Heavenly Father I praise You that when life gets real and very hard I can look up and realize that You created me specifically to face whatever is in my way. I praise You for the hope that burns within my heart that no one can take from me. I praise You that I was fearfully and wonderfully made and that Your design was imprinted within my DNA before I was formed.
Holy Spirit I ask that You would strengthen and embolden my faith and hope each day as I walk this earth. My heart aches for the loss of my son. My mind struggles with the memories of finding him gone, when I was in the truck crash, the frustration of my knee not healing as fast as I would like, having cancer again after 18 years, of having such a hard time keeping my sugar down so I don’t have to take medications. Help me to remember that this life is a marathon not a sprint. Help me to remember all the good times I had with my son Philip while he was here on the earth. Remind me of the fact that I have a daughter and son who I love very much who face life and troubles and need me to support them with prayer, with wisdom and with attention. Never let me even hint at not being fully enthralled with the wife of my youth. Let me always love her with the same love as what You demonstrated for the church. Help me to invest in and love on my grandsons and granddaughter. Let me live a life that gives them a legacy of growing slowly but continuously in faith. Help me to be supportive, loving and intentional.
Holy Spirit help me to be a living sacrifice for You each day so that I can learn and act upon Your will. Help me to focus on what is good and pure and to seek You all day as I work, drive and do life. Help me to renew my mind by worshiping in song, praise and reading of scriptures and books that improve my wisdom and understanding of You. Let my hope grow and shine bright so that others will seek to understand the life You have given me, and that You created them uniquely also. Let me be a teacher to those who seek to learn how to pray Your word back to You.
Holy Spirit help me to be strengthened by the prayer Jesus made and John recorded when he said, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You. May they also be one in Us, that the world may believe that You have sent Me. I have given them the glory which You gave Me, that they may be one even as We are one: I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfect in unity, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved me.” [John 17:20-23]
Holy Spirit as I fulfill the words of Christ when He said, “Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in Me will do the works that I do also. And he will do greater works than these, because I am going to My Father. I will do whatever you ask in My name, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” [John 14:12-14] Let me ask wisely so that I always glorify You and that I do not seek what is not of Your will. Let me learn from the Spirit what it is I am to pray daily so that I can see not only miracles, wonders and marvelous things happen but I will know that it is because of Your power, my faith, and that it glorifies You. I seek to live a life that complete surrenders my will, my pride and my limited understanding so that I can pray and live with the inherited power of You flowing through me and strengthening me because I am weak unless I am completely Yours.
Holy Spirit guide my thoughts, my words, my actions and my spirit so that I can demonstrate Your love and be full of the hope that I am completely surrendered to You. In Jesus’ name, the one who sings and prays over me daily, Amen.