Prayer For Busy Life
Lord, help me to love as you love me. Help me love you and love my neighbors. My neighbors include so many -- friends, family, coworkers, actual neighbors, my community, my church community. Help me love these people. It's so easy to love humanity and despise the person in the next house over. Help my love come from you. Help me see others as you see them - beloved.
Lord, I'll admit it: I am weary. So, so tired. I desperately need rest. But can I be honest? Even when I try to rest, my heart and mind race. But Lord, I know you provide a deeper rest. Your rest goes beyond sleep - it settles my heart, calms my spirit, soothes my soul. Lord, I'm desperate for that rest. Please, give me your rest! I surrender these stressful burdens to you. Take them, help me through them. Lord, help me rest in you.
Lord, thank you for my job. Thank you that the work I do is important. I am making order out of chaos. I am doing good and I pray it blesses you. Help me see the goodness of my work. Help me see ways to bless others as I work. Lord, thank you for helping me provide for my family in this way. Help me bless others as you have blessed me. And help me, above all, be a good steward of what you've given me.
Lord, protect me! Protect me from injury and harm, disease and painful words. Protect me from Satan and his attempts to dispair. Protect me from myself and my tendency to do too much self-reflection. Protect me from my own sin of envy, greed, lust... you name it, I need your protection, Lord! Thank you for always protecting me. You are my shield, you hide me under your wing. Thank you Lord.
Lord, give me strength for today. I am tired, mostly tired of battling my sinfulness and the brokenness of this world and all the ways it manifests itself: in heavy traffic, in injuries and insults, in small trials that get under my skin and get my focus off of you. I need strength to handle all of these things with grace. I am incapable apart from you! Give me strength, O Lord I pray!
Lord, you are so, so good. There is no darkness within you, no meanness, no harshness. You are fully good and fully good to me, even as I know you allow trials to test me. Help me take each trial that comes and see it as an opportunity to faithfully give you glory.
Lord, be with me. Already I feel consumed with overwhelm as I think about all that is before me today. Feelings of frustration have already started to surface as little annoyances pop up. Lord, I give these to you. Be with me now. Spirit, protect me from myself -- my tendency to anger or impatience. Help me see my life through your eyes, Father.
Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you that you hold all of our days and know everything that will happen today. Please, go before me today. Give me strength in the midst of weariness and hope in the midst of any frustrations or hurts. I need you Lord, every hour, I need you. I surrender this day to you, trusting in your mercy, strength and grace.