Father God,

Today, I pray that as in Isaiah 44:25-26, that You would frustrate the signs of liars, make fools of diviners, turn the wise men back, and make their knowledge foolish as you simultaneously confirm the word of Your servant and fulfil the counsel of Your servant’s messengers.

We live in a day where both liars outside the church and liars supposedly inside the church who deny You and deny Your Word. They claim both superior supernatural knowledge and superior human knowledge that they claim is greater than Your wisdom.

Without the working of Your Word and Your Spirit in Your remnant, we would be deceived also.

Make their ways to be trapped in confusion of darkness even as Your light makes all others see their foolishness to the point of mocking and jeering. Grant that we, Your people would overcome and walk in Your light, Your ways, Your Word, by Your Spirit.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray that You would speak clearly through Your Spirit to make Your people understand what our role as earthly citizens should be while we walk as heavenly citizens upon this earth. You made us body and spirit, commanding us to take dominion of this earth which requires us to relate one with another. You commanded us to love one another, to teach, to admonish, to address sins with one another, to administer justice, and to proclaim truth.

How we walk on this earth as individuals carrying out these commands intersects with how we collectively govern different bodies of people. The Bible provides that truth, but we need Your Spirit to make our minds to understand so that we can overcome the sinful nature which we are still mortifying.

Show us clearly how to apply Your truths to our voting, our participation in government, our alliance, to our emphases, to our public statements. Keep us in remembrance that Your Word applies to all of life as You are sovereign over all areas of life, personal and public, individual and collective.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen

Father God,

Today, I pray that You would have mercy on Your children in this nation, that we would not be deceived by those inside the church or outside the church who want to remove the Your influence through the church on the laws of our nation.

We are called to be a witness to the world of Your glory.

We are called to take every thought captive to Your will.

We are called to speak truth in all settings of our daily walk.

We are to tear down the gates of hell.

We are to proclaim God’s sovereignty over every aspect of life.

We are to love one another so that the world knows we belong to You.

Grant that we may see clearly how to vote, how to advocate for righteousness, how to resist wickedness, how to care for the persecuted, and how to stand for Your Word in all of life. Let us never forget that it all belongs to You and we are only stewards of these gifts.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray that we, the people of God, would find peace and rest in the reality of Isaiah 44:22. The simple phrase “return to me, for I have redeemed you” meant that You, o Lord, had completed the work of redemption, not needing man’s contribution. Israel and we today belong to You. The call is not to come in order to be converted, but to come because You redeemed us.

We clearly don’t fully comprehend the fullness of this or the first half of the verse where You blot out transgressions which are nothing more than cloud and mist. Your work of redemption is not hindered by our works once You set Your Name upon us as Your elect.

Teach us to walk in the joy of having our transgressions blotted out. Let that replay over and over in our minds until it soaks and saturates all our moments of the days and of our nights.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

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Father God,

Today, I pray to You, the One Redeemer and One Provider of all good things, that You might hear my cries and the cries of Your remnant for strength for the day regardless of what may come. Each of us has something that we must face today. Each of us have physical, emotional, relational, and ultimately spiritual challenges standing before us today.

Grant that we have the faith to see through these challenges, through those waves, through those clouds and see You leading us as the Good Shepherd through to the green pastures and still waters. Then fill our bodies and spirits with the strength and wisdom to step into those challenges and overcome them through the power of the Spirit within us.

Make us overcomers of today’s challenges and build our faith in knowing that You will do the same for tomorrow’s challenges.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray that Your children would see where we trust in modern idols which are just as worthless and foolish and shameful as those described in Isaiah 44:9-10. The idols of Isaiah’s day were wood and metal fashioned by the hands of craftsmen. The idols of our day are less immediately tangible, but just as foolish.

Today, man trusts in the power of their own hands whether that comes in following worldly philosophies, in trusting the plans of man in government, or simply the advancement of civilization and technology. Ultimately, it stills comes down to not putting our trust in the God of the Bible, in the One who redeemed us, in the Triune God whom we should worship and trust.

Cause us to see where we are trusting in today’s idols and let us cast them aside, looking again to the One who holds all things in Your hands, then One who determines our lives. Forgive us and set us free from these worldly bonds which bind us spiritually.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen

Father God,

Today, I pray for the wisdom promised by James as we walk through this world with so many choices and decisions pressed upon us day by day. I pray that as we look not to ourselves, but look to Your provision of light and insight, You would enable us to choose wisely and righteously.

May Your Spirit manifest to us the breadth and depth of Scripture in how we are to walk in it each day. As You reveal that way to us more clearly, grant us the courage to walk in it that we might not transgress against You nor stumble.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray that Your children would know the depths of the assurance we are to enjoy in the declaration of the Most High God that everything rests on His work and not ours as we are taught in Isaiah 44:6-8.

We do not serve an idol or other man-made imagination that Isaiah was speaking against in the surrounding verses and chapters. We serve the first and the last, the one who proclaims what is to come to pass and then brings it about. Nothing stands in Your way of carrying out Your will for Your children.

Let us take to the depths of our hearts to “Fear not, nor be afraid” (ESV). Cause our assurance to find no other rock on which to stand besides You, o Lord. In that, let us enjoy the peace that transcends all understanding.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray for the broken bodied whose spirits are heavy. In our day of ease and comfort, of convenience and luxury, much is taken for granted until brokenness reminds us of our frailty. Once we travel down the cliffs of suffering, there is a loneliness as we see others walking smooth paths of ease.

Those on the smooth paths often don’t even look down to see the broken, but go about life flittering from one comfort to the next convenience. Even when they look down, they wonder why the broken are moving so slow through life. Sometimes, they do try to offer guidance or help, but it is only superficial and thin as they don’t fully understand the depths of the broken’s experience.

I pray that You would catch the tears of the broken in a bottle (Ps. 56:8) and be their rock. Though the comfortable of this world may never understand, You, our Father, our Creator, our Sustainer understand and care for us tenderly. Work through Your Spirit to comfort and work through the hands of those around the broken to lift them up.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

    Today, I pray the church would awaken from its slumber, would open its eyes and see where it is guilty of Israel’s sin in Isaiah 43:22-24, and then repent.  We look down upon Israel and ask how they could so forget the holiness and the commands of their God who had delivered them, yet we so easily slip into habits and patterns of religious activity devoid of real worship. 

     We believe that the God of creation, the Sustainer of all things, the Sovereign is satisfied with our rituals and repetitions when You want our hearts, our desires, our lives.  You have purchased us by the blood of Christ as foretold in Isaiah 43:25 where You blot out transgressions.  Why do we think that our bloodless offerings of today would satisfy any more than the blood sacrifices did in that day?

      Purify our hearts so that our worship may be pleasing in Your sight.  Turn us from the polite sins, the worldly compromises, the comfortable sins of our culture.  Create in us a clean heart, O Lord. 

In Christ’s Name,

Amen