Goodbye

Lord,

Help me to say goodbye to a friend who is leaving my life.  Help me to let go when people tell me they need space.

Help me to listen to people and not just act and react the way I think they need help but rather to listen to what they are telling me regarding what they want or need.

Help me to discern what You are calling me to do.

Thank You for your forgiveness and healing.  I need it often for I fall often.

Help me to stand against darkness and put it behind me.

But if and when I fail, for I am a flawed person, help me to continually come back to You for healing.  Help me to come back to You as soon as I can, to seek You and to call out to You when You are near.

Help me to see You and to look for You everywhere, especially in other people around me.

Amen

Seeing What I Should Be Seeing

Lord,

Help me discern what I should be seeing for how You want me to take action.  Are you calling me to take action in this way or that way?  Am I seeing a damaged tree or a survivor tree?

Should I be seeing the flower or the cars?

Should I be seeing the windows or the cross?

For what I think You're calling me to do is such a large decision that affects not only me but others around me.  Am I seeing within my heart my own will or Your will?  Please help me to know what I should do.

Amen

Forgiveness

Lord,

When the natural order of things sometimes makes me feel battered and bruised

help me to remember that there are cycles of hurt and healing.  I will carry the memories with me but learn to incorporate them into my life in a way that adds meaning rather than despair.

Help me to remember, Lord, that when I need solace that I can turn to You no matter the time, the place, or the experience.

You will reach for me and let me know that You are near. I know that You don't usually take my hurts away because feeling them is good for my soul.  Life is full of disappointments, and sometimes feeling them makes us stronger.

Help me to surrender to You and to give you my pains so that we can share them.

Help me to remember that the grand scheme of things is bigger than my individual hurts.  I can always keep looking onward and upward and inward to find you because You whisper your presence into my ear in the little things.

Help the sun set on my hurts so that I can begin a new day today without letting them ruin new relationships, new experiences, and any new work you have for me to do.

Amen

Forgiveness

Lord,

Heal me.  When sin tears a hole in my heart as it so often does, whisper in my ear to remind me that I all need to do is seek your forgiveness.

Make me whole again so that I can shine vibrantly for You to others.

The stain of sin still marks me as I walk this earth but your forgiveness makes me whole in the way possible while still here.  Help me to remember to continually seek forgiveness and to realize that I am so many times at fault.  But, through your mercy, I can get up again to sing your praises. 

I see your breath everywhere. 

For it surrounds me. 

When You move my heart I cannot help but see you in every glance.

Your whisper is so subtle yet so pronounced that I must always listen for it. 

Speak to my heart, oh my Lord and God, for You are marvelous indeed. 

Reach down and touch me with your forgiveness. 

And help me to take that forgiveness and extend it to those around me who hurt me.

Help me Lord Jesus to always see that you are near, even in my day to day endeavors.

Amen