Prayers – Living Resurrection Week 3 (Fourth Week of Easter)

Prayers – Living Resurrection Week 3

(Based on Acts 4:5-12)

Sunday: Risen Jesus, you overturned tables in the temple and dared to call out those thought beyond reproach.  Trouble us this week through you Word that we might be reminded that the world shook on that Easter morning and so should our worlds tremble when we remember anew when we say Alleluia, Christ is Risen. Amen.

Monday: God of All, change is not one of my favorite things.  And so, when someone comes with something new I often want to challenge them than listen to them.  I’d rather interrogate than talk.  But in so doing, I know that I may miss something amazing You are doing.  Help me approach every change today as if it may be coming from Your servant who will unleash the power of Your Resurrection in our world.  Amen.

Tuesday: Gracious God, it is likely that no one will ask me today by what power or authority I am acting.  Even so, help me to acknowledge to myself and You that everything I do is in your strength and because of who You are.  For it is in Christ alone that I can do all things and anything. Amen.

Wednesday: Indwelling Spirit, I have only the vaguest notion what it is like to be filled with You.  To do this means that I have to dare to be dependent  and not be able to take the credit for all the good things I say and do.  Help me, this day, to dare to trust not in my own power but in the power that overcame despair and death.  Let me do this for the glory of none other than the One who is Three.  Amen.

Thursday: Merciful God, how wonderful it would be to be called into account for something good I’ve done for someone else.  Most of the time, I’m too concerned that I will be found out regarding something I’ve done to someone else.  During the hours of this day, grand me the grace to act as You have acted toward me.  This I ask in the name of Your Christ. Amen.

Friday:  God of salvation, you dared to come into our world so we might be brought into relationship with you.  Give me the courage to go into the worlds of others that may be as alien to me as ours to You; so, they might draw close to you.  Amen.

Saturday: God of the unexpected, this week I may have dared to get in a little trouble on Your behalf.  In so doing I have learned to trust in You and not my own understanding.  As I prepare for a new week this day, help me, in trust, to be prepared for wherever You may take me.  Amen.

Prayers – Living Resurrection Week 2 (Third Week of Easter)

Prayers – Living Resurrection Week 2

(Based on Acts 3:1-10)

Sunday: God of life, you have shown us in the resurrection of your Son that nothing is beyond your power.  We ask in the words of the psalmist to restore us today, O Lord, to communion with you and one another, for your glory and your glory alone. Amen.

Monday: Dear God, I come to you today in this moment of prayer and ask that you open my eyes to those around me this day.  Help me to see as you see, to notice the things that escape my self-centered, human eyes.  Do this that I may be restored to a heart like yours. Amen.

Tuesday: Humble Spirit, I am too proud to beg, and because of this I am afraid to be dependent on you and those around me.  So this day, I ask you if you have anything for me that I can receive and in receiving pass on your love, your grace to others.  This I ask Christ’s name. Amen.

Wednesday:  Loving Savior, too often I turn to you and to those around me like a vending machine and expect you to answer my cravings and desires on my time.  Help me instead to be open to receive what you have for me since those things are so much greater than I can ever ask or imagine. Amen.

Thursday: God of wholeness, you always reach out to me even when I feel ignored, forgotten, or undesirable.  So fill me with your love and Spirit that I might dare to reach out to others and in so doing bring them to the knowledge of your embrace.  This I ask for the sake of others and for your glory.  Amen.

Friday: Spirit of Grace, this week I have looked to you, expecting to receive something.  In this time as within the whole of my life you have given to me in your name the riches of your realm. As this week draws to its close, I give you thanks that from you always come gifts more precious than silver or gold and for no other reason than love you have stopped to notice me.  I love you and thank you.  Amen.

Saturday: Dear Jesus, on this earth you ran afoul of the powers of this world and its prince. As I have dared this week to explore what it means to receive from you and give to others, I too am bound to come into conflict with this world.  Give me strength and courage to continue reaching out to you and others and always expecting to receive something greater than I imagined.  Amen.

Prayers - Living Resurrection Week 1 (Second Week of Easter)

Prayers – Living Resurrection Week 1

(Based on Acts 4:32-35)

Sunday: Awesome God, on the first day of the week you broke through the barrier between life and death and opened a way for us all.  Break through, this day, those barriers that separate us from you and from one another, by the love that binds you, the Son, and the Spirit. Amen.

Monday: Lord Jesus it is difficult to be of one heart and mind with you much less each other.  Like the stone before the tomb, roll away those things that separate us from you and from one another, for the glory of the One and Holy Trinity. Amen.

Tuesday: Holy One, even though you have given me all that I have, I still hold back from you what I call my own.  And the tighter I hold, the less you can give and share with me.  Open my hands and my heart to return to you all the blessings of my life and make me able to receive so much more. Amen.

Wednesday: Resurrected Lord, in this season of celebrations I do not always embrace the joy that comes from the knowledge that you overcame death.  Startle me with the emptiness of the tomb so that my life and speech and deeds all testify that the One they crucified lives. Amen.

Thursday: God of abundance, every day I see that there are needy among us. Where I can, let me be a vessel to feed those who are hungry, give drink to those who thirst, and point to all the Living Water that satisfies.  This I ask only so that you who Create, Redeem, Sustain are glorified. Amen.

Friday:  Oh God, it would be so wonderful to come before you today and willingly lay all my worries, concerns, and my whole heart at your feet.  But to do this means that I would totally submit to your will for me and to all those things over which I think I have control.  Grant me courage this day to lay just one of those things before you and trust that you love me. Amen.

Saturday: Passionate Savior, as I begin to allow you and others behind the barriers I have built to protect me, I am made aware of the places in me that need your healing, that need resurrection.  Let your love fill me and make me whole in you.