A Prayer For Our Enemies

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Matthew 5:43-45

Lord, we all have enemies in life, the personal and idealogical kinds. Help us to bless them. Remind us to pray for Your best for them. Knowing in our hearts that You love them as You do us.

You also watched them, as they were formed in Mother’s wombs. You also counted each hair on their heads. You know them as well as You do us, Lord, and if they aren’t saved by the blood of Your Son, You ache for the day they will.

Lord, if they live against You and make themselves enemies of Yours, we pray against them and seek Your justice, but we also pray for them. May they get so sick of the dragging down of the devil that they begin to seek rescue in the only place it can be found: in Your arms!

We pray this sincerely and humbly, knowing that without Your armor we would be as vulnerable to the Devil’s schemes, knowing that without the saving You offered through Your Son, we would be just as lost.

In Jesus’ Holy Name, Amen

A Prayer For Uncertain Moments

2 Timothy 1:7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Lord, be with my husband during all his trials today. Remind us both that this is the day You have made and that You are going to lead us if we come to You before every decision. Help us, Lord, to face what comes without fear or worry, knowing You are with us always and that You have given us each challenge to grow us closer to You. We are so grateful, Lord, that we can have true and strong confidence because You have led us here and You are leading us to whatever comes next. You have promised to provide all we need and we are so so grateful that we know that includes All things, even skills and abilities, and we can rest in that knowledge. We are so thankful that You are removing any stumbling blocks from our paths and that You are bringing us into Glory and good success so that we can share Your Grace with others. Please, allow us to find a way to keep our jobs and do well in then. Allow us to do good work every day and be shining examples of using faith to get through hard moments. Remove the stumbling blocks that the Devil puts before us, save us when he would use his wiles to speak in our own heads, using those personal pronouns and saying “I can’t do this.” Because we know, Lord, that with You we can do all things, with Your power in us, we have already conquered this world.

  In Jesus’ Holy Name, Amen

A Prayer To Speak In Love

 

Psalm 37:8- Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.

 

Lord, 

I come to You humbly repentant today. I find myself too often using harsh words with others and feeling frustrated. My temper lights like a match scraping sand paper and I hate it. I try to put it away from me, as Your Word says to do, but I am finding it such a struggle. I want to be a good wife and mother, and I want to show these people I love so much how I do appreciate them, and instead I find every moment a fight with the devil. Please, Lord, strike him down and put him behind me as only You can do. Stop these tantrums in my head. Lord, help me to cultivate a kinder voice. Help me to quiet the negativity swirling in my mind so that it doesn’t spill over on to others. Lord, help me, as only You can. Make in me a new heart, one which is healed from past hurts, one which is clean of future worries. Lord, allow me to say more loudly the loving things I think, to act on the sweet impulses in my heart, and to stop acting on the grouchy, irritated, anger that I know You can put down. Help me to speak in Love, help me to come together with my family from a loving place, even in frustrating situations. Help me to put a voice to the times when I need help, and allow me to remember that it’s okay to have emotions, but I am in control of them. My spirit is separate from the feelings of my body and mind and it can overcome any of the negativity I may see. Lord, help me to change what I need to change in myself to make a more loving home and life for my family.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen

A Prayer Against Being A Slave to Worry

My mom and my little sister are having a hard year, and especially a hard Christmas season… Not only is their home (my sister’s only home ever) being threatened by my Mother’s divorce proceedings (my sister’s dad doesn’t want to give it up despite there being no profit in it), but her social security has been messed up since birth and seems to only be more messed up lately, and she’s finally (after 8 months) starting to show some behavioral problems probably due to her father leaving and our baby being born. She’s a very sweet girl, 14 years old but developmentally about 3, and frankly we expected her to have some bumps in the road before this. Still, it came right on the heels of Mom getting news that the Social Security is now further messed up (with wrong information in the file) and April’s father is behind on support (for reasons Support Enforcement hasn’t been able to explain and won’t seem to investigate) and then she found out that April’s dad is still trying to get the house to be sold in the divorce even though there’s no profit in it and all the money for the down payment came from Mom without his help anyhow, and now we’ve found out that our electric bill is skyrocketing because there seems to be a problem with our forced air heat venting under the house and we’re not sure how to investigate it much less fix it. Anyhow, I’m not trying to complain and I don’t even feel very worried or upset about it myself, but my Mom is taking it very hard and feeling very overwhelmed and having a hard time, and so, I’m writing this prayer for her. I hope if you’re having troubles or worries yourself you can take some comfort in it as well. Praying together is always more powerful… will you pray with us today?

 

 

Lord, we so often find ourselves vulnerable to worry. We find ourselves feeling drowned in the concerns of day to day life and the things that are so small to You, and yet we forget to turn to You and allow You to take care of them. Today, Lord, we ask that You place your hand over our lives, and we thank You that You are already working to fix these things that bring such trouble to our minds. Lord, You have told us in our word that  we are no longer slaves and that we have been set free in Christ, but we forget so easily and allow ourselves to be slave to money, slave to culture, slave to social restrictions, and especially slave to worry. We pray today, Lord, that You remind us we are already free because You say so, and that You help us to live our lives with the Faith that you will work to make all these things work out for our good, because You told us You would, Lord. And we are so so grateful for it. Keep us insulated from the Devil’s tampering, Lord, and protect us when he would attack us most strongly. We know that he is nothing compared to your power, Lord, and that worry allows him to gain a foothld. We thank You for putting our minds at ease and for making clear our paths, Lord, In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Verses: I have been set free in Christ. For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery (Galations 5:1)

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purposes. Romans 8:28