A Prayer

Lord God, my Father,

Thank you for your love. You are good and righteous, just and compassionate, holy and perfect. You are worthy of all the praise the world can bring you, even if we often ignore you or rebel against you. Thank you for being patient with us and loving us despite ourselves, knowing how hopelessly lost in our sin and selfishness that you would send your only Son to us, whom we killed, but by whose death we are freed from the due consequence of eternal death.

Thank you for my family, for my friends—among your richest gifts to me. Thank you for making this beautiful world that brings me so much joy. Thank you for the gift of good food and the ability to make it. Thank you for health and safety, and please continue provide for me and to protect me from harm.

Forgive me for my continued sinning against you. I should know what is your best for me, but still don’t always do it. Help me to fight temptation and win, that I may glorify you through obedience. Make my mind pure, my motivations blameless, my actions virtuous. You have made known to us the path of life, and I want to follow it to live life to the fullest. With your gentle discipline and your loving hand and your Holy Spirit, guide me into what is best for me.

God, you know I come to you now with particular weight for those who don’t believe in you or think this world can somehow satisfy them. The pain in these souls burdens my heart. I feel a cloud of melancholy for them. You know those whom I have in mind. I have no power to change anyone, but you do. Please show yourself to them, God. Heal them, Lord. Cure their hardship. Help them believe in Jesus Christ as the only way you have provided to get back to you God—the way we were created to be and for which our souls long.

Thank you for the opportunities I have to share your Word with others; please continue to use me for your purposes and to be an ambassador of reconciliation. Help me bear the burdens of my soul. I long for the day you bring about your kingdom and make all things new. Please send Jesus back quickly, because I feel the pains and groans of this earth for restoration.

For your glory and in the name of Jesus Christ I pray,

Amen.