One Prayer a Day

Threshold

Our great and Gracious God,

As we come to the close of another year, we would indeed make it the prayer of our hearts that you would abide with us.

We thank you that you have been with us through the days of this past year.

Perhaps many a day we have not felt you near,
Perhaps at times we have even felt that you have
forsaken us and forgotten us but we thank you
that it has never been so.
We thank you that you are constantly with your people, and that you have enabled us to persevere in grace,

You have comforted our hearts,
You have heard our prayers,
You have come so often to our aid.
We pray that you will go with us into this new year.

There is none of us who knows what the new year will hold, but we thank you that every moment of that year is in your hands, and you will be with your people.
We thank you that with that promise girding us, we can go forward with confidence and in your peace. We pray that you will help us to walk with you in this new year better than we have ever done before. Forgive us, Lord, for our sins and our backslidings of this past year.

Grant to us, as the days of the new year unfold, an ever closer walk with you.
Help us to put sin to death,
Help us gladly yield our lives unreservedly to Jesus Christ, our Savior, and God that we may regard ourselves entirely at his disposal to be, to go, to do, as he would wish
We pray that it may be our privilege to serve him,
to bring glory to him, to help others to know him better, and to help some, indeed, to come to know him for the first time.
Have mercy, we pray, upon those connected with us who come to the end of this year and their hearts are still closed against you, still hardening their hearts against you.

Spare them, O God, we pray; spare them! Grant that this new year would mark the beginning of new life in Jesus Christ. We are so thankful for the almighty Holy Sprit, for his limitless power
to bring conviction of sin,
to give new birth,
and to draw those who are away from you
to faith and to repentance.
We pray, Lord, that you would do that in the hearts and lives of all who are upon our hearts.
For Jesus’ sake, Amen.

(from Heart Cries to Heaven by David Campbell)

Surfeit

My Lord Jesus,
you have turned my water to wine,
whenever I lift my cup to you.

But the water jars in Cana were no cups,
but great stone cisterns
of twenty or more gallons in capacity--each.
And there were six of them.
A hundred gallons.
Maybe close to two hundred.

So I pray a Cana prayer for this coming year,
a hundred-gallon-prayer,
for you to pour into me and mine
a surfeit of Spirit,
of sweetness,
of wine,
for the manifestation of your glory, amen.

Clean Heart

Ryder

Lord, hear my prayer for this young man today,

on his eleventh--ELEVENTH!--birthday,

hard as it is to believe.

Thank you for him and his ebullient spirit,

his brilliant mind and tender heart,

and his blessedly good health.

Please continue the good, good work you began in him,

and for which I prayed at his dedication,

making him like Enoch, who walked with God;

like Gideon, who though the circumstances of his birth

were far from perfect,

who though his family was of no reputation,

though he had many disadvantages in life arrayed against him,

learned that with God even the smallest can be great;

and making him like David, the man after God's own heart,

who knew what it was not only to walk with you

not only to fight and win great battles on your behalf,

but also to dance before you.

Make it so, in this boy's life,

on today, his birthday, and every day to come.

Give him and his amazing parents and sisters

every blessing and every advantage,

in Jesus' name, amen.

Enkindled

Almighty God,
you have poured upon us
the new light
of your incarnate Word:
Grant that this light,
enkindled in our hearts,
may shine forth in our lives;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God,
now and for ever.
Amen.

The Feast Day of Your Birth

The feast day of your birth resembles You, Lord
Because it brings joy to all humanity.
Old people and infants alike enjoy Your day.
Your day is celebrated from generation to generation.
Kings and emperors may pass away,
And the festivals to commemorate them soon lapse.
But Your festival will be remembered until the end of time.
Your day is a means and a pledge of peace.
At Your birth heaven and earth were reconciled,
Since You came from heaven to earth on that day
You forgave our sins and wiped away our guilt.
You gave us so many gifts on the day of your birth:
A treasure chest of spiritual medicines for the sick;
Spiritual light for the blind;
The cup of salvation for the thirsty;
The bread of life for the hungry.
In the winter when trees are bare,
You give us the most succulent spiritual fruit.
In the frost when the earth is barren,
You bring new hope to our souls.
In December when seeds are hidden in the soil,
The staff of life springs forth from the virgin womb.

(a prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian; photo by Foundry via pixabay.com)

Day of Joy

The day of joy returns, Father in Heaven,

and crowns another year with peace and good will.

Help us rightly to remember the birth of Jesus,

that we may share in the song of the angels,

the gladness of the shepherds,

and the worship of the wisemen.

Close the doors of hate and open the doors of love all over the world.

Let kindness come with every gift

and good desires with every greeting.

Deliver us from evil, by the blessing that Christ brings,

and teach us to be merry with clean hearts.

May the Christmas morning make us happy to be your children, and the Christmas evening bring us to our bed with grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus' sake, amen.

(a prayer by Henry Van Dyke, very slightly revised; photo by JillWellington via pixabay.com)

Come, Come, Jesus, I Await You

Night has fallen; the clear, bright stars are sparkling in the cold air; noisy, strident voices rise to my ear from the city, voices of the revelers of this world who celebrate with merrymaking the poverty of their Saviour. Around me in their rooms my companions are asleep, and I am still wakeful, thinking of the mystery of Bethlehem.

Come, come, Jesus, I await you. . . .

I am a poor shepherd; I have only a wretched stable, a small manger, some wisps of straw. I offer all these to you, be pleased to come into my poor hovel. I offer you my heart; my soul is poor and bare of virtues, the straws of so many imperfections will prick you and make you weep--but oh, my Lord, what can you expect? This little is all I have. . . . I have nothing better to offer you, Jesus, honour my soul with your presence, adorn it with your graces. Burn this straw and change it into a soft couch for your most holy body.

Jesus, I am here waiting for your coming. Wicked men have driven you out, and the wind is like ice. I am a poor man, but I will warm you as well as I can. At least be pleased that I wish to welcome you warmly, to love you and sacrifice myself for you.

Amen.

(This prayer, written by a young Italian seminarian named Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli in 1902 who would later become Pope John XXIII, has become a Christmas Eve tradition for me, and for this blog).