Father God,

Today, I pray for Truth to prevail in our nation by Your people seeing it, comprehending it, and proclaiming it. I pray that those who call You Father would be filled with the wisdom of the tribe of Issachar (I Chron 12:32), filled with the courage of a lion, and filled with the strength of the Holy Spirit.

I pray that You would speak through such Godly leaders to the masses who are still swayed by the smooth talk of the world and remove the scales from Your people’s eyes. I pray that Your Truth would prevail over the lies and deceptions of the world.

l pray that each of us would desire and diligently seek to be like the tribe of Issachar in our pursuit of glorifying Your Name with all that we do in life (Col. 3:23).

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,
Today, I pray for the ability to sit quietly before Your face and to enjoy Your glory and beauty, allowing that time of quietness to then carry forward into the rest of my day of the world’s chaos. While I do need that time of pouring out my heart and soul to You, repenting and seeking Your provision, I also need that time of gazing upon Your glory and remembering Your love in quietness and awe.

Let each of us who are known by You as Your children be drawn into that presence daily so that we step into each day with that calmness giving us strength, wisdom, courage, and hope for whatever we face. As we seek You in union with Christ, on account of His finished work, grant that we may enjoy time Coram Deo each day.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray that You would restore a right understanding of relationship and community to Your people. I pray that we would see not only a setting down of phone screens, but a self-awareness of our need for Your Spirit to reform and revive community. I pray that we would move beyond the superficiality of sociality and restore the Truth that the world show know us by our love for one another lived out in obedience to Your Word.

I pray against the disintegration and isolation of so many living in suffering without others to comfort. I pray against the fingers of chaos of the enemy which disconnect and alienate. I pray against the watered down understanding of what real community is.

I plead that Your Spirit would bring together Your people in the depth of community and fellowship that only You can create despite our brokenness.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray for those who are so weary that they struggle with words, even thoughts to pray. I pray for those who feel in free fall over a cliff who ask what now can preserve them. I pray for those whose struggles are so profound that their numbness extends into their mind and soul leaving them unable to process.

I pray that though their resources and their strength fails them, though the world around them fails them, You, the I am, Yahweh, God Almighty, would deliver them from the hand of the Destroyer who seeks their destruction. Lord God Almighty, answer the prayers of the broken hearted, the broken bodied, those left bound up in their struggle to hold on to hope.

Strike down the Destroyer. Cut off His hand, his fingers that touch the lives of Your Children. Let the sun rise again and bring life that conquers death in all its forms.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen

Father God,

Today, I pray that You would give insight and understand to Your children. Our humanly limitations leave us short so often in earthly and heavenly understanding. We see from an earthly perspective both partially and through cloudy lens. We then try to put those partial and clouded insights together in order to walk in this world through various decisions and trials. Our humanly abilities and best efforts often fall short. We either face forks in the road which are unclear and even when we see clearly from a standpoint of right versus wrong, our courage struggles to press forward against the weight of the world.

Today, I pray that You would pull back the veil of our limitations, and reveal truth to us that guides all of our steps as You call us to pray for all things. We therefore pray first that we would see all decisions in our life from the spiritual standpoint of right versus wrong. I pray that we would see all things through the light of Scripture and have the courage to turn from the wrong and follow the right.

I also pray that as we look upon the decisions before us and see that some choices are not cast in right or wrong, but could be just as Godly in different directions, that You would show us which of these choices are best for us. There are many things we face where no sin can be seen in either direction, but choose a direction we must. After you reveal to us the morality of a decision, unveil to us the choices which lead to the more blessed outcomes for us and our families or others under our care.

Then, as You uncover for us the steps which we should take, give us the strength to move forward, step by step, looking to You all along the way for both the light and the strength to press forward towards walking with You day by day.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

PS: Some days, I find it challenging to put things exactly into words that weigh upon my spirit at the time. In this prayer, in simplest terms, I ask that God guide us in all our steps through all our days leading us to the green pastures of the Good Shepherd.

Father God,

Today, I pray for our nation and its leaders to turn back to You and to Your Truth. I pray that a genuine love of Truth would return to the public square and halls of justice. I pray that the fear of God would drive the multitudes to seek You in Your Word, to submit to that Word, and to pursue holiness and justice in society.

I pray that You would fill the nights of those who refuse to submit with restlessness. For those who rebel against Your Word, may they be constantly burdened by guilt, not able to rest. For those who pervert Your Word, feigning love of the Word, yet turning it into falsehoods as they speak, silence them, remove their influence, and uncover their nakedness.

Forgive us as a people for having looked to the wolves, to the rebels, to our own sinful hearts for light and guidance. Turn our ears and hearts away from them and set our eyes and ears on the only source of Truth in You.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray that we as Your church would not separate the human story of the Bible from the doctrinal teaching of the Bible. One of the easiest distortions to fall into for both preachers and hearers is to focus on one or the other. At the extremes of these ditches, we can probably see the problems, yet we seem to miss the early divisions which cause us to lose sight of the beauty of the Word.

Excessively focusing on the doctrinal truths or the technical debates over things like Jesus telling Mary Magdalene to not cling for He had not yet ascended to the Father, is not wrong, but unless we also gaze upon the distress of Mary who only wanted to return Jesus’ body to its rightful tomb, we can lose sight of Jesus’ humanity in His care of her.

Solely focusing on the human story of the Bible can also lose sight of the Truths that God conveyed through that story. We have truths in the Word that we will spend our entire lives delving into if we desire to know Him. Those Truths are the foundations through which we interact with our Creator, our Lord and know our God.

It is in the coming together of the divine and the human in Christ Himself which gives us hope for eternity. When we allow that union of the divine and the human to then interact with us in the human story of the Bible, we can know beyond head knowledge that He interacts with our present earthly story. We are drawn into the full reality when we gaze at both the human and divine.

Christ was a real human walking in real earthly history, and as the risen Lord, still walks in our earthly reality. Let us revel and rejoice in Christ’s deep, abiding, and comprehensive presence in our daily lives that did not end with the close of Scripture. Though we may never fully comprehend this union of the divine and the human in earthly reality, may we pursue its fullness with joy.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray that we would both sides of the Truth in Isaiah 51 and 52 as we walk through our present struggles. We can so easily read much of the Old Testament and think how warm and fuzzy it feels to know that God foretold the coming of Christ, yet miss both the depths of what that meant in the moment of its telling as well as what it means for our present walk through life.

As Isaiah tells Israel of their redemption by God Himself as their next of kin, of God Himself being present and speaking to them in the Servant portrayed in the Servant songs of Isaiah, we should stagger under the awe of what Isaiah was telling Israel. The same God who had delivered them from Egypt and Assyria (ch. 52), would act to deliver them spiritually from an even greater danger, the danger of being under God’s judgement. Not only would God do this work, He would do in as “I am”. The very presence of God Himself would deliver them.

As we read this today, we can first feel the weight of such clearness that Christ, the Servant, as “I am” would deliver us, His people, from this spiritual judgement. Second, as we read the surrounding verses of Isaiah, we can recognize how God acts not only in the greater, but also the lesser ways. Filled with earthly reminders of God’s deliverance from earthly oppressors and oppression, we see that God’s deliverance includes the greater spiritual work and thus also the lesser and temporal earthly work. If God will deliver by the hand of Christ our eternal souls, how much will He also care for our earthly bodies during our time upon the earth.

We matter to God and in God’s plans, both in our spirits and in our bodies, with God caring for us in both areas of our being. How comforting and awe-inspiring is it to read of this promise from centuries ago and to know the work has been finished on the cross so that we will see its outworking in the midst of our lives today and all tomorrows.

Let us “know”, as Isaiah describes in 52:6, the Name of the Lord in a fuller way today and thus find joy and peace in that knowledge.

In Christ’s Name,
Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray for a welling up of real fellowship among Your children. We live in a world where the simple ability to communicate with one another is being lost to the point that relationships are formed and lost repeatedly like passing winds blowing one way and then the next. I pray that deep wells of nourishing water would be dug by brothers and sisters in Christ instead of trying to pass from one narrow spring to the next.

I pray that we would each one allow Your Spirit to work in us to deepen our wells until they are filled with water that can quench the thirst of a multitude for community. I pray we would then each learn to reach deep into each other’s wells of fellowship to drink deeply from each other’s lives. I pray that together, we would live and walk drinking deeply from the bonds of mutual Christian loving one another.

Teach us that true bonds of fellowship go beyond a monthly fellowship meal, beyond 5 minutes of small talk after a service, beyond a casual but empty promise to pray for one another that is at best kept by a fleeting “God, please help them”. Teach us how to walk together, mourn together, to rejoice together, to pray together, to comfort one another, to edify one another, to even rebuke one another in love.

Forgive us for having lost the call to love one another in the body of Christ.

In Christ’s Name,

Amen.

Father God,

Today, I pray for the pastors of our nation who carry the burden of shepherding Your People. I pray that You would keep them true to Your Word both in the details of what they proclaim and true to proclaiming Your whole Word for All of Life. I pray that they would not only preach Truth but live out Truth in their lives. I pray that they would not only live Truth in their own lives, but would live as true shepherds, loving the sheep in body and spirit such that the sheep of their flocks would flourish.

As I pray for the true shepherds to grow in their Christ likeness, I also pray against those who stand in the roles but pervert the role as wolves. I pray against those who preach falsehoods in details. I pray against those who steal from the Truth by denying its power and extent. I pray against those who feed off the sheep rather than feed them.

I pray that You would raise up and lift up the true earthly shepherds, equipping them to bless Your People. I pray that You would reveal the false shepherds and remove their influence over Your People.

ln Christ’s Name,

Amen.