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Sometimes my faith feels too small. Or maybe I allow the things of life to become too big. Regardless, when that happens, prayer becomes a struggle. So it’s helpful for me to write out my prayers, allowing Scripture to inform them more deeply and reign in my rampant thoughts. This prayer is one I should revisit far more often than I do—I’m starting to think the weak faith feeling might subside altogether if I did.
Will you pray with me?
Lord, you are God Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth.
I know this to be true.
You are the Author of my days, my hours, my minutes, my seconds.
You know the number of hairs on my head.[1]
You are all-knowing, all-seeing, all-hearing, all-saving.
You number the stars and call them each by name,[2]
Yet you invite me to bring my every care to you.[3]
By your breath, you called all things into existence,
And it was your Word that breathed life into my dead soul.
Like Job, I first heard of you and my eyes have also seen you.[4]
You have done miraculous things in my life for your glory and for my specific good.
Forgive me for allowing the memory of those works to fade.
Forgive me for questioning your desire to do good after what I have seen and known of your goodness.
Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.[5]
I am ashamed of how faithless I still seem to be.
Forgive me for worshiping at the altar of fear instead of the altar of faith.
I know every letter of your Word to be true,
But my wayward heart still seeks comfort in lesser things.
My sin makes me feel like I am still your enemy, an object of your wrath.[6]
It makes me doubt the promises of your Word are true for me.
Remind me of my salvation.
Remind me that though I fall short, I have been justified by your grace through Jesus.[7]
Remind me that I have been born again into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading.[8]
Lord, make my mouth gape again at the wonder of who you are.
Make me tremble at your awful righteousness,
But make me rejoice all the more that you are slow to anger and full of mercy.[9]
Teach me that you are a God who is love and has wrath;
You are not a God who is wrath but can love.
Teach me to believe that you are not slow to fulfill your promises.
What I see as slowness is actually your great patience toward me and others.[10]
Teach me not to allow what I see and experience to determine my faith.
Teach me what it means to walk by faith instead of sight.[11]
Lord, create in me an utter disgust toward sin.
Help me to seek the way out of temptation that you promise to provide.[12]
And on my best days, remind me that my most righteous acts are as filthy rags.[13]
Indwell me with a spirit that is ever dependent on and ever thankful for the cross.
Teach me to pray in submission to your good and perfect will.
And teach me to trust that your answers cannot be anything other than good and perfect.
Circumcise my heart so that I will love you with all of it, and with all my soul.
Hold me fast to the life that promise brings.[14]
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
[1] Matthew 10:30 [2] Psalm 147:4 [3] 1 Peter 5:7 [4] Job 42:5 [5] Mark 9:24 [6] Ephesians 2:3 [7] Romans 3:23-24 [8] 1 Peter 1:3-4 [9] Psalm 103:8 [10] 2 Peter 3:9 [11] 2 Corinthians 5:7 [12] 1 Corinthians 10:13 [13] Isaiah 64:6 [14] Deuteronomy 30:6. Photo Credit: Lightstock.
Caitlin Plascencia
Caitlin Williams serves as the director of children’s ministries at The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in Northfield, Ill. She is a lover of good books, good conversation, and long naps.
