God, I thank you for the gift of every new morning; the opportunity to wake up revived and overwhelmed by grace. I thank you for the small reminders you place in our lives of your goodness and mercy. I thank you for the chance that I have to lay my burdens at your feet, to talk to my beloved Savior, and for your constant presence and care. Thank you for the cross, and for your unbelievable mercy that we are defined by.
I pray for my friends who are going through various trials, levels of stress, and heartache. I pray that you will show them your tremendous love and clothe them in your peace. Turn their hearts to you so they will see your face and your face alone in all of the things they are going through. Relive the stress and the business by being present with them in every moment of the day, and remind them of your presence. Show them what decisions to make, bless them with small reminders of your love, and fill them with inexplicable joy. Fill them with gratitude towards you. I pray that you would simply be with them and show them that not only I love them, but even more importantly, you love them perfectly.
I pray for my heart. Lord, I pray for guidance and clarity everyday. I pray for the ability to wake up every morning cheerful and ready to be a light, and the ability to forgive myself when I don’t. I pray for the overwhelming peace that only you can provide, that you would fill me up and I would be overflowing with a grace so real that I cannot even imagine my life without it. I pray for humility and generosity. I pray that I would only be a vessel for your goodness, and that I would become so small that every person I meet would only see you in me, and that every one of my accomplishments only reflect you and tell nothing about my character or talents.
I pray that my stress will be overcome, demolished completely by your presence and your peace. Remind me daily that you are working all things together for my good, because I forget so easily.
I pray for the softening of a heart that is so often hardened. Lord, my heart often hates and judges and turns stone to those I don’t know, those I don’t give a chance to show me who they really are. I pray that you would gift me with so much peace, humility, and grace that I can do nothing but spread love to those around me. I pray that you would take all remnants of hate from my spirit, cleanse my thoughts until they only reflect you, and give me the ability to forgive. Lord, forgiveness is a struggle for me, because even when I think I have forgiven I still haven’t let go...Lord, cut the ropes that are holding me to my grudges and let me be free from the resentment that only keeps me from true devotion to you.
Break me down so completely that I can find no pleasure in any earthly things except through you. Let me be buried so deeply in your mercy that I am nothing without you, and that my being is defined by your love. Let me understand that the only way to experience joy is in you and the things you have given to me. Let no one and nothing distract me from the ultimate goal of being in deep relationship with you. Take those people out of my life that are keeping me from that goal, and guard my heart from any relationships that are harming me and my devotion to you.
Show me what to invest in. Help me be discerning in what you want for me: who to invest in, what to spend my time on, what to pour my soul into. I pray that your paths would be clear to me, and not only that, but that I would be able to relinquish my grasp on my life so that my entire world is in your hands. Take me outside of myself so that I can see the world from different eyes, and cleanse my heart from selfishness so that I can live for serving others and serving you.
Plant your love so deeply in me that it overflows through my actions and words.
Bind my wandering heart to you.
Amen.