Prayer Journal

While prayers are very personal conversations
with God, I am publishing some of mine below in hopes that you may
identify with some of the things going on in my life and
maybe even begin journaling some prayers of your own. It is
pretty amazing to write your heart out to God, then go back later
and see how God met you in the midst of your questions, needs and
hopes.

May 25, 2012

God, I do know deep-down that all these proverbial seeds I am planting and nurturing are really Yours.  I can’t do your job.  For all You are doing that I can’t see quite yet…I do trust You.  I want to rest in that trust knowing You are the Giver of Life, not I.  I invite you to linger with me and I’ll keep showing up.  I trust the process as long as You are in it.  And that is enough. Seeing immediate results for good choices isn’t necessary for me to know, beyond a down, that these choices are worth whatever waiting I have to do.  Thank you for the rest and peace I can have in You when the fruit is nowhere to be found.

February 27, 2012

So many of my prayers have been prayed silently lately, but documenting them is important, too.  So I take this moment to thank You, Father, for growth, for challenges, and for all that you continue to teach me about trusting You with the outcomes of my life. Obeying You moment-by-moment leads me so much farther than trying to map out success for myself and strive for my own goals. My goals have human limits. Yours do not. Thank You for knowing me so well and teaching me step-by-step just what You need from me. I admit I struggle to hear You sometimes.  But I really want to hear Your Voice over all others.

October 11, 2011

Sometimes progress feels so slow from my human perspective — like I’m taking three steps forward, then two steps back.  Goals that I thought were about to be met suddenly fell apart.  Hopes I dared to have once again feel far away.  Life is such an uphill climb right now.  Without Your promises I would be so unstable. I keep clinging to You and to your words, knowing that You honor obedience.  You are good.  You are working on my behalf every moment of every day, so I rest in that completely.  I both trust You and need You so very much.

July 14, 2011

I have seen such faithfulness from You, Lord. I know You are faithful when I can’t see with my eyes. But thank you for the gift of some visible, undeniable sightings of Your fingerprints on my life, my family, even my work. I know beyond a doubt that you have heard the silent prayers I’ve breathed a thousand times or more, although too often I’m looking in all the wrong places for Your replies. So when I see You doing good and fulfilling those hopes I trusted into Your care (in spite of my easily distracted mind) I know it was right to trust you with the full weight of everything I have, everything I love, everything I want and everything I’ve ever needed.

January 24, 2011

It’s Monday, not yet 9:00 a.m., and I’ve already had technical difficulties enough for a whole week. It’s a deadline day and I have research to do, but the internet keeps going down. A broken bathroom faucet upstairs is leaking hot water constantly and Scott can’t fix it until tonight. I’m having iPhone connectivity troubles and daughter is still sick after four days of fever.  I can’t fix any of this.  What I really want to do is go back to bed.

God, I need your wisdom and Your strength today to keep an attitude of trust. Please help me not to miss whatever you have for me today. I give you all the hang-ups and ask for you to be Present in me today.

January 10, 2011

11:00 a.m. E.S.T. – As I write this prayer, our nation is observing a moment of silence for the victims of Saturday’s shooting involving a congresswoman, a Federal judge, a nine-year-old girl and more than a dozen other innocent victims. God, there is so much pain in our world… so much anger… so much confusion.  Please pour out your sweet, healing Spirit on the pain this has caused for victims, families, neighbors and citizens who no longer feel safe in their own communities.

We hear nearly every day about someone who misused their ‘freedom to bear arms’ to take innocent lives or end their own.  Insanity is becoming more and more rampant.  Yet you are the author of our hearts.  You care about every life, every heart, every mind, every honest question we carry with us.  So please do incredible things in our nation, in our neighbors…and start first deep in our hearts.

Give us wisdom and give our nation’s leaders wisdom. Help us get past the differences we share with our neighbors and find common ground to unite and strengthen our communities, states, nation and our world.  And start with me.  Help me to have the courage to love my neighbors, fight for truth and stand for freedom. Amen

January 5, 2011
I trust You. I truly do. I will admit, I have no idea what You are going to do next… But I can’t wait! Your provision and goodness are astounding. Thank You for never changing, yet constantly surprising me.

November 25, 2010

Thanksgiving Day and my 21st wedding
anniversary… Thank You for all you have taught me and all you
have entrusted to me. Thank you for a gracious husband who
has allowed me the freedom to grow without ever seeming distant.
That is such a gift. Bless him, Lord, with an
outpouring of Your goodness.

October 20, 2010

God, thanks for
faithfully reminding me who I am and, most importantly, who You
are. I admit I still struggle to trust you 100% but I am
trying every day to look to You instead of myself for wisdom and
strength. You continue to prove Yourself and Your constant
care, time and time again. Thank You for that.

I do trust You more each day. And I thank you for your unending
watch over my heart.

October 11, 2010

God, today I want to thank you for taking care of me. You know me and You know just how to
help me through seasons of self-doubt and moments when I get consumed in smallness. You are big. You have proven You
are trustworthy. I rest and rejoice in You today. You not only hold the answer to each of my questions…You ARE the answer.

September 24, 2010

Lord, you know better than anyone how much I’ve tried to
operate in my own strength this week. I’ve depended on my
ever-so-finite wisdom way too much. So once again, I ask for
Your wisdom, Your help, Your mercy. Because mine just isn’t
enough.

September 21, 2010

This week has brought a few parenting challenges. Nothing major, just attitudes and adjustments that come with adolescence. So Lord I’m asking You to help me extend the same mercy to my children that I am somehow more freely
able to give my friends and coworkers. It pains me to admit that I am often more gracious to acquaintances and strangers than I am to my kids.

The sense of responsibility I feel for guiding and instructing them seems to ignite every control issue inside me. I want so badly to hang on to them too tightly, but I know that will only create resentment between us. So I ask, Lord, that You will help me pour out grace, and love, and wisdom on my kids in place of control, questioning and judgment. I ask You to forgive me for trying to do Your job. I so need Your help in showing my kids what unconditional love and mercy are all about.
September 15, 2010 Lord, today I’m comforted by the thought that You know me better than I know myself. I’ve been “off” and I couldn’t figure out why. For weeks now I’ve been trying to take better care of myself, and particularly this week after my blood work showed that I need a little TLC. Yoga has allowed me some time to listen to You and to do my body a much-needed favor with strengthening and stretching and breathing. But in staying more in tune with my physical body, I’m no longer finding it possible to ignore the physical and mental strain that I’ve previously pushed through. I’ve always needed Your strength, but it seems that today I’m a little more acutely aware of my need. Please give me an extra measure of grace and wisdom to care for the body, mind and heart You’ve given me. I thank You that I no longer feel the need to tune out my needs, but now I need Your help in meeting those needs. I am human and frail.

You are Almighty God. So I rest in Your might tonight and thank You for Your gentle hand on me.