Tuesday, March 31, 2015

A Prayer for Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Thirty-Sixth Day of Lent/Tuesday of Holy Week

O God,

Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem; help us to follow him in the way of intentionality.

Help us to be proactive in seeking to know who you would have us be and what you would have us do.

Then, armed with the best insight that we can have, help us to set our sights on the goals of being who we are and of doing what we should. Help us to pursue those goals with trust and determination.

Protect us from the delusion that it will be easy.

Give us the assurance that it will be worth it.

Amen.

Monday, March 30, 2015

A Prayer for Monday, March 30, 2015

Thirty-Fifth Day of Lent/Monday of Holy Week

O God,

As we follow Jesus through Holy Week, help us to learn more about the way that we are called to follow as we live our lives.

Help us to learn more about our individual calling and our particular path.

Help us also to learn more about the ways of living that are to characterize the life of every follower of Jesus—the ways of obedience, of faithfulness, of courage, of humility, of service, of sacrifice, of grace, of forgiveness, and of love.

Then, having learned more about the way that we are called to follow Jesus as we live our lives, help us actually to follow …

Amen.

Sunday, March 29, 2015

A Prayer for Sunday, March 29, 2015

Sixth Sunday in Lent/Palm Sunday

O God,

As we praise Jesus as our King today,
help us to praise him as
the King that he really is and not as
the King that we want him to be.

Help us to praise Jesus as the King

whose procession was marked by humility,
whose agenda was marked by service,
whose sacrifice was marked by intentionality, and
whose life was marked by love.

As his followers spread palm branches before him,
help us to spread our lives before him,
lives that are marked by his kind of
humility, service, intentionality, and love.

Amen.

Saturday, March 28, 2015

A Prayer for Saturday, March 28, 2015

Thirty-Fourth Day of Lent

O God,

Where would I be if you had not loved me in my sin and if you had not held me in my pain?

For that matter, where would I be if you did not still love me when I sin and if you did not still hold me when I hurt?

Thank you for your great love, for your great grace, and for your great mercy.

Help me to be so filled with thanksgiving for your love, grace, and mercy that I love other people in their sin and hold others in their pain.

Let my thanksgiving show itself in how I share with others what I have received from you …

Amen.

Friday, March 27, 2015

A Prayer for Friday, March 27, 2015

Thirty-Third Day of Lent

O God,

Let my repentance be not
just a turning away from sin
but also a turning
toward you and
toward others.

Let my repentance be not
just a turning away from a fear of judgment
but also a turning
toward an embrace of grace and
toward a lifestyle of love.

Let my repentance be not
just a turning away from following the wrong path
but also a turning
toward walking with you and
toward walking with others
who walk with you.

Amen.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

A Prayer for Thursday, March 26, 2015

Thirty-Second Day of Lent

O God,

We affirm that we cannot know or understand what all lies behind and plays into the decisions we make, the choices we choose, and the actions we undertake; we cannot know or be mindful of the roles that genetics, that family and social environment, that human evolution, that experience or lack of experience, or that the influence of others play in why we think what we think, feel what we feel, say what we say, or do what we do.

But we confess that, when it comes down to it, we are responsible for ourselves; we are responsible for our own attitudes, our own words, and our own actions.

So help us to be as wise as we can be when it comes to comprehending the complicated nature of our humanity; help us extend ourselves some appropriate understanding without making excuses for ourselves.

But also help us to be as brave as we can be when it comes to accepting our responsibility; help us to acknowledge our fault and to confess our sins without becoming mired in guilt.

Thank you that you know everything about who we are and about why we do the things we do.

Thank you that you judge us through eyes that see us through your grace and love.

Amen.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

A Prayer for Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Thirty-First Day of Lent

O God,

Thank you for the clean water we have to drink;
forgive us for not caring about those who do not have clean water to drink.

Thank you for the abundant food we have to eat;
forgive us for not caring about those who do not have adequate food to eat.

Thank you for the safe and adequate housing in which we live;
forgive us for not caring about those who do not have safe and adequate housing.

Thank you for the health care to which we have access;
forgive us for not caring about those who do not have access to health care.

Thank you for the stable society in which we participate;
forgive us for not caring about those who do not live in a stable society.

Thank you for the assumption of innocence under which we live;
forgive us for not caring about those who live under an assumption of guilt.

Thank you for the freedoms of religion and expression under which we live;
forgive us for not caring about those who do not have the freedoms of religion and expression.

Thank you for the opportunities of improvement and advancement that we enjoy;
forgive us for not caring about those who do not have the opportunity to improve and to advance.

Thank you for all the blessings that we have;
forgive us for not wanting everybody else to have such blessings.

Amen.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

A Prayer for Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Thirtieth Day of Lent

O God,

Remove from me anything that stands in the way of my loving you with my entire being and of my loving my neighbor as I love myself.

Take away anything in my thoughts, in my motives, in my attitudes, in my emotions, in my words, and in my actions that interferes with my ability to love you and to love others.

But don’t just take away anything that stands in the way of love; fill me up with everything that opens up the way to love.

Fill me with understanding, with empathy, and with compassion. Fill me with a desire to serve, to help, and to give. Fill me with grace, with mercy, with hope, and with peace.

Fill me so full of the things that make for love that there is no room left for the things that stand in its way.

Amen.

Monday, March 23, 2015

A Prayer for Monday, March 23, 2015

Twenty-Ninth Day of Lent

O God,

We tend

to count our problems
and
to count our sins
and
to come up with numbers
that seem unmanageable.

Help us to remember that

were we to try to count the ways
in which you show grace
and display mercy to us
the totals would be incalculable.

Remind us that our problems and sins
are no match for your grace and mercy.

Amen.

Sunday, March 22, 2015

A Prayer for Sunday, March 22, 2015

Fifth Sunday in Lent

O God,

Remind us today

that while weeping endures for a night,
joy comes in the morning.

Remind us

that while confessing our sins is difficult,
experiencing your forgiveness is wonderful;

that while mourning our failures is painful,
experiencing your peace is magnificent;

that while lamenting our losses is hurtful,
experiencing your comfort is restorative;

and

that while accepting our mortality is challenging,
experiencing your eternal life is amazing.

Remind us today

that while weeping endures for a night,
joy comes in the morning.

Amen.

Saturday, March 21, 2015

A Prayer for Saturday, March 21, 2015

Twenty-Eighth Day of Lent

O God,

As we acknowledge and confess our sins,
help us never to forget that nothing can
separate us from your love for us.

Amen.

Friday, March 20, 2015

A Prayer for Friday, March 20, 2015

Twenty-Seventh Day of Lent

O God,

Forgive me for settling

for less than I can by your grace be and
for less than I can through your Spirit do.

Forgive me

for the things I do that I should not do,
for the things I do not do that I should do,
for the things I should do in moderation that I do to excess, and
for the things I should do to excess that I do in moderation.

Forgive me

for the unexamined assumptions that I perpetuate,
for the inappropriate judgments that I pass,
for the irrational fears that I nurture, and
for the unworthy motives that I tolerate.

Forgive me

for treating people as objects rather than as human beings,
for treating your creation with carelessness rather than with respect,
for approaching other cultures with arrogance rather than with openness, and
for approaching life’s questions with pat answers rather than with humble searching.

Forgive me

for responding to your love with anything less than love,
for giving my devotion to anything less than you,
for living this life with anything less than gratitude, and
for looking to the future with anything less than hope.

Forgive me

for accepting despair over trust,
for accepting apathy over compassion,
for accepting stagnation over progress, and
for accepting ignorance over knowledge.

Forgive me for settling

for less than I can by your grace be and
for less than I can through your Spirit do.

Amen.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

A Prayer for Thursday, March 19, 2015

Twenty-Sixth Day of Lent

O God,

Lead us to repent of our hate of, of our disdain for, and of our apathy toward other people. Forgive us for the negative attitudes we have toward some individuals and toward some groups. Forgive us for the ways in which we sometimes think of people in impersonal categories rather than as human beings.

Do not, though, just lessen or even remove such negative and destructive thinking and acting from our lives.

Instead, fill us up with love and compassion so that we will see and treat others as fellow human beings, as fellow travelers, as fellow strugglers, and as fellow recipients of your grace.

Amen.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

A Prayer for Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Twenty-Fifth Day of Lent

O God,

Increase our love.

Don’t let us treat repentance as just a turning away from the negative and destructive motives, attitudes, and actions in our lives.

Help us rather to enact our repentance by turning toward positive and constructive motives, attitudes, and actions.

Fill us up with your love; make us so full of your love that there will be less and less room available in us for anything that is not love.

Let our repentance be at its heart an increased openness to and living out of your love.

Amen.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

A Prayer for Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Twenty-Fourth Day of Lent

O God,

Forgive us for how we too often fail

to remember that you are,
to keep you in mind, and
to pray to you without ceasing.

Help us in every moment of every day

to celebrate your presence,
to take you into account, and
to maintain a constant conversation with you.

Amen.

Monday, March 16, 2015

A Prayer for Monday, March 16, 2015

Twenty-Third Day of Lent

O God,

Let our repentance be demonstrated neither
in unproductive sorrow nor in paralyzing guilt

but rather in a life that is being changed
by your grace and by your Spirit

into a life marked by ever-increasing
love, mercy, kindness, and humility.

Amen

Sunday, March 15, 2015

A Prayer for Sunday, March 15, 2015

Fourth Sunday in Lent

O God,

When

our sins,
our suffering,
our problems,
our crises, or
our fears

make us feel like
we are dying,

remind us that in Christ

we have been raised,
we are being raised, and
we will be raised

so that we will be inspired

to get up and
to keep moving.

Amen.

Saturday, March 14, 2015

A Prayer for Saturday, March 14, 2015

Twenty-Second Day of Lent

O God,

For the marks on my body, on my mind, and on my spirit that are the traces of what I have done, of who I have been, and of how I came to be who I am now, I thank you.

For the marks on my body, on my mind, and on my spirit that I will pick up today and in days to come as I continue to grow into who I am supposed to be, I thank you.

For the marks on my body, on my mind, and on my spirit that remind me of the blessing of being born human and of the struggle to become fully human, I thank you.

Let my thanksgiving be reminder enough to me not to try to avoid or to flee those struggles that leave their mark since it is in and through them that you work to mold me into the person you mean for me to be …

Amen.

Friday, March 13, 2015

A Prayer for Friday, March 13, 2015

Twenty-First Day of Lent

O God,

We are so grateful for your love, grace, and mercy that lead you to forgive us for the sins we have committed against you.

Help us to show our gratitude by sharing your love, grace, and mercy with others by forgiving them the ways in which they have hurt us. Help us to grow in your love, grace, and mercy so that we can grow in our willingness and in our ability to forgive.

Let us grow in our experience of your love, grace, and mercy so much that forgiveness becomes what we want to do rather than what we have to do.

Amen.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

A Prayer for Thursday, March 12, 2015

Twentieth Day of Lent

O God,

Forgive us for the inappropriate and unhealthy ways that we sometimes deal with our sins.

Forgive us for comparing our lives to other people’s lives. Sometimes we tell ourselves, “Well, at least I’m not as bad as she is” or “Well, at least my sins are not as bad as his are.” In adopting such a perspective we fall prey to pride and to rationalization. Help us to move away from such an approach to our sins.

Forgive us for comparing our lives to an unattainable standard. Sometimes we tell ourselves, “I can never be as good as God expects me to be” or “I can never be truly Christ-like.” In adopting such a perspective we fall prey to excuse-making and to discouragement. Help us to move away from such an approach to our sins.

Forgive us for staking our lives on our reputation. Sometimes we tell ourselves, “I am well thought of and respected and so I am good” or “When people look at me they are impressed and therefore I am impressive.” In adopting such an attitude we fall prey to hypocrisy and to posturing. Help us to move away from such an approach to our sins.

Help us to be honest with ourselves and with you about our sins.
Help us to confess and to turn away from our sins.
Help us to ask you to make us into the best version of ourselves that we can be.
Help us to examine and to deal with the state of our heart and spirit.
Help us to grow into greater and greater integrity.
Help us to become more and more aware of and grateful for your grace.

Amen.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

A Prayer for Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Nineteenth Day of Lent

O God,

Help me to take my life seriously. Increase my understanding of how my awareness of the connection of my life with your life raises the stakes. Lead me to live in light of the great privilege and responsibility I have to tend to my spirit so that I stay in close contact with you and so that my motives become ever more aligned with your will and way. Lead me to live in light of the great privilege and responsibility I have to watch over my actions so that they show that I put loving you and loving others ahead of everything else.

But help me not to take my life too seriously. Keep me always aware that everything—absolutely everything—begins with your grace; help me always to remember that I am who I am and that I have the opportunity to live the life I live by your grace and only by your grace. Teach me to ask you for your help and then to accept that help. When I fall down, help me to get up. When I fail, help me to try again. Deliver me from frustration; deliver me from pride. Increase my ability to laugh at myself.

Thank you for this wonderful life. Help me to lighten up while I carry this heavy load …

Amen.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

A Prayer for Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Eighteenth Day of Lent

O God,

Help us to remember what the present is for.

Help us to remember that the present is

for living fully in the moment,
for giving our full attention to the person in front of us,
for loving you with our entire being,
for loving our neighbor as ourselves,
for doing what we can to make things better,
for recognizing the beauty all around us,
for growing toward who we are meant to be,
for paying attention to what each moment teaches us,
and
for living in light of your grace and mercy.

Help us to remember that the present is not

for living in the past,
for obsessing over the future,
for holding grudges,
for pretending superiority,
for presuming privilege,
for fretting and fearing,
for whining and complaining,
for wallowing in guilt, or
for giving up.

Help us to remember that this moment is
the only one we know for sure we have.

Help us to make the most of it …

Amen.

Monday, March 9, 2015

A Prayer for Monday, March 9, 2015

Seventeenth Day of Lent

O God,

Help us to remember what the future is for.

Help us to remember that the future is there to give us hope—hope that we will grow in our knowledge of you until one day we will know you as fully as we can, hope that we will grow beyond our sin and guilt and into a full embrace of your mercy and forgiveness, and hope that we will live more and more in love until someday love is all there is.

Help us also to remember what the future is not for.

Help us to remember that the future is not there to give us an excuse—an excuse not to do all we can do now to help make things better because things are never going to be as good now as they will be someday, an excuse not to undertake the hard work of spiritual transformation because one day we will be instantly transformed, or an excuse not to pay attention to what is happening now because we are too busy speculating about what will happen then.

Thank you that the future gives us hope that you are indeed working your purposes out and that one day you will make things as they ought to be.

Thank you that we have the privilege of being inspired by that future to do all that we can now …

Amen.

Sunday, March 8, 2015

A Prayer for Sunday, March 8, 2015

Third Sunday in Lent

O God,

We praise you because one day you raised Jesus Christ from the dead—and he still lives!

We praise you also because you will one day raise us from the dead—and we will always live!

We praise you also because you in these days raise us from those situations that feel like death—and we still live! We praise you because you raise us from our sin, from our disappointment, from our disillusionment, from our grief, and from our sorrow.

We praise you because you are God not of the dead but of the living and because in Christ we are among the living …

Amen.

Saturday, March 7, 2015

A Prayer for Saturday, March 7, 2015

Sixteenth Day of Lent

O God,

Help us remember what the past is for.

Help us remember that the past is

for the mistakes from which we have learned our lessons and which we have otherwise put behind us,
for the sins of which we have repented and for which you have forgiven us,
for the hurts that we have inflicted on others and that we have done our best to make right,
for the hurts that have been inflicted on us and for which we have forgiven the inflictors, and
for the grace and mercy that got us through it and that brought us to this point.

Help us remember what the past isn’t for.

Help us to remember that the past isn't

for trying to live in,
for going back to in order to beat ourselves up,
for wishing we could change it,
for reconstructing so as to deny our responsibility,
for using as an excuse not to be who we should be now, and
for finding reasons to hold a grudge

Help us to make constructive and not destructive use of our past …

Amen.

Friday, March 6, 2015

A Prayer for Friday, March 6, 2015

Fifteenth Day of Lent

O God,

There is so much in life of which we can’t be sure. That’s all right because evidently we are able to function with a good deal of uncertainty.

Help us, though, to be sure of your forgiveness; help us to be sure of your grace and mercy so that we can be sure that you have forgiven us and will forgive us.

There are doubts we can live with. But when doubts arise about whether your grace and mercy are enough to lead you to forgive us, help them to be quickly quashed so that we can live freely and fully as the forgiven sinners that we are.

Let us always be sure of your forgiveness.
Let us always be inspired by your forgiveness.
Let us always be grateful for your forgiveness.

Amen.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

A Prayer for Thursday, March 5, 2015

Fourteenth Day of Lent

O God,

Help us to drop the act.

Help us to come before you without our pretending and without our pretensions; help us to come before you with full awareness and acceptance of who we are. Help us to come before you acknowledging and confessing that you know exactly who we are and that there is thus no reason for us to pose as someone else.

Help us to come before you knowing that you love and accept us as we are. Help us to come before you knowing that you can and will guide us toward becoming the best version of ourselves that we can be. Help us to come before you ready for honest confession of our sins, for full forgiveness by your grace, and for an altered perspective on how to live our lives.

Amen.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

A Prayer for Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Thirteenth Day of Lent

O God,

On the one hand, don’t let our repentance show. Don’t let us walk around with a frowning face and a dismal attitude as if to say to the world, “Look at me! I’m repenting! I’m spiritual!” Don’t let us engage in repentance in order to be seen by people. Instead, let our repentance be between you and us.

On the other hand, let our repentance show. Let it show in a positive change in our motives, in our attitudes, in our perspectives, and in our actions. Let it show in the ways that we behave toward you, toward others, and toward ourselves. Let our repentance be between us and everyone and everything that we encounter.

Amen.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

A Prayer for Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Twelfth Day of Lent

O God,

Cause a spirt of forgiveness to grow in me.

Give me an ever-expanding ability and willingness to accept your forgiveness of me, to extend forgiveness to others, and to apply forgiveness to myself.

Let your forgiveness fill me more and more so that my forgiveness of others and of myself becomes what I want to do and not what I have to do.

Let your grace and mercy fill me more and more so that your grace and mercy become my grace and mercy.

Amen.

Monday, March 2, 2015

A Prayer for Monday, March 2, 2015

Eleventh Day of Lent

O God,

In our struggles

between self-loathing and self-acceptance,
between apathy and compassion,
between fear and trust,
between hopelessness and hope,
between greed and generosity,
between self-preservation and sacrifice,
between aimlessness and purpose,
between condemnation and mercy, and
between narrow-mindedness and broad-mindedness,

let your ways win.

Amen.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

A Prayer for Sunday, March 1, 2015

Second Sunday in Lent

O God,

We celebrate today because

beyond repentance lies forgiveness,
beyond sin lies grace,
beyond guilt lies mercy,
beyond alienation lies restoration,
beyond despair lies hope,
beyond fasting lies feasting,
and
beyond death lies life.

We celebrate all those truths today because
beyond Jesus’s crucifixion lies Jesus’s resurrection.

Help us to celebrate well …

Amen.