Among All Peoples
Unless I am Kept by Thy Power
O God the author of all good, I come to Thee for the grace another day will require for its duties and events. I step out into a wicked world; I carry about with me an evil heart. I know that without Thee I can do nothing, that everything with which I shall be concerned, however harmless in itself, may prove an occasion of sin or folly, unless I am kept by Thy power. Hold Thou me up and I shall be safe. Preserve my understanding from subtilty of error, my affections from love of idols, my character from stain of vice, my profession from every form of evil. May I engage in nothing in which I cannot implore Thy blessing, and in which I cannot invite Thy inspection. Prosper me in all lawful undertakings, or prepare me for disappointments. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be full and deny Thee and say, Who is the Lord? or be poor, and steal, and take Thy name in vain.
May every creature be made good to me by prayer and Thy will. Teach me how to use the world and not abuse it, to improve my talents, to redeem my time, to walk in wisdom toward those without, and in kindness to those within, to do good to all men, and especially to my fellow Christians. And to Thee be the glory.
Amen.
(from The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers, edited by Arthur Bennett)
Saturday Psalm #84
Lord God Adonai!
I hunger to worship you,
I thirst to gather with your people,
and commune with you.
Like a sparrow in its nest,
or a swallow sheltering in a chimney,
I am utterly at home in your presence,
O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.
I love your house;
I love your people.
I love being around those whose strength is in you,
who enter your house intent on worship.
Thank you for those who worship you
wherever you show up,
in a tiny chapel or a majestic cathedral,
in a desert or a rainforest.
You lead such true worshipers from strength to strength,
you show yourself to them without fail.
Hear my prayer, O LORD God Almighty;
listen to me, O God of Jacob.
Look upon us, Lord God;
look with favor on your servants and ministers.
Better is one day in your courts
than a thousand anywhere else;
I would rather sweep your floors, O Lord,
than be exalted in the palaces of the wicked.
For you, LORD God, are a sun and shield;
you bestow favor and honor;
you withhold no good thing
from those who walk with you.
O LORD Almighty,
I am thrilled and honored to trust in you
and call you mine.
Hope and Hopefulness
A Prayer for a Creative Church
O Lord, let not the church be the place where good ideas come to die. Make creativity the church's way forward, not creativity's final forwarding address.
(a prayer by Leonard Sweet; image via pixabay.com)
For Children Yet Unborn
Remove All Bitterness
God remove all bitterness from my heart
and give me the strength and courage to face any disaster that comes my way.
(a prayer from "Thou, Dear God": Prayers That Open Hearts and Spirits; photo via everystockphoto.com)
Saturday Psalm #83
O God, do not keep silent;
O Lord, don't choose now to hold your tongue.
Your enemies are not holding back;
they are yet plotting and scheming.
Evil takes no holiday;
their cunning has not ceased.
Though they may hide,
they still act against your people.
Though they may lie under cover,
they continue to oppose you,
to hinder your work,
to divide your people,
to prevent your kingdom from expanding.
Do to them as you did to Midian,
as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon;
defeat all evil
and rout all workers of evil
and drive them from our midst.
Blow them away,
like tumbleweed, O my God,
like chaff before the wind.
As fire consumes the forest
and sets whole mountainsides ablaze,
so pursue them with your fury
and dispel them with your rage.
Humiliate our Enemy,
break his teeth before our eyes,
so that men will seek your name, O LORD,
so that all will know that you, LORD, King of my heart,
that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.
Only in God
Only in God is my soul at rest;
In Him comes my salvation.
He only is my Rock,
My strength and my salvation.
My stronghold, my Savior,
I shall not be afraid at all.
My stronghold, my Savior,
I shall not be moved.
Only in God is my soul at rest;
In Him comes my salvation.
Only in God is found safety,
When my enemy pursues me.
Only in God is found glory,
When I am found meek and found lowly.
My stronghold, my Savior,
I shall not be afraid at all.
My stronghold, my Savior,
I shall not be moved.
Only in God is my soul at rest;
In Him comes my salvation.
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Saturday Psalm #82
yours is the authority over every authority.
How you must grieve at our injustice,
at our petty squabbles,
at our failure to defend
the weak and fatherless,
at our attitude toward the poor and oppressed,
our failure to rescue the weak and the needy
from the hands of the wicked.
We stumble around,
and get it wrong most of the time.
You have made us
just a little lower than the angels
and crowned us with honor and privilege,
yet we fail you as though we’ve practiced it.
Forgive us, O God, judge of all the earth,
and rise up to lead us and teach us and change us,
amen.
(based on Psalm 82; photo via pixabay.com)
Let Me Not Disappoint You
Lord,by your great mercy,
by your wonder-working power,
let me not
disappoint you,
frustrate my loved ones,
embarrass the angels,
or vindicate those who expect the worst from me,
in anything I do today,
in Jesus' name,
amen.
My Soul's Horizons
O Lord, you are the God of the early mornings,
the God of the late nights,
the God of the mountain peaks,
and the God of the sea.
But, my God, my soul has horizons further away than those of early mornings,
deeper darkness than the nights of earth,
higher peaks than any mountain peaks,
greater depths than any sea in nature.
You who are the God of all these,
be my God.
I cannot reach to the heights or to the depths;
there are motives I cannot discover,
dreams I cannot realize.
My God, search me.
(a prayer of Oswald Chambers, from My Utmost for His Highest (updated edition), January 9 selection).
My Prickly Soul
Lord, help my little faith (Matthew 14:31).
Lord, help my tunnel vision (Mark 8:18).
Lord, help my stubborn heart (Psalm 81:12).
Lord, help my dull hearing (Hebrews 5:11).
Lord, help my prickly soul,
in Jesus' name, amen.
Saturday Psalm #81
I shout my praise to you, O God of Jacob!
I will sing and dance and clap and bow
to the music of drum and guitar and keyboard!
Here at the New Moon,
I will sing songs to you and lift you up.
I will give thanks to you in my native tongue
and with whatever language you care to supply.
For you have removed
the burden from my shoulders;
my hands are the hands of a free man.
I called, and you rescued me,
you answered me in the storm,
you refined me through the fire.
I once more cast down my idols,
I once more declare you to be my God,
God alone in my eyes.
I cast down my idol of security,
my idol of popularity,
my idol of man’s approval,
my idols of comfort,
ease,
and peace.
You are the LORD my God,
who brought me out of Egypt.
I will open wide my mouth, for you to fill it.
I will listen to you;
I will submit to you.
Mold my stubborn heart
and deliver me from my own devices.
I will follow your ways,
and watch for you to quickly subdue my enemies
and turn your hand against my foes!
Let those who hate cringe before you,
and let their punishment be a warning to all.
But let me and mine be fed with the finest of wheat,
let me and mine be satisfied with honey from the rock.
Amen.
Prayer for a New Chapter
Lord God,
you alone know what our future holds.
In this coming year,
this new chapter,
please guide us to green pastures.
Lead us beside still waters.
Refresh our souls.
Keep us on paths of righteousness,
give us wide vistas and pleasant boundaries,
pour your blessing on us,
and let our cups overflow,
in Jesus' name, amen.
(based on Psalm 23; photo via pixabay.com)
Streams of Needful Grace
O my great High Priest,pour down upon me streams of needful grace,
bless me in all my undertakings,
in every thought of my mind,
every word of my lips,
every step of my feet,
every deed of my hands.
Thou didst live to bless,
die to bless,
rise to bless,
ascend to bless,
take thy throne to bless,
and now thou dost reign to bless.
O give sincerity to my desires,
earnestness to my supplications,
fervour to my love.
(from The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers, edited by Arthur Bennett)
To Welcome the New Year with Happy Hearts
In the gray night's end, O Lord, we watched thee like a careful sheep herder drive the Pleiades out of our farm's sky just in time to make room for the sun, wheeling into our east meadow to defrost the rye grass for the ewes. Thank thee, Lord.
Help us indeed to welcome the new year with happy hearts, even as we welcomed that newborn calf.
Bless every bird and beast in the barn.
Bless every child which thou has so confidently housed here.
May we walk every furrow uprightly all the new year through; and what we do harvest, may we share it gladly, unafraid.
Thank thee for the old year, Lord, every thing, every day--from the whinny of the chestnut mare in the morning to the welcoming bark of old Shep at sundown.
And help us not to mind any longer the briars across the far end of yon pathway.
Are they not rose briars after all?
Look, Lord, these two horny hands that we thought were clasped, are cups now; this one to receive and this one to pass on thy measureless bounty every day.
Amen.
(from the lovely book, The Farmer Gives Thanks, given to me recently by my friend--and reader of this blog--GinnyMerritt; photo via everystockphoto.com)