A Prayer about Radically Good News

by | May 24, 2021 | Daily Prayer, Spiritual Growth

A Prayer about Radically Good News

Lord,

On this Monday, draw us to your Word to pray with Paul,

to pray for those we love and those we need to love, 

that the “truth of the Good News” about Jesus Christ 

would radically change the way we live.

By your Holy Spirit, may the Good News 

give us a stunning love for others (Colossians 1:7).

By your Holy Spirit, may the Good News 

give us “spiritual wisdom and understanding” 

and a “complete knowledge of God’s will” (Colossians 1:9).

By your Holy Spirit, may the Good News 

lead us to “honor and please the Lord” 

and to “produce every kind of good fruit” (Colossians 1:10).

By your Holy Spirit, 

may this Good News “strengthen us with all his glorious power” 

so we “will have all the endurance and patience” we need. 

Finally, by your Holy Spirit, 

may the Good News 

fill us “with joy,” today and every day of this week, 

and may we be found “thanking the Father,” 

whatever our circumstances (Colossians 1:11-12). 

In Jesus’ supreme name. Amen.

Read Colossians 1:1-12.

A Prayer about a Love like No Other

by | May 23, 2021 | Church, Daily Prayer, Gospel living

A Prayer about a Love like No Other

Ever-loving Father,

Wow us with this amazing news today! 

You have called us your children, 

and we really have become your children. 

Do we realize that this changes everything? 

Yes, it’s true, the world cannot understand 

why we spend half our Sundays at church worshiping you, 

because they can’t see that it’s a family reunion, 

that we are all gathered together as your children 

(and that we actually kind of get along even when we don’t) 

because you first loved us, 

and we want to tell you how much we love you (see 1 John 3:1; 4:19).

Even more amazingly, 

not only did you love us 

and adopt us as your children 

and give us an amazing inheritance, 

you are growing us up to be just like Jesus: 

“…but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, 

because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

Oh Lord, multiply our joy today with this good news!

Oh Lord, hasten the day when we see our Savior 

and become like him.

In Jesus’ transforming name. Amen. 

Read 1 John 3:1-2; 4:7-19.

A Prayer about Weakness

by | May 22, 2021 | Daily Prayer, Suffering

A Prayer about Weakness

Lord,

I confess, I don’t like being weak at all. 

You say that weakness is the Christian’s way, 

but I was born and raised in America, 

by strong people who taught me to work hard and be tough. 

Not only that, but I’m afraid much of what I’ve observed in church 

suggests that we should be strong as steel and stoic as statues. 

And yet, you say that the way to be strong is to be weak. 

You say you will make us into people 

who are “content with weaknesses, insults, 

hardships, persecutions, and calamities” (2 Corinthians 12:10). 

Help us, by your grace, to grasp the paradox. 

May we cling to our crucified Savior, 

who though he was God, 

took on the weakness of human flesh. 

Wrap us in the strong embrace of our risen and ascended Savior, 

who for the joy of making us your children endured the shame of the cross.

Send us into the world, 

weak and frail as we are, 

to invite others to join us 

in the only weakness that could ever strengthen us.

In Jesus’ strong name. Amen.

Read 2 Corinthians 12:1-10.

A Prayer about Not Worrying

by | May 21, 2021 | Daily Prayer, Prayer, Suffering

A Prayer about Not Worrying

Good Father,

Once, after a hurricane, 

a friend told me how she handled her worry 

that her seventy-year-old house 

would be destroyed: 

“I stayed inside and thought happy thoughts.” 

There’s nothing wrong with thinking happy thoughts, 

but you have given us a much better antidote to the worry and fear 

that plague us during seasons of crisis: 

Prayer. 

Rejoicing in you, 

because that turns our thoughts 

toward your delight in us and our hope in that delight (Philippians 4:4).

Presenting our requests to you, 

because that acknowledges our utter helplessness, 

your supreme power,

and your good, Fatherly care for us (Philippians 4:6).

Thanking you, because that reminds us 

of how you have saved us in the past 

and points us toward 

how you will rescue us in the future (Philippians 4:6).

Lord, today, when worry creeps in, 

turn our hearts toward you in prayer, 

that we may know the peace 

that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7).

In Jesus’ peace-bringing name.

Amen.

Read Philippians 4:4-9.

A Prayer about God’s Many-Splendored Creation

by | May 20, 2021 | Daily Prayer, Gospel living

A Prayer about God’s Many-Splendored Creation

Creator and Redeemer,

Thank you for the cheeping and chirping of the birds all around, 

for the carmine-winged cardinal hunched over her nest nearby, 

for the black-capped chickadees shadowed by the crape myrtles, 

for the yellow-beaked Harris’ hawk perched on the neighbor’s fence…

As we study this natural world, 

we see how many-fold are your works! 

You have made them all in your wisdom. 

You have filled the earth with your creatures, 

the most exquisite of which are your many-splendored people, 

people of every imaginable hue, 

people of every age, 

people of every nation. 

Even as we hear the chorus of creation singing your majesty, 

draw us eagerly toward the day 

when we will join together 

with all of our brothers and sisters 

and all of the birds and trees 

and the wind and the waves 

to sing and dance to the rhythm of your glory

forever and ever. 

In Jesus’ unifying name. Amen. 

Read Psalm 104:1-35.

A Prayer about Being Dusty

by | May 19, 2021 | Daily Prayer, Death and Resurrection

A Prayer about Being Dusty

Eternal Lord,

We don’t like to admit it, but we’re a little dusty. 

Thankfully, though, you are transforming our dusty bodies 

into new beings. 

As the apostle Paul explains, 

we were born of the first Adam, 

a living being who was condemned by his sin to death, 

but we are reborn by the second Adam, Jesus Christ, “a life-giving spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:45). 

We were born of the first Adam, 

who was “from the earth,” 

but we are reborn of the second Adam, 

who is “the man of heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:47). 

One day, 

“Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, 

we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:52). 

Lord, this is incredibly good news. 

May we embrace it and may it bring comfort to us 

as we live in these dusty bodies. 

In Jesus’ resurrecting name. Amen. 

Read 1 Corinthians 15:35-49.