thoughts and intentions and imaginations, and work in all my life today, I pray. Amen.
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The Holy Spirit, by removing prejudice, by rooting out the selfishness of the heart, makes reason more reliable. . . .
One can be led by the Spirit, and at the same time exercise the strongest good sense, the soundest judgment. ‘The meek will he guide in judgment’ (Ps. 25:9). —B. T. Roberts, “Led by the Spirit,” The Earnest Christian, March 1883, p. 70.
Thursday Prayer:
O Lord, Holy One, I find time itself to be a mystery. Sequence and consequence march on, whatever I do or fail to do. Thank you that time and all times are in your hands, and that your good purposes are sure, within time and beyond. May I steward well the time and grace allotted me, I pray. Amen.
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Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. — Jesus (Matthew 10:39)
Tuesday Prayer:
Lord God of holy love and potent compassion, move among us in convicting power, I pray. Holy Lord, please send a great Holy Ghost, kingdom-of-God, nation-shaking, shalom-bringing healing revival. Work today in my life in ways consistent with your larger purposes, I pray. Amen.
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Come, let us return to the Lord; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. — Hosea 6:1-2
Monday Prayer:
Lord, I am deeply conscious of your grace and compassion. Help me to remember also your justice and judgment, I pray, so that my trust does not become presumption or melt into cheap grace. Still, “in wrath may you remember mercy.” Let me live and rest in your truth. Amen.
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O Lord, I have heard of your renown, and I stand in awe, O Lord, of your work. In our own time revive it; in our own time make it known; in wrath may you remember mercy. — Habakkuk 3:2
Sunday Prayer:
Lord God, Blessed Holy Spirit, may your Word be interpreted properly in your church. Banish wrong teachings; expel false ideologies and alien doctrines. O Jesus, living Word, reveal yourself by your Spirit through the Scriptures in fresh and faithful ways, I pray, for you assure us that the Scriptures testify of you. Amen.
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The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. . . . You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf.— Jesus (John 5:36-37, 39)
Saturday Prayer:
Holy Lord of gardens and trees — of Eden and Olivet, Gethsemane, New Jerusalem — I worship you in and through your green creation in its beauty and agony and promise. O Lord, work your work; fulfill your plan; redeem your world quickly, I pray, as I wait patiently for you and for Jesus fully to be revealed. Amen.
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Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! — Psalm 150:6
Tuesday Prayer:
O Lord, in times when many people are in love with the idea of Jesus Christ but not really interested in discipleship, help me be a true and faithful follower of the Savior. By Spirit and Word make me a doer of the word and not a hearer only, I pray. Amen.
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Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing. — James 1:22-25
