The Rock From Which I Am Cut

I look to You, my Lord, my present help and powerful allie. You are the rock from which I am cut, the mine from which I was quarried. I warm myself here in Your light. What a joy it is to experience these sacred moments.

I am reminded again today that my people experience little to no peace because they don’t experience You. We try to warm ourselves by our own fires and feel chilled to the bone.

Yet every morning You call me, every morning You welcome me in. You are patient and kind and always, yes unfailingly, ready to encourage me, forgive me, build me, teach me. You give me the strength to offer myself to my community to do what they will with me. I will stand in Your presence with a clean heart, and I will pour myself out to those I serve with humility and compassion. Who can harm me? What is the worse they can do?

Yeah, I know. I could get so much uglier. But I know who You are, and I know what lies ahead. How can death ever be a threat to one who has such glorious hope on the other side of it. I live now… a LIVING life, not a dying one… and I live in You beyond all time.

These words I pray, echoing what I’ve been reading today in Isaiah 50+, give me such strength and courage. Thank You for Your Word, thank You for Your peace, thank You for your steadfastness. Even as the world churns and whirls, You are still God, Your hands are still big, Your presence is still palatable.

I pray for this peace for my community. Let it leak out and bless this region, this country, and why stop there? I pray for this contentment and assurance for my people, this community You have given me to serve in these days. Let Your glory rise.

I pray for Your righteousness to encourage the hearts of believers who are struggling just to stand. I pray for the ones crumpled on the floor in distress. I pray the ones who sit in silence, head bowed, heart broken. Oh, my God, teach us anew of Your righteousness, Your sufficiency (in fact, more than enough), and Your peace in the storm.

Today, empower me afresh by Your Word and by Your ways that I might be a strong goer and a dreaming doer. Put me to work at this, make me a blessing to my community.

And now, to spend these beautiful moments unloading some burdens for myself, and my wonderful people. Glory to You, my King. Thank You for being our Emmanuel.

 

 

 

 

 

For Worry Warts and Negative Natterers

(Somewhere along the line I learned of former Vice President Spiro Agnew’s famous phrase, “Nattering nabobs of negativism.”  I love a good turn of words, and this one has stuck with me; a description of those whose talk is continuously occupied by the negative.  Sadly, I’ve lived into that phrase at times in my life.  My Advent thoughts this year are driving me away from such preoccupations and into joy that lasts the day.  I hope you are on that journey as well.)

My soul magnifies You, my Lord!  What a day of joy…  despite slippery snow and tension headaches, joy cannot be contained.  Glory to You, my King, for what You have done, what You are doing, and what You will accomplish.

I pray that joy will inhabit every household of this community yet this year.  Let Your glory rise and hope be multiplied.

Even in the words of those without hope, or those rejecting hope, I see a deep, deep longing.  I feel the void that only You can fill.  Come, now, Emmanuel, bring light and knowledge and healing.

Of all the things that I sense we need to grasp, tenderhearted mercy and kindness seems to be among the most illusive.  Sure, it’s easy to exercise when we’re buying gifts for kids…  even a stranger’s kids in need…  but can those virtues be mine towards the one who is acting like a jerk or driving inconsiderately?  And on those times that I acted like a jerk or drove like the only one on the road, did Your mercies towards me ever fail?  Oh, the conviction of it all!  Help us, great King!  Your people need Your Spirit to revive us anew.

Also on my naughty list this morning, I am reminded that I worry too much for a man of faith.  Oh sure, I’m cut from the cloth of world class worriers.  Bless their hearts, I have some family that could worry the hide off of a pig.  While they have been permanently delivered from worrying the joy out of the day, I still linger in these temperaments, and I long for complete healing!  I know this isn’t too much for You, so speak over me now and deliver me from worry and anxiety and any trace of negativity that might still reside in me.  It has no place!  Only You, my precious Savior and friend!

I find all the nays and natterings go by the wayside when I’m with You like this…  and I long for this connection more and more throughout my days.  Encourage me in my walk with You, by Your Spirit, that I may be at peace in all things, and closely connected to my source of wellness at all times.  Bond me to Your ways, Your passions, Your heart.

Oh God, that I might be Yours even more today.

Do it…  let it rise…  let that glory of Yours just rise and shine through the gray.  Let it rise!  Let it rise in me!  Oh my God that I may serve You more.  My soul magnifies You, Lord!

 

There’s Snow Peace

(If you can get beyond the titular pun, this is a prayer for the discovery of peace, and my inner resolve to be a source of peace to my community through the hope I have in Jesus.)

Father, as I stomped through the newly fallen snow to get here, I was once again overtaken by the peacefulness and serenity of Your creation.  Certainly I’m glad not to be driving in it right now, but observing wintery beauty brings such a sense of awe to my quietened heart.

This leads me to pray that I would be a source of peace to my little patch of earth this winter.  Help me to exhibit a holy calmness and strength.  Give me an understanding and discernment that guides my vision, my steps, and my words.

You are Jesus, Emmanuel…  with us!  Thank You for this extraordinary way of knowing You.  Interweave this good news into every encounter, every action, even every unassuming moment.  Make me a deep, rich source of Your love, goodness and tenderhearted kindness that brings life and welcomes good transformation.

I don’t want to be conformed to this world…  not even the seemingly good, churchy kind of stuff.  I see so clearly these days how we in the organized church have conformed to the world by conforming to both tradition and modernity rather than being transformed by You.  I commit to You afresh that the thing I cherish most is You, Your ways, Your Word.  I want to cause the things of my world to conform to You, so that I may be useful in every manner.

Bring Your peace to me today so that I may be a source of peace to the families that are hurting, the ones with the big ol’ question marks looming over their heads.

Bring Your peace to me today so that I may be a source of peace to the proud and the loud that have lost hope in the din of their own resounding voices.

Bring peace, create peace in this community.  Let hope arise, let Your glory shine out.

Bring peace, create peace for my prayer friends who gather here with me to pray these prayers.

Bring peace, create peace for the ones dreading the celebration side of Christmas this year.  Bring quiet healing and let the light of hope shine bright.

Let there be peace on earth…  and make me the glad welcomer, ringing a bell of hope, so that many will enter in to Your peace and hope and life.

You are so good, my King!  Let Your glory rise.  Let it rise in me today.  Let it be so.

Peace Prayer

To my great and loving Father, to my faithful friend and patient master, to the Prince of Peace that regards me worthy of deliverance; I praise and honor You, Lord of all!

I am overtaken by a profound sense of Your gift of peace, and so I am inspired to pray that for others as well.

Deliver those within my care, and those within the reach of this shared prayer, from all things that would steal peace and burglarize joy.

Deliver us from depression, anxiety and worry.

Deliver us from the weight of the very stresses we allow to consume us.

Deliver us from the pregnancy of strife and bitterness; change that seed within us to love, kindness, and tenderhearted mercy.

Deliver us from rage against those You’ve called us to serve.  Deliver us from the expectation of being served, and give us servant hearts even towards those employed to serve us!

Deliver us from being consumed with media and current events and entertainment to the extent that we have no peace and no time for quiet reflection and prayer.

Deliver us from mood swings and emotional slides.

Bring Your calm to our hearts, even in the midst of our storms.  Deliver us from what rages against us, and from the very fires of discontent we kindle in ourselves.

Then, as we find Your peace, may we find You anew today.  Let Your glory rise in the hearts of Your people.  Settle us deep into You, so that we may go deep into this world with Your Good News and not have so much as a hint of the stench of hell’s fire on our clothes.  Keep us in You so that we may be more into the mode of serving those we must serve.

Help me to serve those of lowest and highest estate equally.  Each is a valuable soul, each deserves my best.  Keep me visualizing YOU, help me to see You in everyone I meet so that I may love You, and love them well.

I pray this to Your glory, so that it may rise in this community and break the dark clouds.

In The Mood For Love – Simply Because You’re Near

(Using such a suggestive old song title may seem a bit strange, but how remarkable is it that as I draw nearer to my Lord, I find my heart more in tune with real, generous, godly love?!)

Father, You have blessed me with such a rich tradition of faith, and my life has been surrounded by such a wonderful witness of people who love You.  Yet as I approach You my mind is also full of the trappings and mimickings of faith that at times provoke me to approach You with more pomp and ceremony than You require or want.

As I bask in Your presence in these moments, wash away the paint of religiosity and the glitter of man-made tradition, and teach me anew what it means to approach You with humility and readiness.

As I’ve spent this week praying through the idea of learning to truly understand what it means to love You, I’ve encountered so many artifacts that I’ve kept on the shelves of my heart; so many useless but beautiful trinkets of faith.

Today I willfully and purposefully clear out the old and seek to love You with new passion and new diligence.

As I come to You, I come just as I am, receiving what I cannot earn.  As I walk with You, though, I begin to adopt Your ways.  I covenant afresh to DO things that express Your love simply because You’re near me!  And funny, but when You’re near me, I’m in the mood to be more loving to those You’ve given me to serve.  I find I’m more loving towards my community, my family, my friends.  These that You’ve given me become like treasure because I walk with You, and they are Your treasure.  I want to know how to love them all better…  so I walk with You even closer now.

So what If I look in a mirror, see that my hair is a mess and that I have food on my face, then I walk away without having done anything about it?  What if I walk with You today, after this intimate conversation this morning, and I get a blast of understanding of Your immense love and goodness, and yet I walk away and do nothing about it?  What does that make me?  I want to be the man You’re making me to be, not the one the enemy tries to convince me that I still am.

I see a great light coming from the heavens, I see it shining brightly on this community of believers.  I see them stepping out of this light place, still aglow, and taking that light to the darkest reaches of our community.  Let it be so!  May we be the source of brining Your Good News to a hungry, hurting community.  Oh God, my heart longs for it to be so today!

Stir me afresh to these good things.  Refine me to be more than just a wooden spoon.  I want to be useful like hard metal, both reflective of the beauty of the mind of the creator, and useful for hard tasks.

Let Your love inhabit every corner of my being, every sinew of my body, every synapse of my brain, every beat of my heart. I love You, Lord, and I lift my voice to worship You.  Oh, how my soul rejoices!

Let Your glory rise in me today.

Free Love

(I have discovered a need in me to sharpen my understanding of God’s love for me and how it changes me.  That continues to be a prayer theme this week.)

Immediately I realize, Father, that I need to get over myself and into You. I lay aside my song of woe, my “Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me” dance. I lay me down, I’m not my own!

I’m still in the throes of learning what Your love means for my life. Seems like this should be basic for someone of many years… basically a lifetime… of walking with You. Renew my understanding.

Renew me so that Your love is free to all of me.

Touch my lips with fire, my heart with discernment, so that my words better reflect Your loving nature.

Give me 20/20 vision… or better… when it comes to seeing the daily opportunities You give me for applying love.

Take anything cynical or sarcastic in me, cleanse the infection, then let the antidote of Your love soak into my bones.

Purify me from impatience and frustration. Just as you are patient and faithful towards me, may I learn from Your love and increase in these things in all the right places, at all the right times.

Remove tolerance of anything in me that is unlike You. Teach me by the example of Your love to love what is good, pure, right, kind, worthwhile. As I learn to love the things You love, may I in turn love the people You love better – even if it means they don’t love the stuff You love!!!

Here’s something I’m in desperate need of today… vision, fresh vision. Build something worth pursuing today, and in the stretch ahead, by the power of Your love commandeering my ship. Set me on a better course, let Your love be my travel plan.

By love, may I serve the people You’ve given me to serve with renewed vigor and passion.

By love, may I be the husband my wife deserves for me to be.

By love, may I be the father and grandfather and brother and uncle and friend that I can only be in You.

By love, may even these prayers be energized.

And at that, I set aside this prayer journal for a walk in love on behalf of some hurting people that need a loving prayer this morning.

Let Your glory rise!

Draw Me In

Draw me in, gracious and welcoming friend.

I wait, unsettled, unarmed, unhindered.  I wait for you to breath the day’s new life into my lungs.  I wait for You to course through my veins and jump start my passions.  I wait here, before You, Lord of all and faithful lover of my soul.

My spirit leans into You, but there is also resistance.  I see who I am, I see who You are, and Your holiness overwhelms me.  If You are willing, I am waiting, draw me in.

All my pretense fails me in Your light; though I live raw and vulnerable before others, I still keep my guard.  With You, am simply am.  As is.  Draw me in.

Then You remind me, the faithful friend You are, of Your fresh mercies.  You blanket me in peace and somehow manage to help me feel the touch of Your hand on my shoulder.  You welcome me in, even with my unwholesome grumbling, and give me what my soul finds no where else.

It’s this blessed hope that overrides the doubt, this faith that whispers through fear and this knowledge that brings every particle of my brain to full attention that draws me.  You are the masterful artist of this day, of this moment, of this much needed retreat with You.

Thank You for drawing me in today.

An Advent Blessing

(The purpose of this blog is to serve as a raw, transparent prayer journal.  However, as I begin to understand the type of impact this project has made, I’m also sensing the need to share more targeted prayers to speak into the needs of those who come here to pray with me.  I hope these occasional entries will be a blessing.  Today I pray a blessing on you for this Advent season.)

Glow wildly and wonderfully in the hearts and minds of those who turn to You with wild eyed wonder.

Manifest Your beauty in the smile of those who seek to reflect Your glory. May others see those who believe and know You better.

Hear the cry of the lonely and broken, and reveal Yourself to them… the most extravagant gift any of us will ever receive.

Save us from the ills of consumerism and enrich us in generosity and service.

Turn our attention from the words and greetings used to recognize this Christmas celebration, and turn our hearts instead to a full, personal reckoning with the difference You make in each of us. Let words not get in the way of pouring out ourselves to You and to others.

Where joy abounds, let love abound. Where sadness is piled high, bring angel-in-the-sky type songs of hope and peace.

Let me be a blessing even if no one blesses me.

May I be a blessing to You, because You bless me even when I fail to bless You.

Give us the words and actions to live into the hope You’ve so wonderfully and faithfully poured out to us.

Love God, Love Job?

My prayer this morning carries me to two important places I need to go: how can I better express my love for You, Lord, and how can my passions for this work You’ve given me be stirred afresh?

It seems logical to immediately say that I love You, Jesus. But as soon as I go for the words, I find myself more in the praise mode rather than expressing love in a personal way. Not that praise is at all bad, but I sense that’s not where Your Spirit is leading me to go. I can more easily enumerate the ways You show Your love to me. And even though I understand what praise does in worship, I notice that in a rare instance where you used the word “command”, you did it in regards to love… for You (with all my heart, soul, mind and strength) and for others.

(And now I feel like I’m delaying putting my love into words by telling You what You already know!)

Help me, Holy Spirit to find the words and to say them well.

I know I love You because I want no other. Even doubt hasn’t edged You out of my heart and intellect. Faith and reason both inspire me to love You more.

I love Your ways. We complain about the weather, but I see Your beautiful plans and purposes behind the way weather behaves. I love that Your touch is complete – not loo little and not too much, but right on the money.

I love Your presence. I guess that by the very nature of You being love, I should understand that one. Even on the mornings when I come here with the most distracted mind and burdened heart, Your gentle presence woos me and overwhelms me with peace.

I love Your Name. Such power, such glory, such love is found in Your identity.

I love Your people. My life is painted richly with so many great relationships built in You.

I love Your Word. My heart races with excitement when I find it to be living, relevant, and much more than the naysayers want anyone else to believe it is.

I love You, Lord. I am invested in You, though it seems at times I trade pennies for Your gold bars. I love this life in You, and I love Your life in me.

In praying these things I see more clearly how I need to express my love for You in action to others today. Help me, build me, equip me, and preside in me deeply so that I can do this! I want You to know my love for You because You have so richly lavished Your love on me.

I also see now how exploring my love for you begins to answer my second prayer burden for the day. As I struggle with keeping my passion and motivation for this work You’ve given me, I realize that the waning of love has a lot to do with my attitudes.

Certainly I pray that You rekindle fires and reignite passions. More than that, infuse me with Your love and stir me to better love on my behalf. It’s so easy to complain and whine and moan about the emotionally taxing side of this ministry work. But I chose today to love anew, to refocus, and to reintroduce You into places where I’ve tried to carry things myself.

May I be so bold as to approach You and pray that You will stir my people in the same ways? Drive them to loving acts, loving words, and loving work. Free us all from the idea that working for You, for Your Kingdom, is akin to paying taxes or cleaning bathrooms (although…!!!).

And help me to better lead my people to great acts of love for You, for each other, and for this community You’ve given us to serve.

As for this leadership meeting this evening (perhaps one of the reasons I’m agitated this morning!), give me peace, wisdom, discernment and assist me to be an excellent leader for these beautiful ones I serve.

Oh, and I love You, my Lord! My precious, beautiful Savior, Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father! Let Your glory rise in me today.

Why Bother?

Father, I pray against the “Why Bother?” bug this morning!

It’s amazing how one little bite from that bug can set so much wrong in a brain. We must fight that little parasite! Lord, we need deliverance.

One thing goes differently than we want it to, and that fosters the belief that all is in ruin. Or perhaps we don’t like the flow of how things are proceeding – maybe even out of shear ignorance of what really is happening – and we throw up our arms in disgust. And worse – because I seem to be battling this one – a few negatives overwhelm the many positives and then prayer becomes a mess or even a drugery! Help!

As I stumble into this time with You, I find that once again the joyous anticipation I used to bring has melted like an ice cube on a warm kitchen floor. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, til suddenly you realize all you have is a slippery water spot.

This morning I take a firm stand… OK, so it’s a feeble stand right now as this prayer is in progress… against the “Why Bother?” bug. Father I need Your Spirit outpouring. I pray You would infuse this work with a new, overflowing sense of Your presence and power. Refresh us in You. This is exactly why I pray each day, “Let Your glory rise.” I believe You disperse the dark clouds with Your mighty presence.

Be known among us, Lord. Let the beauty overwhelm the ugly. Your Name – a banner over me – let Your Name proceed me, accompany me, and provide the back-up as well.

The more I pray this, the more I laugh. I realize I’ve let a small thing become a big thing in my mind and the enemy used that to try to overpower me like some spiritual realm jujitsu move. But my power is in You. You are much bigger, better, stronger. And I know that this daily seeking You does not leave me starved for power. Thank You God – this journal itself has been a process of revelation to me this morning.

And so I praise You for new light burning in my mind. I praise You that I am not alone, and You never fail me. Thank You for hope that inspires me. Thank You for Your promises that bolster my confidence. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit’s presence that builds my faith. Thank You for these prayer walks with You that make my day.

Let Your glory rise, my Lord. Let it rise in me today.