SERVANT PRAYER JOURNAL
Servant Prayer Journal includes excerpts from the prayers of anonymous servants of Christ Jesus. If you would like your prayer to be considered for inclusion in Servant Prayer Journal, please e-mail the text of your prayer to Connect@PrayingForAmerica.org
1-07-08
Father,
I ask, first of all, to be covered today by your grace. Forgive my sins and shortcomings, my poor attitudes, my lack of discipline. I ask that you would bring me to a place where my love for you is deeper than it ever has been, before. I ask also that you would draw me more deeply in love with my spouse than I ever have been, before. I want to be your servant.
Second, I pray today for my nation. We are awash in pride, yet our sinfulness is astonishing! Please forgive us, Lord. We so much need a spiritual awakening. The Church needs a revival of love for you which would awaken us from our passionless slumber and inspire us to serve the world around us in a redemptive way, rather than continuing to endlessly focus on ourselves and our ever-increasing “needs.”
Lord, I don’t have to tell you we’re in bad shape. We’re listless, lifeless, and have been that way for so long we’ve grown to consider it normal! Please awaken your Church in America, before it’s too late for us. We desperately need what only You can provide. Among other things, we need Your truth. Our whole society has nearly abandoned the idea that there even was such a thing as absolute truth—as a result we have no anchor, and we’re adrift. Please rescue us from ourselves!
I want to pray today for the children and youth of our country. They have not been impressed by the faith of their fathers, who all too often were absent, anyway. We need an awakening among the young people of just how great You are, God, and how good and trustworthy You are. We are sorry they haven’t seen enough in our own lives that has been life-changing and inspirational to theirs. Let them somehow see how wonderful You really are! Lead the youth of our nation into divine encounters they will never forget.
Father, thank you for the privilege of serving You. Though unworthy, we are welcomed to be Your disciples. We live in Your mercy and grace. There is hope for us all, and hope for our nation, because You are the God of all hope. Please help us, today. We all need You so much.
Your servant
6-25-07
Dear Father,
For the past three days, I have fasted and prayed for the protection of America from any kind of terrorist activity. As I near the end of this fast, I ask once again that the United States be shielded from every plot formed by those who would be against us. Father, I’m asking that evil intentions would be exposed before any harm is done. I ask your mercy upon the U.S.
Please protect our military people, too. They are engaged in a frustrating struggle for freedom, just trying to do their job. Many of them face danger on a daily basis. Many of them are very far from family, and have been for a long time. Help them, Father. Let them know you care about their needs. Protect them by your grace, Lord. Give their families at home the comfort and support they need.
Back on the home front, I ask that there would not be a single successful terrorist attack of any kind for the duration of the summer. Give those in authority wisdom and discernment, that they would be alert to any plan against us. Have mercy on our people, that no plan of evil would succeed.
We need you, Lord—in every way. We need your grace. We need your protection. We need your mercy. Please forgive us for our sins. Bring people to a knowledge of you. Help us to turn toward you, with all of our hearts. Please grant us mercy and protection, especially this summer.
In the name of Jesus our Savior,
Amen.
Servant
5-29-07
Dear Father,
I’m here to ask for help for my nation.
Father, you know what we need. I have a feeling that what we really need is not in the realm of economics or military might, or political victories, as helpful as those things might be. I’m asking for what only you can deliver: Change at the heart level. I’m asking that millions of Americans would experience a new birth, and that millions of Christians would fall in love with Jesus in a new way. I don’t see anything less than a radical spiritual transformation affecting tens of millions of people being enough to turn us around. Only you can help us!
I want to thank you that you’re willing. Everything I see in the Bible tells me you are eager to grant forgiveness and salvation to all who seek you; the blessings you would pour out on the United States are beyond our imagination, if only we would humble ourselves before you and become a channel of blessing to the world.
So what stands in the way of “America the Beautiful” being “America the Blessing”?
There are probably a good number of things keeping us out of the “blessing zone,” but the two which in my mind loom above the others are pride and sin. Of course you are not going to bless sinfulness! Yet, I look around at a country which actually takes pride in its sin! There are those among us who actually try to sit in judgment on you! I hear people talk about what their god is like—gods made in their own image, gods more interested in tolerance than holiness, gods who agree to every deviant pleasure and never warn of sin or its consequences—and I shudder. What is going to happen to us?!
Lord, please forgive us. They don’t know what they are doing. They don’t realize whom they are mocking. If people could ever really understand what you have done for them, if they could get a true picture of how good you are, how faithful, how loving toward all you have made...If lonely people could comprehend that you are willing to be their very best Friend, that you have a plan for every life that is full of blessing!
Jesus, please help America to see who you are, and what you are. Please cut through our self-centeredness and pride and bring us to a place of humility before you, before it’s too late. We need you so desperately! You are our only Hope. Thank you for being so glorious and wonderful. I worship you. Please help my nation to come to know how good you are, and how good it is to serve you. Amen.
Servant
1-02-07
My Jesus,
My Lord and God. You are the true God, my Savior, my Friend. You are the great Example. There aren’t enough superlatives to describe you! I am so glad we have a God who is worth worshiping!
What I want to tell you, today, is that I love you. I am committed to you. “Anything for Jesus” is the phrase which has been bouncing around in my head for weeks. Am I really willing to do “anything for Jesus,” or is that only wishful thinking, on my part? I don’t honestly know the answer to that one. I do know that I resigned from the pastorate, to launch a faith ministry, two years ago, today, and you have not let me down. I don’t even want to speculate on how difficult it might be for me to let go of other things, considering how hard it was for me to let go of the pastorate, but you know my heart. I like to think I would give up anything for you, but only you know if that’s true. Thank you for not asking that of me!
Lord, I can recall times when my love for you was at peak levels. There have been times when I couldn’t sleep, because of your blessings. There have been episodes—many of them—when I was overwhelmed with gratitude toward you. There have been many, many times when I didn’t want to stop praying, when it was like saying goodnight to a girlfriend—lingering, lingering, and just not wanting to walk away and be apart even for a few hours.
My Lord and God, I do love you. Sometimes that love must seem fickle and shallow, though. I have allowed other interests and ambitions to steal from you some of the best pieces of my life, leaving you with dressed up leftovers I was trying to pass off as the best! I think of the story of Cain, in the Bible, and regard it with disgust. Then I think of myself. How many of my offerings have been similar to Cain’s? It wasn’t the best, and I knew it, but I tried to make you think it was, and I wanted others to think it was. And when the blessing fell on my brother, instead of on me, rather than repenting of my sin and changing my behavior, I became angry with my brother, and sulky toward you!
I’m sorry, Lord. Examine my heart, please. I want a clean heart before you, a heart grateful enough to offer you only my best.
Servant
12-11-06
My Dear God,
I’m coming to you today for all kinds of reasons. One of them is habit: I don’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t pray. Another reason is adoration: I just can’t stay away! Another reason is duty: I need to say thank you to the God of my life, I need to repent for my shortcomings and sins, and I need to keep my heart close to you, whether I feel like it or not.
So, here I am, today, for those reasons and a bunch more. It’s not a burden! I love being in your presence, and I love being your son.
Thank you for the blessings and gifts of last week. The good service at church, the conference at Portland, apologies and affirmation from two different pastor friends that helped to validate what you’ve been doing in my life these past two years, seeing an eagle again.... the list is pretty long, and that was just a week!
The theme for this week is humility. I guess I don’t have so much trouble in coming before You in humility; it’s in exhibiting humility before others that I struggle! It’s not that hard to be humble when it’s just You and me; it gets messy when it comes to not taking the credit and not seeking recognition for myself when there are other people around.
Here’s how it goes, Lord. I like to be recognized. I like to be honored and held in high esteem. I like for people to think I’m holy and righteous and prayerful and all that, when in fact I’m not always very righteous at all! I enjoyed the esteem—such as it was—of being a pastor, and missed it when it was gone, particularly when I continued to do many of the same things I had done when I was officially pastoring, yet had suddenly lost the title which had preceded my name for all those years, and it was now just my name. I know you’re doing something in my heart in that area, because now I no longer miss it. It doesn’t hurt any more to have people call me by my name instead of calling me “pastor.” The respect I feel coming from them has probably actually increased.
And the need I feel for man’s approval has seemed to lessen over the past several years. I know that’s you, Lord, because I couldn’t do that on my own—I’ve tried! It’s easier, these days, to look for your approval, and pretty much disregard the opinions of men. I’m still not there, but I can tell I’m further down the trail than I’ve probably ever been. Thank you.
Probably the most important thing I think I’ve learned about humility is that I can’t get it if that’s my focus! I’ve come to see true humility not as a measurement based on how I view myself in comparison to others, but as a lack of measuring myself at all.
True humility, for me, is when I quit asking myself the question, “Am I being humble?” and I forget to even think about me. The pursuit of humility means, for me, that I refuse to get on the scale and see how I come out, in comparison to others—and success is when I forget to.
The closer I get to you, the more I think of you, the more I follow your direction to intercede for others and to serve them in your name, the more I find what true humility looks like and feels like. Humility feels like being so totally in love with you that I forget to be self-conscious, so focused on you that I forget to think of myself at all. I haven’t been there very many times, but when I get there, it feels right—especially afterwards, because when I actually get to the place of humility, I don’t even notice I'm there at the time, because all of my attention is on you. Maybe one of these days I won’t come back!
Servant
11-06-06
Dear Father,
On a blustery Northwest day, I come before you, particularly on behalf of the election, tomorrow. I’m not even sure how to pray! Many of the candidates we’ve seen seem to be equally ungodly. We’ve just had yet another evangelical scandal, timed by the enemy to coincide with this last weekend before the election. Thank you that, rather than a prolonged cover-up, the man’s resignation/removal came to something of a conclusion in a matter of two days! As I watched the agnostics and God-haters pile on, reveling in the scandal, and trying to smear your whole Church in the process, I felt a little of the corporate pain of your Body. I felt some of the vulnerability of the Church, that sense that satan is growling and snapping, lunging at your Body, ready to tear off any piece he can get hold of. I was reminded that it is only your grace and protection that saves us from his deadly wrath. We need you so desperately, O God! It’s not just Peter that satan desires to “sift as wheat”!
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” How true. The blessings you pour out on your people, the protection you grant them—it’s all in the very presence of the one who would take everything away from us, if only given the chance. he can’t take You away from us! Thank you for your grace.
Lord Jesus, about this election.... I realize we have few candidates running for office who have made it this far, who also have any kind of Christian testimony. That tells me two things, already: There aren’t enough serious Christians who have accepted a call into politics; there aren’t enough Christians paying attention to issues of godliness and morality, when it comes to voting. I’m sorry, on both counts. I don’t believe you have called me to run for any public office, but I’m not saying you never will, either. What I’m most sorry about is the spiritual atmosphere in America, where instead of people looking for the candidate who is the most godly and has the most integrity, someone who dares to claim your name in public (or even in private) has very little chance of winning much of anything! Meanwhile, your Name is being disgraced on a daily basis in every corner of our land, even as we smugly continue to think that You will continue to pour out blessings on the United States, regardless! I’ve always been pretty hard on Lot, in the Bible, choosing to live near Sodom, then in it, and eventually becoming one of the elders, but I look around and wonder if I’m any different.
How much “gunk” will I tolerate, without any appreciable remorse? Apparently, quite a lot. I’m getting the feeling that what You want to do in the lives of American Christians is “clean house.” There is so much I can see You removing! Our pride, our idols, our ambitions, our grudges and bitterness, our materialism.... the list could go on and on and on. Our national character has been so thoroughly compromised, and the church is little different from much of society. Lord, I am sorry! Please forgive us. More than that, please help us to come to repentance—and change!
Now, I want to write to you about Saturday. It’s been on my mind for the last two days.
On Saturday, at our daughter’s request, we went shopping. It was a successful shopping trip, in terms of finding things she wanted, and even at prices we could afford, but I went home with a new awareness which had never before hit me.
I’ve been prayer walking for the past year and a half, and have gotten used to taking the spiritual temperature of a street or neighborhood, just by walking through it. That’s why it took me by surprise, Saturday. The most ungodly place I’ve been in the past year was that mall!
I wasn’t expecting it. I’ve been to that mall many, many times in the years we’ve lived in the Northwest; I’ve never noticed the spiritual climate like I did, Saturday. The best word I can come up with to describe it is “ungodly.” It wasn’t “anti-godly,” although in places it was definitely that, too; it was ungodly. Everywhere I looked, there was something else which was set up in Your place!
There were obvious “in-your-face” places of sin, such as the two major stores promoting “lingerie” in the most brazen fashion allowed by law. But it wasn’t those kinds of stores that saddened me; it was the fact that pretty much the entire mall—dozens and dozens of stores—was dedicated to the pursuit of selfishness, lust, materialism and pride. Thousands of “worshipers” thronged the place, and one thing which was so glaringly obvious to me was the complete absence of any recognition of You. Yes, there were Christian items being sold, there was already an emphasis on Christmas (but solely in the commercial sense, not in the holy sense), but even when I encountered something like the row and a half of evangelical books in one of the book stores, there seemed to be no power in it, and certainly no attempt to promote You as being anyone special; it was only another attempt to make money off certain customers, who might be drawn toward these books, rather than the thousands of volumes available which would convey exactly the opposite message of the Christian books. There was only one other person in the Christian book aisle. In the very same aisle were books offering scathing criticisms of Christianity and everything related to it; even the aisle containing Bibles felt “ungodly”—since obviously the Bible was not regarded as anything special—just another book for sale.
Our daughter got a dress she liked, we bought ice cream cones, nothing bad happened, but I left the mall thinking this was the most ungodly place I’d been in the past year. It made me sad. You deserve better than that, God! With all You have done for us,..... !
I’m sorry, dear Jesus. The mall represents exactly where the hearts of people in America are: Ungodly. Cold toward You. Even those of us who profess your Name gladly dive in to the atmosphere of carnality, lust and greed, with scarcely a thought. That’s the point: I didn’t sense so much that people were against you, when I went to the mall; I sensed that You weren’t even a part of their thinking, at all. Un-godly. I had a hard time, myself. It seemed that all I did was try to maneuver through the mine field of temptations. Though I was somewhat successful in that, it still didn’t make me feel spiritual or triumphant. It also didn’t make me feel superior to others around me. It just made me feel sad. You deserve a people who love and treasure You, whose lives reflect Your glory every day of the week. You deserve disciples who have no use for the gods of materialism and sensuality. You deserve all our praise and adoration, not just whatever leftovers are still around on Sunday, after we’ve exhausted ourselves in a hundred other worshipful pursuits of everything except You.
Lord, I long for a day and a place where the worship is of You—not our stuff, not our church, not our own ambitions or abilities or appearance—You. Teach me to be a true worshiper. Yes, I’m a little afraid of the cost, but I know it to be a foolish fear, just like when I was a teenager, and was afraid of losing “cool” I didn’t even have, if I let people know I loved You. Looking back, I wish I’d just gone for it, and loved You openly, and with all my heart, instead of trying to fit in to a world that didn’t care about me, anyway. I admit, Lord, that even after all this time, I still don’t live like someone totally in love with You. I want to. You deserve to be first in my life, without any rivals. Please accept my love. And please forgive me, and my country.
Your servant
October 13, 2006
My Lord and God,
I can see you. Not in the sense of being able to snap a photo, as if you were Bigfoot, but in the sense of being able to see a little bit of your glory. It’s you! Even within my back yard I come up with trees and plants and sky, each of them so intricately designed, so perfectly ordered. Looking at nothing but a birch tree, I see the signs of entire systems of biology, chemistry and physics. I see art, creativity. There is something for each of the senses, with the exception of taste—and that’s only because I’m not a beaver. One single tree, and I can glimpse your glory! Thank you.
Thank you for not hiding. Apparently, we can’t see you directly and live, but you are always showing us signs of your presence. Why can’t we see you? I’m guessing there are lots of reasons, but one that comes to mind right now is the logical conclusion that if we can’t even look at the Earth’s sun for very long without going blind (a single, minor part of your creation, 93 million miles away), how could we think we could look directly at the Creator? Surely, the creation is not somehow more awesome than its Creator. And when you tell us, in Revelation, that in heaven we won’t even need the light of the sun, because of your light, that helps confirm it. Yet, you promise that someday, we’ll see you face to face. I’m looking forward to that day!
I love you, Lord.
Thank you for my wife. There’s another example of being able to see your glory. To me, woman is the height of your creation, anyway, and this is the one you gave especially to me, in answer to many, many prayers. Yesterday, we celebrated our anniversary. If you had never done another thing for me, my whole life, giving her to me would have been wonderful, all by itself! She just represents one of your gifts, though. You are so good, so kind, so generous.
In our very unique courtship, we fell in love over the phone and through the mail. We even got engaged prior to ever seeing each other face to face! We didn’t have to experience each other’s presence to know we’d found a soul mate; we were able to connect at the heart, and everything beyond that was just extra. When we met for the very first time at the airport, 21 years ago, we already knew one another, loved one another and were committed for life. The only thing which has ever happened to me which has topped it is knowing you.
I like the similarity, here. Just as I loved my lady with all my heart, even though I’d not seen her, so I love you with all my heart, though I’ve not seen your face. One day I will. Just as when I met this girl of my dreams and prayers, and already loved her, some day I get to meet the God of my life, the One I’ve known and loved since I was a little child. One day I’m coming home, and I’ll see your face. Til then, I have your glory. And I absolutely know it’s you.
Yours forever,
Servant
Monday, November 28, 2005:
My Dear Lord,
It’s 4 A.M., but I’m awake. I can’t sleep for the excitement of sensing what you are about to do. I sense that you are calling your people to prayer, that you are calling Americans in particular to let go of their materialism and their self-centeredness and take hold of You! In my own community, I feel that you are beginning a transformation that has been so long in coming, and which will result in manifold blessings. Something is stirring in America, and one of the places of your stirring is in Cowlitz County, Washington. You are answering the prayers of your people—some of them from over two decades ago.
FULFILLMENT
What is coming, whether “soon” in human terms or if we have to wait a while longer—is the fulfillment of everything, on earth. Just as Christmas represents the fulfillment of all those prophecies from the Garden of Eden on, through the various prophets of the centuries, and Calvary and Easter and Pentecost represent the fulfillment of even more of the prophecies, even so what is coming is the fulfillment of the rest of the Bible.
I don’t know if it will happen in my lifetime, but still it’s coming. Christ will return, in the fulfillment of His promise, and all the other prophecies of Scripture will also be fulfilled. There will be a fulfillment of everything.
Beyond the mind-boggling things that will take place on a global scale, I see a “fulfillment” coming to Cowlitz County, Washington. This one is a fulfillment of promises You have made to your people, here, an affirmative answer to many, many prayers prayed through the years, a fulfillment of our eternal destiny as a place and as your children.
I don’t know what it looks like—I’m not sure I’ve ever really seen “fulfillment” in this way—but I know You, and whatever you have in mind for us is always very, very good.
Lord, I welcome the fulfillment You bring! Bring forgiveness and healing to our city and our land. As I did the other day, I ask you for a brokenness to come upon America, where we repent in earnest, and there is a widespread sorrow for sin like I’ve never witnessed in my lifetime. If this can take place without national tragedy or disaster, please let it happen in that way, but if it must come through some kind of suffering, I ask that it would only be enough suffering to bring us to a point of brokenness before You, and not enough to crush us entirely. You know exactly what we need, dear God. I trust you.
May all of your purposes for the United States of America be fulfilled. I ask you for a national revival that wouldn’t stay national, but would bless the world. I ask for national repentance like I’ve never witnessed in my lifetime. I ask that you would turn back the hearts of fathers toward their children, and children toward their fathers, that we could escape the curse caused by fatherlessness in our country. I ask that America would first of all repent in brokenness, and look to you for salvation. Then, I ask that you would help America to fall in love with you, starting with the people who say they already do, and going all the way to the people who claim to hate you! May America be a nation that loves Jesus! Start with me, dear Lord.
Servant
1-19-05
Lord,
As I read through the first two chapters of Romans, this morning, I was reminded of the idolatry of man. You go into specific detail about it, there, listing some of the offenses, and your response to them. As I look about the landscape of American culture, I don’t think we’re missing even one of them! Our idolatry is appalling! Not only that, but we have homosexuality, pornography and everything else thrown in with it. We’re in a mess.
Lord, please don’t leave us to what we deserve! I am sorry!
Even within the church, where some of these things are at least not so prevalent, there is still the sin of self-centeredness. We have made idols out of virtually everything, and we have placed our faith firmly in ourselves, rather than in You. We trust in our intelligence, our economy, our strength, our everything, as if you didn’t even exist, and with Christians, it’s sometimes not much different. Dependence on You? I don’t see it very much!
Part of it is our extreme wealth. We are reduced to praying for “nice weather,” except for when somebody we know has cancer! That’s only a slight exaggeration. It’s hard to be truly dependent upon You, Lord, when we’ve taken the things you have provided for us, and considered them to be not only our own, but of our own making!
Just today, I heard the discussion on talk radio about even being able to mention “intelligent design” as a theory in public classrooms–and it’s tremendously controversial! We are so far gone from righteousness that we aren’t even able to suggest that there might be a Creator, much less acknowledge Him in a public setting. The Supreme Court, just today, had to slap down a law-suit trying to prevent President George W. Bush from having prayer at his second inauguration! We’re in a cultural war, here in America, and we’re not doing too well.
The change has to start at the heart. Lord, please start something in me. Start a revival in me. Please start a revival in Kelso-Longview. Start a revival in the United States of America. May it be a long-lasting transformational revival, one that will turn back the tide in America, one that will touch the world for You. May I get to see it, Lord.
Servant
January 3, 2005
Dear Lord,
I come before you, today, on behalf of a great nation that is not nearly as great as it thinks it is. There are so many in our country who don’t know you. There are some who despise you. There are many more who despise your followers, some for pretty legitimate reasons. Lord, I’m sorry. You have blessed the United States with freedom and material blessings beyond the imagination of much of the world. You have honored us over and over again. In return, we have broken your laws, accepted your blessings but not your presence, mocked your name in every conceivable manner—our sins are piled up to the sky!
Even within your church, we have sinned. We have developed a reputation for carnality and tried to sanctify it with religiosity, instead of repenting of it. We have waffled on the issues, trying hard to fit in with the world and be accepted in society. In some cases we have succeeded, and only further sullied your reputation in doing so. We have quit talking about sin, and quit repenting of it, too, relegating the gospel to "accepting Christ," or to just being a "good person."
We have tried to compartmentalize our "faith" into an add-on to our busy lives, worshiping you on two or three Sundays a month for an hour or two, and living the rest of the time as if we’d never encountered you at all. We tithe at less than 3% of our income, and consider ourselves devout Christians who are totally committed to you!
Lord, you know that I’m making generalizations, and that there are many thousands or millions of Americans who serve you and love you with all their heart, but as a nation, we are very far gone from righteousness, refusing to even desire that as a standard. Maybe we’ve glorified the past, and there never really was such a time when America was truly a godly nation, but nonetheless, there have been plenty of times when it was more godly than it is, now! Lord, I repent on behalf of my nation. Please heal our land. Please bring us to repentance, without which we’ll never see revival. Please save the United States of America!
Lord Jesus, please forgive me. Instead of focusing on daily service to you, for many years, I have made a career out of being a pastor----doing what the church people wanted and expected of me—trying to satisfy the needs and desires of people. I know that you are the One who called me into the ministry in the first place, and that my mission has been to "feed your sheep," but sometimes feeding the sheep has gotten pretty sloppy, and sometimes the focus has been far short of the purity of service to you, and a lot more about trying to keep in good graces with them. I’m sorry. By the way, I’m available now! Yesterday, I was a pastor; today, I’m not. I ask for your provision for me and my family, but whatever you want me to do, I’m available. And please bring revival and awakening to the United States of America.
Your servant
Servant Connection