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Lord's Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

Prayer for the Morning

May all I do today begin with you, O Lord. Plant dreams and hopes within my soul and revive my tired spirit: be with me today. Be at my side and walk with me; be my support, that your hand may be seen in every action I take, that your goodness may be in every word I speak, and that your spirit may inhabit my every thought. Make my thoughts, my work, and my very life blessings for your kingdom. In Christ's name I pray,

Prayer of Salvation

Heavenly Father, open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to You. For Jesus Christ is surely the gate of the Lord, and those that confess His holy name shall surely enter through it.

I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. No matter how weak I may be, I will always remember your words, that the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone of your church. This is your doing, and it is marvelous in my eyes.

This is the day that the Lord has made; let me rejoice and be glad in it.

Benediction

I pray that I may be blessed every step of my path this day by the great God of light. May Your sun shine upon me; as the moon moves the tide, may Your Spirit move my emotions with every grace and magic; may my heart sing with the voice of Your angels and my hearth be warm; and may this and every blessed day You have given me be filled with joy.

Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.

Our Fuel

Psalm 13

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

How long will I have to take counsel in my own soul, having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be honored over me?

Consider and answer me, O Lord my God: Lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;

Lest my enemy say, I have prevailed against him; Lest my adversaries rejoice at my tears.

I have trusted in your loving kindness; My heart will rejoice in your salvation.

I will sing unto Jehovah, Because he has regarded me with generosity.

Notes on the Scripture

This is one of the most clearly "musical" psalms. It very much in the style of David, with two clearly divided phrases in each line, which are related in some way: the second might restate or amplify the first (as in line one), or might have a causal relationship (as in the last line).

Psalm 13 is divided in two distinct parts. The first four lines bewail God's absence in the singer's life, and the terrible consequences. The final two lines rejoice in God's gifts and reaffirm the poet's devotion and thanks. Thus the feeling expressed is a movement from desperation to hope and thanks, something that many of us have experienced in our prayer.

Who of us has not felt that God has hidden His face from him? We might even cast blame on God when things are going badly. It is a common temptation, when trouble lasts long, to think that it will last always.

But God allows us to suffer no more than He himself, for Christ was beaten bloody and tortured to death. What will we ever suffer that is worse? Thereafter, God's most faithful children suffered likewise, and all of the apostles except John were beaten, stoned, imprisoned, murdered. They also lived lives of poverty; they were the equivalent of modern minimum wage earners.

But we let life and society raise our expectations, and then we blame God when they are not met. And yet, this is the very time to strengthen our faith. "Those who have long been without joy," said Matthew Henry, "begin to be without hope." Yet, we know that life will deal us terrible blows; our faith not that we will avoid sorrow, but that we will overcome it. Life is a trial. It is a test of our resolved to find God and eternal life.

Thus, says the Psalmist, I will trust in God and rejoice at my salvation, for it is faith that will sustain us through any ordeal we may face, if we only hold fast. Life itself is a gift from God, and nothing that is taken was not first given.

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