(The friend who inspired me to start this prayer journey would often warn against “naval gazing”… or being so self-aware that we lose our necessary focus on others. That’s the genesis of the title of today’s entry, and that is the track that transformed my prayer time today. Lord, enough of the “I”/”me” prayers, and on to some healthy community prayers.)
And so I embark on a fresh new day, a fresh new adventure with You. Another busy day deserves some deep plunging into You and Your Word. Lead on, my Lord.
I fully embrace You in this moment. Help me to fully embrace Your ways in the moments ahead.
I seek Your will for these moments. Help me to walk in Your purposes for the hours ahead.
I bring longing and adoration for the awesome God You are. If I fade or fail in my recognition of Your perfect rightness later, nudge on.
I lay me down, I’m not my own. If I wiggle off the altar of giving myself to You, I trust in Your kind corrections and mercy for the correction.
I am not my own, yet I sway such conviction and authority over even minute details. Wrest away all the unlike-Yous in me so that I may be free of the garbage that kills me and surrendered to the life that awakens me and fulfills me. You are the life, the promise, the hope I seek.
There is an acute recognition in this moment that so far, I’ve been very me-focused. I suspect that in the fury of all the transitions in my life of late, I have cocooned myself in layers of introspectiveness and self-awareness. Break me free of this stinking shell! Help me to love afresh and anew. I willfully turn my words now to others so that Your grace and mercy will prevail.
Build this community, my Lord! Let us rise up in embrace of You, dancing to the music of Your glory all around. Let this be the day of many renewals and new-life awakenings. Let Your perfect ways prevail in this community. Let us rise as You rise, my Lord.
Increase us in love.
Increase us in grace and mercy.
Increase us in compassion.
Increase us in concern.
Increase us in strength and power.
May this be the day that Your glory rises with such greatness and sharpness and focus that our community is forever changed for the better. Let Your glory rise, my Lord!
Let every pocket of darkness be overcome by Your light. Let hopelessness be broken and hope saturate every dry bone.
Let Your glory rise, my Lord, let it rise in me today!
Glory Rising 