A Prayer about the Transforming Work of the Spirit

by | May 11, 2023 | Daily Prayer, Spiritual Growth

A Prayer about the Transforming Work of the Spirit

…that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being… Ephesians 3:16

Risen Jesus,

Thank you for sending your Spirit as our Helper. 

No shriveled weakling is your Spirit; 

indeed, your Spirit strengthens us 

with a superpower far surpassing 

Superman’s or Wonderwoman’s. 

Your Spirit raises us 

right out of our spiritual death. 

Your Spirit softens hard hearts. 

Your Spirit renews our inner beings. 

Your Spirit roots your love deep 

in the once-rocky soil 

of our heart, soul, mind, and body. 

Your Spirit transforms us, 

that we may bear the fruit of being grafted into you: 

We walk in your love; 

we share your joy; 

we seek your peace; 

we wait with your patience; 

we move in your kindness; 

we reflect your goodness; 

we trust with your faithfulness; 

we touch with your gentleness; 

we resist with your self-control. 

Oh, yes, Lord, how we thank you 

for leaving your Spirit as our best Help!

In your kind name we pray. Amen.

Read Ephesians 3:14-21; John 14:15-17; Galatians 5:22-26.

A Prayer about Battling the True Enemy

by | May 10, 2023 | Daily Prayer, Spiritual Growth

A Prayer about Battling the True Enemy

O God, do not remain silent; do not turn a deaf ear, do not stand aloof, O God. Psalm 83:1

Mighty God,

We lift up all 

who are in a fierce battle with enemies. 

Remind us that our true enemy 

is the enemy, 

the evil one who growls and prowls, 

our vicious foe 

who rears his beastly head, 

conspiring with cunning against us, 

your people (Psalm 83:2-3). 

The evil one seeks 

to destroy relationships you have forged; 

the evil one seeks to puncture hope 

you have breathed into us; 

the evil one seeks to ruin beauty 

you have allowed us to be a part of creating….

May we hear you speaking to us:

I am not silent.

I am not turning a deaf ear.

I am not standing aloof.

I am making the evil one like “whirling dust” (Psalm 83:13).

I am consuming the evil one as a fire consumes a forest (Psalm 83:14). 

I am filling the evil one’s face with shame (Psalm 83:17).

One day, I will toss the devil deceiver  into the lake of fire, and evil will be no more (Revelation 20:10).

As we see your might defeating evil, 

help us to hope and pray for healing 

and reconciliation with our earthly enemies. 

In Jesus’ victorious name. Amen.

Read Psalm 83.

A Prayer about Gratitude for Children

by | May 9, 2023 | Daily Prayer, Gospel living, gratitude

A Prayer about Gratitude for Children

And Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.’ Matthew 19:14

Heavenly Father,

Today, several days before Mother’s Day,

I am counting my blessings

for how you have worked through my children 

to humble me, to shape me, to redeem me. 

Whether we have children or not, 

may we recognize their value, 

not in the child-centric way our culture does, 

but in the Jesus-centric way the Bible demonstrates. 

The disciples tried to shoo the children away 

when parents brought them to Jesus, 

but Jesus corrected them, 

saying that the “kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14). 

Why? Why does the kingdom of God belong to people like children? 

Because children in healthy families 

fully understand their dependence on their parents to supply all their needs. 

Healthy children don’t think it’s all up to them to make things happen, 

they don’t think they’re the ones in control of their own lives (except for three-year-olds), 

and they don’t think they’re stronger than they are. 

Healthy children turn to their parents for help, comfort, hope;

Healthy children do what their parents tell them to do, 

believing their parents have their good in mind.

And even though most children don’t act that way, we are your children, the children of the only perfect parent.

May we come to you as such children would. 

In Jesus’ calling name. Amen. 

A Prayer about the Day the Lord Returns

by | May 7, 2023 | Daily Prayer, kingdom living, Theology

A Prayer about the Day the Lord Returns

But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. Malachi 4:2

Gracious Lord,

As we witness the works of the wicked in this world, 

we confess, we long for 

the “day of the Lord,”

the day you will finally return and destroy 

all the “arrogant and all evildoers” (Malachi 3:1).

And yet, you are so much more patient than we are, 

for you have delayed that day 

because you do not “wish that any should perish 

but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). 

Lord, fill us with your patience and mercy and love

that we might call others to turn toward you. 

Lord, fill us with anticipation 

for the day your sun will rise 

with the return of your Son, 

the day we will know such healing 

that we will frolic around like little baby calves 

learning to use their legs 

in our new heavens and new earth home. 

In Jesus’ patient name. Amen. 

Read Malachi 3-4.

A Prayer about Being Permanently Justified

by | May 6, 2023 | Daily Prayer, Gospel living

A Prayer about Being Permanently Justified

We couldn’t carry this off by our own efforts, and we know it—even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials. Phil. 3:3-4

Justifying Lord,

How I pray we can really and truly grasp 

once and for all, 

the profound peace 

that comes through being justified by Christ, 

being robed in Christ’s righteousness. 

I don’t know for sure, 

but I’m guessing the internal dialogue in my friends’ minds 

may go something like mine:

Oh I feel bad for not going to the women’s event. 

But I had to go to my son’s award ceremony.

Oh I wish I hadn’t said that. Now she’s going to think I don’t care about her. 

But I did send her a birthday text.

Oh why didn’t I hang my keys on the hook so I wouldn’t lose them?

But I did keep up with my phone all weekend.

It can go on and on like that, 

all day, 

all of our lives: 

we accuse ourselves 

and then we justify ourselves 

in an endless internal monologue.

Lord, spare us from this miserable guilt.

Your Word “accuses” us of actual sin clearly: 

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). 

That is the truth about us outside of Christ.

But thanks be to God, your Word also tells us 

the source of our justification, 

and it’s not in ourselves: 

“And to the one who does not work 

but believes in him 

who justifies the ungodly, 

his faith is counted as righteousness…” (Romans 4:5).

Oh, Lord, we are free at last, 

free at last.

Make us certain of this glorious reality: 

our righteousness is in and through Christ alone. 

Now, robed beautifully in his righteousness, 

we can run to tell others, 

we can live to love the God 

who ended this dreadful internal monologue 

with Jesus’ words from the cross,

“It is finished” (John 19:30).

In Jesus’ righteous name. Amen.

Read Philippians 3:1-14.

A Prayer about Having Not Love

by | May 5, 2023 | Daily Prayer, Gospel living

A Prayer about Having Not Love

And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:2

Loving Father, 

In this season of many weddings, 

we may often hear the passage on love 

from 1 Corinthians 13. 

As we do so, 

may we hear and apply it in its proper context.

First of all, the apostle Paul was chastising the Corinthian Christians 

for their overemphasis on spiritual gifts: 

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, 

but have not love, 

I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1). 

If we have powers to prophesy 

or power to do miracles 

but have not love, 

we are nothing. 

If we give away everything, 

even sacrificing our own bodies, 

but have not love 

then that is not love. 

Indeed, as we read and listen carefully, 

we realize that in and of ourselves, 

none of us “has love.” 

It is only in Jesus Christ, 

whose love never fails 

that we become 

“not nothing,” 

“something,” 

“someone” 

who loves, 

not with manmade love, 

and not even perfectly 

(until the day Christ returns), 

but often and well. 

We love out of the righteousness 

we have in Christ. 

We love because he first loved us. 

And we love as he loved us. 

When we commit one of the failures of love, 

being proud or boasting, 

keeping a record of wrongs, 

delighting in evil, 

we are convicted by the Holy Spirit in us, 

and we repent, 

saying we’re sorry, 

asking forgiveness, 

and praying for the Holy Spirit’s help 

that we might try to love again. 

In Jesus’ perfectly-loving name. Amen.

Read 1 Corinthians 13:1-13.