Prayer Journal

2012-01-02T03:39:00.001-08:00

Dear Father in the eternal heaven, may all creation admire and acknowledge your goodness, greatness, and grace this day. Your ways are above our methods. Your thoughts are above our wisdom. You are the truth and yet always remain a mystery to us. Your approach to things is different. You are both engineer and artist. You test us and desire that we believe in the midst of a complex world. Help us to past the tests that you have planned for us today. Help us gain from these tests the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual strength they were designed to develop in us. Keep us from wasting the potential good in each test. Thank you Messiah Jesus for dying for our sins, and coming back alive that we might be declared righteous before the eternal throne and gain from it grace and not condemnation. Thank you for opening the treasure rooms of heaven to us and making it possible for us to be adopted as your brothers and sisters. Your mercy is beyond measure and your sacrifice greater than our greatest expressions of it Lord thank you for your love. Amen

January 1 - Prayer to know how to pray

2012-01-01T04:30:00.001-08:00

Dear heavenly Father, I am thankful that you are greater than my prayers. You know the concerns of my heart and respond to them even when I lack the words and the discipline to ask. Your love for me is infinite. Please teach me to pray as I ought to pray. Give to me a hunger and thirst for prayer that will allow me to know your presence, power, and peace. Deepen my understanding of prayer and my sense of need for prayer. Save me from the pride that would keep me from prayer. Lord, we desperately need your intervention. As individuals we need greater faith, hope, and love; as families we need greater peace and harmony; as churches we need more of your power and love; as communities we need greater wisdom in understanding the common good; as a nation we need insight into how to establish a just republic; as a world we need to hear, understand, and believe your gospel. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy. Amen

2011-11-08T07:12:00.001-08:00

Good Eternal Father, help me to depend on you today instead of myself. I am so foolish to think that I can exist without you.Help me to see your greatness and my smallness.Help me to see your goodness and my sinfulness.Help me to see your grace that I might have hope.Help me to see your plan that I might believe in my purpose.Hear me for the sake of Messiah Jesus.Amen

2011-02-08T03:32:00.000-08:00

Dear Lord

Maker of every atom

Designer of this complex reality

Lover of human hearts

Redeemer of broken lives

Have mercy on me and show me your wisdom today

I need you to open what is closed
I need you to close what is opened
I need you to intervene and bring the what is dead to life
I need you to kill the evil that stalks and destroys
I need you to bring order where there is choas

Lord you know the needs are great
You know that without your help all is lost
Help now for you are very needed

Lord of mercy and love manifest your mercy and love right now

I ask this for your glory, my good, and the good of all who will be helped.

Thank you Lord for your grace and goodness

You are great!

2010-08-24T04:39:00.000-07:00

Lord, you who are great and good

I praise you!

Lord, sin has made me foolish and insane. Forgive me.

I have trusted in other things outside of you. Forgive me.

Help me see you are my LIVING WATER and alone can give me life.

Take from me my thirst today!

Reform my thinking that I may think your thoughts.

Renew my spirit that I might have the energy to obey.

Revive my soul that I might have hope.

Come now Holy Spirit upon me and upon my brothers and sisters.

Raise up your CHURCH and allow her to bear your fruit into the world.

Thank you Lord for your grace.

Hear my prayer.

Lord Revive Us

2010-08-18T04:48:00.000-07:00

Lord, we are lost in negative words and negative attitudes.

Save us from this negative world we have created.

Help us see your powerful hand of love and truth. Free us from lies.

Save us from division, gossip, and complaining.

Help us see the good, the noble, and the praise worthy.

Lord of mercy help us become a people of mercy.

Lord let me pour out my soul for those in need.

Send your love into my heart.

Lord forgive me for my lack of love

Lord, give me a passion to worship you. Help me to fall deeply in love with you. Help me to see that you are worthy of all my praise. Help me to make worship my top priority.

Lord defeat the plans of the enemy. Crush his head under the truth of your gospel. Do not allow the devil to win this battle. Send your people new faith, hope, and love. Deliver us from deception and give us your peace.

Lord, teach us to live sane, stable, and spiritual lives.

Amen

Hopeless

2010-08-06T02:33:00.000-07:00

Dear Father of power and compassion

Maker of universes and maker of me

Hear the cry of this small child

Everything is lost

That which I valued has been taken from me

It seems that I must suffer defeat

You could deliver me but you may decide that it would be best if I am defeated

I know that defeat does not separate me from your love

I may simply be a sheep that is led to slaughter in a broken and sad reality

But I do ask to be delivered

For the sake of your name

For the sake of my family

For the sake of the people in my life

For the sake of your church

and also for my own sake

Father, have pity and compassion.

Protect me from evil.

Provide for me my daily bread

Forgive me my sins and give me grace for all who hurt me.

Father have Mercy, Christ have mercy, Spirit have mercy upon me

Give me hope that you will not abandon me in the middle of all my lost.

Thank you for your promise of love to me.

Amen

Prayer for help

2010-08-05T04:49:00.000-07:00

Lord, I need you to guide me more clearly

I need to see exactly what I need to do.

I need your blessing upon me

I need you to help me bear much fruit.

Why are things so hard at times?

Why do people become negative?

What can I do to be a peace maker?

How can I not have more to do than what I can do?

Lord give me courage today to face my fears.

Lord help me I pray to overcome folly and live a wise life.

Lord help us make disciples.

Amen

Need of power

2010-07-28T05:06:00.000-07:00

Lord, I am powerless

I am powerless in face of the illness that those I love suffer from and which my own body contains.

I am powerless in face of the death of those I love.

I am powerless in the face of people who abandon me.

I am powerless before loss friendships.

I am powerless against insane thinking.

I am powerless before my own brokenness.

Lord, you are my only hope and strength in all of this powerlessness. Without you I can do nothing.

Help me today. I surrender my fears and struggles to you and seek your presence to provide and preserve me through all I face.

Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.

A day of fear and sadness

2010-06-08T02:51:00.000-07:00

Dear Lord who made all things and who is moving all things towards the Kingdom.

Master and King

I come to you today in my weakness

Small things have crushed me

Norm, if you get tired in a race against people, how can you possibly run against horses? If you fall in open fields, what will happen in the forest along the Jordan River? (Jeremiah 12:5 CEV)

Lord, forgive me weakness

I should be stronger

Lord give me strength

Lord you are my strength

Lord help me and guide me in all that I do

Save me today from the trap of the enemy

Deliver me for your sake from disgrace

Lord have mercy

Christ have mercy

Lord have mercy

Amen

The pressure of life

2010-05-12T04:20:00.000-07:00

Lord, help me not give up under the pressure of life.

I must admit that life is harder than I thought it would be as I grew up. I had hopes of things being easier and better.

Help me to trust you even when I live without anticipation of things getting better.

Give me strength to endure pain. I believe you do that and can do that.

Thank you for giving me enduring strength.

National Day of Prayer

2010-05-08T04:58:00.000-07:00

Lord, save our nation from not believing in absolute truth.

Lord, save our nation from faith in relative morality.

Lord, send conviction to our hearts regarding true moral guilt.

Lord, we are blind to the fact we have allowed the murder of millions of innocent babies.

We have no deep anguish over this.

We just accept it as they way things are.

The blood keeps flowing down our sewers of slain children.

Does their blood cry out to heaven?

Lord, your church is needing revival.

We do not believe your gospel in so many ways.

We are lost like sheep.

Save us.

Deliver us.

Keep us from committing apostasy.

Fill us with the Holy Spirit.

Lord, revive us or we will die.

We have no one to turn to but you.

Please, I beg you help us.

For your glory

For the good of the nations

For our good

Help us!

Glued to Good

2010-05-05T04:20:00.000-07:00

Lord, help me to love you sincerely and with integrity.

Lord, help me love others as you love them.

Help me experience love.

Lord, help me see the horror of sin and evil.

Lord, help me not deny the bad impact of evil in my life.

Lord, create in me a loathing of that which is morally depraved and harmful.

Lord, help me to race after rightousness today.

Lord, attach me to the good standard of Christ's righteousness and make me in His image today.

Lord, help me to become addicted to doing good and gain pleasure in acts of love.

Lord, let goodness be my prime directive and life mission.

Lord forgive me

2010-04-26T02:54:00.000-07:00

Lord, of mercy and grace

Forgive me

Forgive me for not seeing that I am evil

Forgive me for believing in my own righteousness

Forgive me for not seeing that I am unable to fix my problems

Forgive me for not believing you are the only one who can fix my problems

Forgive me for not having a hunger and thirst for righteousness

Forgive me for not receiving from you the power to be righteous

Forgive me for my lack of passion to see your will done on earth as in heaven

Forgive me for passion to have my own will done

Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy on me a sinner.

Lord give me a passion for seeking you as the answer to everything in my life

Open my eyes to see your grace

2010-04-20T03:53:00.000-07:00

Dear Lord and Leader of my life,

Life is more filled with chaos than I thought it would be.

There are so many things outside of my control.

There are so many needs to be prayed for and so many things to do.

It is hard to focus.

It is hard to not feel overwhelmed.

Lord help and hear my cry.

There is desperate need for your help.

I thank you for providing simple answers to simple prayers.

Signs of your care in the middle of difficult times.

Thank you for those signs of grace.

Open my eyes that I might see you working daily in my life.

I know you are at work but I also know I do not see it as I should.

Make me sensitive to your works of grace in my life.

Seeking godly hunger

2010-04-08T04:37:00.000-07:00

Lord and Lover

Make me hunger and thirst after righteousness in the middle of this culture that denies that righteousness exists or is of value if it did. Help my tastes not become simply the tastes of the world.

Help me not to get distracted by the insanity. Insanity seems to become normal. Disorder seems to be more common than order. To seek sanity and order seems insane. Yet, I must not lose my vision of being sane. Lord, let me not accept insanity.

Lord, help me today to seek to become love. To become an incarnation of love. To become an incarnation of peace. So much insanity done in your name and by people who should be sane.

Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy

Prayer to the one greater than all my thoughts about HIM

2010-04-06T03:33:00.000-07:00

Lord, Master, Friend, Lover, Creator, Maker, Wisdom, Love, Infinite,

Not enough words to capture you.

Never enough words to explain you.

You are beyond all my words and all my explanations.

You are THE OTHER - HOLY yet INTIMATE - in me, around, me, knowing me, without boundaries, there are no boundaries for you except those you make for yourself.

I am before you.

You know my needs.

They are big for me. They are small for you. They are big for you because they are big for me. You understand my small vision. You understand my small strength. I lift them to you and ask you to help me comprehend them from your point of view.

Forgive me my folly and moral failures. Being before you is hard for it always is that I fall short. Short of sanity, short of stability, and short of being one with you in thought and will. I fall short.

Forgive me for the sake of Jesus dying on the cross. Such profound words. Wild words. True words. My Messiah dying for me. How can it be? How serious sin must be. Help me see sin as serious. As crucifying.

Lord, I lift to you all the stuff of my life. The purpose and plans. The problems and pains. I give it all to you. Please help me and carry that which will crush me without you.

In Messiah's name

Amen

Seeking a resurrected faith

2010-04-01T04:18:00.000-07:00

Lord of life and renewal

This is a time of thinking about your power over life and death.

You can defeat the final enemy.

You can create life and restore it.

You can breathe on dry bones and have them come alive.

Now, in this moment come and breathe on me.

I need new life.

I need new passion.

I need new hope.

I need new vision.

I need new energy.

I need you to breathe.

Without your breath I will turn to dust.

I am only dust without your breath in me.

Come Holy Spirit.

Fill me with your life.

Restore to me the deep desire for your kingdom.

Help me see your purpose in my life.

Lord have mercy and touch me.

Lord have mercy and encounter me.

Lord have mercy and embrace me.

Lord overcome death and give life once more.

Loss of my illusions

2010-03-05T18:28:00.000-08:00

Lord, things are out of control again

At least out of my control

My illusion of control

Lord, I need you to have mercy

I am totally dependent on you.

Lord, I am weak and only your strength can help me

I acknowledge I have no control

I only have you

In the Darkness

2010-03-05T02:54:00.000-08:00

Eternal one

All knowing

All powerful

The one GOOD ONE

I cry out to you who are LOVE INFINITE

In your light let me see light

You have told me to expect difficult times. When I was younger I thought I had experienced difficult times. But there are mamy different types of difficult times and when you think you have seen it all then something you never have seen comes. But you have told me that this is to be expected. It is life in a fallen world. Broken by my sin. Broken by our sin. Broken by sin. Everything is so broken by sin. It is not surprising LORD OF LIFE that you have a broken heart.

At times there seems so little of your light gets to me. The shadows of the pain, hurting, and darkness are so great that they block out any ability to make sense of what is happening. The world is filled with lies and deception. To trust is dangerous since even sheep have teeth and can bite. There really is no safe place here. That is part of the brokeness of everything. No safe place but with you. You alone are safe.

ONE beyond my wildest dreams of who you are be a FATHER to me today. Hold me close in your embrace because of the death of CHRIST for me today. Lift up my bent spirit and encourge my worn out soul. YOU are my only hope. YOU are my only refuge. YOU are the only one who can get me through.

Forgive me for my lack of love. I feel so bad that I failed to love as I should have loved. I fear that I have failed love even more than I recognize. LORD OF MERCY have mercy on me and teach me to love.

Amen

Prayer about suffering

2010-02-16T02:59:00.000-08:00

Dear Lord,

You are good, wise, and all powerful

Even with being perfect in all those attributes it was impossible for you to create a world without intense suffering, pain, foolishness, and evil in them in which we would be free to make moral choices of significance.

You in all of your splendor had to endure the pain of our rebellion and the cross for our redemption.

You knew that in the end, our salvation, our union and communion with you, and the making of the kingdom would be worth the cost. But what a great cost.

Give me wisdom today to understand what suffering is all about.

Please help those who are suffering, enduring, struggling, and hurting.

Help me understand how the random accident is not random. That there is no pain without purpose.

It is a comfort believing all pain is significant but it is hard at times to see how.

Why is suffering a better road? Why are happy endings so few? The why is so hard and I guess I will not really know until I see you face to face.

But maybe I can know the what. What am I to learn because of the suffering and the pain that exists today? Please show me what I am to learn.

Forgive my sins.

For your glory and my good

In the righteousness of Messiah Jesus I pray

Amen

Prayer when feeling weak

2010-02-08T02:58:00.000-08:00

Lord, I have become more and more aware of my weakness, sin, and foolishness.

I feel like a person playing in the super bowl of life whose skills are at the flag foot ball league in elementary school.

I should have more skills and wisdom, but somehow I fail to have them and I get sacked over and over again.

Lord have mercy on this sinner today.

Without your grace I have no hope at all.

But with your grace I can still hope

Thank you for your grace

Lord today make be wiser than I have been

Lord today make be more righteous than I have been

Lord help me adapt to the changes of life

Grant to me the ability to do what you have called me to do

Make up for my short comings with your great strength.

For your glory and my good do these things

Amen

Prayer of Adoration

2010-02-02T03:01:00.000-08:00

Lord who made heaven and earth

You who are necessary for the Cosmos both in its creation and its preservation

You who designed all order and life

You who are reason, logic, and love all in one

I adore you.

I do not adore you the way I should. I confess my adoration is far less than what it should be. Yet, I do adore you and ask that my adoration for you grow. You are worhty of total adoration. If only I could get my vision of you right. Help me do that.

Help me with the fear that I enter into today with.

There are many things that need to be done and I am not sure I can do them all.

I will end today not getting everything done I should do or at least what I think I should do.

I wonder how you will look at this day. What things do you think I should do? Are they on my list?

Let me try to always have your list on my list. Ideally your list would be my list.

Help me in my weakness and give me grace to face my failures.

Give me comfort about what I have lost.

Let me see all you have given me.

Lord I adore you today for loving me more than I could ever hope.

In Jesus the Messiah's name I pray

Amen

For Dark Times

2010-01-28T03:14:00.000-08:00

The light keeps shining in the dark, and darkness has never put it out. (John 1:5 CEV)

Lord of light and truth have mercy and take note of my cry to you this day.

Eternal one who works in time hear the heart of this little creature made in your image and seeking you today.

I need to sense that you are mindful of me today. You are mindful of everything always yet I need to know that what I say matters to you personally. That I am not lost within the billions of cries and prayers. That you are able in your vastness to care for me personally. That these particular words at this particular time is really showing up on your radar and that you are focusing on them as if they were the only words in all the universe for you to hear. I need a revelation of your personal concern and love for me.

Lord, help me to see that darkness cannot put out your light.

It seems that the darkness of sin, chaos, confusion, hurt, pain, and discord grow.

It seems like abandonment, rejection, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, and physical abuse grow.

It seems like there is no safe place, no safe relationships, no refuge, and only more betrayals of trust.

Let me see your light.

Let me see you are a safe place, a safe relationship, a refuge, and fully trust worthy. Be my foundation. Be my light in the darkness.

Let me see that you will not abandon me, you will not reject me, you support me emotionally, you speak words of comfort to me, you honor my sexuality, and never abuse me. You are the light.

Let me lose faith in the power of the darkness. Darkness really has no power at all. The more the light the less the darkness.

Lord shine your light of love into my heart and help me experience that love in a real way in the midst of my struggles. Let the lies and deceptions that twist and pervert relationships die. Allow your truth to win over lies.

Help me to know how to live among people vastly different than me. How can I communicate to others when how they see things is so different than I see things? How can people from different worlds understand each other? Lord, be the translator that allows us to speak heart to heart.

Lord, I am living afraid of the dark today. Like a little child who has had a bad dream my heart is shaking because of the darkness that surrounds me. I rock back and forth with my eyes closed afraid of what is in the darkness. Bring light to me today and comfort my fears. Help me to better understand your ways and better see your light. Calm me and hold me close. You who are eternal and yet come to me in time. Help me today.

Lord of light and love come to me and help me believe that you care about me. Help me walk in the light as you are in the light. Let me be a child of light today.

Amen

Prayer of Acceptance

2010-01-21T04:18:00.000-08:00

Dear Lord who creates and guides all things.

Ruler of all events.

Broken hearted eternal lover.

Help me to accept the things I cannot change

Help me see how little I can change

Help me be content with what I can change

Give me a heart that wants to change for the better

Help me to let go of my frustration

Help me to trust your wisdom

Help me believe in the process of purification

Let me not become bitter but better

Help me to want what I have today even as I ask you to change tomorrow

Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy upon me

Prayer for Haiti 2010

2010-01-19T03:37:00.000-08:00

To send help to Haiti go to https://processor.pcanet.org/mna/donationsII/donation.cfm?MinistryTypeID=48

Lord, be with Haiti

They have suffered so much in this earthquake.

Lord, help those trapped to be found and given medical aid.

Lord, help those injured get help.

Lord, help the children who have been orphaned find homes.

Lord, help the homeless find shelter

Lord, help the thirty find water

Lord, help the hungry find food

Lord, give the fearful patience

Lord, silence those who encourage violence

Lord, provide comfort to those who have lost loved ones

Lord, destroy faith in voodoo to save

Lord, manifest your love in Haiti

Lord, send revival and renewal to Haiti

Prayer for Love

2010-01-11T04:25:00.000-08:00

Lord, maker of humanity

In our wandering from you we also wander from each other. We do not seem to know how to live in peace with each other. Families fight, friends are critical of each other, and lovers hate. Our insanity is clearly seen in our inability to remain in fellowship with each other.

The tension Lord is that we are made in your image. We are drawn to each other because we reflect in some measure by your grace the wonder and bueaty of your heart. Yet, in our brokeness we also represent that which is choatic, dark, perverted, imbalanced, addicted, blind, and poisoned. We can even baptize these elements and connect them to our virtues so that we cannot clearly make a distiction between that which is a reflection of you and that which is a refection of darkness. And then we begin to hurt and abuse each other in so many ways.

Lord have mercy on us.

You have called us to love each other. To love each other in our fallen and broken condition even as we are striving to escape this darkness. Lord teach us to love. Teach us to love in this real world. Teach us to love when the strife begins, when the gossip begins to be told, when we wander from the path of sanity, and help us be able to see our own darkness. Lord, help us to love one another.

Lord have mercy on us.

Prayers for when we hit bottom

2010-01-08T04:34:00.001-08:00

Lord, you have all power .

Lord, you have all wisdom.

Lord, you have answers even when I see no solutions.

Help me to trust in you even in the dark.

Help me to hang on to your sanity when I have become insane.

Help me to hang on to your stability when I have become unstable.

Help me to feel your Spirit in me when I have become dead bones.

Lord have mercy upon us.

I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am a man who has no strength, (Psalms 88:4 ESV)

Lord be my strength when I am burned out.

Lord be my courage when I am afraid.

Lord be my hope when I have despaired.

Lord have mercy upon us.

Seeking New Faith

2010-01-06T05:52:00.000-08:00

Lord, you are the ultimate reality

In you I trust

But teach me to trust you more

You are awesome

But help me see just how great you really are

Help my faith reflect what is real

Help my faith deal with the brokenness of life

Help my faith not lose heart but to believe in prayer

Lord you are the one who gives faith as a gift

I need faith today

So for your glory and my good; give me more faith

Lord comfort my tired heart

Help me hear your WORD in my heart

In the WORD give me strength

I praise you LORD for you are worthy of faith

Lord help us do church well

2010-01-05T02:19:00.001-08:00

Lord of the Church be with me today.

Lord we need you to teach us how to do church well. Your word has the wisdom but we fail to live by it. We end up making church like every other one of our human institutions except we baptize our abuse of each other in religious words and self righteous phrases.

Lord have mercy upon us all.

Just reading Church history it is clear that things are all out of line. We have divisions, fights, and politics. Christians are killing Christians along with others in your name. How could we believe this was all your will?

Lord have mercy upon us all.

We do depart from your truth. We also depart from your love. We do not seem to be the manifestation of your manifold wisdom. We do seem to reflect your foolishness and the greatness of grace. For you do send revival and renewal to restore us and help us. Yet, always we lose our way once again.

Lord have mercy upon us all.

Lord, teach us to do church well. Brothers and sisters who prayed more than we pray failed to do church well. Brothers and sisters who studied more than we have studied failed to do church well. Brothers and sisters who sacrificed more than we have sacrificed failed to do church well. Dear Lord, have mercy and teach us to do church well.

Lord have mercy upon us all.

When church is done well then our faith is made stronger. When church is done well unbelievers are aided in coming to faith. When church is done well your name is glorified. When church is done well we are blessed. Lord teach us to do church well.

Lord have mercy upon us all.

Prayer for Evangelistic Passion

2010-01-05T02:11:00.001-08:00

Lord of mercy have mercy on those who do not believe.

Give me a passion to seek and to save the lost even as you had the passion to leave heaven and come to earth to see some saved.

Help me be a faithful ambassador of your kingdom and represent you in word and deed to those outside the kingdom.

Give me wisdom in answering questions and let me not be afraid of the questions that may be asked.

Lord, give me faith in the gospel being your power by which people can be and will be saved. Increase my faith in the gospel.

Lord have mercy and fill me with the Holy Spirit. Let me speak in the power of the Holy Spirit.

For your glory and for the good of many hear this prayer.

When Wounded

2010-01-04T07:25:00.000-08:00

Dear Lord

When we started this journey I expected the world to hate me.

I was ready to be persecuted by unbelievers for my faith in you.

But most of my wounds have not come from the world.

Most of my wounds have been caused by people I love in your church.

The gossip, the judgment, the critism, the insanity.

It has caused me more pain than anything else in my life.

You know it has pushed me to the edge at times.

Lord, heal the wounds I have suffered at the hands of my friends.

Help me to see that you had both Judas and Peter to deal with.

I should not expect any better.

Lord, have I also caused pain to your children?

At times I know I have. My own insanity getting the better of me.

Lord forgive me for hurting other Christians.

Lord heal me from the wounds caused by those I love.

Lord have mercy on us all

A prayer for boldness

2010-01-04T03:43:00.000-08:00

Lord, help me find a way to be more bold in speaking your truth and living your truth.

You are truth.

You are wisdom.

Increase my faith in your truth and wisdom.

Boldness comes from faith.

The more one believes the more one will proclaim.

Help me believe more deeply and think more clearly.

Overcome my fears of rejection and abandonment.

Help me see your were rejected and abandoned in order to save me.

Help me be willing to join you in being hated for the truth. In your case for being the truth itself come in the flesh.

Let me love your fellowship more than I false "fellowship" of the world and the flesh.

Give me boldness in speaking your truth.

Prayer to do Church well

2010-01-02T14:33:00.001-08:00

Lord, how can we do church well?

Each of us have short comings and limits in our vision.

Each of us have sins we have not faced.

Each of us have self righteousness we have not abandoned.

Each of us is better at judging than loving.

Lord, how can we show forth your manifold wisdom?

We are so weak.

We are so flawed.

We are so easily tempted.

We call our evil good.

Lord, teach us to do church well.

You have said the powers of heaven will see your wisdom in us.

It wouild have been easier to see us as your foolishnes instead of your wisdom.

It is hard to do church well.

Teach us to do church well for your glory and our good

Lord have mercy on your children.

Prayer for a New Year

2010-01-01T06:40:00.000-08:00

Maker of all things.

Infinite one who is outside of time and yet living in time.

Eternal WISDOM and LOVE

FATHER, SON, and HOLY SPIRIT

Please hear me now.

I thank you for your blessing in this last year. You have healed friends, You have kept disastor from wiping everything out. You have kept us from having any weopen of mass destruction released. You have forgiven our sins. You have provided your presence. You have been faithful to all your promises. Thank you for being a firm foundation.

Thank you for the opportunity to share your gospel. Thank you for those who for the first time said yes to your grace. Thank you for giving opportunity to give a reason for the hope that is in us. Thank you for allowing us to help the poor. You have granted us the privilgege to serve. How honored we are to be your people and servants.

Lord, help us to overcome our doubts. Comfort us where those we loved have died. Help us as we face problems that make no sense to us and which are not being solved. Give us faith in the middle of our struggles. Keep us from despair.

Open the doors this year for us to love. Help us to learn to love you more. Help us learn to express your love more. Make of us a people of love.

Great and Eternal One

Use this new year for your glory and for our good

Remember us in Messiah Jesus

Amen

For Times of Sickness

2009-12-30T04:50:00.000-08:00

Giver of life provide for me strength.

You who bring order to chaos bring order to my body.

Help me to endure the pain I feel.

Help me face the fear of not getting better.

Let me not believe that being sick means you do not love me.

If this sickness is an act of love disciplining; then let me comprehend that discipline.

If this sickness is just part of being in a broken world; allow it to open my heart to the others who suffer from the brokenness of the world.

If this sickness is due to good stewardship of my body; then forgive me that sin.

Help me see how going through this suffering will help me become more like the Christ. Help this illness to make me not bitter but better.

It is appointed to me at sometime to die and then I will see you face to face.

Help me see how fragile I am. Help me recognize moment by moment my total dependence upon you as the LORD OF LIFE.

Thank you for this day of life. Thank you for the measure of health I have. Thank you for your mercy on me this day.

Meditation on prayer

2009-12-28T04:49:00.000-08:00

Lord, I was meditating the other day.

I know you want me to pray. I have not because I fail to ask you. I have not because I fail to ask with the right attitude. I ask for the wrong things. But you call me to pray.

You call me to pray passionate, real, honest, wild, prayers like those in the psalms. It is hard to be like David Lord. He was a very passionate man. A man after your own heart when he was rightly attuned.

I find myself to be run down, tired, and weary. I find myself praying prayers like I would have a conversation with an honored friend over coffee. They are more "networking" prayer times in which I see the two of us talking about common concerns and my asking your help while I also speak to you about private matters and struggles. But, I rarely get really worked up. I am not a David.

So I really need you to show me how to get my passion up. To be able to pray with that much energy. Brother James says that you desire my prayers to be fervent. To burn with intensity. Screaming prayers. That is what is hard for me. I don't scream much.

That really takes me to my meditation. In my younger years as you know I did scream in prayer a lot. My prayers were fervent. They were not always wise but they were filled with energy. I was filled with energy and hope of changing the world. I had no idea how much changing the world needed. Sometimes you answered these prayers. Sometimes you did not answer these prayers.

I prayed desperately for my grand mother and she lived 30 years and lived till 99
I prayed desperately for Pastor Jerry and he died on Easter Sunday

I prayed desperately for direction if I should become an "ordained pastor" and you answered that prayer. You provided funds to send me to seminary.
I have prayed desperately for our church to grow and you have said no to that prayer for 14 years.

You do not want me to lose heart in prayer. So help me to keep praying for your will.

At the end of every fervent prayer I believe I must come to the point of saying "not my will but yours be done." Yet, before I say this I must strive to argue with you, beg you, with humility ask you, seek you, and not give up until like Paul I get some insight into something deeper.

The smallness of the church is my thorn in the flesh. The lack of the ability to see the ministry grow is my messenger of Satan. Is "smallness" helping your grace work in me? Or am I to continue to ask you to remove it?

Fervent appeal with submission is a difficult combination.

A new year begins. Help me to become more fervent and more submissive in prayer. Give me more wisdom about how to pray. Fill me with the Spirit so that I may pray for your glory and my good.

Thank you blessed Messiah Jesus

Thank you Father

Thank you Holy Spirit

Amen

Open the eyes of my heart

2009-12-24T03:54:00.000-08:00

Eternal friend and lover,

You who are outside of time help me deal with time.

Another year has passed. In some ways we have made progress. In other ways we have suffered losses. We have more than we had a year ago in some ways and we have less than we had a year ago in other ways. There has been no massive success and no massive failure. Just living in the mediocre reality of getting by and not seeing goals reached nor seeing dreams die.

It is hard to live in grey. It is hard to pray in grey. It is hard to praise in grey. Yet, that is where you have called me to live is in the kingdom of the grey. In the shadow lands. And I am getting older and have seen more and more of my friends die. I am mortal and there is a good chance I will die in the grey. I will leave behind a grey legacy. That was not what I had hoped.

So, give me a love for what you have ordained in my life. Help me to see where I need to learn to pray and love better. I know that I am a long way from trusting and caring enough. Change my heart. Magnify yourself in my soul. Let my spirit rejoice in your love.

Open the eyes of my heart Lord that I might see you high and lifted up.

Prayer for the half full glass

2009-12-23T14:37:00.000-08:00

Eternal and universal one who is with me every second and shares every breath I take.

Hear your child

I do thank you for the things that are better than they should be

For the friend who has recovered from the sickness that should have crippled them

For the one who was addicted who now is free from addiction

For the freedom to travel where before we were trapped

For the increase of faith where there was a temptation to not believe

For all these things that you have put into my glass this year

Thank you

Provider of all good gifts

Help me see your hand behind all good events

Increase my vision of God

2009-12-22T04:36:00.000-08:00

Lord, infinite, eternal, wise, good, holy, caring, merciful, graceful, creator, redeemer, being of all being, increase my vision of who you are.

My vision of you is much to small. My soul imagines you as some type of "super hero" type being when really you are a million times greater than that.

You are over me, under me, around me, in me, outside of me, surrounding every atom of my being and even dwelling with my soul, spirit, true self, core being. You are intimately aware of every aspect of me and I am not a mystery to you at all. You alone understand me. Your comprehension of me is perfect and complete. You totally know me even better than I know myself. Lord increase my vision of who you are. My vision of you is to small.

I have sinned. I am sinning. I will sin till you save me totally from my sin when I die or you return. I am twisted, broken, deformed, weak, perverted, polluted, infected, lost, and insane. Yet, you embrace me in your love. You do not forsake me. You call me child even on my worst days. You are my SAVIOR! You love my soul.

Let me feel the joy of knowing such love. Open my spirit to joy. Help me feel holy joy in light of your holy caring graceful love. You who are life have died for my sins. How can it be that I could gain from such a wild love as this?

Increase my vision of who you are. Let me see your greatness. Let me believe your greatness. Help me have hope in your greatness.

Seeking New Passion

2009-12-13T06:02:00.000-08:00

I remember the song by Keith Green and it reflects what is in my heart today.

Lord, You're beautiful
Your face is all I see
And when Your eyes
Are on this child
Your grace abounds to me

Lord, help me see your wonder. Grant me a vision of your character and your competence. Help me be awed by your wonder. Open my heart and increase my love for you.

Lord, please light the fire
That once burned bright and clear
Replace the lamp of my first love
That burns with holy fear

Lord, You're beautiful
Your face is all I see
And when Your eyes
Are on this child

Your grace abounds
Your grace abounds
Your grace abounds to me

Lord, please light the fire
That once burned bright and clear
Replace the lamp of my first love
That burns with holy fear

Lord, I need your mercy, Help me remember my first love. Let me see my journey from your perspective. Let my journey be faith building and let my faith be love building. Lord have mercy on me.

Lord have mercy on your Church. Revive and Renew us! Give us holy passion! Light the fire in your Church and send us a true Pentecost.

For your glory and our good! Hear the cry of your people and do great things in our generation! Do great things in my heart.

Seeing Intimacy

2009-12-12T05:14:00.001-08:00

Dear Eternal, Good, Living, Personal, Love

You are greater than all I can think of you.

You are infinite beyond my understanding of infinite.

I am much smaller than I think I am.

Yet, you have numbered the hairs on my head.

You even now dwell with me and listen to my voice and even my thoughts.

You are more intimate with me than any other person will ever be.

You are in me more than anyone else will ever be in me.

You are intimate with me and know me totally.

My deepest soul is naked before you.

You know me better than I know myself.

You embrace me in my brokenness.

You have suffered to embrace me.

Your suffering is also infinite.

Beyond words.

Beyond human comprehension.

We speak of it.

But we do not begin to understand it.

You know me not only as Creator but as Redeemer.

Not only as maker but as lover.

You have chosen to adopt me.

Help me to know you as much as a finite being can ever know you.

Help me to seek intimacy with you that reflects your seeking intimacy with me.

Forgive me because my desire for you is so small, help me to grow in this desire.

Be patient with me and remember that I am so small and sinful.

Help me grow in my love of you and your righteousness.

Help us to grow.

Open my eyes to your presence with me this day. Open my soul to know you dwell in me today. Make me aware of my need of you and that without you I can do nothing.

Lord have mercy on me and help me grow in your grace.

I ask everything based upon the mercy you have demonstrated in Jesus to me. Amen

Seeking Focus

2009-12-09T06:19:00.000-08:00

Dear Lord,

I can become so focused on minor things. I can become deeply dedicated to my entertainment. I can lose sight of major things in the shadow of minor things.

Lord help me to avoid such waste of breath.

Lord teach me to understand Sabbath Rest.

Lord teach me to love.

Teach me to love you.

Teach me to love others.

Teach me to love the soul you made in me.

Lord help me to live with the complexity of life. Help me find the most simple life I can find and still be faithful to your will for my life. Lord teach me to find a simple life and a simple faith.

Lord fill me, control me, and incarnate your character in me. Let me be your body today in the interactions of my life.

Help me find the path from this point in life that will leave the best legacy I can based on where I have travelled.

Lord have mercy on your child this day.

A prayer about mistakes

2009-12-08T07:01:00.000-08:00

Lord, I have made mistakes. I have failed to live by the wisdom that I would give to others. I have allowed insanity to sometimes rule my actions. Please forgive me.

How can mistakes be overcome? How can the past be corrected? I carry the burden of my poor judgments and wonder if at times they will crush me. I believe you forgive, but the weight of them is more than I can bear. Please give me strength or release me from the just consequences of my foolishness.

Lord you must be greater than my mistakes. You must be able to work all things together for good. Even my insanity must be able to become part of the perfect picture you have for my life. I hope that is the case. Let me have the wisdom to discern your purpose in all that is happening. Open my eyes to see what must be done.

Thank you for loving me with my mistakes. Knowing you embrace me as your prodigal child means so much to me. Without that I would perish. I long to be able to feel that embrace in my resurrected body. To hear your words of assurance that all is well.

Lord have mercy today and help me to hear your words of encouragement in my heart.

Keep me from foolish acts in the future. Let me learn the price of insanity.

Lord have mercy on me a sinner.

Prayer for motivation

2009-12-05T06:23:00.000-08:00

Lord, I am tempted to not believe it matters.

My striving and struggling. My efforts to follow you. My prayers.

Depression is such a safe place. It frees me from following. If frees me from seeking. It frees me for striving and struggling.

But depression only leads to death.

So open my ears today that I will be able to hear your gospel.

Let my heart sing with your heart as you tell me of your unending love.

Let me not just see the deep horribleness of my sins but the great wonder of your love in paying for the just price of my transgressions.

Let me see your love in your cross this day. Let me stand under the wonder of your redeeming love. Let me see that you did not given in to despair but acted in faith, hope, and love in saving me. Let me grow in my vision of the mystery of your love found in your death, burial, and resurrection.

Let me hear that I might believe.

Fill my heart with your passion and motivate me to seek first your kingdom.

Fill me with hope instead of despair

In this make me like yourself.

Need of Refuge and Strength

2009-10-22T04:52:00.000-07:00

Lord,

You are my refuge and strength.

Life has become complex. The needs, confusions, conflicts, and weakness of life confront me. They seem to want to devour me and leave nothing left.

Lord, you are my refuge and strength

Things are flooding me right now. It is hard to focus Lord because so many things scream for my attention. I am not going well in prioritizing right now. Everything seems important. Should I pray or work? If I work which of the thousand things should I work on? If I pray which of the thousand things should I pray for and how should I pray for them?

Lord, you are my refuge and strength

Help me to just accept my smallness. Help me see that you ask me only to be sane, stable, and spiritual today. Others want me to do things I cannot do. You ask me only to do what you have made me able to do. You tell me you will hold all things together. Lord, help me trust you will not let me drown today and if I do drown it will be for some ultimate good.

Lord, you are my refuge and strength.

Returning to Sanity

2009-10-13T02:25:00.000-07:00

Lord, I want to return to a better pattern
I want to return to sanity and stability
I want to return to feeling your embrace
Lord have mercy

It seems like the door of choas has been opened again
Events happen that seem to be from the twight zone
Insanity is incarnated
I fear it so much
I get hurt from it so much
I don't know what to do
Why do things become crazy?

I have been trying to remember sanier days
I have been striving to remember when things were more stable
They all seem far away
They all ended with some type of insane

The insanity today is like windows on the floor
Not really dangerous just strange to see
But they destroy the idea that one is secure
Lord you alone are my security

Lord help me be sane and stable today
Help me to govern every word and response
Help me be filled with your spirit
Help my brothers and sisters to also be sane and stable today
Help them to be filled with your Spirit
Help us find your pathway to peace

Prayer on a tired day

2009-10-12T12:39:00.000-07:00

Bone and mind are weary today
Lord have mercy on me
I hear your word and it encourages my heart
Lord have mercy on me today
I encounter insanity from my friends
Lord have mercy on me today
Mind and bone are weary and worn
Lord have mercy on me today

Praise to the Triune God

2009-10-11T17:53:00.000-07:00

Father I adore you for loving with an eternal heart of wild passion and care.

Messiah Jesus I adore you for being willing to sacrafice more than I can be understood by mere finite beings for mere finite beings.

Holy Spirit, wind of God, you have brought life from death, light from darkness, and understanding where there was only ignorance for all these gifts I adore you.

Triune God, infinite, eternal, and being beyond all being.

Prayer for help when accused

2009-10-10T04:58:00.000-07:00

Dear Lord,

Why is living in peace with other so hard? Why do Christians have such a hard time getting along? Why is it that we cannot agree to disagree in an agreeable way?

Lord, it hurts so bad when those who I expect to love me accuse me and do not trust me. Lord is there some sin in me that tempts them to treat me this way? Am I blind to some reality that is really in need of repentance? Lord help me see my hidden faults.

Lord be with those who accuse me. Help them to know your blessing and your peace. Grant that they may be able to communicate with me without fear. May I love them with your love.

Lord give peace to your people. Help us to become peacemakers. Lord as much as it depends on me let me live in peace with all people and especially my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Lord give me your peace and fill my heart with your love. Lord forgive me my sins. Lord heal my wounded heart.

Prayers in times of being tired

2009-10-08T05:48:00.000-07:00

Lord,

You know that I am tired. You know that it seems from my perspective that the wind has not been at my back for a long time.

I know that things could be worst. I know that what I have is only by your grace. But you know that it has seemed to be a uphill battle and that I feel like if I let go then I will fall into the darkness below.

The problem is that I am tired and do not know if I can keep going. I am at the end of my strength. The fear of falling has kept me going. But fear can only keep you strong so long.

So, Lord you will have to be my strength. You will have go hold me up. If I fall you will have to fix my bones. So Lord, be with me now. Either give me some wind at my back and help to keep me from falling or be ready to catch me because I do not think I can keep this up much longer.

I know that you understand it all. You understand why you have not sent wind. My failures and faults give you more than justified reasons to not help me. I have no right to expect wind from you. You do not owe me wind at my back. You know that a lack of wind has made me love you and not the wind. But by your grace I hope you will help me.

I know you always help me. Yet, now I ask for special help and special grace. Help me feel your embrace and in that embrace give me your strength.

Thank you for listening to my musings. You are always with me. You love me more than my greatest dreams of love. Help me to rest in that love even if I fall through lack of strength.

Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy on us all

Help all those who are weak this day. Help all those who are at the end of their strength. Help all those who feel they are coming to an end of themselves. Help us eternal strength with your strength. May we give you glory because we are not destroyed.

Lord have mercy

2007-09-05T15:19:00.001-07:00

Lord, thank you for answering prayers even when I doubt.
Lord you are greater than my faith.
Greater than my love.
Greater than my hope.
Greater than me.

Lord, you have such wonderful power and wisdom
You are simply greater than what I can comprehend
The reality you present is so complex
I am so small
Help me to understand your mind

Lord, I am sad about the death of my mentor
Sad that we could not have more than we had
Sad that I did not know how to communcate better
Sad that I could not be more human to him
Sad that I protected the icon but failed the man
Lord send your comfort to his friends
Send comfort to his family
Send comfort to me.

Prayer For Peace

2007-06-07T06:56:00.001-07:00

Lord grant to us peace of inner soul
Lord grant to us peace among our family
Lord grant us peace among our friends
Lord grant us peace among our enemies
Lord grant us peace within our church
Lord grant us peace within our community
Lord grant us peace within our world
Lord of peace
Be with us

Prayer On June 20 2006

2006-06-20T02:02:00.000-07:00

Adoration

Lord you are covered with truth and integrity. The entire universe is like a house to you where you can visit when you wish and leave when you will. The wind, the sky, and the stars are but aspects of that home. You are totally Soveriegn over all the aspects of your creation. Your greatness is almost beyond the human mind to know. You can flood the earth or keep it from being flooded. You created all of this with the greatest degree of scientific and philosophical wisdom. You own every atom of creation. You are my heavenly Father. You can be trusted. Lord, open my eyes to your greatness.

Confession

Forgive me for not speaking when I should speak. Forgive me for wanting things to be simple when they are complex. Forgive me for seeing things as complex when they are simple. Lord, forgive me for lacking courage as a leader. Forgive me for not being a better father, husband, and brother. Forgive me for not finding balance and striving to overcome unfaithfulness with an excessive schedule. Teach me your ways. Help me be the leader you have made me. You have put these things in my hand. Forgive me for seeing what you have not put in my hand without seeing what you have put in my hand. Give to me a practical repentance.

Renewal

Lord, help me to seek you with a passionate heart. My exhustion keeps me from feeling the energy to seek you. Help me to love you more for you are worthy of all my love. Help me to see your loving kindness towards me that I might trust you more. Forgive me my lack of trust. Break up that part of my heart that has not produced fruit for your kingdom and make of it a garden. Plant in me the word of life and allow me to become a source of your life to others. Have mercy on me a sinner. For the sake of your name bless me.

Petition

Lord, help me have greater compassion upon others. Help me not use the pain of the past as a reason to not open my heart to others today. Help my family have true faith. Help us to grow in our understanding of what you desire. Help my family know regeneration, renewal, reformation, and revival. Grant these gifts to my heart as well. We can do nothing without you Lord Jesus. Help me know how to evangelize as you would evangelize in my place and time. Help me to want to evangelize. Help me to have faith in evangelization. Lord bless the phone cal with Andy today. Bless my breakfast with Alex. Allow the seminar to be of worth to my ministry. Let me hear what I need to hear to grow. Lord help our new worship service.

Intercession

Lord, have mercy on your people.

Affirmation

I am under grace and Jesus has made me a slave of righteousness in Him

Thanksgiving

Thank you Lord for your making me in your image and giving me a purpose for living. Thank you for life.