Heavenly Father I praise You for standing by my side when life gets very real and very hard. I praise You for giving us the Holy Spirit and for the example of Christ. I praise You, that You did not tell us life would be easy or simple. I praise You that this is not my home but just a training room for when I really get to live. I praise You for the hope that You have placed in my heart to strengthen my faith.
Holy Spirit I feel very wounded and beaten today. I feel that I have suffered and fought with depression, grief, and sorrow. I feel hopeless at times, yet a spark of Your hope is still burning inside me even though I have no explanation of why. Failure is common in my life lately and yet that is not how You see me. You brought my inner parts into being; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for You made me with fear and wonder; marvelous are Your works, and You know me completely. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, and intricately put together in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw me unformed, yet in Your book all my days were written, before any of them came into being. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with You.
Holy Spirit help me to get up, dust myself off, put my armor back on correctly and be ready to face the next trial, spiritual warfare or whatever test or temptation is thrown my way. Let me realize that no matter how bad, how lonely, how unlovely I feel, I am still precious in Your sight and You love me. Remind me that Jesus laid down his life, by being beaten, and scourged and then nailed to a cross just so that I may have life. Remind me that I am Your child and that all I need to do is trust in You like a child trusts a parent. Remind me what Paul said, “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I have learned both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. My God will meet all my needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. And I pray this in order that I may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that I may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified me to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom I have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Holy Spirit help me to be like the wise man that Jesus talked about when He said, “Whoever hears these sayings of Mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on a rock. And the rain descended, the floods beat on that house. And it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.”
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
[Psalms 139:13-18; Philippians 4:11-13; Philippians 4:19; Colossians 1:10-14; Matthew 7:24&25; 1Peter 5:6-11]