1 Samuel 2:1-3

1 Passage: 1 Samuel 2:1-3

1 Verse: Verse 3. "Boast no more so very proudly, Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth; For the LORD is a God of knowledge, And with Him actions are weighed."

1 Prayer: Father, You are a God of knowledge. And we are people of very limited vision and understanding and comprehension. Thank You for revealing Yourself to us as much as You have, but please forgive us for arrogantly boasting about how well we know You and Your will. We ask and pray -- and rightly so -- that we would grow in knowledge, but even to that there is a limit. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Father, please help our growth in love match our gains in knowledge. And let our loving actions and kind deeds and merciful gestures outnumber our proud pronouncements of truth. You are the judge, not us. Yet we so often use our knowledge as a sledge to hammer over the heads of those who need love at least as much if not more than they need to know whatever truth we might be craving to tell them -- that they are lost, or sinful, or mistaken, or wrong . . .

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: 2 Samuel 22:1-4

Psalm 95:1-6

1 Passage: Psalm 95:1-6

1 Verse: Verse 2. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.

1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for being present with me. Thank You for inviting me to fix my heart and my mind, my hopes and my desires fully upon You. Thank You for being utterly and absolutely worthy of thanks. My thoughts are all too often filled up with so many complaints and critiques that I forget to be thankful. I neglect the great good that was and is and is to come in our relationship together. Considering all that I think I have reason to feel sorrowful about, the fact that Your goodness is great enough to make joyful shouting and thankfulness perfectly appropriate nonetheless is something almost too difficult to imagine. There is no denial or diminishment of suffering or wrong or pain or loss or grief, but a recognition that even with the very real burdens of all these, You still are patiently working all things ultimately toward good. And for that I am thankful despite my fearful and grumbling and discontented heart. For that I shout joyfully to You with psalms.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: 1 Samuel 2:1-3

Psalm 62:1-2, 5-8

1 Passage: Psalm 62:1-2, 5-8

1 Verse: Verse 8. Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah.

1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for being the source of safety and security and stability for our shaken souls. My heart quivers and quakes under the burden of its own misguided thoughts, misdirected intentions, mistaken desires. Please help me to pour it all out before You. Help me not to fear the strange and scary mixture of evil and good, joy and sorrow, purity and filth, weakness and strength to be found within me. As close to me as my very own heart -- at the absolute center of me -- are both my secret and hidden and presumptuous sins, and also my even greater salvation. My salvation -- in and with and from and through You -- is nearer to me now than when I first believed. Thank You, Father. Let me not let the poison fester, but aid me in pouring it out, allow me to bleed off both the sins that harm us in the commission, and the good that harms us in the omission. Let my heart be open and bare before You and me and those with whom You have called me to live in open and honest relationship.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: Psalm 95:1-6

Psalm 19:7-14

1 Passage: Psalm 19:7-14

1 Verse: Verse 12. Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults.

1 Prayer: Nothing is hidden from You, Father. But how often do I hide the uglier parts of myself from my own recognition? I think I can discern innumerable errors, but the ones I can't are likely even far worse than those I can. And that doesn't even begin to count all those presumptuous sins -- the ones I know about full well yet persist in nonetheless. Let them not rule over me. And if it is possible for me to rule over them instead, please kindly make it so. Help me to live in a manner that is acceptable in Your sight and not merely my own. For You see that in me which is hidden not only from the world but even from myself. Please be gracious and patient and merciful to me as I see myself better. Help me not be overwhelmed by what I see. Rather be my strength as I face down those unacceptable thoughts and words and actions and beliefs and wrestle each one to the cross.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: Psalm 62:1-2, 5-8

Psalm 18:1-3

1 Passage: Psalm 18:1-3

1 Verse: Verse 1. "I love You, O LORD, my strength."

1 Prayer: You are my strength, Lord. You are familiar with all my weaknesses. But I need to acquaint myself better with Your strength. How do I avail myself of Your abundant power, Your limitless might? There is no maximal limit to Your strength, but are there moral limits? We speak of military strenth, economic power, political strength, mental toughness, force of will, strength of character, influence, command, control, stability . . . All these different strengths, and which are Yours, Lord? Obviously, You can at any moment take charge of any one. But which is for me? What sort of strength ought I to be claiming when I claim that You are my strength? Weakness? For Your power is perfected in weakness. Meeknesss? Humility? Gentleness? Poverty? "Did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?" I love You, Lord, my strength. May I still ask to become rich in faith, if I resist becoming poor in this world? What sort of strength do I love more? I love You, O Lord, my strength.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: Psalm 19:7-14

Zechariah 1:2-6

1 Passage: Zechariah 1:2-6

1 Verse: Verse 3. "Therefore say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Return to Me," declares the LORD of hosts, "that I may return to you," says the LORD of hosts.

1 Prayer: The idea of returning to You, Father, can sometimes be rather frightening. Here we read of Your anger overtaking evildoers and we wonder if the same may be our fate. Yet, even they repented when Your word caught up with them. Will I? Thank You for making the constant and repeated invitation to return. I need not fear coming back to You -- guilty as I am -- because You will do all that You have purposed to do, and I know Your purposes are all for good. Help me, then, today to be quick to return to You and to be mindful of the many ways in which You are turning also to me.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: Psalm 89:5-8

Psalm 46:1-11

1 Passage: Psalm 46:1-11

1 Verse: Verse 10. "Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for the comfort these verses bring. You are God, therefore I can relax, let go, be still, cease striving. You will accomplish Your will in and through and for me. And most of all for Your own glory. It isn't up to me, yet there is work for me to do, too. Help me to contribute my part, not out of obligation or fear, but in love and gratitude and appreciation for the opportunity to live as Your Lordship makes possible -- in full and complete confidence of Your ultimate victory and triumph over all evil.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: Zechariah 1:2-6

Luke 6:27-36

1 Passage: Luke 6:27-36

1 Verse: Verse 35. "But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men."

1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for being kind to ungrateful and evil men like me. I have received so much mercy from You, it would be foolish and selfish to withhold mercy from anyone else. Teach me how to love my enemies rather than to fear or kill or demean them. Help me to do good and not care whether I am recognized or thanked or appreciated. You have promised a reward that the world knows nothing about. Give me enough faith to live as a son of teh Most High. Please keep me from settling for lesser rewards.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: Psalm 92:1-4

Psalm 97:9-12

1 Passage: Psalm 97:9-12

1 Verse: Verse 9. For You are the LORD Most High over all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods.

1 Prayer: Father, we turn away from all other gods of this earth to embrace You and bow before You and submit to You alone. You alone are higher than all the rest. And yet everywhere we look we see the false gods of the world enslaving and abusing and corrupting and oppressing people who are blinded by their lies. Please help our worship of You alone as Lord Most High be pure and peaceable and fruitful enough that others will see and know that You alone are the true God.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: Luke 6:27-36

Psalm 9:17-20

1 Passage: Psalm 9:17-20

1 Verse: Verse 18. For the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted perish forever.

1 Prayer: Father, bring to our remembrance the needy and afflicted among us, whether they be near or far, like or unlike us. You do not forget those who suffer, You identify with the lowly, the outcast, the downtrodden. We, as Your people, desire to do the same. Today, as I encounter people in various states of neediness and affliction, please help me to demonstrate a sensitive awareness to those needs. Help me to stand with them, to remind them that You have not forgotten or abandoned them, even if it seems all the rest of the world has. Father, transform us into a people who, rather than magnify the hurt that the marginalized suffer, bring hope.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: Psalm 97:9-12

Psalm 9:7-10

1 Passage: Psalm 9:7-10

1 Verse: Verse 9. The LORD also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble

1 Prayer: Father, You know the trouble I might get into today. You know all of the oppressive thoughts, nagging doubts, disquieting worrries, incessant distractions. I need You to be a stronghold for me as I go about my work today. And for those who face oppression and trouble far beyond my small simple little pains, I pray that You would show yourself especially strong. Hold us all in the sheltering power of Your unopposable strength.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: Psalm 9:17-20

Psalm 9:1-2

1 Passage: Psalm 9:1-2

1 Verse: Verse 2. I will be glad and exult in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.

1 Prayer: Father, You are the Most High -- and You alone deserve my highest praise. Today I desire to look to You in all things, so that I might be glad that You reign in and over and above all things. Whatever happens today, wherever I end up, whatever I am doing, I will exult in the knowledge that all is under Your loving care.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: Psalm 9:7-10

Indefinite hiatus

I'm taking another break while we evaluate the effectiveness of this site relative to other aspects of the Four Ones. Perhaps a re-launch will occur in the fall . . .

1 John 4:7-13

1 Passage: 1 John 4:7-13

1 Verse: Verse 11. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for so loving me that You would permit Your own Son to suffer in my place for my sin. Sometimes that kind of love seems so foreign to my selfish ways of living. And yet Your love is the same for me as for all others. Help me to have the same love, too. Allow me to make the most of every opportunity to be gracious and kind and patient and humble toward every person.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: Romans 5:6-10

1 John 5:19-21

1 Passage: 1 John 5:19-21

1 Verse: Verse 19. We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for making me Yours and giving me new life by Your Spirit through Your Son. Teach me all that follows from the fact that we are "of God". I know that we do not lie in the power of the evil one, even though the whole world around us and even in some sense ingrained within us does. Free me from the wrong-headed ways of evil. Free me from fear. Free me to love freely as You have loved me.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: 1 John 4:7-13

Colossians 2:9-15

1 Passage: Colossians 2:9-15

1 Verse: Verse 10. and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority

1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for giving Jesus all authority, rule and power. He alone is the perfect representation of Your love in human life. He alone is worthy to be trusted with all power, rule and authority. Thank You, Father, for making us complete in Jesus. We do not need anything else in this world. Forgive us for seeking after other things. Turn my heart completely to You, so I can rest in the fullness that comes by faith in Christ.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: 1 John 5:19-21

Ephesians 6:10-13

1 Passage: Ephesians 6:10-13

1 Verse: Verse 12. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

1 Prayer: Father, please strengthen me for the struggle. You are above all powers, and yet we are faced constantly by their opposition. We are even entangled up in them. Help me not to mistake my opponents for the people who are caught up in their influence and control. Free me from my own complicity in their wickedness. And help me to stand aside and apart and against them by Your goodness and grace.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: Colossians 2:9-15

1 Thessalonians 2:17 -18

1 Passage: 1 Thessalonians 2:17 -18

1 Verse: Verse 18. For we wanted to come to you--I, Paul, more than once--and yet Satan hindered us.

1 Prayer: Father, You alone know better than anyone the things I most deeply want. All my greatest desires are laid open before You. But desire alone is not enough to achieve all those things that I long for the most. You know even better than I do how Satan prevents me from gaining what I want. I know the evil one will not hinder forever. Ultimately, his defeat will become complete. But until then, I am blocked, opposed, resisted, diverted, misled. Deliver me from the evil one. Protect me from his powers. Remove any hindering influence over the events of my life, and yet teach me to stand firm against those that may still remain.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: Ephesians 6:10-13

Acts 17:1-9

1 Passage: Acts 17:1-9

1 Verse: Verse 7. ". . . and Jason has welcomed them, and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus."

1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for making Jesus our king. Thank You for accepting me into His kingdom. Thank You for delivering me from the kingdoms of this world and making my first citizenship in heaven and not on earth only. Please help me to walk according to the decrees of my King Jesus, who humbly serves not to aggrandize His own power or unfairly protect Himself or His own cronies or promote His own interests above all others. Allow me to walk as He walked -- in love toward even His enemies, in peace to those who would do violence against Him, in truth when those around Him gained advantage over Him through lies, in self-denying humility and other-affirming gentleness even when force might seem to be the only way to succeed. And I pray that my president -- who claims that Jesus is also his king, though he seems to want to behave more like Caesar -- would learn to act more like Jesus, too.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: 1 Thessalonians 2:17 -18

2 Timothy 2:24-26

1 Passage: 2 Timothy 2:24-26

1 Verse: Verse 24 The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged . . .

1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for accepting me into Your service. I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of Your divine plan to redeem this fallen world. Please help me to grow in the attributes that characterize Your good and faithful servants. Today, as I encounter people of all kinds, from family and friends to enemies and strangers, please allow me to be kind to all. Grant me patience when wronged and keep me from quarrels. Help me to be mindful of Your word in such a way that I can learn it well enough to teach it to others.

1 Person: Now, it's your turn! Please click "COMMENTS" below to add your own favorite verse and to share your own personal prayer from today's passage. (Your favorite verse and prayer might even be the same as mine, but we'd still love to hear from you. Feel free to just drop us a note so we know you stopped by.) Thanks!

Tomorrow's passage: Acts 17:1-9