Jesus’ first disciples once asked Him to teach them to pray. As devout Jews, they’d been praying all their lives—just not the way they’d seen Jesus pray. Jesus answered their request by teaching them what we know as The Lord’s Prayer.
It’s a perfect prayer, suitable for use any time of the day or night. I pray it daily, sometimes two or three times a day. But years ago I decided to follow Jesus’ example and create a prayer that would help me to start every day in the right frame of mind—gratefully and hopefully while also asking for the daily needs of my heart, mind and soul. This was the result:
Lord God, Abba, Father,
thank You for this day,
and for all the promise and challenge it holds.
Help me to fulfill its promise
and answer its challenge.
Make me mindful of Your presence all day;
remind me constantly that You are constant;
save me from stress caused by small faith;
help me to greet every turn in the path today
in the awareness that nothing surprises You,
nothing overwhelms You,
and nothing is too hard for You.
Grant me the peace that comes
from single-mindedness:
I have nothing to do today
except follow You as closely and faithfully as I can,
and the rest—all the results and ramifications—is
in Your hand.
Amen.
That prayer has been a help and encouragement to me for more than a dozen years now. It’s tailored to my weaknesses and tendencies such as a propensity to panic at small changes and an inclination to be “worried and distracted by many things” (Luke 10:41, CEB). I also tweak it sometimes, but it’s proven to be just what I need most mornings.
So, why not try something similar? Why not craft a prayer to start every day of your own, one tailored to your strengths and weaknesses as well as to your most frequent needs and concerns? You may not pray it every day, but it may be just the sort of thing your heart, mind and soul needs.
