A Prayer for Knowing the Voice of Jesus
A prayer based on John 10:7-11. The e-mail didn't sound right, so I forwarded it to our tech director, asking, “Can I trust this?” “No! Don't click it!” he quickly replied, and then pointed out telltale signs of a scam. We live in a day of deception. For example, the other day I googled the word h…
A Prayer for God to be Your Strength
A prayer based on Psalm 10:17-18. You and I may not need to worry about the threat of a jail sentence for our faith, but that doesn't mean life is easy. Cancer, death, heartbreak, chronic pain, and brokenness plague our families, and we ask the same questions that Gulner's son asked. Why doesn't G…
A Prayer for Christ-Like Friends
A prayer based on Luke 5:18-19. There were several times during my college years that I questioned my faith and wondered if God was real. During an especially hard time when my parents were separated, I wondered, “Why do I hurt so bad if God loves me so much?” Instead of answering that question di…
A Prayer to Know Real Love
A prayerbased on 1 John 4:11. But as I look back, I recognize that moments pass very quickly. It's made me look back on the years we have had with my daughter in our home. All the years, and there have been many, and all the good times, and there have been many of those too, play through my mind a…
A Prayer to Trust God's Timing
A prayer based on Psalm 30:5. I often feel guilty about my need to fight, struggle, and strive to believe God when what I can see seems to contradict his truth. I have felt like I should be further along than I really am in my faith journey, and wonder if it lets God down that I'm not. I want to …
A Prayer for Trusted Friends
A prayer based on Daniel 2:17-18. This morning I received an email from a friend asking for prayer. Her husband was getting ready to meet with another man for breakfast who was struggling in some pretty big ways…a difficult marriage, lost job, and major car wreck that totaled his only vehicle the …
A Prayer for Clean Hands and Pure Hearts
A prayer based on Psalm 24:3-4. It seems like such a tall order–clean hands and a pure heart. Knowing we are dust, how can we have clean hands and a pure heart, and how can we encourage our children toward such a lofty goal? Today’s verse doesn't stop with the requirement but tells us how to appro…
A Prayer for Rejoicing
A prayer based on Ecclesiastes 11:5. Certainly, the physical world has many God-given pleasures; gifts to be counted like sunshine on soap bubbles, my child's laughter, and the wind rushing by as I swing with him on the playground. God gives us all things to richly enjoy, yet a life consumed for s…
A Prayer for Proclaiming Jesus
A prayer based on Mark 5:20. Around the time of my 50th birthday, I began to feel the need to study the word and find out specifically what God desires from me as an “older woman.” I'd raised two children and had been spending time with younger women for several years, but as my children were ente…
A Prayer for Deeper Confidence in God
A prayer based on Acts 14:21-22. In the movie Miracle on 34th St. the main character convinces herself to believe in Santa. Sitting in her bed, she says, “I believe, I believe…it’s silly, but I believe.” We often approach our Christian faith the same way. We simply close our eyes, tighten our fis…