7 Prayers That Work

Oh. Lord, There's been another mass shooting. I can't imagine how your heart hurts to see your creation turn on itself. End the violence in our country. I intercede, Lord, for the victims and the victimizers that live in this country and call themselves Americans. I am sick of the violence, shamed by it, grieved by it, astonished by the normalization of mass shootings. We have blood on our hands. We may not have personally committed these atrocities, but many times we have shaken our heads, cast judgment, and gone about our day anyway. Lord, show each of us how we can help change this problem. Massage our hearts toward compassion, justice, and care. Give us discernment about the gun-violence problem, the sin-problem, and the mental-health problem that must be addressed and corrected. We are a country--and a world--filled with desperate people  who cannot find a way to solve their own heart and mind issues except to lash out against one another. We gossip, we malign, we injure, ...

Dear Holy God, You feel the ache I'm feeling. You know the weight and sorrow of sin, even another person's sin, especially when it affects me. Shame rolls in like a tidal wave, wave after wave, hitting the shores of my soul. I want to cower and cover up my sins and the sins of the people I love. I chafe under conviction (the very thing that seeks to release me)-- while I protect my shame (the very thing that keeps me in bondage). Oh, Father, give me the courage to welcome conviction for my sin and the tenacity to fight the shame. Your Spirit convicts, but Your enemy shames, because he knows that shame will make me hide in the shadows, hide from the body of Christ, and hide from You. Lord, make us freedom-seekers! Give us the desire to live freely in Your convicting presence, in the holy of holies, where our souls are laid bare before You. Help us confess our faults to one another and pray for one another so that we will be healed! There is no...