A Prayer about Really “Getting” God’s Love

by | Nov 16, 2022 | body, Daily Prayer, Joy, Theology

A Prayer about Really “Getting” God’s Love

That you being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints the breadth and length and height and depth…Eph. 3:18

Heavenly Father, 

We confess, we just don’t fully get your love. 

We’ve never seen anything like it on this earth, 

unless we could imagine that the ocean, 

seemingly infinite in depth and length and width and height, 

was full of your love. 

You are love, 

and you can never be not-loving. 

We struggle to understand your love—

like a four-year-old learning to read, 

we might be able to make out some of the characters 

and even a word here or there, 

but a whole sentence or paragraph 

is more than we can handle. 

And yet, you have made a way for us 

to taste the sweetness of your love—

by the power of your Holy Spirit, 

you work in our “inner being,” 

and you tell us, “I love you.” 

You show us through story after story after story 

of your grace—

“My sinless Son died  for you….” 

“My sinless Son died for you….” 

Yes, while you were still a sinner (Romans 5:8). 

Yes, even though you still struggle with sin (Rom. 7:23-25). 

You belong to me, 

and I love you. 

I loved you from before the foundation of the world, 

and I will love you throughout eternity. 

Oh dear Father, 

give us the faith to ground ourselves in this love 

that we might love others 

as you have loved us. 

In Jesus’ eternally loving name. Amen. 

Read Ephesians 3:14-21.

 

A Prayer about Our Tear-Counting God

by | Nov 15, 2022 | Daily Prayer, Grief, Suffering

A Prayer about Our Tear-Counting God

You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle.  You have recorded each one in your book. Psalm 56:8 

 

Tear-Counting God,

It has been a long season of loss for many.

Our friends are mourning, as are we…

We’ve lost homes in fires and floods,

We’ve lost children to miscarriage and the misery of sin,

We’ve lost aunts and uncles and mothers and fathers to Covid and cancer,

We’ve lost relationships to betrayal and abuse…

We’ve shed so many tears.

How can we endure the pain, Lord?

Only by knowing that you care about our tears,

that you count and collect them.

Only by knowing that you sent your Son

to weep real tears before he died on a cross

to redeem all of our tears.

Only by knowing that one day, our Savior will return,

and in that day, you will ever so gently

wipe the tears from our eyes. 

How we look forward to that day!

How we thank you for your love!

In Jesus’ weeping name. Amen.

Read Psalm 56; Revelation 21:4.

 

 

A Prayer about Not Being an Orphan

by | Nov 14, 2022 | Daily Prayer, Gospel living, gratitude, Parenting, Theology

A Prayer about Not Being an Orphan

As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. Isaiah 66:13

Heavenly Father,

Although you are called Father in the Bible, 

may we never forget that you nurture and comfort us 

as a mother does her children:

To the rebellious Israelites, 

you are like a mother 

who will never forget her nursing child (Isaiah 49:15);

Over the city where he would soon be betrayed, 

Jesus cried, 

for he longed to gather Jerusalem 

“as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, 

and you would not!” (Matthew 23:37).

And here in Isaiah 66, 

you promise to bring a mother’s comfort 

in the day of restoration.

Because you comfort and care for your children 

as a mother and a father, 

because you have adopted us as your children, 

we lift up all who feel like orphans. 

Some have lost their mothers and fathers to death, 

others never knew the presence of a mother or father, 

still others have such broken relationships with their mothers or fathers 

that it would seem better to be an orphan. 

And yet, because you have made us your own 

through Jesus Christ, 

we need never feel that “it’s all up to us,” 

or that we are unwanted or unloved. 

Make that truth increasingly real to us, 

so that we may not live as orphans, 

trying to get through life on our own. 

When we feel alone, reach deep into our hearts 

through your Holy Spirit 

and bring us the comfort we crave. 

In Jesus’ assuring name. Amen.

Read Isaiah 66:7-24; Matthew 23:37; Isaiah 49:15. 

 

A Prayer about the Abundant Harvest to Come

by | Nov 13, 2022 | Daily Prayer, gratitude, worship, gratitude

A Prayer about the Abundant Harvest to Come

“…the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.” Psalm 65:13

Lord of the Harvest,

In this season of harvest,

May we join together 

with the hills and the meadows and the valleys, 

shouting and singing for joy.

Yes, it’s true, we don’t always see the bounty 

described in Psalm 65 

on this broken earth:

crops wither under drought and frost,

forests and trees are devastated 

by wildfires and hurricanes, 

and yet we know a day is coming

when you will crown creation 

“with your bounty,” 

when your paths will “overflow with abundance” (Psalm 65:11). 

We look forward to the day we will gather in your restored creation, 

in the new heavens and the new earth, 

and we will see how you have sustained us all along, 

not just spiritually, but also physically. 

We look forward to the day 

when you will “make the going out of the morning 

and the evening to shout for joy” (Psalm 65:8). 

We look forward to the day 

when we will join with all of creation 

in awe of the “awesome deeds” you have done (Ps. 65:5).

In Jesus’ restoring name. Amen.

Read Psalm 65.

 

A Prayer about Our Need for Cleansing

by | Nov 12, 2022 | Daily Prayer, kingdom living, Spiritual Growth

A Prayer about Our Need for Cleansing

‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.’ Isaiah 1:18

Forgiving Lord,

It’s easy to read about the sins of Judah 

back in the days of the evil kings 

and think, “Oh, we’re not like that!”

 I mean, after all, we’re not like Sodom, 

who mixed their worship with pagan worship (Isaiah 1:10-11). 

(Or are we?). 

Our hands are not “full of blood” (Isaiah 1:15). 

(Or, are they?)

To Judah, you commanded, 

“Cease to do evil, learn to do good; 

seek justice, correct oppression; 

bring justice to the fatherless, 

plead the widow’s cause” (Isaiah 1:16-17). 

Do we recognize our own sins

in your calling to seek justice and to correct oppression? 

Lord, by your Spirit, 

show us just how dark 

our sinful hearts can be 

so that we can fully rejoice 

in how bright and healing 

your forgiveness of our sins is. 

Show us how bloody our hands can be

so that we can see how fully 

you have cleansed us, 

like an ink-stained sheet bleached white. 

With gratitude for your forgiveness, 

may we move into this broken world 

with your redeeming love. 

In Jesus’ cleansing name. Amen.

Read Isaiah 1:1-20.