Category: Daily Prayer

Our scripture today is Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV).

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

While all proverbs have a lesson for us, this one is fairly specific in its guidance: Trust God! He has given us curiosity and intellect to help us understand creation and our relationship to it, but it doesn’t mean to just do whatever we think is right. We must remember our connection to God and the responsibility to use what He has given us well. We need to ask prayerfully and consider what we know about the Father, and then proceed according to His word.

Gracious God, You made all things for our good. Bless us to be the stewards You intend, sharing Your gifts and Your love with the world. Amen.

Our scripture today is Proverbs 1:7 (NIV).

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs is a collection of guidance for a healthy relationship with God and each other. Here we find more logic and less emotion. While the psalms speak to our hearts and then our heads, proverbs make us think and then feel, and then hopefully, act. Unlike the “laws” of the Pharisees and scribes of Jesus’ time, these verses make us think and choose our actions based on God’s goodness rather than fear of punishment. Throughout the book there are comparisons of wisdom and foolishness, such as in today’s passage. The Filament Bible Commentary says “there is no true wisdom apart from a living relationship with God.” 

Heavenly Father, we want to live in Your love and wisdom. Help us to seek true understanding, not worldly superficial opinion, and to share Your love with all Your children. Amen.

Our scripture today is Psalms 150:6 (NIV).

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

The opening of Psalms reminds us that God’s people are those “whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night” (Psalm 1:2). While we have read psalms that express sadness and cries for mercy, virtually every psalm offers praise and thanks to God. This is what God intended as our natural state, loving Him and sharing that love everywhere. When we used our free will to choose something else, things changed. God still loves us but we must decide to choose Him over anything the world would use to distract us from our mission of discipleship.

Gracious God, You have called us to share the joy we know in You with everyone. Bless us to go in Your name to tell the world the Good News. Amen.

Our scripture this morning is Psalms 148:13 (NIV).

Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.

This psalm describes the entirety of creation offering praise to God for their very being. Jesus alludes to this in Luke 19:40 saying if the people were silent “the stones would cry out”. Everything that is owes its existence and thanks to the Lord who made us all. Nature and other creatures offer God their praise by being what they were created to be. We however, are made in God’s image and charged with a higher purpose: to care for the rest of creation.

Loving Lord, You made everything with a purpose. Help us to see our purpose and place in Your plan, and do what You have for us eagerly. Amen.

Our scripture today is Psalms 105:8 (NIV).

He remembers his covenant forever, the promise he made, for a thousand generations

In  Genesis 12:2 we read God’s covenant with Abraham: “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.” The Lord made a promise, and regardless of our failures, God remains constant in His word. He continues to reach out in love, wanting only the best for His children. The problem is we forget that a covenant works both ways – we have a responsibility to God and each other to use what we have been given wisely. 

Gracious God, we are so grateful for all Your blessings sent in love for our benefit. Help us to continue to grow in faith and share the Good News with the world. Amen.

Our scripture today is Psalms 100:1-2 (NKJV).

Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.

Scripture presents a variety of different psalm styles and purposes. In most translations, today’s psalm carries a heading of thanksgiving, offering the Lord our praise and worship. We are called to be in connection with God and be aware of what He has done for us. God created the Sabbath for us to rest and reflect, as He did after creation. When we come together in worship we see each other as God’s children, all loved and blessed by Him. We need to carry our worship mindset into the world, sharing His love and care with everyone.

Heavenly Father, You created us with a purpose – to love You, love each other and bring people to Your love. May we worship You in spirit and truth. Amen.

Our scripture today is Psalms 51:10 (NKJV).

Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Psalm 51 is one of seven penitential psalms, those that acknowledge our wrongdoing and ask God’s forgiveness. Psalm 6, 32, 38, 102, 130 and 143 are the others. They are traditionally used during Lent, but they speak to our need to be forgiven and reconnected with God. Today’s verse is a plea from the psalmist of Israel, King David himself. David has admitted his sin and asks God to give him “a clean heart”. This is how God repairs us and reclaims us as His own.

Loving Lord, we are sorry for our willful disobedience and lack of love for one another. Forgive us and bless us to go in Your name to share Your love. Amen.

Our scripture today is Psalms 1:2 (NKJV).

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.

The Book of Psalms has been called the songbook of God’s people. Most of the lessons we have read so far are a history of the people and their relationship with God. While the psalms still speak of our relationship, they do so with the full force of human emotion, good, bad, happy and sad. Sometimes these are difficult to read, as in the opening line of Psalm 22 prayed by Jesus on the cross: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” However, our cries of anguish are soothed by the words of Psalm 23:1 speaking gently “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” There are 150 Psalms and while we won’t study them all, we will see a variety of styles and emotions used to offer praise, worship and prayer to our Creator.

Loving Lord, thank You for the gift of being able to voice to our joys, our fears and every other feeling we have. Bless us to see that our emotions are part of our being, made by You and that we can come to You for comfort and strength. Amen.

Our scripture today is Job 42:16-17 (NKJV).

After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. So Job died, old and full of days.

The Book of Job has poetic passages like Psalms and words of wisdom like Proverbs. It teaches us that being faithful when things are difficult is the example of Jesus as the suffering servant. Jesus knew what God was doing; Job was clueless. God restored Job in the end because of this. Even though he didn’t know God’s plan, Job was faithful through all the misfortune Satan brought against him. The actions of Job’s wife and friends show how the world may respond to our faith. No matter how the world reacts, we lean on God for our support.

Heavenly Father, we don’t know everything You have planned but we know we can trust in Your love. Bless us to walk by faith, not by sight and to share the Gospel with the world. Amen.

Our scripture today is Job 16:1-2 (NKJV).

Then Job answered and said: “I have heard many such things; Miserable comforters are you all!”

Job expresses a very universal complaint: we are miserable comforters when we try to offer advice instead of genuine love and understanding. Job’s friends all point to what they claim is God’s law and insist that Job admit his guilt. This would be a false confession and Job knows it. Their reliance on rules and regulations offers no comfort at all! None of them have the whole story, yet they all have what they believe is the answer.

Loving Lord, You taught us to mourn with those who mourn, sharing their burden. Help us to first offer comfort and love before we suggest any action, and may You guide us to healing. Amen.