A Prayer For Those Who See This Season As One of Unmet Expectations

The Christ following life is one of Great Expectation!

But the timing is His, and we wait with joy and hope.

This encapsulates so well the journey one begins when they meet Christ and accept Him into their hearts.

Lord,

These Holiday times can be hard. We eagerly celebrate Your Son’s birth, knowing His love for us and His sacrifice, but so often the world sets expectations at these times too.

We too easily feel that the expectations of glitter and gifts or of happy families and gleeful children are what this holiday is about.

Help us to focus on You, Lord, and on how we can reach out and share the truth of Your Love And Jesus’ saving sacrifice with those who are wounded and aching in this season.

Help those who look around and only see the hard, the bad, the unmet expectations of their lives and times. Help them to know Your comfort. Help them to begin or continue this journey of following Christ.

May we celebrate His birth and joyfully expect His return together in this coming month, knowing that the plans You have for our future are better and more worth our focus than anything that came before.

In Jesus’ Holy Name, Amen

His plans for you are better, follow Him, study the Word! He can and will heal any life, and take you from this world into Eternity With HIM.

A Prayer For Hope Desperately Needed

So be strong and courageous, all you who put your hope in the Lord! - Psalm 31:24 

We put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield.In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone. - Psalm 33:20-22 

We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth, not knowing who will spend it.And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you.Rescue me from my rebellion. Do not let fools mock me. - Psalm 39:6-8 

Are you hopeless? It seems to me that everyone I know not only in America, but in the world today, is suffering a terminal hopelessness. Except my Christian friends.

Don’t get me wrong, we wrestle with it some. All I know who hope in Christ can see how hopeless and helpless and terrible the world is. We feel that human feeling of knowing there’s absolutely no hope for things going so wrong all around us. Things so very far out of our control.

But we have a hope in Christ that is unlike any sort of idea of hope the world can contain.

It isn’t a general idea that things might get better.

It isn’t a pollyanna-ish decision to look on the bright side.

It is a well researched and committed decision to choose to trust in the promise of a Creator Father God who has never broken a promise.

Research it. In the Bible, there’s no broken promises from God. He doesn’t break His covenant to us.

He is the ultimate promise keeper, the ultimate provider, the miracle maker, the way giver.

We don’t need extreme naivete or a determination to close our eyes and ears away from seeing the real problems of the world.

We Christians can see the truth and depth of the battle between good and evil, and we can still have an enduring hope.

Our hope is in fact a trust in the promises of the Faithful One who has said we are sheltered by His Son’s sacrifice, even from the death caused by our own sin. He offered it freely and we accept it humbly, and once that is complete in us, we never need to lose hope. We need never take back our trust that no matter what happens in this world, even beyond death, we will have freedom and everlasting life.

Lord,

Thank You for the everlasting hope only You can offer or provide. Thank You for the protection and provision You give from this harsh and often even torturous world.

In Jesus’ Holy Name, Amen.

A Prayer For Hopeless Times

You, O Adonay, are good and forgiving, full of mercy toward everyone who calls out to you.

Psalm 86:5

Lord,

We have no right to be hopeless when You love us so much! We, who deserve nothing so much as what we get for our own bad decisions, we get Your mercy instead.

We should be faced with judgment, in a fair world, for each of our sins. And instead, You sent us Your Son to create Justice between us.

How can we be hopeless, then, in the face of this world and its hard truths? When all we need to do is turn to You.

Just for the crying out, You hear us, You come to us, You save us! Only for the asking, You provide for us, You protect us!

Help us to seek Your face in the face of any hopeless thought. Help us to seek Your wings, and hide under them, in the face of any earthly trouble.

You alone, Lord, make us dwell in safety.

What freedom in that Truth!

In The Holy and Righteous Name of Jesus’, Amen!

A Prayer for Exultation in Tribulation

Dear Lord,

Please, help us to exult in our trials as we know they are sent from you to aid us along your path for our lives. We have been feeling trod upon by life lately, especially my husband, and I feel as if all of my efforts to help buoy him are failing. I hate to see him feeling so down and mired in the day to day grind, and yet, we know you sent us his job to support our family and we try to be grateful. Still, it’s often hard to remember that you also sent us this time to feel mired, this time to struggle, and we may not see exactly why, but we know from your word that you do so to teach us to persevere. We thank you for the lesson, Lord, and for the fact that we know we can call on you for comfort and aid as we learn it. Lord, please help us to persevere, and help us to appreciate the boon to our character, and help us to find that hope you promised so we may again be lifted up on your word through our lives. Thank you so much, Dear Lord, In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

 

Scripture reference:

Romans 5:2-4

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and [a]we exult in hope of the glory of God.3 And not only this, but [b]we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;

Footnotes:

1. Romans 5:2 Or let us exult
2. Romans 5:3 Or let us also exult