prayer

loving Father

Your kindness and grace have drawn us to You, and we thank You for it. we praise You for Your justice & mercy, Your strength and gentleness, Your discipline & compassion. we acknowledge Your ownership of all things, including our very hearts.

i come to You confidently to ask for Holy Spirit's blessing on my precious sister Danica. she is strong and brave, but tired, and she has many battles left to fight. i ask for You to help her fight them. Spirit, i ask You to include Yourself in her routines and her habits (good and bad). i beg You to interpose Yourself between her motivations and her actions, to search her heart and purify it for her every day, every hour, every moment.

i ask that the inevitable efficacy of Your Word prove itself in the arena of her life. fill her mind with Scripture, with encouragement from Your own mouth. fill her ears with the kind words of trusted friends. fill her heart with confidence that Your fierce devotion to her will never cease. gift her with unexpected blessings from the rest of the body. lead her into places & moments of true quiet, where she can hear Your voice and whisper back, knowing You will listen and even act on her behalf.

please remind her of everything You have already done. please remind her of how important she is to You, and to others. please remind her of Your desire to bring her fully to life, and of Your ability to do so. please convince her that she is not the sum of her choices, not bound by her mistakes or sins, not destined for anything other than perfection. please convince her of her beauty as Your image, as Your creation, as Your redeemed one.

i ask also that You provide for her relational needs, in every way, in Your perfect timing, so that she lacks nothing and has You to thank for everything.

we will credit You with each victory and submit to You each defeat, that You may use it for Your plan, for our good, for Your glory. we will praise Your name no matter how our fallenness weighs on us, tortures us, hinders us. we want to worship You in every circumstance. we will give to You our anger, frustration, desperation, bitterness, weakness, envy, self-loathing, loneliness, and sadness, trusting that You are faithful to care for us no matter where we are or what we are feeling.

thank You for loving us over and over again, without faltering, without growing weary of us.

i pray in Your son's all-powerful name, by which we are saved.

~     ~     ~

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you.
May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

amen