Saturday, December 31, 2016

A Prayer Shaped From Psalm 121 and Other Bible Readings From Today

         O Lord God Almighty, creator of heaven and earth and all that is within, blessed be your holy name, now and forever. The heavens declare your praise with its vastness and mystery. The whole earth reflects your majesty and splendor with power, with life, with beauty, and grandeur. All of creation calls me to worship you and you alone, who made it all and keeps it all even though the curse of sin upon it. Still you keep your creation in order and use it to point people to you carrying out your purpose for it from the beginning.
         And you created me, O Lord, and I worship you, the one who began my life. And you have kept me, and watched over me, guarded me, and guided me even though I rebelled, like Adam and Eve, and was bent against you. Still you kept me and did not cast me away. Thank you, God, my Father.
         You kept me alive and sent the Holy Spirit who revealed the emptiness of being lost and showed me Christ Jesus on the cross dying for me, in my place. You gave me faith as a gift to believe in Christ, and that his life, raised up on the third day, was mine. Thank you, God. And you have kept me, guarded me, and guided me in Christ and always will. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Through times of plenty and through times of poverty, you have always been with me and have kept me from being lost. Even when I wandered so far away from you, you were there with me, refusing to give me over to my rebellion, selfishness, lust, and greed.
         Forgive me, Lord, for those times, when I was not myself but was denying my true identity in you. Teach me, Lord, to recognize those temptations and to trust and follow you away from them. Lead me not into it; lead me out of it. I pray. Give me confidence in who you are in me; your strength, your power, your joy, your purpose for keeping me. Hallelujah.
         Today, Lord, I pray against the things in our world that are destroying life; I pray against abortion, sex-trafficking, and terrorism, and all of the horror it breeds. Bring down these strongholds of death by the spread of the word of Life, the gospel, and may it go forth throughout the whole earth.

         I also pray for….in the name of Jesus, I pray. AMEN.

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