A Prayer For Every Day

Sometimes, Lord, it seems like You are far away from us. Why do we feel like this? It’s because we have wandered away from You. We’ve allowed something else to come between ourselves and You. Call us back to Yourself, back from the brink, back to a new beginning, back to the blessing that will grow stronger and stronger, as we learn to trust You and say, from the heart, “The Lord is God. He is our God. He has blessed us, and we are glad."

‘I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied’ (Jeremiah 23:21). Before we can speak for You, Lord, we must take time to listen to You. Teach us that we dare not attempt to speak for You if we are not prepared to spend time listening to You. Everything could have been so different - if ‘these prophets’ had taken time to listen to You: ‘If they had stood in My council, they would have proclaimed My words to My people and would have turned them from their evil ways’ (Jeremiah 23:22). Lord, You don't force us to listen to Your Word. You invite us to listen. The choice is ours. We can allow other things to become more important than spending time with You. Help us, Lord, never to become ‘too busy’ for the ‘one thing’ that is more important than anything else - listening to Your Word (Luke 10:41-42).

We thank You, Lord, that Your Son, Jesus, is "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). In His death for us, we see Your love for us. Help us to come to the Cross of Christ. Help us to worship You in the beauty of holiness. Help us to celebrate Your love in the spirit of thanksgiving.

Help us, Lord, to "give a friendly welcome" (Hebrews 11:31). What a difference the friendly welcome makes! It's the word of encouragement that makes us feel loved. It's the act of kindness that lets us know that love is more than words. Lord, You are our Father. Help us to be like You - "when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him" (Luke 15:20). What amazing grace! Before the confession of sin - "Father, I have sinned... " (Luke 15:21), there is the friendly welcome. It's Your grace that inspires our confession of sin. It's Your grace that leads us into the joy of Your forgiveness. It's not only joy for us. It's joy for You - "my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to celebrate" (Luke 15:24).

‘Look at the land of the Babylonians, this people that is now of no account!’ (13). We read these words, Lord, and we wonder, “What about our nation? Is there any hope for our nation?” To the nation which turns to You, Lord, You  speak Your promise of blessing – ‘Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord …’ (Psalm 33:12). To the nation which turns away from You, You speak Your warning of judgment – ‘For lack of guidance a nation falls’ (Proverbs 11:14). We must choose. Help us, Lord, to choose to listen to You, to submit our lives to You,, to follow the guidance You have given to us in Your Word.  Your way leads to blessing – ‘Righteousness exalts a nation.’ The way of self leads to judgment – ‘sin is a disgrace to any people’ (Proverbs 14:34). Raise us, Lord, above the way of “the Babylonians” – to the better way, the way that brings glory to You:  ‘They will see your good works and give glory to your Fath...

We confess our sins to You, Lord - ‘We sinned... All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags’. We look to You for forgiveness - ‘Do not remember our sins for ever’ (Isaiah 64:5-6,9). We know that You hear and answer our prayer. Jesus Christ is Your Answer to our prayer. He has ‘come down’ from heaven to earth. ‘The Son of the Most High’ has been ‘born’ into our world. Jesus Christ is Your way of saying ‘Here am I! Here am I!’. He is ‘God with us’ (64:1; 65:1; Luke 1:32,35; Matthew 1:23). ‘The blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin.’ Help us, Lord, to ‘confess our sins.’ ‘The blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin’ - Help us to come to You with faith, believing that You ‘will forgive our sins’. (1 John 1:7,9). May we rejoice in Jesus, our Saviour!

Lord, You call us to ‘return’ to You (Jeremiah 3:14,22). You call us to make our response to You. You invite us to say, ‘Yes, we will come to You, for You are the Lord our God’ (Jeremiah 3:22). How are we to come to You? We are to come to You, confessing our sins – ‘We have sinned against the Lord our God’ (Jeremiah 3:25). We are to come to You, trusting You to save us – ‘Surely in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel’ (Jeremiah 3:23). We thank You, Lord, for all the blessings that You give to those who return to You. You are ‘merciful’ to us. You do ‘not treat us as our sins deserve’ (Jeremiah 3:12, Psalm 103:10). We become Your children. We call You, ‘Father’ (Jeremiah 3:19; Galatians 4:6). You ‘cure us of our backsliding.’ ‘In Christ’, we become ‘a new creation’ (Jeremiah 3:22; 2 Corinthians 5:17). Thank You, Lord.

Lord, You call us to ‘draw near’ to You. You want us to ‘pay attention’ to You. Help us to ‘listen’ to His Word (Isaiah 34:1). Your Word is not always what we want to hear. It will always be what we need to hear. ‘The Lord is angry with all nations’ (Isaiah 34:2). We don’t like to hear about Your anger. We prefer to be told ‘You’re doing fine.’ We need to hear about God’s anger. We need to hear about how far we have wandered away from God – ‘We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us turned to his own way.’ We are sinners. We have turned away from You, Lord. We have chosen our own way rather than Your way. We must hear this ‘bad news’ before we can really appreciate the ‘Good News’ – ‘the Lord has laid all our sins on Jesus’, ‘Christ died for us while we were still sinners’, ‘Christ died for our sins’ (Isaiah 53:6; Romans 5:8; 1 Corinthians 15:3).

‘O Lord… Be our strength every morning , our salvation in the time of trouble ’ (Isaiah 33:2). Help us, Lord, not only to pray to You ‘in the time of trouble.’ Help us to pray to You ‘every morning.’ May we not keep You at a distance, calling on You only when things are going badly. When we keep You at a distance, our life tells its own sad story – ‘O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear – all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.’ When we draw near to You, Lord, You draw near to us, and everything becomes very different – ‘What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!’ (James 4:8). Lord, let Your  ‘love’ come to us ‘new every morning’ – ‘fresh as the morning , as sure as the sunrise’ (Lamentations 3:22-23).

‘O Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You and praise Your Name… You have done marvellous things’ (Isaiah 25:1). We remember what You, Lord, have done for us. You sent Your Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Saviour. We rejoice in Jesus. He died for us. We rejoice in Jesus. He rose again for us. We look forward to His Return. We look forward to the Day when You, Lord, ‘will swallow up death for ever.’ On that Day, ‘the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces.’ On that Day, we will look back and say, ‘Surely this is our God; we trusted in Him, and He saved us.’ On that Day, we will ‘rejoice and be glad in Your salvation’ (Isaiah 25:8-9). Here and now, help us to ‘trust in’ You. May we know that we can trust in You ‘for ever.’ You are ‘the everlasting Rock’ – ‘the Rock of our salvation’ (Isaiah 26:4; Psalm 95:1).

We read, Lord, about slaves being ‘set free.’ We think, "This is great!" Then, we read about things going wrong - ‘Afterwards they changed their minds and took back the slaves... and enslaved them again’ (Jeremiah 34:8-11). What, Lord, do You have to say about this? - ‘You have turned round and dishonoured Me... You took back the slaves... You forced them into slavery again... You have not obeyed Me’ (Jeremiah 34:16-17). We thank You that Jesus isn’t like these slavemasters! He doesn’t only promise us freedom. He gives us our freedom: ‘If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed’. He doesn’t come to us with ‘a pack of lies’ - promising this, that and the other, and then breaking every promise. We thank You that He sets us free with His Word of truth - ‘You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free’ (John 8:36,32; Psalm 119:45).

‘Blessed is the one who always fears the Lord. If you harden your heart, you will be ruined’ (Proverbs 28:14). Lord, Your blessing comes to us through the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Saviour: ‘The Gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes’. To those who refuse to come to Christ and receive His salvation, You speak solemn words of warning: ‘Because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the Day of God’s wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed’ (Romans 1:16; Romans 2:5). You call us to receive ‘salvation’ through faith in Christ, ‘the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’. May we not be among those who reject Christ and His salvation, those who  must face ‘the wrath of the Lamb’ (John 1:29; Revelation 7:10; 6:16).  

‘Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the Lord!’ (Isaiah 31:1). Lord, we can so easily forget You. We try to go it alone, and we forget to look to You for help. Even when we forget You, You do not forget us. When we turn our back on You, You call us to ‘return to You’ (Isaiah 31:6). You remind us that our true help is found in You: ‘Our help is in the Name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth’ (Psalm 124:8). We need not look around here, there and everywhere for an answer to the question, ‘Where does my help come from?’ There is only one true answer to this question: ‘My help comes from You, Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth’ (Psalm 121:1-2). Thank You, Lord, that You are our God – our Maker and our Helper.

Very quickly, Lord, good work can be undone (2 Chronicles 33:1-3). Bad work can be undone - if we will make a new beginning with You (2 Chronicles 34:1-4). Help us, Lord, to make a new beginning with You - and a new beginning for You.

‘The day has come to destroy all the Philistines... The Lord is about to destroy the Philistines... Woe to you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh are destroyed’ (Jeremiah 47:4). That seems like ancient history  - nothing to do with us! What about this? - ‘A curse on him who is lax in doing the Lord’s work!’ (Jeremiah 48:17). Lord, Your Word was written many centuries ago - but it still has a great deal to do with us! We miss the point if we read the Bible as no more than a book of ancient history. Lord, You’re still speaking to us through your Word. You’re still calling us to sit up and take notice. You’re still demanding our attention. Help us not to be lazy in Your work. Teach us to be Your faithful servants. ‘Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord... your labour in the Lord is not in vain’ (1 Corinthians 15:58).

Help us, Lord, to learn from the failure of King Uzziah. He began well – “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord … He set himself to seek God” (2 Chronicles 26:4-5). He lost his way – “When he was strong, he grew proud, and he was false to the Lord his God” ( 2 Chronicles 26:16). Help us, Lord, to become better people – not bitter people!

We read, Lord, about ‘the Valley of Vision’ (Isaiah 22:1,5). You are to be our Vision: ‘Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart; Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art, Thou my best thought, by day or by night, waking or sleeping Thy presence my light.’ When we’re down in the valley, the mountain-top experience seems a long way off. What are we to do when everything seems to be hard-going? When there seems to be no way out of the valley, no way back to the mountain-top, help us to keep on ‘looking to Jesus’ (Hebrews 12:1-2). When we’re in the ‘valley’, help us to say, ‘My goal is God Himself, not joy nor peace, nor even blessing, but Himself, my God’. May our ‘valley’ become Your ‘valley of vision’, the place where we are learning to ‘turn our eyes upon Jesus.’  

Sometimes, Lord, our lights are switched off. Sometimes, they're switched on. The light of Your love is never switched off. It's always switched on. Your love is 'all the time' love. There is no love like Your love for us. It's the only 'always and forever' love. Thank You, Lord, for the light that never stops shining - the light of Your undying love. This is the only light that is always shining.

Lord, You give us Your promises and Your warnings. You show us the better way - and You say to us, "Make sure that You don't go back to the old way of living, back to the world's way of living, back to the way of life that will never satisfy."

We thank You, Lord, that Jeremiah kept on speaking to people who had given up on worshipping You (Jeremiah 22:9). His message was clear: ‘O land, land, land, hear the Word of the Lord?’ (Jeremiah 22:29). Lord, You're speaking Your Word to us. Are we listening? You're looking for people who will listen to You. You want us to pay attention to Your Word. Your Word is like ‘the sound of a trumpet.’ It demands our attention. Many people say, ‘We will not listen.’ Your Word shows us ‘the good way’ and calls us to ‘walk in it.’ Many people say, ‘We will not walk in it.' What about us, Lord? What do we say to You? What is our response to Your Word? We thank You, Lord, for Your Word of warning: ‘I am bringing disaster on this people... because they have not listened to My Word.’ May we not bring this judgment on ourselves. Help us to listen to Your Word and walk in Your way (Jeremiah 6:16-19).