God, please grant me a sense of my smallness without allowing it slip into a fear of insignificance. Grant me, Lord, a vision of what You desire for me without that vision becoming something greater than the One who offers it to me. Please give me love, mercy and compassion for others without letting it turn into a Savior-complex. Increase my desire to serve in Your Kingdom while You simultaneously increase my ability to remember that the Kingdom would still thrive if I never contributed another thing. Please continue to teach me to forgive everyone for everything without even one hour passing that finds me with anger, hurt or bitterness occupying my heart. Let me resolve to continually honor You by displaying the grace and forgiveness to others that You have afforded me in my sins, rebellions and moments of implosion. Jesus, give to me in large measure the great power of contentedness that You always displayed while You were on earth. You never hurried. You were never exasperated and You never appeared to be fretful.
Teach me, Savior, to wash the feet of my Judases when I know they have desires that are not for my good. Please let the joy set before me always result in my steadfast acceptance of the burdens which precede that joy. When I eat, let me be thankful that I have food. When I sleep, remind me how blessed I am to have shelter. In my closet there are shirts and pants – prevent me from assuming that I deserve these things while many of my brothers in Christ are right now wearing the only clothes that they own. Help me to know how much or how little to care about temporary things of this life because I tend to easily lose my balance when I focus on things like finances, politics, relationships, international conflict and the rising wave of terrorism. While I am thinking on terrorism, it occurs to me that I would rather see the destruction of those who carry out Islamic mayhem and menace than to pray for their conversion to You – this is certainly not a holy perspective. More than all of these things I ask that somehow I would be a greater husband to my wife, a more attentive father to my children, a more patient pastor to the flock entrusted to me and a stronger witness to those who are separated from You. It is Sunday and I realize that I need so much of your grace-empowered work in my heart.
Lord Jesus, I wish to be a better friend to You. You have ruined me for this world but I confess that it still appeals to me in unpredictable ways that catch me off guard. I welcome Holy Spirit to change my heart – even if that change makes no sense to others. Thank You for enlightening me for a moment to see that I really do want whatever it is that You want for me. Like others, though, I am not clear about what that actually is. Please grace me with understanding about Your precise will for me so that I can offer up the thrill of living it out for Your name. It is getting late for us, Lord Jesus, and I find myself wanting You more than I desire anything else. Please do not let this desire to be left unfulfilled. Never, no never, let me outlive my love for Thee.