A Prayer about Missing People and Places at the Holidays

by | Nov 21, 2025 | Daily Prayer

A Prayer about Missing People and Places at the Holidays

Are you missing someone this holiday?

My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Psalm 84:2

Gracious and Hospitable Lord,

As Thanksgiving comes around, 

our family misses my mom and her home. 

For many years, we visited her there, 

but her home now belongs to another; 

her new home is in heaven with you.

I know many face a similar sorrow. 

It will be their first holiday without their loved one. 

In a season when we may feel exiled from familiar places, 

draw our hearts to your ever-present 

and always abundant hospitality. 

You make homes for sparrows and nests for swallows (Psalm 84:3),

and you have invited us to be your sons and daughters. 

Even as we limp through the Valley of Weeping,

You make it a place of springs (Psalm 84:6), 

refreshing our hearts with your gentleness and joy.

When we tend to believe the lie that we are bereft, 

remind us that you are our “sun and shield,” 

bestowing “favor and honor,” 

assuring us, “No good thing 

do I withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11).  

In the name of your Son, 

who came to walk this earth with us, 

died for our sins, 

and raised us to new life,

that we might live in heaven with you. 

Amen.

Read Psalm 84.

A Prayer about Praising Jesus

by | Nov 20, 2025 | Daily Prayer

A Prayer about Praising Jesus

How do we praise Jesus in all circumstances?

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls…Matthew 11:29

Gentle and Lowly Jesus,

To praise you 

is to name what is true about you every day, 

all the time, 

no matter how difficult 

our circumstances may be. 

You are compassionate and kind, 

even when a loved one is getting worse 

instead of better (Matthew 9:36),

You are gentle and forgiving, 

even when sin has gotten the best of us again (Luke 23:34),

You are patient and pain-bearing, 

even when hope for new life has dimmed (1 Corinthians 13:4; 7).

You are the way, the truth, and the life, 

even when our hearts have wandered far off the path (John 14:6),

You are the bread of life, 

even when our budgets are shrinking (John 6:25-29),

You are the Good Shepherd, 

even when our children act like wayward sheep (John 10:11-14).

Precious Jesus, 

how we thank you for your 

steady, 

sturdy, 

always-loving heart 

for us. 

May we draw near to you 

every moment 

of every day 

for the saving help we need.

In your faith-full name. Amen.

Read Luke 23:34; 1 Corinthians 13; John 14:6; John 6:25-29; John 10:11-14.

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A Prayer about Lamenting Chronic Illness

by | Nov 19, 2025 | Daily Prayer

A Prayer about Lamenting Chronic Illness

Will you join me in lament for those with chronic illness?

For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help. Psalm 22:24

Good Father,

Today we lift up our friends 

who have searched and searched and searched,

 who have waited and waited and waited

…for health, for wholeness, for healing. 

We join in their lament 

using the words of David:

“My God, my God, 

why have you forsaken me? 

Why are you so far from saving me?”

[Don’t you hear my groaning?]

“O my God, I cry by day, 

but you do not answer, 

and by night, but I find no rest” (Ps. 22:2).

How we thank you, Heavenly Father, 

that you have given voice to our lament 

in your Word.

As David names his grief to you, 

he remembers his reason to trust in you, 

and he asks boldly and persistently for help. 

We join him on behalf of all of our friends 

who have suffered for years:

“In you our ancestors put their trust;

    they trusted and you delivered them”

(Ps. 22:4).

“Be not far from me, for trouble is near, 

and there is none to help”

(Ps. 22:11).

As we raise our cry for help, 

may we remember that you are the good Father, 

and may we join with David in praising you, 

for we have even more reason to hope: 

your Son, our Savior was forsaken on the cross 

that we might be forgiven, 

that we might one day live with you 

in eternal glory, 

in whole and healed bodies forever and ever. 

Read Psalm 22.

A Prayer about the God Who Knows Us When We Don’t Know Ourselves

by | Nov 18, 2025 | Daily Prayer

A Prayer about the God Who Knows Us When We Don’t Know Ourselves

Do you ever feel like you don’t know yourself anymore?

Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12

Heavenly Father, 

Thank you for this assurance: 

we are fully known by you. 

In seasons of grief or uncertainty, 

of sorrow or stress, 

of caregiving or crisis, 

we often feel like 

we don’t know anything anymore. 

We may not recognize ourselves: 

where we were once full of energy, 

we now struggle to get out of bed; 

where we once attended Bible study regularly, 

we now find ourselves stuck in a waiting room; 

where we once felt we knew you well, 

we now find ourselves doubting your plan. 

In those places, we need to hear you speaking certainty to us:

“Fear not for I have redeemed you; 

I have called you by name, 

you are mine.

Fear not, for I am with you…

I will…bring my sons from afar, 

and my daughters from the end of the earth…” (Isaiah 43:1; 5-6).

We need to hear you affirming your knowledge of us 

even when we have wandered far from you:

“It was I who knew you in the wilderness, 

in the land of drought” (Hosea 13:5).

Yes, now our vision of you and ourselves is spotty, 

dimmed by the cataracts of life 

in a fallen world, 

but one day we will see you 

face to face. 

And then we will know fully who we are

(your beloved daughters and sons) 

because we will finally know fully who you are. 

Until that day comes, 

may we rest in the hope 

that we are fully known 

and incredibly loved by you. 

In Jesus’ loving name. Amen.

Read Isaiah 43:1-7; 1 Corinthians 13:8-134.

A Prayer about the Abundant Harvest to Come

by | Nov 17, 2025 | Daily Prayer

A Prayer about the Abundant Harvest to Come

Can you see the 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 Seeing Our Suffering Differently

by | Nov 16, 2025 | Daily Prayer

A Prayer about Seeing Our Suffering Differently

How do you respond to suffering in your life?

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope Romans 5:3-4

Holy Father, Gracious King, Suffering Servant, Comforting Spirit,

We come to you in desperate need of corrective surgery—

lasik for our limited perspective on suffering…

We confess, our first cry in intense suffering is often, 

“Why, God? Why would you allow this to happen to me?” 

And while, numerous Psalms of lament do raise a similar cry, 

equally numerous verses of Scripture tell us how you sovereignly work through suffering.

Help us to not only understand these ways intellectually, 

but to believe them deeply

in our heart and soul:

Suffering is one of the ways we know we are Christians, 

because indeed, Christians will suffer (See 2 Timothy 3:12-13).

Suffering shapes us into the likeness of Christ, giving us hope (See Romans 5:3-5).

When we suffer, we are comforted—by you, 

“the Lord who is near to the brokenhearted” (Ps. 34:18), 

and in turn, we learn how to comfort others in their affliction (See 2 Corinthians 1:3-7).

You rule over our suffering, 

and you work all that we suffer for our eventual good 

(whether we can see it at the time or not) (See Romans 8:28 and 2 Corinthians 12:7-9).

And finally (for this prayer, though there are many other reasons we could name),

Suffering leads to glory, 

and because it does, 

we can hope in our suffering! (See 2 Corinthians 4:17; Romans 8:18).

Help us, Lord, 

to know your nearness in all of our suffering 

and to see your glory both now and forevermore.

Amen. 

Read Romans 5:3-5; 8:18-39; 2 Corinthians 1:3-11.