Category: March

A Prayer about Jesus’ Way with Words  

A soft answer turns away wrath, 
but a harsh word stirs up anger. 
The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, 
but the mouths of fools pour out folly. (Prov. 15:1–2)  

Patient Jesus, as with so many other Scriptures, this passage makes me think of you. There’s no one more filled with kindness and gentle answers than you. There’s no wiser tongue than yours. Even when I rush into your presence with demands dressed up like questions, arrogance pretending to be confusion, clenched fists rather than raised hands, you remain unnerved, non defensive, and ever so welcoming. 

You’re firm with me but never harsh. You don’t have to be, because you never get irritated, you don’t have any insecurities, and you don’t fear losing an argument. Jesus, you’re not into “saving face” but saving me. 

When I ignore your wooings or act immature in response to your warnings, I simply reveal how little of the gospel I really understand. For there’s nothing about you that justifies any other response from me but humility, gratitude, and submission. 

Jesus, I’m so glad Lent is about repentance and faith in you and not penance and work done by me. As we get closer and closer to Holy Week, let your cross get bigger and bigger in my gaze. For if I had to atone for all the ways I misuse my tongue, if I had to finance redemption to pay for my poor stewardship of words, if I thought I had to gentle my own heart— I would surely despair. 

Jesus, you never gush folly, but only the gospel— the very words of life that are changing me. By the Holy Spirit, preach the gospel to my heart all day long. Free my tongue for your praise and the building up of others. I pray in your ever so glorious name.

Amen. 

A Prayer for Friends Struggling in the Ministry  

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from dis- aster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” (Jon. 4:1–3)

Dear Jesus, you’re stirring my heart today to pray for weary men and women serving in the ministry of the gospel. I wish it weren’t so, but sometimes it takes my own challenges and hardships in ministry for me to hit my knees with compassionate intercession for others. Before your throne of grace, I bring you missionaries, pastors, elders, counselors— a wide range of friends you have called and gift- ed to share and apply the gospel of your grace. 

Many of them are living Jonah’s story. In their heads they still know you to be a God who is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in stead- fast love. But in their hearts they are displeased and angry, disconnected and disillusioned, and some, like Jonah, aren’t sure they want many more days in this world. Have mercy on them, Lord; have great mercy today. 

Jesus, you know all the issues. You know what’s under the anger; what’s compounding the contempt; and what’s fueling the flight. Meet these dear servants of yours right where they are. I pray for their spouses and children as well, for some- times it’s the family members who suffer ministry pangs the most. 

Comfort them with your compassion. Grant them a renewed perspective of eternity. Rekindle hope in their hurting hearts. Where needed, may your kindness drive them to appropriate repentance. Refresh them with whatever means of grace you choose. 

Until you return, Jesus, Satan will continue to mount an all out assault against you by attacking your bride, and especially those called to nourish and prepare your church for the great wedding day. Satan knows he’s lost us for eternity, so he will do anything and everything within his power to bring havoc, heartache, and hell. Use us, however you choose, to encourage your servants, and all the more as we see that great day approaching. We pray in your holy and loving name.

Amen. 

A Prayer about Lenten Weeping and Dancing  

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. (1 Thess. 5:23–24)  

Holy and loving Father, as I continue to pray and read my way through Lent, it’s portions of your Word like this one that make me want to weep and dance at the same time. I feel like weeping over the years I spent in gospel ignorance, a stranger to the ways of grace. I am grateful that you brought me to Jesus but clueless about how you actually change your sons and daughters— I suffered much under the hands of bad theologies, man-centered remedies, and Christless formulas. 

This one passage alone tells me that you’re the God who called me to life in Jesus; you are thoroughly transforming me to be like Jesus; you are keeping my whole being blameless until the day you send Jesus back to finish making all things new— including me! The God of peace you are indeed! Where else can such peace, joy, and assurance be found? 

How did I miss the really good news of the gospel for so long? Why was I such an easy target for performance based spirituality? Why wasn’t I able to recognize corruptions of the gospel sooner? 

I lament the years I spent in seeing Jesus more as my perfect model than as my perfect Righteousness, rededicating my life to Jesus, trying to make him Lord of all things, holding out for a second and third and ninth and seventeenth baptism in the Spirit, instead of savoring a life of union and communion with Jesus. How did I miss so much of the gospel for so very long?

Enough of looking back in sadness. I choose to look up in gladness, for you’ve turned my mourning into dancing, Father. You’ve removed the sackcloth of my self righteousness and have clothed me with the wedding garments of the Lamb. With the music of a coming banquet already emanating from heaven, my prayer is simply this: Dear Father, more and more, and through and through, make me like Jesus. You are faithful and you will do it. I pray with profound gratitude and assurance, in Jesus’ holy name.

Amen. 

A Prayer for Friends Struggling with Pornography  

Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? . . . Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. (Rom. 7:21–24; 8:1–2 NIV)  

Jesus, my heart goes out today for friends and their spouses whose lives are being assaulted by the ravaging and enslaving grip of pornography. I know of no other power sufficient for the task but the gospel. This is why I run to you today with grave concern, but also with great hope. 

O Lord of resurrection and redemption, bring your mercy and might to bear in stunning fashion. Things impossible for us are more than possible for you. You have come to set captives free and to heal the brokenhearted. Pornography is creating an overabundance of both. 

Jesus, for friends somewhere in the pornography continuum of titillation to addiction, we ask you to reveal yourself in the deepest place of their hearts. We ask for the holy gift of godly sorrow, not the short lived remorse of worldly sorrow. For your non condemning love has great power to deliver those who cry, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” (Rom. 7:24 NIV). 

Lead them to that cry, Jesus. They need a lot more than embarrassment and fear; they need contrition and hope. Where pornography has desensitized our friends, resensitize them so they can see and feel the horror of their entrapment and more so— much more so— the wonder of your deliverance. 

For our friends who are married to someone in the talons of pornography, dear Jesus, theirs may be the greater pain and struggle. No one but you can help them with the anger, the disgust, the wound, the shame, and the mistrust that goes with this story. Help us walk with our friends who are right in the middle of this dark vortex. Show us how to validate their feelings without confirming hurt driven conclusions. Bring patience and perspective, forbearance and faith. 

Only you can rebuild the trust. Only you, Jesus, can bring a willingness to hope again. Only you can heal the places in our hearts that have suffered the greatest violation and harm. Absolutely no one understands all this like you, Jesus, and absolutely no one redeems these messes but you. We pray with hope, in your great and glorious name.

Amen. 

A Prayer about All-Weather Friendship  

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
(Prov. 17:17)  

Jesus, there’s no question about your commitment to love us well in every season of life. You will never leave us or forsake us, and there’s no ebbing or flowing with your compassion. You stick much closer than a brother, because you’re so much more than a brother. You humbled yourself to become a spouse to us— the bride groom who died to make rebels, fools, and idolaters like us your cherished wife. What wondrous love is this, indeed? 

Your lavish, constant affection should spell the end of all our poutings and pity parties, all our whinings and worryfests. It should also radically affect how we relate to our friends. I come before you today convinced of your love and therefore convicted about the way I relate to my friends, especially those who are in various stories and stages of adversity. I’ve been too busy even to pray for them. That’s a confession of sin, not an excuse or an alibi. 

I repent, and I bring before your throne of grace a friend who is stuck in the throes of a toxic marriage. He simply doesn’t know what to do. His heart is treading water in the Bermuda Triangle of hopelessness, rage, and numbness. Show me how to love him well. I need wisdom. I need courage. O God of resurrection, bring the power of the gospel to bear. Give his wife hope that men can change— that her husband can change. Please redeem this marriage for your glory. 

I pray for another friend who’s suffered sequential betrayals and losses. He’s beyond being angry, and he doesn’t have many tears left. He loves you as only a bro- ken man filled with the gospel can, but Jesus, he needs relief. His willingness to trust and hope is gone. How much is too much? How much more can this one brother sustain? It is one thing to be brokenhearted, but he is nearly broken down. Please intervene, Jesus. 

Gracious Lord, give us fire and faith for loving as all-weather friends. What do we do next? Do we get in our cars, buy an airline ticket, call up, show up? How can we best come alongside of our hurting friends? Show us, Jesus; lead us. We pray in your faithful and compassionate name.

Amen. 

A Prayer about Contagious Gospel Renewal  

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “In those days ten people from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.’” (Zech. 8:23 NIV)  

Gracious Father, every day, without exception, we need to be reminded of where history is heading. For we’re forgetful and fearful people, way too easily influenced by the spin of pundits and the banter of newspeak. 

But a great promise you made through a minor prophet is the major headline we need to remember today and every day. History is the unfolding story of your commitment to redeem your pan-national family and make all things new through the work of your Son, Jesus. This outcome isn’t merely a great possibility or a grand probability but a covenantal certainty. For nothing will keep you from magnifying the excellencies of your glory through the work of Jesus. 

Indeed, Lord Jesus, you are fulfilling everything in Zechariah’s vision. You are the “one Jew” of the Father’s promise. You are the faithful remnant of Israel. You are the second Adam— the only Nazarene in whom there was no guile; the Lord who became the Lamb; our substitute in life and in death. We lay hold of the hem of your robe only because you grasp us in the gospel. 

Jesus, in light of who you are and what you’ve already accomplished on our behalf, how can we not leap for joy? How can we not be moved to pray with great hope for our churches, communities, and cities? 

We need renewal and we need revival, Jesus. We need you to send your Spirit to stir us up. We long for a contagious gospel renewal to break out in our local congregations. We long for substantiated rumors of your transforming presence to run through our cities. We long to have the rich and the poor, the educated and the uneducated, the religious and the irreligious, the washed and the unwashed, the found and the lost, the unrighteous and the self righteous come together to hear, believe, and live the gospel. 

Why not us, Jesus, and why not now? We’re tired of playing church. We’re bored with ourselves. Magnify your name in our midst and in this hour. We pray in your most majestic and merciful name.

Amen. 

A Prayer about Thirsty Panting for Jesus  

As the deer pants for streams of water, 
so my soul pants for you, my God. 
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. 
When can I go and meet with God? (Ps. 42:1–2 NIV)  

Loving Jesus, there’s no craving more demanding than thirst. It’s neither patient nor polite. When we get thirsty, we’re usually quick to slake its unrelenting demand, one way or another. Thirst will not be denied. We’ll do almost anything to satisfy our thirst. 

Because this is true, we join the psalmist in crying out: Jesus, intensify our thirst for you. Keep us panting like the deer that pants after streams of water— the unpolluted, undistilled, never-ending brooks of your bounty. 

Quickly drain the broken cisterns of our own making. Don’t let us be even momentarily satisfied with any other beverage than the draft you draw, the potion you pour, the life giving libation you alone can give. 

If we take up King David’s lament, “When can I go and meet with God?” you answer back without delay, “Right now, my beloved; do not wait. If you’re thirsty, come to me and drink.” “Whoever believes in me, streams of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:38 NIV). 

If we should say, “But Jesus, where can we find you?” you answer back even quicker, “Not in the law; not in your strivings; not in your labors; not in your earnestness; not in your self-loathings; not in your vain promises; but only in the gospel. Come and fall into the rivers of my love. Stand under the cascading water- falls of my grace. Open your heart wide to my supply, and I will fill you to over- flowing with everything you need and more than you want.” 

Even so and evermore, Jesus, school us well in panting after you. Fill us afresh that we might be a people to the praise of your glory and grace. We pray in your all- glorious and all generous name.

Amen. 

A Prayer about “Blessed Are the Refreshers”  

One person gives freely, yet gains even more; 
another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. 
A generous person will prosper; 
whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. (Prov. 11:24–25 NIV)  

Lord Jesus, I cannot read these words without lifting my heart and hands toward heaven. I cannot read the words “whoever refreshes others” without thinking of you, for no one refreshes a dry and weary heart like you. Your mercies are new every morning, and your steadfast love never comes to an end. Great is your faithfulness. 

No one gives more freely than you, Jesus. You’ll never be charged with with holding any good thing from your people. You’ll never come to poverty through hoarding, because you freely chose the poverty of the cross as a means of making us rich (2 Cor. 8:9). This is the gospel, and nothing is more refreshing than the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation (Rom. 1:16), for this moment, for this weary heart. 

Indeed, you’re calling to us in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink” (John 7:37 NIV). Jesus, I join my brothers and sisters in coming to you right now with my heart as wide open as the gospel enables. I humble myself before you. I own the need that you alone can meet. I am not ashamed to let you know just how much I need to be refreshed by you, Jesus. You love to give, and I love to receive from you. 

And as grace runs downhill to the needy, so it flows freely to others. To whom would you send us today— to whom would you send me? Freely I receive; freely I will give. I pray in your most generous name.

Amen. 

A Prayer for Decision-Making Peace  

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, 
and do not lean on your own understanding. 
In all your ways acknowledge him, 
and he will make straight your paths. (Prov. 3:5–6)  

Dear Jesus, as this day begins, many of us are facing big decisions. We need the wisdom, guidance, and peace you alone can give. It’s a joy to come before your throne of grace confident of your audience, grateful for your advocacy, and resting in your authority. 

Indeed, Jesus, you’re an engaged Shepherd, not an absentee landlord. Even as we make plans in our hearts, you are actively ordering our steps (Prov. 16:9). Oh, the freedom and peace this brings! You are the Lord who “opens doors no one can shut” (Rev. 3:8). And the converse is just as true; you also shut doors no one can open. Our future is tied not to making the right decisions but to trusting the right Lord. 

Because of your great love for us in the gospel, we’re learning to trust you with all the stuff in our hearts— with our longings, fears, hurts, and dreams. To ac- knowledge you in all of our ways isn’t to make you Lord but to recognize and to rest in your lordship. We can no more make you Lord of something than we can make water wet or chocolate good. You are who you are, Jesus. Hallelujah! So in surrender to the occupied throne of heaven, we anticipate straight paths as we move ahead into these difficult decisions.

For those of us dealing with job changes, financial stresses, and health issues, show yourself to be both merciful and mighty, Jesus. May your mercy keep us gentle and your might trump our impatience. For those of us having to make important decisions for the people we love, be huge and present. Long-term care for aging parents, the “right” education for our kids, the best treatment for family members and friends in the destructive whirlwind of addictions— make the way clear, Lord. As Prince of Peace, give us your peace as we wait upon you. 

Jesus, in these coming days write stories of redemption that will reveal your glory, showcase your grace, and leave us reveling in your goodness and timing. We pray in your trustworthy and beautiful name.

Amen. 

A Prayer for the Restoration of Our Joy  

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, 
and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Ps. 51:12)  

Jesus, knowing you is a personal but not a private affair. I may come before you alone, but I cannot remain alone. As soon as I bring my longings and needs before you, you enlarge my heart and expand my gaze to see the faces and hear the cries of others. Such is the way of the gospel. 

Your words to Peter in John 21 echo in the chambers of my meditation. “Do you love me? Then feed and care for my lambs.” When you feed me, it’s always for the nourishment of others. 

Today I’m bringing you a bevy of family members, friends, and colleagues. Everybody is hungry and everybody needs bread. Every one of us is like King David, with stories of failure and fear, brokenness and weakness, heartache and heart need. The details of our stories differ, but each of us needs you just as much as the other. 

So I ask with confidence and I appeal with hope, restore to us the joy of your salvation for us, Lord Jesus. It’s your salvation, because we could never, ever save ourselves. Like Jonah, we humbly cry from within our own hard places, “Salvation comes from the Lord” (Jon. 2:9 NIV). Bring us back to the joyful, childlike love we had for you at first, Jesus (Rev. 2:4)— a love totally generated in response to the undeserved, unparalleled, unwavering love you have for us (1 John 4:19).

For your joy is our strength, Jesus—strength for repenting, strength for obeying, strength for hoping, strength for serving others, and above all, strength for adoring you, for you alone are worthy of our hearts’ attention, affection, and allegiance.

The only sacrifice we cling to is yours, Jesus. Only your cross, only the gospel enables us to offer up a contrite heart free of all condemnation, a broken spirit free of all self contempt. And we cry out together, “Hallelujah, what a salvation! Hallelujah, what a Savior!” I pray in your most holy and loving name.

Amen.