Philippians 2:1-4

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 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: Philippians 1:9-11

2 Peter 1:5-8

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 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: Philippians 2:1-4

2 Peter 1:1-4

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 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 Peter 1:5-8

Romans 12:14-21

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 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 Peter 1:1-4

Ephesians 6:13-18

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 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 12:14-21

Ephesians 5:15-17

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 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 6:13-18

Ephesians 5:7-10

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 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 5:15-17

Proverbs 15:1-5

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 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 5:7-10

Psalm 19:7-10

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.

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Tomorrow's passage: Proverbs 15:1-5

Colossians 1:9-14

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 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 19:7-10

Hebrews 13:15-17

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 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 1:9-14

Hebrews 12:4-11

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 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: Hebrews 13:15-17

John 4:34-38

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.

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Tomorrow's passage: Hebrews 12:4-11

John 15:1-5

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 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: John 4:34-38

Psalm 8:1-9

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 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for thinking of me. Thank You for caring for me. I couldn't survive without Your attention, and there are times when even with it I wonder how I'll get through. I don't even know what I am. But I trust that You do. Help me to believe what You say is true about me -- even when I feel unthought of and uncared for. Help me to remember that You made me -- and not only that, but You made me in Your image, to be crowned with glory and majesty, to have dominion over Your creation. I don't feel up to it. Please make me worthy of it.

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: John 15:1-5

James 5:13-18

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 Prayer: Here I am, Father, praying to You. I guess in the grand scheme of things my suffering really isn't so bad, but it doesn't feel that way. Thank You for inviting me -- or is this a demand? -- to share my sufferings with You. I know You feel them, too, so much so that You gave us Your own Son Jesus -- Your Suffering Servant -- to bear our sorrows and sins for us. Thank You, Father. And You give us the Holy Spirit to Comfort us in our afflictions. Thank You, Father. It is enough to make me cheerful even in the midst of sufferings. Help me to sing Your praises today, Lord.

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 8:1-9

1 Thessalonians 5:11-15

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 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for the beautiful picture of a community living out the kind of love You have for us all. May our communities reflect this kind of love. Help me to be patient with everyone, encouraging, and helpful.

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: James 5:13-18

Hebrews 10:19-25

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 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for being near to me. Forgive me for not always drawing near to You in return. Forgive me for my insincere heart -- a heart that wavers between faith and doubt. I know I have full assurance in You. I have no reason to doubt, and I don't doubt Your faithfulness, Your goodness, Your love. But perhaps I listen too often and too long to my unclean evil conscience -- that fickle voice of condemnation or license that threatens to weaken my faith. It drives a wedge of separation between us, just when You are calling me to draw near. Help me, today, Father, to silence that evil conscience and listen instead to Your Holy Spirit -- the voice of the Comforter. Sprinkle me clean and wash me with water, Lord, so that I may boldly and confidently draw near.

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 5:11-15

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

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 Prayer: I have to confess, Father, that it is hard to be thankful in all our affliction. Sometimes it is only cold comfort that these afflictions serve the purpose of someday helping others. Obviously, Father, we want to be able to share Your love with others. But did we really know the price we would have to pay in the currency of afflictions to accomplish that holy vision? I didn't expect to have to count this cost. I'm afraid I may not even be able to count that high. Still, I know it is only a fraction of the afflictions of Christ. And You are faithful, Lord. You are the God of all comfort. You are the Comforter. Please help me today to receive from You soothing peace beyond understanding, serene calm, contentment, solace and relief. Help me be a source of such gifts to others today, too, please. Just as I have been comforted, may I also comfort 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: Hebrews 10:19-25

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

1 Passage: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

1 Verse: Verse 18. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

1 Prayer: Thank You, Father, for comforting my heart with the promise of Your eternal presence. I know that Jesus is coming back, and I know that when He left, he left behind His Spirit -- the Comforter. Help me to take comfort not only in our future together, but in our present. But also help me remember, when the present seems to lack Your presence, that in the future lies the fulfillment of all I hope for. Come, Lord Jesus.

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 Corinthians 1:3-7