1 Passage: John 6:32-35
1 Verse: Verse 35. Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst."
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for promising us life and satiety in Jesus -- the One who comes down from heaven to feed our souls. I come to You for nourishment. Feed me today upon Your Word, give us this day our daily bread, and help me believe until my thirstiness goes away.
1 Passage: John 8:51-58
1 Verse: Verse 51. "Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death."
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for promising to deliver us from death. Help me to keep Your word, so that I can walk in the truth of Your life and not in the death of lies.
1 Passage: Revelation 1:4-8
1 Verse: Verse 6. and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father--to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for making us to be a kingdom of priests, a society of people in special relationship with You. Help us to be what You have made us to be today. As we gather together for corporate worship, may we do so for Your glory and under Your dominion now just as we will forevermore be. Amen. Let it be so, Father.
1 Passage: 1 Corinthians 15:51-53
1 Verse: Verse 53. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for overcoming even death. Our bodies are frail, our flesh is weak, our lives wear out -- but Your love is sure and strong and everlasting. Thank You for promising us resurrection to new life with You. But as I wait for my body to be made anew, please help me to live according to the new spirit and heart and life You have already born in me by faith in Christ.
1 Passage: 1 John 5:1-5
1 Verse: Verse 4. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith.
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for the victory that overcomes the world. Thank You that the victory comes through faith. You know we couldn't win it any other way. Help me to have the faith I need to overcome the things of this world that threaten to defeat me. Remind me again and again what it means to be born of You -- to be Your child, in Your family, Your very own son.
1 Passage: John 11:18-26
1 Verse: Verse 24. Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day."
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for the assurances of Your word that promise us eternal life forever with You. But forgive me for sometimes failing to recognize that Your promises are for the present and not just the future. Like Martha, I let what I know get in the way of what You ask me to believe. Your promises aren't intended to work that way. They are intended to build up my faith in You, not put it off. Help me to believe in You not only for the for the future end of all things, but also for the immediate needs of the present moment, however great or small.
1 Passage: John 10:27-30
1 Verse: Verse 29. "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand."
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for reminding me this morning that You are greater than all. No matter what I come up against, or what comes up against me, I know it is never able to compete with You. I am safe and secure in Your hand and nothing could ever change that. Nothing could snatch me out of Your hand. Please help me to be strong in believing this when I am faced with challenges that threaten to overwhelm me. You are greater than all. Nothing and no one is able to snatch me out of Your hand. Thank You, Father.
1 Passage: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
1 Verse: Verse 19. namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for reconciling us to Yourself. You are the one who reestablishes our relationship and not on the basis of my righteousness, but in the perfect righteousness of Christ. Thank You for not counting my sins, nor holding them against me. And not just mine, but the sins of the whole world. That is a good word to have committed to us. Please help me to live in the reality of our reconciliation, and help me to speak the same reconciliation into others' lives.
1 Passage: Acts 1:7-11
1 Verse: Verse 9. And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
1 Prayer: Father, You say that faith is the conviction of things unseen, and here is a prime example. That cloud is still keeping Jesus out of sight. Even when I think I have caught a glimpse of Him by faith, it seems to vanish while I am still looking on. Help me not to trust in what I see or don't see. Help me to trust in what You say.
1 Passage: Hebrews 11:1-6
1 Verse: Verse 6. And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
1 Prayer: Father, please increase my faith. Help me to trust in and hope for the things I don't yet see. I believe You reward those who seek You. But I keep looking for my reward all the same. Teach me to seek You even when the reward doesn't appear, when the payoff is unseen, when the benefit is hoped for but not yet here. Thank You, Father.
1 Passage: Jeremiah 29:11-13
1 Verse: Verse 13. 'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.'
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for making Yourself available to be found. You aren't hiding from us the condition of our finding You. Help me to meet that condition. Help me to be wholehearted in my searching after You. Sometimes I feel like my heart is so divided, so broken into many pieces, that I cannot manage to search for you with all my heart. Please help my heart be whole and my search be genuine and sincere and complete. You know how much I need You, how much I need to know You. Please let me find You in the moments of my life today.
1 Passage: Deuteronomy 10:17-22
1 Verse: Verse 18. "He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing."
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for caring for the helpless, the weak, the oppressed, the despised, the rejected, the unwanted. Thank You for providing for the needy. Forgive us when we fail to love and care for one another. Help us to become people who more fully live out Your justice and show Your love to those in our society and community who suffer hatred, injustice, discrimination and need.
1 Passage: John 14:7-14
1 Verse: Verse 7. "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him."
1 Prayer: "From now on . . ." and to forever, Father, I know You and have seen You because I have known and seen Your chosen revelation in Jesus. Thank You, Father, for making Yourself known. Thank You for initiating a relationship with me that will never end. Help me to know You in the now, not to wait to know You at some future date when I will know fully, even as I am fully known. Help me to walk in knowledge of You and in relationship with You today.
1 Passage: John 14:1-6
1 Verse: Verse 3. "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also."
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for having a house with many rooms. Thank You for having a room prepared for me. Thank You for the promise that, just as Jesus is preparing a place for me with Him, He will also come and receive me into it so that we can be together forever. Help me to remember that, while I am alive on this earth, I am out of place. I don't belong here. Despite how hard I try to fit in, to get comfortable, to make myself a home, my real place is with You and I will be with You there forever. I want to be where You are. Thank You for wanting me to be there, too. Help me today to be where You are by faith. Let not my heart be troubled.
1 Passage: Romans 1:16-23
1 Verse: Verse 17. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH."
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for revealing Your righteousness through the gospel of Jesus. It takes faith to see it, faith to believe it, faith to receive it, and faith to live it. Help me to live by faith. Forgive me for thinking Your righteousness could be granted to me any other way and help me to walk in the righteousness that only comes by faith in Jesus.
1 Passage: Exodus 3:10-15
1 Verse: Verse 12. And He said, "Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain."
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for being with me. Help me to draw upon the confidence that comes from Your presence, so I can accomplish the things You have sent me to do. Forgive me for waiting on signs. Help me to do the works first and trust that the signs will follow their successful completion. Lord, help my unbelief.
1 Passage: Jeremiah 9:23-24
1 Verse: Verse 24. "but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things," declares the LORD.
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for exercising lovingkindness on earth, and not only in heaven. Help me to desire above all to know and understand You -- as You are revealing Yourself through Your love, Your justice and Your righteousness, on earth as it is in heaven. Forgive me for putting so much of my time and energy into making myself healthy, wealthy and wise -- instead of getting to know and understand Your loving and kind ways. I want to better understand Your love, Father. Please teach me.
1 Passage: Philippians 3:12-14
1 Verse: Verse 13. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
1 Prayer: Father, forgive me for not forgetting the past. Forgive me for not reaching forward for the future. Forgive me for lamenting that I haven't laid hold of it yet. Help me to admit that I don't get it, that I don't have it, that I'm not there yet. Help me not to fret about that fact, but to simply do the one thing I need to do and press on.
1 Passage: Philippians 3:4b-11
1 Verse: Verse 9. and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for making me righteous by faith. I could never get there on my own by way of the Law. Forgive for thinking sometimes that I still must try. I apologize for letting my unrighteousness undermine my faith, when it should be exactly the other way around -- through Christ, it is faith that makes me righteous. Help me to walk in faith today.
1 Passage: Philippians 2:14-18
1 Verse: Verse 16. holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for Your Living Word both in the person of Jesus and in the power of the Spirit ever-present in my heart. Thank You for trying to teach me how to hold fast to Your Word -- to maintain my focus and strengthen my grip. Somehow You make even my trials for my own good, so that I will learn to hang on to You and never let go. Help me hold fast today.
1 Passage: 1 Corinthians 6:18-20
1 Verse: Verse 19. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for placing Your Holy Spirit in my humble body. Or is it now Your body? You say I am not my own. Yet, I sometimes insist on doing just as I please. Forgive me. I need not only to know that my body is a temple of Your Spirit, but to live like it as well. Please help me today to do as You please with it.
1 Passage: 1 Corinthians 6:9-13
1 Verse: Verse 12. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.
1 Prayer: Father, forgive me for allowing myself to be mastered by anything less than You. You are my one and only Master, my Maker, my Savior, my Lord. Teach me how to know and choose those things which are profitable and beneficial to You, to others, and to myself. And help me to not become dependent on those things which threaten to overpower and control me. I am in this world, but not of it. You have overcome the world.
1 Passage: Romans 4:19-25
1 Verse: Verse 20. yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God,
1 Prayer: Father, forgive me for wavering in unbelief when You have made promises to me that are unwavering, unshakeable and entirely sure. Help me not to become weak in faith -- even when I consider all my frailties -- but rather make me grow strong in faith. May You be glorified through what I believe of You today.
1 Passage: Matthew 5:14-16
1 Verse: Verse 16. "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for creating us in Christ Jesus for good works. Help us to walk in them in such a way that others will see Your light in us and give You all the glory.
1 Passage: Philippians 2:9-13
1 Verse: Verse 13. for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for being at work in me. You know that all on my own I lack the will to work for Your good pleasure. Forgive me for also lacking the faith to believe that You are at work in me. Help me to recognize Your will in me, not rebel against it. I want to bring You pleasure through the good things I do.
1 Passage: Philippians 2:5-8
1 Verse: Verse 5. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for sending us the gift of Your Son, who freely humbled himself, faithfully emptied himself, fully identified himself with the needy, the weak, the lowly, the dying. It is a blessing beyond measure to see Your perfect equal -- existing himself in the form of God -- becoming in form and likeness to a man, and a servant of men. And I'm sure You wouldn't be so cruel as to call us to have the same attitude that Jesus had if it wasn't possible. But I have to admit, it sure looks unlikely. Please forgive me of my attitude problem. Help me to believe that I too can have the same attitude as Christ -- that I can humble myself in loving submission and obedience to You, Father.
1 Passage: Revelation 5:11-14
1 Verse: Verse 13. And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever."
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for allowing us in Your word to see the eventual outcome of all things. And, in the end, everything is absolutely, perfectly right and good. You deserve all blessing and honor and glory and dominion, and You will receive it -- even if now You do so only imperfectly. And I will give it -- even if now I do so only imperfectly. Father, today I want to live with this end in mind, so that by what I say and do You are enthroned with all praise.
1 Passage: 2 Corinthians 4:15-18
1 Verse: Verse 18. while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
1 Prayer: Father, please help me to look to the eternal unseen things for the wisdom and strength to deal with the temporal visible things.
1 Passage: Psalm 86:9-12
1 Verse: Verse 10. For You are great and do wondrous deeds; You alone are God.
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for all that You are and all that You do. No one else even comes close to being both so great in power and so rich in love. You alone are God. And I look to You for wondrous deeds on my behalf -- not because I deserve or earn them, but because You have graciously offered them to me by faith in Christ. Thank You for being that kind of God. I love You.
1 Passage: Psalm 25:4-5
1 Verse: Verse 4. Make me know Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths.
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for making me know Your way. Jesus said it: "I am the way." And He has given us His Spirit to guide us as we walk with Him. But the path is narrow, and though I know You will not let me leave it, I do sometimes weave a bit from side to side. Forgive me when I don't follow as well as I could, when I get distracted by what's going on in the broad road, when I get weary and sulky and my feet hurt and I'm tired and I keep whining "Are we there, yet?". Thank You for being my loving -- patient and kind -- Father, and Jesus my Good Shepherd, and the Spirit my Comforter who comes alongside me.
1 Passage: Philippians 1:9-11
1 Verse: Verse 9. And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,
1 Prayer: Forgive us, Father, for the pain and hurt we inadvertently cause those we love when we try to love them without knowledge and discernment. You say love covers a multitude of sins, but foolish and undiscerning love seems rather to create a multitude of sins. Protect us from our own ignorance and carelessness, the fears and lies that taint our best efforts to love one another. Please give us grace toward each other, so that we can persevere together even when we fail to properly love one another. And please increase our ability to know and to discern what real love requires, and give us the courage to abound in love to all.
1 Passage: Philippians 2:1-4
1 Verse: Verse 2. make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
1 Prayer: Father, may Your Spirit unify Your people into one cohesive whole. We are all so very different, yet we are all alike called to share the same mind -- the mind of Christ. We all give and receive love in various ways, yet we are all alike called to maintain the same love -- the love of Christ. Sometimes it seems like we have very different intents, varying values, divergent goals and myriad purposes, but we are all alike called to be intent together upon one purpose -- loving one another and the world around us, just as Christ loves us and gave himself up for us, taking the form of a servant, being humbled, making himself nothing, being willing to be treated as less than He deserved. Help me, Father, have the same attitude, even as I try to faithfully express my uniquely God-designed person. Help me to learn to faithfully play my part in Your whole with an attitude of selfless Christ-like love.
1 Passage: 2 Peter 1:5-8
1 Verse: Verse 8. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for showing us in Your word the way to become useful and fruitful. You give us the gift of faith not for ourselves only, but for others -- so that by the qualities of Your Spirit we become kind and loving to all. Forgive me, Father, for being uselessly unfruitful in my self-focused inwardness. Help me produce instead the fruit of kindness and love toward others today.
1 Passage: 2 Peter 1:1-4
1 Verse: Verse 3. seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for giving us Your divine power to live godly lives. Forgive me for living weakly in my own godless powers. Help me to gain that true knowledge of You by which I come to understand that I have all that I need in You.
1 Passage: Romans 12:14-21
1 Verse: Verse 21. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for giving Your Son Jesus to the world to overcome the world. In Him is courage and peace. And despite how discouraging and damaging this world may be, I am thankful for the promise that even a very little light will not be overpowered by the darkness, that evil can be overcome, that courage and peace can be ours. Give me the faith to not be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good.
1 Passage: Ephesians 6:13-18
1 Verse: Verse 16. in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for the gift of faith that shields us when we are under attack. Forgive me for not holding firm to my faith, for letting my guard down, for allowing my shield to slip just when I most need to be protected. Give me faith, Lord, to stand firm and stay strong instead. The fiery darts and flaming arrows aren't going to stop coming at me, no matter how many hits I take. But by faith, Father, You can snuff out every one.
1 Passage: Ephesians 5:15-17
1 Verse: Verse 15. Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise,
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for walking with me to make me wise. As we walk together today, will You please teach me how to be careful? So many times I want to be carefree, and end up only being careless. Show me how to be wise in the things that I care about, so that I do not attach too much or too little importance to the wrong things. I want to care about what You care about, and not care for foolish things. Make me wise, please, Father, so that I can be understanding of Your will. Thank You.
1 Passage: Ephesians 5:7-10
1 Verse: Verse 8. for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for making light of my darkness. Thank You for making me something as beautiful and useful and good as light itself. I could never have done that all on my own. Only in You do I become Light. Forgive me for not realizing it. Forgive me for shutting my eyes and stumbling around in my former blindness even after You have made me Light and allowed me to walk as a child of Light. Help me walk as Light in You today.
1 Passage: Proverbs 15:1-5
1 Verse: Verse 4. A soothing tongue is a tree of life, but perversion in it crushes the spirit.
1 Prayer: Father, please give me a soothing tongue. Help me speak gentle words that are calm, encouraging and uplifting. Forgive me for saying harsh and inappropriate things that crush the spirit and stir up anger. Help me to replace those words with speech that brings life and turns away wrath.
1 Passage: Psalm 19:7-10
1 Verse: Verse 7. The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for answering our prayers. When we ask You for wisdom, You tell us exactly where to find it -- in Your word. Make me wise enough to desire Your sure and perfect truth above all else. Restore my soul.
1 Passage: Colossians 1:9-14
1 Verse: Verse 9. For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
1 Prayer: Father, so many times I come to You asking You to fill me with wisdom and understanding and the knowledge of Your will, yet so rarely do I unceasingly pray all those same things for others. Forgive me for being only focused on myself. Obviously, Father, I need Your wisdom, but I am not the only one who does. Help me to be like Paul, continuing to pray -- from the moment I hear about another's need -- that You would bless them with the fullness of all wisdom and understanding and knowledge of Your will. And help me to be wise today, too. Thank You, Father.
1 Passage: Hebrews 13:15-17
1 Verse: Verse 15. Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.
1 Prayer: Forgive me, Father, for fruitless lips that are at times more like the fig tree You cursed -- all showy leaves and no profitable produce -- than the humble little seed that You blessed, which yielded its crop one-hundredfold. You created these lips and this tongue for blessing, not cursing, and I want my words to be a pleasing sacrifice of praise and thanks to You. I owe You everything. Let me continually offer back to You praise and thanks for Your everlasting loving kindness.
1 Passage: Hebrews 12:4-11
1 Verse: Verse 7. It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for dealing with me as Your son whom You love. Forgive me for not recognizing Your discipline for what it is. I cry and moan and blubber and wail, without ever realizing that, because You are my Father and I am Your son, all these blows are really blessings. Only Your love could manage to take all our sufferings and sorrows and scourgings and somehow transfigure them into good news. But, for all that, I still don't welcome Your discipline. I'm still begging You to relent. Teach me what You want me to endure. Show me the faults that Your discipline is meant to correct. And help me to continue to resist sin, in the full assurance that You are with me to help me become the son You have created me to be.
1 Passage: John 4:34-38
1 Verse: Verse 38. "I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor."
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for sending me out to harvest. Thank You for making sure that I don't labor all alone out there. Thank You for the labors of others who have begun the work and continued it to this day. Help me to enter into their labor with my own efforts to sow and reap, however small these may be. Silence my oh-so-smart ideas about when and where and how and why to harvest, and open my eyes to see both the present ripeness of the harvest field and the richness of the reapings from it.
1 Passage: John 15:1-5
1 Verse: Verse 4. "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me."
1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for figuring out a way for me to bear fruit. It is the most natural thing in the world for a branch to bear fruit -- but only when it remains a part of the tree. Please help me to remain connected. Help me to draw life and strength and nourishment from Jesus. And help my feeble little branch bear some fruit today -- even in the bleak midwinter.
1 Passage: Psalm 8:1-9
1 Verse: Verse 4. What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?
1 Passage: James 5:13-18
1 Verse: Verse 13. Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises.
1 Passage: 1 Thessalonians 5:11-15
1 Verse: Verse 14. We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.
1 Passage: Hebrews 10:19-25
1 Verse: Verse 22. let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
1 Passage: 2 Corinthians 1:3-7
1 Verse: Verse 4. who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
1 Passage: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
1 Verse: Verse 18. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
1 Passage: Ephesians 5:18-21
1 Verse: Verse 19. speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;
