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)

Okay, Lord, It's not fair. I've helped,  loved,  sacrificed, strived, planned, performed, adjusted, given mercy, reached out, supported, affirmed, lovingly confronted, dreamed, achieved-- and what do I receive? Criticism, slander, misunderstanding, rejection, misrepresentation, betrayal, indifference, ignorance, bigotry, judgment, discrimination, correction, unfriendliness. It's not fair. No, it's not. Is this what suffering is? Is this what you warned me about-- what you said it would happen? I just didn't expect it from Christians. From church people. From friends. From people who smile at me and shake my hand and whisper about me when I'm not around. Yes, it happened to Job. It happened to Moses. It happened to David. It happened to you. Okay, I see why it happens to me. Friends and family will turn against someone  who stands for justice, mercy, purpose, and righteousness. Someone who gives grace wil...

Lord, Help me to give grace, to be patient, to be forgiving, to be full of mercy and understanding. I do not want to be entitled, vengeful, bitter,  or defeated. I want to be like you. But that's incredibly difficult. Impossible. Please help me love even those who hurt me. In Jesus' name, Amen. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’   But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,   that you may be children  of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.   If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?  Are not even the tax collectors doing that?   And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?   Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.   ( Matthew 5:43-48 )

Dear Lord God, You forgive us when we confess our sins, and you give grace when we confess the sins of our ancestors-- of our family and our city and our country. So I confess the great wickedness of our nation at oppressing the poor, marginalizing women, minorities, the elderly, and the ill, enslaving the African-Americans, red-lining poor communities, indenturing and imprisoning the uneducated and underprivileged. I confess our systemic white privilege, even as I want to believe I am not a benefactor of it. I confess our sins of racism and segregation, even as I say that I have not overtly participated in any of it. It is our heritage, and we are wrong to minimize its legacy. I confess the church's sins of politicizing moral issues, of drawing party lines through issues of compassion, grace, and mercy-- of using topics of mass incarceration, death penalty, immigration, life, and welfare to divide party lines and provide ease and security for the privileged...

Dear Lord God, I am blessed to live in America, a free country, even though I chafe under the ambition and corruption so often present in public officials. I am proud of our soldiers and civil servants, even though I read stories of their brutality and injustice in the news. I appreciate the protection I have to believe, write, live, and worship, even though I recognize our country's moral decline. We are a sinful people and a sinful nation, and yet you choose to love us and use us. You have blessed us with opportunity and responsibility, and so much good has been accomplished in the world through our nation. Because of your love and mercy. Thank you for the men and women who have served our country, faced danger, missed loved ones, endured trauma, fought to recover, and came home. Thank you for the ones who paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives so we could enjoy freedom. Bless their families and cover them with your loving care. Thank you for tr...

Dear Father of the fatherless, I pray your compassion and mercy over the world's immigrants and refugees . May I always welcome the lost and weary in Jesus' name. Give me courage to defend the fatherless, to assist the widow, to welcome the stranger, to offering healing to the sick, to rescue the oppressed. May we never see nationality, creed, or culture because You don't see them. You see people-- hungry, afraid, terrorized, hurting, displaced, marginalized, misunderstood, resourceless. These are problems created by humans against humans. And these problems interfere with seeing You. Convict me when that's all I see. Use me to show Jesus' love through what I do and what I say. Keep me from political agendas instead of prayerful purpose. If I truly want to be like You, this is how I will behave and what I will believe. "Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor."-- Ezekiel 22:7 "And what does the L...

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...

Lord God of Mercy, You know the pain of war and the inner workings of the human mind and emotions. I ask Your presence to fall upon the veterans of our countries today. Be Jehovah-Rapha, the God of healing to them. Administer grace to the anguished. Lavish love on the lonely and forgotten. Help those of us to reach out to them, we who can't begin to understand the pain of participating in war or living with someone who's been traumatized by war. Help us be a people who understands and appreciates the pain of others. Give us mercy and love for the marginalized. Let us not hate those who differ from us, but let us not also ignore and embrace sin because we are too afraid to reflect Your glory in our confused world. We need Your wisdom, today and everyday. But I ask that today, above all days, uplift the hearts of servicemen and women, encouraging them in the power of God. Make Your Church a lighthouse to the wandering heart and the weary soul. In Jesus' name, Amen....