A Daily Prayer

Father, each spring as we see tiny featherless fledglings pressed against their mothers in the hollow of their family nest, we’re reminded of the human love children experience from their parents’ safekeeping. We thank You for the love and care You extend to us through the preordained parents who’ve cared for us from birth to independence.  Thank You for their model of love, sacrifice, duty, protection, and many other virtuous qualities needed to properly raise their families.  Their example greatly influenced the way we raise our own children.

We also pray for those whose relationship with their parent is a role reversal where they must act as the parent when their own parent behaves as a needy or defiant child.  May Your multiplied mercies sustain these caregivers in their ongoing difficult role so that, above all, You are honored and they find deep peace in the midst of the turmoil.  Thank You, Father, for our human family, our spiritual family, and for our heavenly family that awaits our arrival.  In the name of Christ Jesus Your Son we pray, amen.

 This is our prayer today and I encourage you to make it yours as well!

Come and fill our home with Your presence,
You alone are worthy of our rev’rence.
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
We will serve the Lord.

Lord we vow to live holy, bowing our knees to You only.
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,
We will serve the Lord.

Staying together, praying together,
Any storm we can weather trusting in God’s Word.
We need each other, fathers and mothers,
Sisters and brothers in harmony and love. *

* “The Family Prayer Song” by Morris Chapman

Father, help us to look not only to our own interests but also to the interest of others.  May our attitude be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being equal to You, did not consider this unique privilege to be more important than taking on human flesh to meet our spiritual needs.  May we follow Christ’s supreme example of meeting the needs of others when You have commissioned us to do so.  In the name of Your Son, Jesus, we pray, amen.

Father, I pray that You will help me to sow for myself righteousness, so that I will reap the fruit of Your unfailing love.  Break up the unplowed ground of my heart that is stony and hard so that I acknowledge my sins, receive Your forgiveness, and look to You for guidance.  May I thoroughly discern the vain philosophies and empty deception that pervades our society.  I want to seek Your will above man’s agenda so that You shower Your blessings upon me.  Amen.

Father, help us to be slow to speak, quick to listen, and eager to give the benefit of the doubt to others.  We often jump to conclusions that are erroneous due to our own preconceived ideas or based on our past experiences.  Give each of us an understanding heart and discerning spirit in our relations with others we intersect with on our daily paths.  In the name of Jesus we pray, amen.

“Father, we are but clay in Your hands.  May You break down the hardened walls of our heart and reshape us into a useful vessel that is fully yielded to Your workmanship.  As we are crafted by the Master Potter, painful as it may be, let our confidence be founded upon the Rock of Ages rather than the shifting sands of our circumstances.  May we be faithful and obedient so that You pour out Your glory and honor through us, Your yielded vessels.  In the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray, amen.

Father, we ask you to be merciful to our land because You are a loving, forgiving God.  You have called on us, Your children, to be a people of prayer and devotion.   We pray for our land to repent of neglect and defiance of Your commands.  We come against the powers of darkness that seek to extinguish the light of Your salvation that brings help and hope to weary souls in this life and secures their eternal place in heaven.  Help us not to grow weary in our intercession, for we want to be faithful in prayer so that, at a future date, we will witness the harvest of souls.  We pray for Your will to be accomplished in the name of Jesus, amen.

Father, the day to day living can be so challenging and easily drain us of the pleasures in life if we’re not careful.  We thank you for our friends and family who pull us away from that mindset and add laughter to our lives.  Would you bring genuine laughter to the hearts of our readers today as they go about their daily duties.  May they hear laughter and may they make laughter, verbally, and in their hearts.  In the name of Jesus we pray, amen.

Father, You have called us, Your servants, to exercise our gifts of prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, contributing to the needs of others, leading, and being vessels of Your mercy. Help us not to be fearful or timid in exercising our spiritual gift that flows from Your power within us, since it is not for our own glory but rather for the building up of the body of Christ.  We are inadequate within ourselves, but fully sufficient according to the grace given us through Your Holy Spirit.  We seek affirmation from You, the ministry opportunities You provide us, and other mature believers, to confirm our spiritual giftings.  In the name of Jesus we pray, amen.

Father, as we examine the emotional pain of our lives, when it seems as though You’ve forgotten about us, we often start out with the question of “Why?”  But in hindsight we realize that those struggles taught us practical truths that we could not learn overnight but over time, and that there truly was purpose in our pain and in Your timing.   Help us to model integrity and steadfastness in the midst of the severe struggles and sweeping storms of life.  Your eternal purpose is greater than our temporal pain.  Remind us that it may not just be for our own instruction but for others looking on who may learn from our difficult experiences.  Amen.