Oh Father, You are of purer eyes than to look upon evil, and You made us, male and female, to express love and fruitfulness through our sexuality. But we, Your creatures, have sullied sex, as we’ve sullied everything else, by misusing it, often by idolizing it. Teach us, like Your servant Job, to make a covenant with our eyes, not to look lustfully on others, but rather to see them as Your precious image bearers, many of them already Your children, many more yet to become Your children, and all … [Read more...]
A Prayer for the Unsaved Souls of Asia and Africa
Our Father in Heaven, We praise you for making the sun and rain fall on more than 4 billions lives in Asia and Africa. Thank you for providing the ever increasing resources for them to make families and flourish. Lord, we now seek your grace and mercy for these people to be saved. We pray that your Holy Spirit will move in this vast landscape and stir the hearts of men and women to reach out to the unsaved. May your divine grace bring them the knowledge of saving grace, and make them … [Read more...]
You Shall Not Take the Name of the LORD your God in Vain
“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.” “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!” Heavenly Father, Your creation, the work of Your hands, is a glorious revelation of Your wisdom, power, and goodness. Yet many people fail to recognize that. They are blind to how the heavens declare Your glory, and the sky Your handiwork. I see this especially in the ease with which so many people … [Read more...]
Prayer for the Weak and the Poor
Dear Father in Heaven, We pray for the poor of the world. Lord, you’ve asked us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. Help us Lord to be obedient to your calling and live as your ambassadors. Help our political leaders to understand the need for the right policies to tackle poverty. Save us from the wrong policy decisions that risks precious resources in wrong avenues. Renew our hearts to care for the poor. Help the poor see the greater Hope and Joy that is in you, and help them see … [Read more...]
You shall not make for yourself a carved image
You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. O Lord, why did You forbid us to … [Read more...]
You shall have no other gods before Me.
Father, it’s so easy in this life to let other things take Your place in or thinking. Wealth, friendships, freedom, our own pride—these and many other things we tend to prioritize above You. Free us from these, we pray, and free the many people who have turned the world itself into their god—“atheist” secularists for whom the material world is the ultimate reality, pantheist spiritualists for whom the cosmos is god, primitive animists who substitute many gods for you. Those attitudes are … [Read more...]
Why Do Christians Pray?
Why do Christians pray? Well, whatever our reasons, the fact that we pray doesn’t distinguish us from most other people everywhere and all the time. As the Encyclopedia Britannica points out, many scholars describe prayer as “religion’s primary mode of expression.” It is “to religion what rational thought is to philosophy.” That is, just as there’s no philosophy without rational thought, there’s no religion without prayer. It has been an element of all religious practice through all human … [Read more...]
Prayer for the Environmental Problems in Developing countries
Dear Father in Heaven, We pray for the environmental problems in our world, especially in developing countries. We pray for a solution to the high air-pollution levels in countries like China, India, and other South East Asian countries where it has been having a severe impact on the health of the local people. We pray for the necessary technological transformation needed in these countries, which can be achieved through economic development, that will clean the air. We pray for water … [Read more...]
We Pray for the Poor Across the Globe
Dear Father in heaven, We pray for the poor in developing countries across the globe. We pray for the economic development of the countries where poverty is high. Let Your hand move upon the hearts and hands of people who hold positions of influence in these countries. Lord, we pray for long-term solutions that are based on strong free-market economic principles, help us to not settle for less. We pray for the academicians across the globe to become sensitive to the plight of poor … [Read more...]
Make Us Good Stewards We Pray
One of the classic psalms about God’s creation is Psalm 104, a model for how those who love that creation and want to be its good stewards should pray: Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent. He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters; he makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind; he makes his messengers … [Read more...]
