A lot of folks are setting out their New Year’s Resolutions for 2016. I can’t remember ever doing that. I suppose it’s because I didn’t want to make a statement that I really didn’t think I had any means of fulfilling, and I didn’t want to feel guilty for the rest of the year for letting myself (and the whole great big world) down for not making the grade. *sigh* Too much pressure.
I have decided, instead, to make a 2016 prayer and set God to the task. I will do my best to re-pray these words every day of the year. And I will share these words with you so that you can, if you are in agreement, meet me in this prayer and raise it up to Heaven as a sweet incense.
Dear God, I come before You today in full humbleness of heart for my country, my state, my family, my friends and for myself. I pray that You will lead each and every one of us in the sure and true path that You have laid before us before time began. I pray that You will draw us ever nearer to You, that we may hear Your heartbeat over everyone and everything around us. I pray that You will sit in sweet friendship, nearer even more than that, that we can feel Your very desires and hear Your precious voice over everything that You have love for.
God, let us be Your hands and feet to the nation of hurting and homeless people. Let us be Your eyes and hears to find those who remain hidden; spiritually, emotionally, physically and relationally. Let us love, without condemnation or disdain, those unlovely souls who are lost in this big world. Let us feel the pain and share the compassion for those who have given up on life and would rather hide in homelessness than struggle to try to fit in. Let us feed the spiritual, emotional and physical side of all of those who struggle – the rich, the hard working average person, the poverty stricken person, and the homeless person, without judging, or criticizing or instructing them by our own personal experiences, but let us see inside the nights of tears that they have lived when nobody else saw.
God, helps us to always remember those soldiers who stand and protect everything that we have, bathed in freedom. From the commissary clerk on a stateside base to the soldier sleeping in a sandy trench in unbearable heat. From the front desk attendant in a military hospital, to the medics pulling pieces of people together in an attempt to save a life they already know has ebbed away. Help us to pray fervently for the dreams and fears and recurring nightmares that will follow them every day of their lives. Help us to remember that the pain of the war does not go away when their heads rest softly in their home with their family, but flavors and taints every moment of their lives and their families lives from that day on. God help us to help them find grace for themselves, for their physical enemies, for their spiritual enemy, and for their future. Help us to remember to pray for them to forgive themselves for not being able to save everyone, but to be forever grateful for those who’s life they were able to bring back home alive.
God help us to remember to pray, every day, for those who are in control of our cities, our counties, our states and most of all, our nations. We become angry and disolutioned at any chance of our country becoming the God-loving nation that was founded so many years ago. But You God . . . . You are in control of all things. You have the power to change people’s minds. You have the power to remove people and place people and to change the direction of a decision with just a whisper. You know the future and the things that have been set in place to change the attitude of a nation of people. God use us to pray in that change. Please use us to help set the atmosphere of things that are to come.
God, no matter what we think of the people who make the decisions that impacts our nation, state, county or city, help us to remember that You allowed them to be placed in the position that they are in. You watch as they use their free will to test and push against what You have ordained. We must stand in the gap, to direct those people toward the path that You have placed in front of them. Please give us the strength to rise above our opinions and our frustrations and our anger at what we perceive as coming, and trust in what you have placed in our future, if we will strive to pray it in.
God, most of all, please work on me. Please set my feet on the correct path. Let me speak with love and humility. Let me share of everything I have with those who have less. Let me share of my food, my home, my heart, my mind and my compassion. Let me help to bring someone up to walk in the path behind me, and help me to teach them to raise someone up to follow after them. Let us be the soldiers in this spiritual war, that is set all around us, and stand strong on the promises written in Your Word, unwavering. Let us be prepared to be the Jesus to a falling nation, willing to give up our lives for the truth.
I am here God, use me.
May God Richly Bless You All,
Linda J. Humes
Linda J. Humes 