7 Prayers That Work

Dear Lord, I'm tired of praying about this. Nothing changes. Do you want to help me? Do you hear me? Will you respond to me? I'm waiting. Help me to grow while I wait. Strengthen my faith-- I don't trust you enough. Help to to readjust my focus, to remember that your plans are bigger than my plans, that your love spans generations, cultures, and centuries. You are producing good works in me and in many other people, too, while I wait here impatiently, trying to decide if I should quit praying. I'm sorry. I'm so selfish and demanding. Help me to persevere, and by being faithful in prayer, I want to bring you glory, today and every day. Strengthen my resolve. Help me not to grow weary in praying. Give me a harvest of good works, a life lived in complete surrender and total expectation of the abundance of God's love! In Jesus' name, Amen. Read Lori Hatcher's blog post today, called " Powerful Hope When You're ...

Dear God Creator, Wow! It's spring, and I'm startled by the beauty you've created. How could anyone invent such varied and delicate blossoms or paint such a canvas as Virginia in the spring? White, pink, fuchsia, purple, yellow, periwinkle, green-- the colors of flowering trees and plants blend together in shocking splendor. You did this because you love me and you can't help but create, again and again. You're doing it in me every day, re-creating something that was dormant during the winters of my life, something I've given up on and decided I can't change. I've decided that some part of me will never improve. That this is just the way I am. Yet the Spirit of God in me says,   No. You were created for something more. You are splendid. I am making you new, always pruning, always nurturing, always alive and hopeful, like spring. You are being re-born. This is what I do. I create. I make all things new. Thank you. I worship...

Lord, Bless me, indeed. Enlarge my territory. Put your hand on me and never remove it. Keep me from harm and from causing pain. Be with me in a big way because you're a big God. The One and Only. Amen. From The Prayer of Jabez, 1 Chronicles 4:10

Dear Lord, Thank you for the incredible years of service to the Lord that Bill and Lynne Hybels have given. I ask for you to bless them and comfort them during this horrific time of humiliation and exposure. I don't know what's true and what's not true, so I'm not grieved that Bill has "fallen" from his pedestal. He shouldn't have been put on a pedestal, and people shouldn't want to knock him off it. I'm grieved that Christians have gone public in the media against one of their own. I'm grieved that the media is writing sensational headlines, sloppy reporting, and undocumented allegations. I don't want to believe the accusations. But that doesn't really matter. My concern is for the people involved. To feel betrayed, vilified, and hunted is a terrible thing. To be the betrayer, villain, and hunter is perhaps more terrible because the vengeance of God is coming. I pray against the devil's work. I pray against vengea...