Tag Archives: servant hearted

Prayers based on Matthew 25.31-46

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week 11Prayers Based on Matthew 25:31-46
The Sheep and the Goats

Prayer: All Brought to Light
Royal One, grant us strength
to serve and keep on serving
to risk and keep on risking
to love and keep on loving

Holy One, grant us faith
to stand, trusting all will be revealed
to bow, knowing all will be revealed

The hidden will be brought to light
hidden actions of our hands
hidden motives of our hearts
hidden words, hidden thoughts
your hidden presence

Find us gracious
Find us generous
Find us faithful

Lord, have mercy
Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy

Prayer: True Love
Merciful Jesus
Give us courage to deny privilege
to lay down favor and safety
in order to take up the cross of opportunity and justice

Merciful Jesus
Give us courage to deny consumerism
to lay down convenience and gratification
in order to take up the cross of sustainability and generosity

Merciful Jesus
Give us courage to deny comfort
to lay down apathy and ease
in order to take up the cross of service and true love

Merciful Jesus
Our King and our Neighbor in Need
Reveal your true love in us and through us
Faith and Works
Prayer and Action
Now and Forever
Amen
______________

For the next few months, I’ll be posting prayers to accompany Bishop Ken Carter’s Bible Study on Facebook. Each week, Bishop Carter will bring in a guest to speak about the passage. We’ll be walking through the last chapters of the Gospel of Matthew. 

You’re most welcome to read along and to join this Facebook discussion group. You don’t need to be a Methodist or attend a Methodist church. All are welcome and all means all.

May the grace of God’s word, the challenge, and the call, inspire us to great faith and great good works in Jesus’ name. – Lisa <

All Brought to Light © 2020 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
True Love © 2010 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
You are welcome to use this work in a worship setting with proper attribution.
Please leave a comment for information and permission to publish this work in any form.

Prayers based on Matthew 25.14-30

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week 10Prayers Based on Matthew 25:14-30
The Parable of the Talents

Prayer: In My Hands
Generous One
You place the needed solution in my hands
An extravagant opportunity

Fear whispers in my ear
Bury it
Abandon it
Get rid of it as fast as you can

The warning comes strong
Persistent
Working hard to twist my perspective and your truth
The gift is a trap laid by your harsh master

Fear loves waste and chaos
Your love casts out fear

Deliver me, Jesus
Cast out my fear
Give me eyes to see blessing, not burden
Free me to seize what you offer
To delight in the adventure
To risk and reap

I long to be named “good and trustworthy”
I long for your “well done,” my Jesus

Prayer: Bring You Joy
Creative, Powerful God
Generous Author of Life
You make
You bless
You give

You entrust us to care and tend your gifts
You call us to be fruitful and multiply
You empower us with abilities and opportunities

Your goodness is in our hands
We will use it and risk it
We will be trustworthy
May our efforts bring you joy
Amen

Be sure to also check out Spent, a powerful prayer of commitment by Steve Garnaas Holmes.

______________

For the next few months, I’ll be posting prayers to accompany Bishop Ken Carter’s Bible Study on Facebook. Each week, Bishop Carter will bring in a guest to speak about the passage. We’ll be walking through the last chapters of the Gospel of Matthew. 

You’re most welcome to read along and to join this Facebook discussion group. You don’t need to be a Methodist or attend a Methodist church. All are welcome and all means all.

May the grace of God’s word, the challenge, and the call, inspire us to great faith and great good works in Jesus’ name. – Lisa <

In My Hands © 2020 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
Bring You Joy © 2020 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
You are welcome to use this work in a worship setting with proper attribution.
Please leave a comment for information and permission to publish this work in any form.

A Prayer for Veterans

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800px-Korean_War_Veterans_Memorial_-_July_2012

Korean War Veterans Memorial, photo by Agamitsudo via Wikimedia Commons

Let us pause to honor, thank, and remember all who served in the military, living or dead.

Speak or comment below the names of veterans you know, including yourself if you served in the military.⁠⁠

Jesus, we hear your words, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13, NRSV)⁠
⁠
Jesus, we are grateful for those who are like you, those who sacrifice and serve for a greater good. Strengthen all we have mentioned and thousands more who put the welfare of others ahead of their own safety.⁠
⁠
Help all military personnel to serve with honor, wisdom, and compassion. Guard them against hard-heartedness, despair, and evil. ⁠
⁠
Bring help and healing to all who still struggle in body, mind, and spirit because of what they have experienced.⁠
⁠
Strengthen and bless military families, especially when they are separated one from another. Console and comfort military families, especially those who continue to grieve loved ones who made the ultimate sacrifice. ⁠
⁠
Surround us all with your protection. Fill us all with your grace. Lead us all with your truth and light.

Micah 4:1-4 NRSV
In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised up above the hills. Peoples shall stream to it, and many nations shall come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

God of All, it is your will for the nations to seek you and to know you.
It is your will for us to live together in peace, provision, and equity.

End the selfishness.
End the mistrust and misinformation.
End the violence.

Bring wholeness and hope to every system, relationship, and person broken by war.

Empower us all to pray and work for your promised peace.
Give us the courage to act and your wisdom to know what to do.

We ask this in the strong name of Jesus
Our Savior, our Lord
The Prince of Peace
Who taught us to pray…

Conclude with the Lord’s Prayer

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A Prayer for Veterans © 2019 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
Leave a comment for information and permission to publish this work in any form.

Prayers based on Matthew 21.23-32

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week 3Prayers Based on Matthew 21:23-32
The Authority of Jesus is Questioned

Prayer: All Authority
Merciful and Mighty Christ
You proclaim and answer with authority
You reveal the way of righteousness

All authority in heaven and earth is yours
Receive the sacrifice of our trust and time

You deliver and heal with authority
You call for our turning and transforming

All authority in heaven and earth is yours
Receive the sacrifice of our trust and time

You breathe and share your authority
You send us to work and witness in your world

All authority in heaven and earth is yours
Receive the sacrifice of our trust and time
For the honor and glory of your name
For the building of your kingdom
For the saving of all creation. Amen

Prayer: Steadfast Surrender
Faithful One, make me faithful.
Steadfast One, make me steadfast.
Unchanging One, change me.
I surrender to your Word and ways, your call and claim.
Fulfill your good purposes in me and through me, now and forever. Amen.
______________

For the next few months, I’ll be posting prayers to accompany Bishop Ken Carter’s Bible Study on Facebook. Each week, Bishop Carter will bring in a guest to speak about the passage. We’ll be walking through the last chapters of the Gospel of Matthew. 

You’re most welcome to read along and to join this Facebook discussion group. You don’t need to be a Methodist or attend a Methodist church. All are welcome and all means all.

May the grace of God’s word, the challenge, and the call, inspire us to great faith and great good works in Jesus’ name. – Lisa <

All Authority © 2020 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
Steadfast Surrender © 2010 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
You are welcome to use this work in a worship setting with proper attribution.
Please leave a comment for information and permission to publish this work in any form.

Prayer Prompts and Breath Prayers Based on Mark 10 and 11

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summer in the scriptures- Mark (6)
Prayer Prompts based on Mark 10
Use one or more of the following prompts as you pray. Just finish the sentence again and again or use it as a springboard for your prayers. Share your prayer in the comments. What prayer prompt would you write? Share that as well.

Jesus, I confess my hard-heartedness concerning…

Jesus, soften my heart towards…

Jesus, forgive me for making it hard for ____________ to get to you

Jesus, help me receive and bless…

Jesus, help me leave ___________ so I can follow you fully.

Jesus, please save _______. All things are possible for you.

Jesus, I confess my misplaced priorities…

Jesus, lead me into humble service and sacrifice.

Jesus, hear my cry…

Jesus, let me see…

Breath Prayers Based on Mark 11:20-25
The withered fig tree
Read Mark 11:20-25. Silently pray the phrase after IN on your breath in. Then silently pray the phrase after OUT on your breath out. Take your time. Breathe deeply. Choose one, a few, or all of them as is most helpful to you. ⁠

I’m new to breath prayers. Maybe you are, too. This practice helps me when things become overwhelming, when I wake up in the middle of the night, or when I’m having trouble hearing God.⁠ How do breath prayers help you?

IN: Jesus,
OUT: Keep me faithful and fruitful

IN: Have faith in God
OUT: breath out in silence

IN: Jesus,
OUT: heal the doubt in my heart

IN: I believe
OUT: Help my unbelief

IN: Jesus, I forgive
OUT: speak a name or situation on the breath out

IN: Heavenly Father
OUT: Forgive me

Share a breath prayer you’ve written

_______________

For the next few months, I’m reading a chapter from the Gospels each day. This is part of the Summer in the Scriptures reading plan sponsored by the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. Click Here for the reading plan.

You’re most welcome to read along and to join the Facebook discussion group, Summer in the Scriptures. You don’t need to be a Methodist or attend a Methodist church. All are welcome and all means all.

As part of the Facebook group, I’ve been supplying prayers based on the day’s reading. Feel free to post your prayers and observations based on the readings here or there as well.

May the grace of the Gospels, the challenge, and the call, inspire us to great faith and great good works in Jesus’ name. – Lisa <

Prayer Prompts and Breath Prayers based on Mark 10-11
© 2020 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
You are welcome to use this work in a worship setting with proper attribution.
Please leave a comment for information and permission to publish this work in any form.