December Targeted Devotional Prayers

Allow each line to hit you deeply.

Prayer of Saint Teresa of Avila

Let nothing disturb you.

Let nothing frighten you.

All things are passing away.

God never changes.

Patience obtains all things.

Whoever has God lacks nothing;

God alone suffices.

Written by David Adams

Thanks be to thee, O God,

That I have risen today.

I have risen to life,

I have risen to love.

Thanks be to thee, O God.

You have opened my eyes

You have given me breath,

You have made me move.

Thanks be to thee, O God,

For you walk with me,

For I dwell in you,

And you dwell in me.

Thanks be to thee, O God,

For this day and my rising.

PARADOX 

Poem and Meditation by Michele Harris

Sometimes

The chasm

Of God’s extremes

Wells up

In the corner

Of my eyes

And swells

For

A

Long

Time

Before

The tear

Falls

And reabsorbs

Into

My skin

Lord, sometimes your incomprehensible mystery and power split our hearts with elemental force.  You stand in the tension between these two extremes of blessing and loss.  Just as you wept at the grave of Lazarus while holding the power of his resurrection in your hands.

The war between spiritual barrenness and fruitfulness in any season of our lives is decided by our answer to the Lord’s question:  Who do you say I am? Matt 16.15b

Awaken me to your presence,

Alert me to your love,

Affirm me in your peace.

Open to me your way,

Reveal to me your joy,

Enfold me in your light.

For my heart is ready,

Lord, my heart is ready.

Written by David Adams

Holy Spirit, I pray you send wave after wave of joy over every person reading these words. The joy of the Lord is our strength. I pray the spirit of joy would hit our spirit and cause strength to rise up within us.  Let your joy obliterate everything in our path that is attempting to rob us of peace, rest, joy and stillness.  Let joy destroy worry and doubt. Lift those things off of us as joy floods our hearts and rises up within us. 

Lord, I trust You. I believe all things are working together for my good, and as I rest in my trust in you. I embrace the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of your nature, and know that as I rest in you in this opposition that faces me, and trust in You, I am being conformed into your image. Thank you, amen.