This morning, I want to offer nothing more than a prayer for you.  May you know that I am thinking about you, holding you in my heart and most importantly offering up my prayers for YOU today.

Beloved and Treasured Lord,

I want nothing more than to simply come before You today and offer myself on behalf of my precious readers.  God, without them my writing would be empty and void.  Lord, I do not know personally who reads my words, when they read them or the experiences & circumstances that they approach them with.  But I do know, with full confidence, that You know.  You know every detail down to every last hair upon them, which You know by number.  “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain” Psalm 139:6.  That is so true God.  I can not comprehend, but I am so glad that You can.  

Lord, I pray first and foremost that my readers would know You.  May they be continually experiencing personal revelations that bring them to a state of awe and wonder over who You are.  May they have a thirst and hunger to seek You and in Your faithfulness may You reveal Yourself openly to them.  May they find the eyes of their hearts enlightened (Ephesians 1:18) and their faith growing more & more (2 Thessalonians 1:3).  Please bring them a rich and unyielding joy, a delight to the depths of their souls. 

Lord, I pray for healing for all of our hurts.  Lord, for easing of physical pains & maladies.  I know that You can refresh, restore and renew the physical bodies that You have given us.  You can bring new life to that which has deteriorated.  I pray that it is done for Your glory.  Glory that made lepers fall at Your feet, glory that made lame men dance and glory that brought an outcast woman to boldly proclaim who You were.  Silver and gold I have not, just like Peter & John, but Lord, what I have I want to give so freely because it is all in Your Name.  I want to be the one who turns myself towards prayer, but is still aware of those blessed people, Your creations, around me that I may look straight at them and offer my hand to them.  Perhaps being a conduit which a miracle can flow through.

Lord, I pray for our relational roles.  As spouses, as parents, as children, as siblings, as co-workers, as employees & employers, as friends, as servants & masters, as perfect strangers, and for all of the roles we play.  I pray for wisdom.  I pray for guidance.  I pray we seek first to understand and then to be understood.  I pray for patience.  I pray for kindness.  I pray for clarity in communication.  Lord, it is the littlest things that we assume, that we overlook and that we judge that cause us such great pain, anguish and frustration. 

Lord, I pray that we would be able to bear with one another and forgive each other (Colossians 3:13),  This is especially true when we are hurting, when incorrect assumptions have been made about us, when we have been judged & labeled and when we are suffering ourselves.  Lord, at these times we just want to cry out that someone would comfort us and would encourage us, and yet we can often find ourselves needing to pour out the things that we are so greatly longing for.  But Lord, You never ask us to do these things on our own strength or of our own resources.  You are a faithful provider who we need only look to.  

Lord, help us to faithfully work at the tasks that You have given to us.  Help us not to stare longingly at the paths and work that You have called, equipped and designed others for.  Lord, from the outside looking in there are many things that look tempting for us.  We may even get off of our paths to pursue them, and ouch it sure hurts when we do that.  Lord, You have rewards awaiting for all of us who faithfully do what You ask.  Rewards that come from the smallest of assignments like giving someone a glass of water (Matthew 10:42).  But small in Your eyes does not mean unimportant.  You see us as critical threads in the beautiful tapestry of eternity.  In Your perfection as the Master Potter, You hand crafted, designed and formed us (Isaiah 64:8).  

Lord, I offer up to You all of our burdens.   Lord, there is so much in this world that makes us weary.  We are burned out by the sheer volume of tasks and responsibilities that we undertake.  We are singed by the speed of the deadlines and the racing of the days.  It takes a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual toll on us.  So, Lord, I pray for rest.  I pray for time and strength to say NO to the moment of movement and YES to the second of stillness.  May we dive into Your presence and take cover under the shelter of Your wing.     

Lord,  I pray for joy, for laughter and for fun.  I know those may seem like childish prayers, but I offer them up with the innocence so richly stored in the heart of a child.  Help us to savor the tasty treats of our day like it was the “best thing ever” as my children often proclaim.  Help us to delight and rejoice over the changes in our schedules, by the opportunities that change creates and not by the encumbrances that crushed our own plans.  Help us to giggle unreservedly, not at the expense of others, but simply because we are happier than a smile.  Help us to not restrain ourselves from spinning around in our office chairs for the pure amusement that it brings.  May we make a joyful noise in our cars singing like no one is listening.  

Lord, may we have perseverance.  May we be able to take the anxious thoughts, the nervous emotions and fearful expectations captive by the power, strength and authority that You have given us.  May we proceed with a bold confidence, one step at a time, with our eyes cast upon You instead of scanning the crowds and assuming their thoughts as they look upon us.  Lord, most of our assumptions and worries are incorrect anyway.  If someone is critical of us, help us to bring it to You, not to be a tattletale & in hopes of drawing punishment to that person, but instead to seek Your truth.  Is there something we need to work on, or is it something we can place in Your hands and trust that You have the situation.

Lord, I pray for love, love, love, love, love.  Unrestrained, uninhabited, unconditional love for our lives.  I pray it over all of us this day.  May it come from You and flow through people we know & people we have never encountered before.  I pray that we are showered with love and bathed in love.  May we soak it in and be saturated in it until it drips from every pore within us leaving puddles of love in our paths. 

Lord, I pray for grace, mercy and humility – both to be shown to us and for You to flow through us.  Lord, when we make mistakes please helps us to openly admit and acknowledge them.  When others make mistakes please help us to show that same mercy, grace and humility that we wish to be shown, the kind that You show to all of us who do not even deserve it.

Lord, please take every complaint from our lips, and replace them with glorious praise and deep heartfelt words of thanksgiving.  There is so much we have to be grateful for that can bring healing.  But we can so quickly focus in on that which we do not have and it can cause us such bitter heart ache and frustration.  

Lord, may my dear and precious readers know that every prayer offered for them is also in some way a prayer offered for myself.  We may not walk similar paths but we may share in similar struggles.  I am such a mess, such a work in progress myself, learning, being rebuked, making mistakes, and falling short, trying to stand back up, to press on and to keep going towards that goal that I have been called to.  All the while being distracted by the silliest of things.  

I pray that our connection and time together only grows.  I hope that I can be faithful with my words, in such a way Lord, that You would use them to really speak to the hearts of others.  That even in the sharing of my greatest weaknesses and struggles that there would be a beneficiary out there who is in some small way encouraged.  

Lord, You are so good!  Why You would choose me to deliver messages of hope is beyond me.  I am so unfit and unworthy.  But, may the fact that You chose a silly and lowly woman in an unknown corner of the world to write long & wordy prayers, a woman who just years ago was terrified to offer prayers that others would even hear, may it just be a testament to what a great God You are.  A God who would stick by us through the good, the bad, the delightful and the horrific.  I am grateful God, I truly am.  

So please allow my gratitude to be presented to Your Glory, in the honor and reverence that You deserve by closing this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, Lord of Lords and King of Kings.  Amen.