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Dear God,
Maker of everything, I praise you. Existence behind all existence, I bow before you. Source of goodness, truth, and beauty, I stand amazed in the presence of you. Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I seek to see Your face, to know You more fully, to have Your infinite, incomprehensible glory revealed to me in ways that You see best.
I thank you for the blessings of life, the blessings of love, the blessings of imagination. Music, visual art, performance, all come from your breath, your indwelling spark. Jesus Christ, you died for us and saved us, but you also taught us to live, you gave us lessons, showed us mysteries, did miracles. As new learning comes to us, as our human race has grown before and since you walked as one of us on Earth, we have learned to express ourselves, to release that spark you put within us, in new ways. Your love is new every morning, and we who you, Father God, made "a little lower than the angels" are so blessed with the ability to express love and praise and all other emotions, inspirations, feelings, in so many countless new ways. Thank you. Thank you for material blessings, for enough to eat, for one more day to live, for the opportunities to serve You that come with that.
Forgive all my misdeeds and wrong thinking. Despite your love and grace and inspiration, I fall short of Your glory every day, every minute. How can I possibly deserve the least bit of mercy? I do not love as I should, and I center my life on a self, my own self, that is truly not worthy of such focus, that is nothing compared to You. Lord God, I have been careless with the blessings of life, and whiny whenever I hit a struggle. I have hated and been angry. Lord, though I do not deserve, I still beg, have mercy on me, a sinner.
The world is hurting, Lord God Almighty. The weak, the sick, and the poor seem to outnumber the privileged by huge numbers, and my own sin of caring mainly for myself and not for others seems to be an epidemic. Dear God, help those who hurt and who are ill, those who fear what the coming day will bring, all those weak and oppressed, those who have powerful individuals over them who look down upon them and want to hurt them. And Lord, help me never to forget to help, in whatever way I am able, those who hurt, who are sick, who are weak, because You live in them, and whoever is a blessing to them, blesses You as well; who shuns them, shuns You.
And please help those of us who serve You, who claim the name of Jesus Christ and His salvation, to understand rightly Your path for us, Your teachings, and what You want us to do. As You have always made us aware, false teachers and wildly popular ways to err, to stray from Your narrow path, abound. Help us to understand, and to help each other in Love, because You have taught us that You are Love. Help us to understand holy scripture so that it leads us to see and understand what is Your True Word. You taught us Your son Jesus Christ is the Word, and we thank you for that great mystery, and pray for insight into it. Help us not to mistake the words of mere humans as being more than they really are, not to mistake them for You in Your glory.
For indeed yours is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, always, everywhere, and evermore.
Amen.
Maker of everything, I praise you. Existence behind all existence, I bow before you. Source of goodness, truth, and beauty, I stand amazed in the presence of you. Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I seek to see Your face, to know You more fully, to have Your infinite, incomprehensible glory revealed to me in ways that You see best.
I thank you for the blessings of life, the blessings of love, the blessings of imagination. Music, visual art, performance, all come from your breath, your indwelling spark. Jesus Christ, you died for us and saved us, but you also taught us to live, you gave us lessons, showed us mysteries, did miracles. As new learning comes to us, as our human race has grown before and since you walked as one of us on Earth, we have learned to express ourselves, to release that spark you put within us, in new ways. Your love is new every morning, and we who you, Father God, made "a little lower than the angels" are so blessed with the ability to express love and praise and all other emotions, inspirations, feelings, in so many countless new ways. Thank you. Thank you for material blessings, for enough to eat, for one more day to live, for the opportunities to serve You that come with that.
Forgive all my misdeeds and wrong thinking. Despite your love and grace and inspiration, I fall short of Your glory every day, every minute. How can I possibly deserve the least bit of mercy? I do not love as I should, and I center my life on a self, my own self, that is truly not worthy of such focus, that is nothing compared to You. Lord God, I have been careless with the blessings of life, and whiny whenever I hit a struggle. I have hated and been angry. Lord, though I do not deserve, I still beg, have mercy on me, a sinner.
The world is hurting, Lord God Almighty. The weak, the sick, and the poor seem to outnumber the privileged by huge numbers, and my own sin of caring mainly for myself and not for others seems to be an epidemic. Dear God, help those who hurt and who are ill, those who fear what the coming day will bring, all those weak and oppressed, those who have powerful individuals over them who look down upon them and want to hurt them. And Lord, help me never to forget to help, in whatever way I am able, those who hurt, who are sick, who are weak, because You live in them, and whoever is a blessing to them, blesses You as well; who shuns them, shuns You.
And please help those of us who serve You, who claim the name of Jesus Christ and His salvation, to understand rightly Your path for us, Your teachings, and what You want us to do. As You have always made us aware, false teachers and wildly popular ways to err, to stray from Your narrow path, abound. Help us to understand, and to help each other in Love, because You have taught us that You are Love. Help us to understand holy scripture so that it leads us to see and understand what is Your True Word. You taught us Your son Jesus Christ is the Word, and we thank you for that great mystery, and pray for insight into it. Help us not to mistake the words of mere humans as being more than they really are, not to mistake them for You in Your glory.
For indeed yours is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, always, everywhere, and evermore.
Amen.
