Author: Sahed

A Prayer about Gospel Gardening  

And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James 3:18)  

Jesus, you know my less than stellar history of being a backyard gardener. Like the time I planted the cucumbers and the cantaloupe too close to one another and, through the wonder of cross-pollination, grew either “catacumbers” or “cuculoupes”— an interesting sight but worthless to eat.

However, I praise you that there’s at least one kind of farming for which there’s no possibility of failed crops. When we sow in peace— when we choose to live as gospel gardeners— there’s great assurance of luscious, delectable, righteous fruit.

Jesus, you are the ultimate Peacemaker. Our only hope for a good crop of reconciliation and restoration is entirely bound up with you. I’ve borne the worthless fruit of both my peace-breaking and my peace faking in the past. 

Jesus, keep me alive to the peacemaking you have already accomplished between yourself and me. While I was your enemy, you died for me, destroying the hostility, deconstructing the enmity, and displacing my insanity through the gospel of peace. You have reconciled me to yourself through the price of your blood. You have secured the ultimate reconstruction and “shaloming” of my whole being. The coming harvest of glorification is not the least bit in doubt. You will bring to completion the good work you have begun in each of us and your universe. There’s no chance of crop failure, none! Don’t let me forget this hope for one nanosecond.

Give me your patience when gospel gardening takes much longer than I want. Give me courage when you send me to people and situations I want to avoid like canned asparagus. Give me love, your love, for you have called me to people, not to a project. I pray in your peacemaking name, Lord Jesus.

Amen. 

A Prayer about Godly Jealousy  

I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. (2 Cor. 11:2–3 NIV)  

Dear Jesus, nothing good has ever come out of my jealousy—my insecure possessiveness. But nothing but good arises from godly jealousy— your intensely committed love, your determination “to have and to hold” your bride for yourself and to enjoy her forever.

What could be a greater compliment to any of us than to know that you are jealous for us— jealous for me— jealous and zealous for the affection of our hearts, the pleasure of our company, the intimacy of our communion? I believe this, Lord Jesus. I want to believe it more. Heal and free me from my unbelief.

That you really want us, desire us, and enjoy us is almost too much to take in. That you are actually saying today in the gospel, in this very moment, “Come away, my beloved . . . my desire is for you, my banner over you is love . . .” seems impossible and, tragically, at times not enough. 

I can certainly understand why Paul was so concerned about the heart drift of the Corinthian believers. For surely Satan is always seeking to lead us away from the simplicity and purity of devotion to you, Jesus, our great lover and Lord. When he distracts, deceives, and draws me away from the wonders of your love, everything else is affected.

I begin to look to people, “stuff,” and circumstances more than I look to you for life, satisfaction, joy, and a genuine sense of completion. Oh, foolish man that I am. Oh, how I long for the day of no more illusions or delusions, no more deceived thinking or divided heart, no more ungodly jealousy or ungodly anything. Hasten that day, Jesus; hasten that day. 

But in this day, give me enough gospel manna, enough sanity, and enough gospel freedom to live and to love as yours— delightfully yours, belovedly yours. I pray in Jesus’ name.

Amen. 

A Prayer about Heart Strength  

It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace. (Heb. 13:9 NIV)  

Lord Jesus, as you know, I’ve lost friends and family members to heart disease of the congenital and life choice varieties. I’ve also had many other friends suffer heart attacks, both young and old alike. So the theme of heart care is personal to me, and the issue of stewarding my health is of great importance to me and indeed a part of living to your glory. 

However, what will it profit me if I eat only foods from Whole Foods, can still run an eight minute mile at age sixty, have a cholesterol level of 125 and a resting heart rate of 59, and yet have a heart that is weak in grace? I remember the apostle Paul weighing in on this topic too when he said that physical training definitely has some value, but godliness has value for all things, for both this life and the life to come (1 Tim. 4:8). 

So my prayer today, Jesus, is about heart strength through grace. Lead me to the gym, the training table, the sauna, the spa, the regimen that will cause my heart to grow stronger and stronger and stronger in your grace. For surely the more my heart is strengthened by grace, the more it will beat for your glory, be healed of heartbreaks and heartaches, and have less room for idols. 

As my heart is strengthened by grace, I will repent quicker, forgive deeper, and love louder. I will throw more gospel parties and fewer pity parties. I will not think less of me; I will just think about me less of the time. I think I’ll stop right there, Jesus, and enter this day with that thought, that longing, and that great hope. Indeed, it is good, it is very good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace. I pray in your name and for your glory.

Amen. 

A Prayer of Longing for an Outpouring of the Holy Spirit  

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.” (Ezek. 37:1–6)

Gracious heavenly Father, I’ve always prayed that I’d get to experience one significant revival before you choose to take me to the revival of all revivals, heaven itself. I renew that prayer today, and I’m going to be quite specific. 

For the glory of Jesus alone, I ask you to demonstrate the truth, beauty, and power of the gospel by pouring out the Holy Spirit on our church family in a most tangible and transforming way. My hope is in knowing that you are a far more generous God than we are a desperate people, and we are desperate. We need what you alone can give, Father. Make yourself unmistakably known as the Lord in our midst. 

Prophesy the gospel to our dry, scattered bones. Drench our drought with the dew of heaven. Breathe your life-giving breath into our empty lungs. Reattach brothers and sisters to one another as one body, for we are in great relational distress. The only “skin” we need is the covering you’ve already given us— the righteousness of Jesus. May our glorious standing in grace humble us, quiet our racing hearts, bridle our wagging tongues, and send us to our faces before you, prostrate and repentant. 

You are a God who gives grace to the humble, but also one who resists and knows the proud from afar. Have mercy on us; have mercy on me. I cannot imagine a better story to be a part of than for our repentance and transformation to become far more notorious than our sin and brokenness. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on us. I pray in Jesus’ merciful and mighty name.

Amen. 

A Prayer about Grace Allergies  

There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:7–10)  

Dear Lord Jesus, you spoke these inviting words of hope to a broken woman trying her very best to keep her distance from you. She’d been on a quest to find life in the arms of men— many men— and it obviously wasn’t working for her very well. The more she tried to evade your gaze, the more you simply applied your grace. She ran; you pursued. She danced around; you stopped the music. How I praise you that you came to seek and save the lost, not just broadcast an offer from the distance. 

Though the details of my story are different from this nameless Samaritan an’s, the same foolish strategy is there: playing games with you, like hide-and-seek, only I do all the hiding and you do all the seeking. I wish this were just true of me a long, long time ago, but I still default to this insanity. 

Jesus, deliver us from grace allergies— living with an aversion to the gospel. Why we choose broken cisterns, dumb idols, and self-help over your love is sheer madness. Grace is for sinners, not for pretenders, posers, and performers. You mean to heal us, not harm us; embrace us, not embarrass us; succor us with compassion, not shame us with contempt. 

So, Jesus, once again I bring real thirst to you today. I bring my penchant to avoid you. I bring my allergic reactions to the gospel. I bring my excuse making, my unbelief, my pride, my self righteousness. I bring that part of me that would rather help others discover your grace than partake of it for myself. 

I ask you for a fresh imbibing of living water, sufficient for the needs of my heart and the demands of this day. May this be a twenty four hour period in which I spontaneously join the chorus of many others who are singing, “Come see the man who told me everything I ever did, and he still loves me and is bent on my freedom. Certainly this is the Messiah, the Savior, the Lord. . . . He is Jesus!” I pray in your pursuing and all satisfying name.

Amen. 

A Prayer about Thick Skin and a Big Heart  

Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written: “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but over- come evil with good. (Rom. 12:17–21)  

Lord Jesus, apart from your presence and your grace, the admonitions in this one passage mock our sensibilities. We cannot and we will not live this way without you, Jesus. Everything within us instinctively wants to get even when we are hurt by others. 

Whether it’s a “lighthearted” insult or an outright assault, whether it’s our for- gotten birthday or a remembered failure, whether we’re excluded from a party or included in someone’s madness, relationships hurt like nothing else. And so often, too often, the pain we feel gets recycled and redistributed to others. 

Jesus, we ask you for thick skin and a big heart. We want to love well— to love to your glory— when we experience everything from unintended slights to fully intended harm. Where evil has already deeply wounded us or is presently stalking, remind us that you will repay, you will avenge. Make this real to us and not just a vague spiritual maxim. 

Indeed, more clearly than we see the enemies of beauty, let us see the wonders of your cross. More than we desire to see burning coals heaped on their heads, let us see you, Jesus. The only way we can even imagine overcoming evil with good is by remembering you’ve already secured the utter annihilation of all evil and darkness. 

But we confess, Jesus, we’re clueless about feeding hungry, thirsty enemies. Take our hand and show us the way. No one does this better than you.

And Jesus, where we’re just too sensitive, too easily offended, too quick to keep a record of wrongs done to us, too slow to overlook what can and what should be overlooked, have mercy on us, but also be at work within us. Free us to do the right thing, the gospel thing. As far as we are able, as far as it depends on us, show us how to make peace, guard peace, nurture peace with everyone. All of this is simply impossible apart from you, Jesus. We pray in your holy and sufficient name.

Amen. 

A Prayer in Praise of God’s Care  

Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Pet. 5:7)  

Loving Father, it’s incredibly comforting to begin this day remembering how much you care for your children. This is always good news to me, but especially this week. The combination of what I’ve taken on plus the burdens that have been laid at my feet are way too much for me to carry. I need your kind heart and broad shoulders. 

So by faith, right now, with palms up, I cast my cares upon you, gracious Father. Carry my burdens for the people I love— dear friends I so wish I could change. Sometimes I foolishly think if you’d only let me be the fourth member of the Trinity for fifteen minutes, I could do a lot of good in the lives of a lot of people. What arrogance! You haven’t called me to fix anyone but to love as Jesus loves me. You haven’t called me to live with indifference but to live with deference to you. You are God and I am so very not. 

Receive my anxieties about living in a world with a broken economy, the ongoing threat of terror, and the increase of diseases, even things like the swine flu. Father, I cannot add one minute to my life through worry. In fact, I can take a lot away from my life through trying to carry burdens you alone can carry. Turn my “What ifs?” into “Now that’s”—now that Jesus has risen from the dead, everything has changed. You’ve numbered my hairs and my days.

You have the hearts of every king in your hand. Nothing catches you off guard or by surprise. There are no wrinkles in your brow and there’s no second-guessing in your courts. You give and you take away— blessed be your name, O Lord. 

Whenever I am tempted to doubt your burden-bearing care, may Jesus’ cross loom large in my gaze. For it was there, Lord, where you bore the greatest of all my burdens— my sin— and demonstrated the incomparable extent of your care. I pray in Jesus’ matchless name.

Amen. 

A Prayer about Jesus as a Mother Hen  

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you would not! (Luke 13:34) 

Dear Jesus, of all the pictures you painted and metaphors you used to help us understand who you are and how you love, I have to admit, “mother hen” never made its way into my top five. And yet as I ponder this image, it profoundly endears you to my heart. It makes me want to know and worship you all the more. 

That you chose such a metaphor says much about the depths of your affection and the intensity of your engagement in our lives. It also reveals how fragile, vulnerable, and foolish we are as your chicks. 

Jesus, I praise you today for your ongoing commitment to gather me, because I am “prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; prone to leave the God I love.” Keep running after me, Jesus, when I drift naively and when I roam wantonly to places I have no business exploring. 

Jesus, I praise you today that like a mother hen, you gather me and place me under your wings, next to your heart. You are such a compassionate, kind, tender Savior. How foolish I am to think otherwise. How foolish I am to think there’s any better place to be than under your “wings,” in the embrace of your grace. Though a nursing mother may even forget her suckling child (Isa. 49:15), you will never forget or forsake one of your chicks. Because the gospel is true and powerful, I am willing to be gathered today. I pray in your gracious name.

Amen. 

A Prayer about the Gift of Affliction  

It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.
(Ps. 119:71 NIV)  

Patient Father, only a humble certainty about your love could have moved King David to praise you for the “gift” of affliction. The same is just as true for me. I well remember all the years I spent trying to spiritually finagle my way out of harm’s way— believing that if I just claimed the right verses, prayed the right prayers, did the right things, then I’d have an “abundant life” filled with “blessings” and marked by a scarcity of difficulties. 

I wanted you to be a “sugar daddy” rather than “Abba, Father.” I wasn’t thinking about learning your decrees but about escaping discomfort. 

Lord Jesus, because you took all the afflictions I deserved as a sinful rebel, I’m now afflicted only as a beloved son. Because of you, Jesus, I’m not afraid of God as my judge, but I revere and love him as my Father. Only because of you, Jesus, I no longer despise or dread the decrees of God, but I delight in them. Indeed, Father, your decrees are not rules by which I earn anything from you; they are the wisdom by which I learn about everything from you. 

Holy Spirit, I gratefully and expectantly ask you to keep me in this journey and joy of gospel freedom, even this one day. I pray in Jesus’ name.

Amen. 

A Prayer about God at Work in the Pain  

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. (Jer. 29:11)  

Heavenly Father, there’s simply no other god as merciful, gracious, and engaged as you. Your forbearance is immeasurable; your kindness is inexhaustible; your plans are irrepressible. 

When your people received this letter of encouragement from Jeremiah, they were in exile in Babylon. How could they not feel bereft, bewildered, even betrayed by you? Yet we know by your own testimony, Father, that when you lead us into difficult seasons, it’s not to punish us but to prosper us. When you send hard- ships, it’s not to bring us harm but to give us hope. When you discipline us, it’s not to send us into the “doghouse” of your displeasure but to guarantee our good future. 

It’s so comforting to remember that you always know exactly what you are doing with your people and everything else in the world. You know the plans you have for us, individually and corporately. There’s no happenstance in heaven. You don’t make up things as you go along. You’re not a God who reacts out of irritation, but one who always acts out of great affection. There are no coincidences, just providences. “Stuff” doesn’t just happen; sovereignty is always happening. 

Father, this way of thinking would be utter madness if you never sent Jesus— a big-time spitting into the wind; the spin of all spins; delusional at best, demonic at worst. But Jesus is the “yes” to every promise you have made. His life, death, and resurrection are the guarantee of our gospel prosperity, living hope, and glorious future. Apart from Jesus there is only unimaginable hopelessness. Because of Jesus there is joy unspeakable. 

So bring the truth, grace, and power of this gospel into our current situations, into our personal stories of pain, into the brokenness in our local churches, and into the needs of our communities.

Turn our sighs into songs, our cynicism into servant hood, and our grumblings into the rumblings of a coming visitation of the Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ triumphant and compassionate name.

Amen.