Friday, November 30, 2012

A Prayer for Friday, November 30, 2012

Life

Life is a journey, not a destination.

Still, O God, there are stops all along the way and many of those stops are significant.

While our hope keeps us looking ahead to where we will one day be, remind us to pay attention to the place in which we are and to those with whom we are on this day. Above all, remind us to pay full attention to your presence wherever we are and whatever we are doing.

We thank you for the journey that is our life; we thank you also for the stops all along the way.

Amen.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

A Prayer for Thursday, November 29, 2012

Crises

Someone defined a crisis as an event after which things will never be the same; a crisis can therefore be a positive or negative event since either kind can change the course of a life.

Prepare us as well as we can be prepared, O God, for whatever crises we will encounter today.

Help us to keep our eyes open so that we don’t miss the crises that will confront us, especially given that seemingly small events can wind up having a big effect.

Enable us to be willing to accept and to work with whatever changes we experience as the result of our crises and always to seek to know how you are working your will out in whatever we go through.

In all things, let our trust in you grow deeper and deeper.

Amen.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

A Prayer for Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Well

O God,

Make us always mindful of the great truth that, by your grace and according to your purpose, all will be well for all of your creation someday.

Make us always mindful also of the great truth that, by your grace and according to your purpose, all can be well for all of us this day.

Make us always mindful that you, who can and will in the future bring peace to everything, can and will also bring peace in the present to our hearts.

Amen.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

A Prayer for Tuesday, November 27, 2012

People

O God,

Most of us will encounter people today; some of us will encounter one or two people and others of us will encounter hundreds of them. We will encounter some people in passing; we will barely notice some; we will speak briefly to some; we will engage in deep conversation with others.

Some of our encounters will be positive experiences; some will not be.

Help us, insofar as it is possible for us, to encounter people as they really are and not as they present themselves to be and not as we judge them to be.

Help us, guided by your Spirit, to see the people we encounter as you see them and to love them as you love them.

And help us to be reflective and self-aware enough to be who we really are as we encounter and deal with other people.

Amen.

Monday, November 26, 2012

A Prayer for Monday, November 26, 2012

Meantime

O God,

We have just celebrated Thanksgiving, a time when we give thanks to you for all that you have done.

We are about to celebrate Advent, a time when we look forward to all that you will do.

Here in this week between, in this meantime, remind us to practice paying attention to, giving thanks for, and looking for ways we can participate in, what you are doing right now.

Amen.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

A Prayer for Sunday, November 25, 2012

The Lord’s Day

O God,

As we today worship the One who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, may we again crown him King of our lives.

As we leave our time of worship and go out to live our lives, may the way that we live them demonstrate our loyalty and obedience to him.

Amen.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

A Prayer for Saturday, November 24, 2012

Saturday Thanksgiving

O God,

Thank you for the great blessing of knowing and following Jesus Christ every day of our lives; thank you also for those who follow along with us, whether they are known or unknown to us.

Amen.

Friday, November 23, 2012

A Prayer for Friday, November 23, 2012

Friday Thanksgiving

O God,

Thank you for this beautiful world in which we live; thank you also for the opportunity of doing what we can to preserve that beauty for future generations.

Amen.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

A Prayer for Thursday, November 22, 2012

Thursday Thanksgiving

O God,

Thank you for your great grace that causes you to love us just as we are; thank you also for the way that your great grace nudges us to love others just as they are.

Amen.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

A Prayer for Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Wednesday Thanksgiving

O God,

Thank you for families of faith with which we can worship you, with which we can share sorrow and joy, and with which we can bear witness to Jesus Christ in our community; thank you also for the privilege of being your people in the world so that we can share the love, mercy, peace, and grace of God with people in need of those blessings.

Amen.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

A Prayer for Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Tuesday Thanksgiving

O God,

Thank you for good food to eat, for clean water to drink, and for access to good health care; thank you also for those who are working to make those necessities available to people who don’t have them and for the opportunity to help those who are trying to help.

Amen.

Monday, November 19, 2012

A Prayer for Monday, November 19, 2012

Monday Thanksgiving

O God,

Thank you for our families that love, encourage, and inspire us; thank you also for the opportunity to be a friend to those who have little or no family or who are estranged from their family.

Thank you for blessing our families; cause us to be a blessing to other families.

Amen.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

A Prayer for Sunday, November 18, 2012

The Lord’s Day

O God,

May we in our worship today give thanks to you with all that we are for all that you are and may our acts of worship today inspire us to constant thanksgiving in the week to come.

Amen.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

A Prayer for Saturday, November 17, 2012

Cool

We thank you, O God, for the refreshingly cool weather that autumn brings with it.

Help us, O God, to be cool in the sense of being calm and peaceful deep in our spirits no matter what is going on around us.

But help us also, O God, not to be cool in the sense of not caring about what is going on around us; help us rather to care a lot so that we will be inspired to do what we can to help.

Amen.

Friday, November 16, 2012

A Prayer for Friday, November 16, 2012

Quiet

O God,

Create a still and quiet place deep within me where I am in constant deep communion with you.

From that still and quiet place help me to pay full attention to all the noise and activity that go on around me in the world. Then, out of the strength and peace I find in that still and quiet place, lead me to be involved as I should be involved, to help as I should help, and to work as I should work.

Then, lead me to take the people that I encounter back to that still and quiet place with me so that I might pray for them.

And so on and so on, every day and all the time.

Amen.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

A Prayer for Thursday, November 15, 2012

Toward

O God,

Today and every day, move me a little more toward…

…your love being my love,
…your grace being my grace,
…your will being my will, and
…your life being my life.

Amen.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

A Prayer for Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Walk

Thank you, Jesus, for the privilege of walking behind you; help us by our following of you to learn well what it means to be God’s beloved child.

Thank you, Jesus, for the privilege of walking beside you; help us through your accompanying us to experience fully what it is to share in your life and to have you share in ours.

Help us, Jesus, not to try to walk ahead of you; help us not to seek our own way or to go in directions where we would lose sight of you. And when we do, please pull us back quickly.

Amen.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

A Prayer for Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Sanctuary

O God,

Over time, as we intentionally and regularly spend time with you, build deep within our souls a sanctuary, a place to which we can constantly retreat and in which we can always find stillness, calmness, and wholeness—a place in which we can always find peace.

Let that sanctuary be a place from which we go out to live our lives in the world and in relation to others in a state of constant compassion, giving, service, and sacrifice—in a state of constant love.

Amen.

Monday, November 12, 2012

A Prayer for Monday, November 12, 2012

Future

At the beginning of a week we tend to look ahead, trying to anticipate what is to come.

At any point in our life we tend to do the same thing.

O God, guide us in our planning but guard us from assuming; help us to anticipate and to prepare for what we think is coming but keep us from thinking and living as if we know what is coming. Give us humility when it comes to our knowledge of the future but confidence when it comes to your purposes for the future. Help us to use our brains but to trust in your wisdom.

Help us to leave our future—and the future of the universe—in your gracious and mighty hands, even as we try to do our little part in your purpose.

Amen.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

A Prayer for Sunday, November 11, 2012

The Lord’s Day

As we worship you today, O God, teach us of the sure reality of your presence in ways that will cause us to be aware and certain of it in all the seasons and events of our lives.

Amen.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

A Prayer for Saturday, November 10, 2012

Reflect

The last day of the week offers the opportunity to reflect on the events of the week, on our responsibility for them, and on our reactions to them.

Thank you, Lord, for your grace that always sustained us, for your love that always inspired us, and for your Spirit that never left us.

Forgive us, Lord, for the things we did that we should not have done and for the things we did not do that we should have done.

Show us, Lord, how to improve on the things that we did well and how to do differently the things we did wrong.

Help us, Lord, to realize how you were involved in all of it so that we will remember in the coming week to look for you in all of it.

Amen.

Friday, November 9, 2012

A Prayer for Friday, November 9, 2012

Present

O God,

Our past is behind us; our future is ahead of us. So in a very real sense, today is the only day we have; in fact, this moment is all that we really and truly have.

Help us, then, to live fully in the present, to live fully in the moment that we have. Help us to be grateful for each breath that we take, for each thought that we think, for each blink that our eyes blink, for each beat that our heart beats and for each insight that our mind has.

Help us to live fully in the present, to live fully in the moment that we have. Help us to listen carefully to the person talking with us, to work attentively on the task in front of us, to think clearly about the situation confronting us, and to care deeply about the people around us.

Help us, in other words, to be fully present in the present.

And keep us ever mindful that you are also fully present in our present.

Amen.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

A Prayer for Thursday, November 8, 2012

Your

O God,

Your will be my will.
Your love be my love.
Your grace be my grace.
Your way be my way.
Your life be my life.

Amen.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

A Prayer for Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Past

O God, we all have a past; our past is everything that has happened to, in, through, and around us up to this point.

Of some of our past we are happily aware and of some of it we are sadly aware; some of it we celebrate and some of it we regret; some of it we remember and some of it we have forgotten; of some of it we were and are aware and of some of it we were and are unaware.

On the one hand, help us to accept, to appreciate, and to learn from our past.

On the other hand, help us not to be paralyzed by, to be drawn toward, or to try to live in our past.

Help us to give our past over to you since you, the Eternal One who lives outside of time, are the only One who can do anything with it, anyway.

Amen.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

A Prayer for Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Choose

It is Election Day in the United States; today we will choose the ones who will serve as our leaders for the next few years.

Help us, O God, to choose wisely.

There is a sense in which we have no choice as to who our true and ultimate ruler is; you are, after all, O God, the only God whether or not we acknowledge that fact.

Yet you in your grace give us freedom to choose whether or not we will acknowledge you, whether or not we will love you, and whether or not we will serve you.

You give us the terrible freedom to choose between gain and loss, between peace and chaos, and between life and death.

Help us, O God, to choose wisely.

Amen.

Monday, November 5, 2012

A Prayer for Monday, November 5, 2012

Renew

In a sense, a new week brings a new beginning; we have, after all, never had this week, this day, this moment, before.

In another sense, though, a new week brings more of the same; we do, after all, have our ongoing responsibilities and our routines.

O God, renew in us a commitment to live fully in the routine of the week and to deal fully with our regular commitments.

At the same time, renew in us an alertness to the different and new possibilities that lie ahead of us this week.

Renew in us, O God, the ability and willingness to live full, open, and vulnerable lives as we journey through this new week.

Amen.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

A Prayer for Sunday, November 4, 2012

The Lord’s Day

As we worship you today, O God, help us to focus all of our attention on loving you, praising you, and serving you; cause our time of worship to be valuable in its own right and also valuable as practice and preparation for our loving, praising, and serving you in all the moments of our lives.

Amen.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

A Prayer for Saturday, November 3, 2012

Saturday

Saturday can serve at least three purposes.

First, it can serve as a day of rest, recovery, and restoration.

Second, it can serve as a day of running errands and of doing chores around the house and yard.

Third, it can serve as a day of preparation for the Lord’s Day that is coming up on the next day.

Help us, O Lord, to make good use of our Saturday opportunities to love you and to love ourselves.

Amen.

Friday, November 2, 2012

A Prayer for Friday, November 2, 2012

Friday

Friday is the day on which many of us finish up some of what we’ve been working on all week and the day on which we walk away from what is yet unfinished. It is the end of the work week. It is Weekend Eve.

Lord, while it is understandable that we look forward to Friday, forgive us if we have wasted time and lost opportunities this week because we were looking ahead instead of living in the moment.

Lord, thank you for what we have been able by your grace and by our efforts to accomplish this week.

Lord, help us to hand our unfinished tasks over to you and to return to them next week with renewed commitment and with fresh perspective.

And Lord, most of us could probably use a little fun and relaxation tonight and this weekend. Let it be.

Amen.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

A Prayer for Thursday, November 1, 2012

Thursday

Thursday tends to be a nondescript day; it is not the first day of the week, it is not the middle day, and it is not the last day—it just kind of sits there between Wednesday and Friday, like it is waiting for something to happen.

And yet, O God, we know that you are present in the ordinariness of Thursday; we know that you are God in the regular and predictable as well as in the extraordinary and the unpredictable.

So cause us to look for you today; cause us to be mindful of your presence and of your guidance even in the routine of Thursday.

Besides, since you are in it, this Thursday just may turn out to be anything but routine…

Amen.