Father in Heaven,
I praise you because you are great and wonderful and gracious and good. You are the One True God, the Beginning and the End, the Great I AM. I believe in you, Lord. I worship you because I am allowed to know you, and I adore you because you care to know me. You are the reason that the sun rises each day, you’re the reason I have a heart beating inside of me, you’re the reason that every dear and precious gift in my life exists. You are the reason for everything. Thank you, my good Father, for loving me.
I come before you now, humbly asking you to strengthen me. Strengthen my generation and those to come. You have designed a trying landscape for us, Lord. Give us the faith to endure in our love for you and in our commitment to your word. Give us the courage to cling to you instead of bowing to the opinions of men and women. Give us the wisdom to act when we should and to remain silent when we should, and give us an all-consuming need to glorify you instead of ourselves.
Father, you know I have never been all that interested in how the end of time will come about. I have always imagined that every generation feels they are the last one. It’s easy, while living in this wicked world, to begin thinking that things couldn’t get much worse, that you must be just about to give the signal that will send all of Heaven breaking through the clouds on an otherwise ordinary day. But, when I read Matthew 24 I get chills, thinking about how much our times resemble the beginning of the end that Jesus describes. Are we already seeing a great falling away from the faith, Lord? Your word shows us that much worse days are ahead for some generation, if not ours, that many will be persecuted and killed for their faith, and that many will turn away from it and hate and betray those they once called brothers and sisters.
Yet, your hope always prevails. In the very same breath, Jesus reminds us, “Those who stand to the end will be saved.” Will you help us, Lord? Whatever your calling is for our generation–whether we are to stand to the fast-approaching end, or whether we are to prepare our children and their children’s children to stand, will you show us the way? Give us clarity in an age of mass confusion. Grant us pure thoughts and motives. Help us to weed through all of the noise of this world to hear your voice alone. Lord, increase our faith and help us to experience you anew. Show us how to live only for your approval and only through your power, and give us a supernatural ability to give grace and mercy and all of ourselves for your great name’s sake.
Lord, teach us how to be living sacrifices in these times.
Thank you for your comfort and peace. Thank you for being a God who is worthy of every single minute, every single heartbeat, every single breath. May we give all of it to you. Now and forever.
Amen
Thank you for writing this rich and meaningful prayer. May the Lord see fit to have it echoed in many gatherings of his people.
Imagine meeting without announcements and fewer songs, but with four or five prayers by men and women consistently pointing to Jesus. Luke 6:45, 18:7.
Thank you, Wayne!
Thank you and God bless. I am not doing what I should be doing in life and can see it passing like a movie. Naieve I am not. Oh lord please help me your servant to find the light. Sin is oppressing and I have had enough.
Praying for you, Andy! None of us does what we should. God’s love never changes. With Him, we have the power to battle the sin in our lives! It’s never too late to change, to repent, to turn to Him and ask for help. Let’s pray for each other as we do this.
Amen Melissa. James wrote that in many things we all stumble. The avg person has 40 to 60 thousand thoughts in 24 hours – – not all of them to do the Father’ will. If we were more like Jesus, his love would be reflected in our faces and voices and people would ask us what causes us to be different. 1 Pet 3:15. Mal 3:16, 2 Cor 4:13.
I love your blog and I want to suggest that God has a plan that will take place before the end and I believe we are watching it unfold right now. My husband and I came to the Lord at age 30 in the mid 1960s and were immediately thrust into a world wide “Jesus Movement”. We had so many hungry for God people in our home that we had to jack up the living room floor. A few weeks ago I had a vivid dream about a greater outpouring that is ahead and I heard the question, “Are you ready for this?” This has totally changed my perspective and prayers as I seek to help the younger generation to allow God to prepare them for this great harvest. My precious husband died two years ago and I’ve stopped longing for heaven because I am so excited about what God is and will be doing here on earth!