Old Prayer for a New Series

Lord God Adonai, tomorrow we start the new series, "God's iPod," at Cobblestone. I praise you for the honor of being your messenger in the morning. Please prepare me and bless my preparation. Please flow through me, and use me, and use your people's attentive listening to bring glory to yourself and change to us all.

Please make tomorrow's worship a pleasing sacrifice to you, and mightily use your servants the worship team in leading the saints to the very throne of God. Let the Levites--our welcome center team and greeters and ushers and prayer partners and coffee team, and more--bring joy to your heart. Please anoint every message in this series, and each of us who speak, to accomplish your good, perfect, and pleasing will in all of us. Please draw us closer to you. Take us to a new level of submission and obedience and relationship with you. Show yourself in all your "exceeding abundantly" power, in Jesus' name, amen.

A Psalm of Awakening

Lord I want to die
in my sleep
I want to go to bed
and be awakened
by you
saying
Get up son
it's the first day of school
the beginning of your new job
the dawn of eternity.
Here are your clothes.
Your older brother
wore them first
now they're yours
forever
white and fresh and clean
smelling of heaven.

(from Joseph Bayly's Psalms of My Life, p. 32)

Commit Anew

Abba, I commit anew today to you,
to your Word,
to your way of doing things.
I await on the counsel
of your Holy Spirit,
in Jesus' name, amen.

Collect for Creation

Almighty God, in giving us dominion over things on earth, you made us fellow workers in your creation: Give us wisdom and reverence so to use the resources of nature, that no one may suffer from our abuse of them, and that generations yet to come may continue to praise you for your bounty; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer for My Daughter on Her Birthday

To borrow a phrase from Yeats, Lord,
you have made her a flourishing hidden tree
,
and granted her beauty and courtesy,
and kindness and charm and wisdom.

I give you praise and thanks for my only daughter,
my firstborn, my Blossom;
for the child you gave me,
for the woman she grew into,
for the love we share,
for the pride and joy I feel in her,
for the blessings you've given her,
and the blessings you've given me through her.

Please bless her today and in the days to come, Lord.
Keep her safe and well.
Keep the baby in her womb safe and well.
Keep her marriage strong and beautiful.
Prosper her and her husband,
answer their prayers,
supply their needs.

Show her every kindness,
grant her your favor,
in Jesus' name, amen.

Prayerlessness

A Prayer of C. S. Lewis

He whom I bow to only knows to whom I bow
When I attempt the ineffable Name, murmuring Thou,
And dream of Pheidian fancies and embrace in heart
Symbols (I know) which cannot be the thing thou art.
Thus always, taken at their word, all prayers blaspheme
Worshiping with frail images a folk-lore dream,
And all men in their praying, self-deceived, address
The coinage of their own unquiet thoughts, unless
Thou in magnetic mercy to thyself divert
Our arrows aimed unskillfully, beyond desert;
And all men are idolaters, crying unheard
To a deaf idol, if thou take them at their word.

Take not, O Lord, our literal sense. Lord, in thy great,
Unbroken speech our limping metaphor translate.

(C.S. Lewis, 1898 - 1963)

Not Going to Wait

Dear God,

I want to thank you for what you have already done. I am not going to wait until I see results or receive rewards. I am thanking you right now.

I am not going to wait until I feel better or things look better. I am not going to wait until the pain in my body disappears. I am thanking you right now.

I am not going to wait until people say they are sorry or until they stop talking about me behind my back. I am not going to wait until my financial situation or the economy improves. I am thanking you right now.

I am not going to wait until the children are asleep and the house is quiet. I am not going to wait until a different season in my life unfolds. I am thanking you right now.

I am not going to wait until I understand every experience in my life that has caused me pain or grief. I am not going to wait until the journey gets easier or the challenges are removed. I am thanking you right now.

I am thanking you because I am alive. I am thanking you because I made it through the day’s difficulties. I am thanking you because I have walked around the obstacles. I am thanking you because I have the ability and the opportunity to do more and do better. I’m thanking you, Heavenly Father, because you haven’t given up on me. You are good and you are good all the time.

Thank you for all the good you’ve done for me. Amen.

(from Donna Partow's website)

Strengthen

My Psalm 101

Lord, let the soundtrack of my life
be filled with songs about your love and justice;
let my theme song be filled with your praise.

By your grace, make me careful to lead a blameless life.
Make me patient in waiting for you to show yourself.
Let my housecoat be a blameless heart.

By your grace, help me shield my eyes from anything vile.
Help me steer clear of faithless friends
and corrupting companions.

By your grace, I will have nothing to do with evil.
I will not listen to gossip and slander;
I will not excuse arrogance.

By your grace, I will look for godly companions and counselors
to walk with me
and minister to me.

By your grace, I will learn to recognize
and avoid all those who traffic in lies
and stir up conflict and dissension.

By your grace, I will turn a deaf ear to wickedness
and live and lead without their interference.

(The illustration is Psalms 101 and 102 from a 13th century Psalter created by monks in France)

Let Me Suck

Lord, let me suck
all the marrow out of this day.
Grant that I may drain
every last drop of enjoyment
and effectiveness from it,
in Jesus' name, amen.

Teach Me

Lord, teach me to pray.
I confess that even after all these years,
even after you have so thoroughly
transformed my prayer life in recent years,
I still need to learn from you.
Teach me to pray.
Teach me to dive into you.
Teach me to practice your presence.
Teach me to experience you in prayer.
Teach me to unite with you in prayer.
Teach me to follow you in prayer,
in Jesus' name, amen.

Temper My Dysfunctions

Abba, please temper my dysfunctions,
cleanse me from sin,
and heal any hurts
that may impede my worshipful submission
to you, in Jesus' name, amen.

Infant Prayer

Abba, why do I ever doubt you? Neglect you? Wander from you? I am like a child--Mia reminds me--who knows that all is not well, who feels a lack, an emptiness, a pain, a hunger, or a thirst, and yet has not skill enough to say--perhaps not even to know--"I thirst!" But I do, and when I drink of you, when I at last come to you and take Living Water, my food and drink, I am satisfied, and I marvel that I did not come sooner, that I could not diagnose my own condition. Have mercy on me, Lord, that I will in the future be not an infant but AT LEAST mature enough to know that "all my springs are in you." Amen.

Expose/Exalt

Another Twitturgies Prayer

Hold me God in the grip of grace.
Fold into me forgiveness; freedom.
Keep me.
Craft me.
I know I'll grow if you don't let go.

(from http://twitter.com/twitturgies)

Garden Prayer

I Used to Pray

Abba, I used to pray because
I wanted stuff:
a job,
a contract,
a victory,
a specific need to be filled,
or a desire to be met.

I used to pray because
I was supposed to:
as a Christ-follower,
but especially as a pastor,
a leader in your church.

I used to pray because
I was afraid of what would happen
if I didn't pray:
I would surely fail,
something would go wrong,
someone might leave,
someone could die.

I still have the remnants
of those reasons.
I still operate
sometimes
in those modes.

But more and more these days
I pray
like I breathe.
I must.
It is life.
It is the one thing that is needful.
I can do no other,
because I am lost without you,
I must have you,
I must hold on to you,
I must
I must
I must.

All my springs are in you.
I pray to survive.
I pray to live.
I pray to be.

God alone sufficeth.

A Prayer in Autumn

Good and generous Lord, You have once more brought the year full circle, through planting and growing and ripening to harvest time, and autumn.

We thank You for the sun and the wind, the rain and the dew, the minerals of the earth and all the plants that grow and all the beasts and birds of farm and field. We marvel at Your wonderful ways of bringing food from the earth for man’s good.

Dear God, help us to use Your rich gifts as You want us to. Teach us to share them with our neighbor when he is in need. Make us see, in the marvelous succession of seasons, and in the growth and ripening of our crops, the merciful, generous hand of Your divine providence.

Help us to realize, too, that if we keep Your commandments and live according to the inspirations of Your grace, we shall also reap a plentiful harvest in the autumn of our lifetime: a harvest that we will be able to enjoy for ever and ever, where no rust can destroy, nor blight spoil any least part of it. Amen.

(from the National Catholic Rural Life Conference)

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