7 Prayers That Work

Oh, Lord,  Examine my heart and mind because they might be wrong. In fact, I know they are. I'm wrong. I confess it. My thoughts are angry, unkind, ungraceful. My words reflect my thoughts,  and I'm ashamed of them. Bring every wrong thought captive-- reveal my selfish motives for why I think and say what I do. Show me the truth. I need your perspective, not my own. Examine my heart and mind and humble me enough to admit what's lurking there. Lord, I confess it again. I'm wrong .  Fill me with grace, forgiveness, and understanding . I want to continually walk in your truth , in your way, in your timing. I praise you for your faithfulness to me, even when I'm not faithful back. Thank you, Lord. Your mercy is unfathomable. In Jesus' name,  Amen "Test me, O Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; for your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth." (Psalm 26:2-3)

  "Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of  bitterness  grows up to trouble you, corrupting many." (Hebrews 12:15) An observation: If we care for one another,  God gives us grace . If we don't care for one another, we don't get grace from anyone. Bitterness is a weed that overtakes a garden until it has choked out every plant that was once beautiful and productive until the garden becomes useless and ugly. Bitterness prevents blessing . A prayer: Oh, Lord, I confess my bitterness  and my lack of trust in you to direct me in all things. I've resented you allowing weeds into my life. My heart has not been fertile or  productive lately. It has been a garden of weeds instead of a garden of flowers. Please forgive me and help me develop the courage to rip out every weed and prune back every thought and habit that doesn't honor you . I confess holding grudges, distrusting your care, and pr...

 Oh, Lord,  You are the God of comfort . Teach me to grieve .  It makes me uncomfortable, but it's so necessary for healing and perspective. Help me to trust your love and care enough to lean into pain and trauma and the wild uncertainty of hard times, of personal and collective  crisis . You are a God of compassion . Teach me to grieve for others. give me perspective and empathy and sincerity that other people's experiences are different and just as traumatic and difficult than my own. Maybe even more! I want to be kind and willing to sit with them in their pain without passing judgment,  assuming I have the answers, or teaching them how to feel or act in their pain. You are a God of forgiveness . Teach me to be forgiving when I feel that someone has wronged me, misunderstood me,  or hurt me. You give us chances, over and over-- a thousand million chances to change, to repent, to revive, to follow. Help me repent of my own sin and refuse to be the judge...

Have you noticed that you struggle with the same bad habits, over and over? Maybe it's your temper, your insecurity, your selfishness, or your critical tongue . Deep down, you know they're not even habits. They're sins. This happens to me. I make this happen, by my own choices. Every time I try to pray, I feel this weight. At first, I can't tell why I feel this way or why my prayers seems to bounce right back. Then I realize I'm sinning again. I'm doing the same things I always do when my soul isn't full of righteousness. Of course, I want to confess it and stop doing it. But I feel ashamed that I'm about to pray the same prayer again, confess the same sin, and enter the same battle. I have a decision to make: I can humble myself and confess my sin, and start working to change, or I can give up. I can say "This is me. This is just the way I am." I can pretend that change isn't possible, even though I know it ...

Oh, Lord, This life is not about me. My pain is not about me. My relationships are not about me. My purpose is not about me. My success is not about me. My plans are not about me. Or at least, they shouldn't be. It's all about you working through me, changing me, changing the world. What an enormous task you've begun! I wonder why you use me at all. So when I sin-- when I misrepresent you-- when I disappoint myself-- when I hurt others-- when I give up-- when I hide-- when I don't believe-- it's all about me. Life is hard. Wisdom is difficult. I only have my own perspective. But I need yours. Sometimes your heart is hard to see because I can only see mine. I must lean into you, dig deeper, remove my blinders, open my soul to listen. You alone. Forgive me for listening to the voices around me instead of yours. Amen.

Well, Lord, I messed up this week. I got upset about an injustice that was done to one of my kids-- which of course, felt like an injustice to me-- and I went all Mama-Bear on some well-intentioned people who, however unintentional their behavior was, hurt my child. So I messed up right back at them. I was nice about it, but I hurt them with my well-crafted phrases. I feel terribly convicted, even though what I said and how I said it may not have been so terrible. I don't know anymore. I just know I didn't leave this at your feet. I didn't turn the other cheek. (It's my kid, after all!)-- but I guess you know about that better than I do! I took the bait. I was less than Jesus about the whole thing. I lacked grace and wisdom. Please forgive me for not representing you well. I've reached out to those I've offended-- I've affirmed them and explained myself-- but I guess I need to boldly ask their forgiveness , with more grovelin...

Lord Jesus, I'm asking your forgiveness and grace on some fellow-believers. They're mean and nasty, and they don't love the body Christ. They're always stirring up trouble, berating believers, gossiping about fellow- Christians, and spewing venom against the church and what it doesn't do for them. They are incredibly selfish, immature, and divisive. I know you'll judge these people. You hate this kind of behavior, more than you hate anything. I know they will feel the effects of their attitudes in their own families. Perhaps their children will reject You and the church because of their example. Perhaps they will lose friends and lose community. I don't wish these natural consequences on them, although I know the course of rebellion can't be stopped apart from repentance and your incredible grace. Give me the grace to forgive them, (even when their hate isn't directly against me)-- help me to not hold grudges and made assump...

Lord Jehovah--Yahweh-- I lift up the hearts and minds of devout Jews everywhere, especially in Pittsburgh. Comfort them and give them the peace only you can provide. Protect them from evildoers, from violent people, from the shooting down of hope, freedom, and faith. Protect their hearts from the pain of violent words, from the cowards, the bigots, and the self-righteous in our land. Heal these dear people. May they never renounce faith in you because of persecution. May they seek the Lord while He may be found. May they implore the God of heaven to rescue and comfort them. May they recognize the Messiah. Thank you for the outpouring of love from people of many faiths-- this is God at work in hearts and lives. Comfort the Jewish doctors and staff that suffered their own trauma while attending to the shooter in the hospital. You are a God of justice, and I pray for justice on Robert Bowers. I pray that he repents and turns to you. I pray that he asks forg...

Lord God, the Holy One-- You are gracious and full of awesome power and purity. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. I come today on behalf of someone else. I want to pray for ________'s repentance, so first I must ask you to forgive me of my wrong-doing and selfishness. Convict and remove all the little pet sins I shelter in my life, the things I say aren't a big deal. Root them out. I'll brace myself. I know it will hurt a little to be honest with myself and change my will and behavior. But when I do, I will have peace. Forgive me, please. So now I ask you to forgive __________. I confess on his/her behalf. Forgive him/her for rebellion, selfishness, pride, and ignorance of Your laws and Your expectations. Moses confessed for Israel, and even though they rarely repented, You had compassion on them, for Moses' sake. You showed grace and mercy and lovingkindness. Because someone cared enough to ask You for it. Show Your lovingkindness to...

Dear Lord, You are the King of Kings, so you understand kings. You are not surprised by the world's presidents, generals, dictators, prime ministers, shahs. You understand power, corruption, responsibility, greed, pride, and ambition. Please influence our leaders. Give us grace when our leaders make foolish choices. Give us grace when we make foolish choices, when we elect godless leaders and when we pretend like it's not our fault. Give us a chance to learn and correct our mistakes. Protect us from evil--from wanting it, from protecting it, and from excusing it. Make us a thinking, active, and responsible people. Forgive us our sins. Forgive our leaders of their sins and place God-fearing individuals in their paths to influence, challenge, and show them the love of God. Please give us another chance to serve you better--more fully--more sacrificially. May the church rise up--not as a political force-- but as the hands and feet of Jesus! He is the only one ...

Dear Lord Jesus Christ-- You are full of mercy and love, and you amaze me because we are a desperate and sinful people, and yet you don't annihilate us. At least, not yet. And so I pray to you. Grant us mercy--give us time to repent. On behalf of those who serve you, if we have pleased you with our rare and paltry obedience, please go with us into the earth. Convict us. Transform us. Forgive the arrogance and selfishness of us, your name-bearers. We misrepresent who you are to your world. We are stubborn and rebellious. We elevate our own agendas. We hate the lost, and we compete with our brothers, and we call it Christianity. Please forgive our wickedness. Our sin is grievous to you, and it confuses your message of forgiveness to the world. Under the canopy of spiritual election, we have confused freedom with grace, conservatism with purity, and protection with compassion. Your heart must be breaking at the sight of us. We bear your name, and we...

Today I read a great post about forgiveness by Gwen Theilges, appearing on Rodney Coe's website "Lift up your day," for which we both guest-write. I wanted to share it below: I’ve knelt at an altar, placing the names of people at His feet before. I’ve felt anger and betrayal, and if I told you each story, I’m willing to bet you’d agree that I’m justified in feeling wronged in at least a few of the situations. But, here’s the thing. Well, the things…First of all, there have been people kneeling at literal and figurative altars placing ME at the feet of Jesus before. I’ve wronged people. Sometimes I had the best of intentions, but unfortunately did something to hurt another person. And other times? I just got it wrong. No, let me use the real word – I sinned. And therefore sent someone directly to an altar trying to forgive me, or worse yet, directly in the opposite direction – where bitterness increases and peace is elusive…that place where we go to not lay pe...

Feeling bad about something you've done? That's a good start. It's not enough to gain forgiveness, make it right, or change the behavior, but it's a good starting point. This little explanation below might help you to understand how to confess a sin and get victory over it (in other words, stop doing it again and again!). The whole thing begins when you do something bad (i.e. selfish, unkind, harmful, cruel, debilitating, disrespectful, addictive, etc.). God's standard is holiness, so pretty much that dumps most of our behavior in the unholy category. Event most of the nice things we do, we do with ulterior motive--being nice to others helps our lives function better. But after we do something wrong, the need for confession begins-- 1. You feel guilty. The question to ask yourself is--how does this behavior line up with God's standard? Then you know if the guilt is from God or you mother. (Sometimes they agree on the standard.) If God says it's wron...