Prayers of the Moment

I am no giant of prayer. As a student, I am a mind-wanderer. My distraction threshold is low. My depth is shallow and my shallowness is deep. I am constantly, daily praying, "Teach me to pray."

Prayer warrior? The greatest war is inside me and with me.

In my most despairing moments, when I am least confident in my ability to pray, I pray, "God, you do the praying. I will just be Your megaphone from you and to you and involve me any way You choose."

And the Spirit of God prays and I trust it and I trust Him and I let go.

Sometimes I write prayers. Sometimes, i am guided by the prayer He taught us to pray. Sometimes I am guided by other great prayers of scripture and history. I need props. I think God is OK with that since He gave us so many. Like Andrew Murray, I feel that I am with Christ in the school of prayer.

Here are some of my prayers of previous days that are, today, my prayers of the moment:

Adonai, above all powers, above all rulers, above all my thoughts and hopes and dreams, LORD of my frailties and Dreamer of my dreams, Giver of life, Author of hope, First Cause, Final Conclusion, Ultimate Concern, Lover of humanity, Creator of all that is, Mighty God, Everlasting Father ... my Abba ...

To Thee, I come and with Thee, I stand. In Thee, I rest. Through Thee, I live.

You are, יהוה , the Great I AM. I hesitate to speak Thy Name lest I speak it for naught and yet ...

You invite me, to call Thee, Abba, Father, Pappa ....

Our Pappa in Heaven, ours, and not just mine, They name is hallowed for Thou art holy with a sanctified Name.

Grant unto to be enveloped in a cloud of reverent awe at the sight and sound of Thy Name.

Hallowed be Thy Name.

In every segmented concern of my life, my family, my concentric circles of sanctified souls and saintly sinners of which I am chief of sinners, Thy Kingdom come! In every gathering where my brothers and sisters find shelter, Thy Kingdom. In every city through which I pass and nation that enters my conscious awareness and those that escape my notice, among all people and powers, Thy Kingdom, Lord. Thy Kingdom of joy and grace, and righteousness.

I turn, repent, and renounce my kingdom and every other kingdom which has enslaved me and to Thy Kingdom, Christ's Kingdom of peace and justice and love I run.

"The kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and ever. Hallelujah!"

Thy Kingdom come where there is injustice and hatred, and bigotry, and violence, lust and debauchery, dehumanization and demoralization, contention and bitterness, exploitation and humiliation, poverty and homelessness, hunger and famine, disease and addiction, loneliness and lostness, oppression and desperate, despairing sin. Thy Kingdom come.

Reign, King Jesus, reign!

Thy will be done ... for Thou knowest best.

We know not how to pray. It is not that we shrink from desiring to know. We do desire to join Thee in knowing prayer, knowing that we shall not know all. We know that we do not know and in that ignorance is the bliss of trusting.

Abba, what we know, we hold loosely in our hands and minds, awaiting instruction and correction. We approach Thee, Thy world, Thy creation, with very large question marks and interrogative wonder. Tomorrow is in Thy hands with every yesterday and today and so, override our own desires with Thy perfect will ...

Because what we know is Who we know and we have come to love and trust Thee and pray that Thy Spirit will pray Thy will through us and that Thy will will be done here and now, apart from us and beyond us, and all around us ....

.... on Earth as it is in Heaven!

Give us today, this day, our daily bread.

Thou knowest our needs, OUR needs, not just mine. Free me from my slavery to selfishness and introverted focus on myself, Dear God. Provide what Thou knowest we need and see us through this day with ...

strength,

wisdom,

food and clothing,

shelter,

hope,

healing and health,

love and affection,

friendship,

mission and service,

and more ...

and sometimes less,

our daily bread!

Forgive us our trespasses, our debts, our sins. Forgive us to the extent that we are able to loosen our grip on those debt for ourselves and for others.

Make us debt free in the realm of sin and free of holding others to the obligation of their trespasses against us. Teach us to loosen our grip for in that grip of bitterness, we hold ourselves as well for the same hand that gives forgiveness, receives it.

Liberate us from the power of darkness and guilt and retributive desire, Abba, by Thy love and mercy and grace.

Free us.

Forgive us.

We forgive our debtors.

Lead us.

We need to be led. We shall follow. We desire to go where Thou leadest, Oh Lord.

Remember, Dear Father, that we are dust and we are susceptible to the vilest thoughts and deeds, and are so easily tempted. Please lead us away from those things that tempt us most ... and least and ...

Lead us not into temptation, yet, should we encounter evil, and we shall, for such is our fallen, broken, hurting world, then ....

Deliver us from evil.

You have in the past; You do daily; You shall in the future.

"Yeah, though I walk through the valley of dark shadows," the shadow of death, "I will fear no evil for Thou art with me."

Remind us that neither darkness nor death can overcome us with evil when Thou art present with us.

Hear us, Oh Adonai, for all that we have and are and ever shall be, is Thine.

Indeed, Thine is the Kingdom.

It is all Thine!

Thine is the power.

Thou canst (You CAN because YOU ARE, oh great I AM!) bring all of this to pass. Thine is the power!

Thine is the glory!

Glory, honor, and praise to Thee, Thou great Jehovah!

Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever and ever and ever.

Amen and Amen and in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, I pray, we pray, amen and amen!

 

I pray, today, for the rhythm and rhyme to keep step.
I get ahead; I get behind; I get out of sync.
I want and need to catch the pace of the Spirit in Whom I live.
I want to keep step.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. - Galatians 5:25
ESVBIBLE.ORG

Welcome to the morning!

Gloria!
Gloria!
Kyrie eleison!

Lord, have mercy!
Have mercy on me.
And grant that mercy and grace
Like soothing oil and
Refreshing water
Sweetened by Thy love
Shall flow through me into
The lives of all who come to drink,
Of all who come to be renewed.
May I be another light,
Another window, mirror, conduit,
Any metaphor that, materialized,
Brings this mercy to those
Who feel abandoned, lonely, discouraged, and alienated
From Thee, themselves, and others.

Thou who hast given me mercy
So freely and abundantly,
Show forth that same mercy in me
To all who are longing to receive.

I know not how to pray this other than
To offer myself as a receptor and reflector.
I who am needy, come.
I, who am filled and forgiven, go.

Gloria!
Gloria!
Kyrie eleison!

"Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever." 1 Chronicles 16:34 (New King James Version)