prayer (read only if you're nosy)

God, I thank you for who you are. You are amazing. There is no end to your love and faithfulness. When I'm broken, you put me back together with patience and tenderness. You kiss my owies and you wipe away the tears. When I'm battered, bruised, and lonely, you are still there to hold me and remind me that everything will be all right. Even in my brokenness, you tell me that I am still good, still worth fighting for. You see through the stuff that I've put up in my life to the potential that you have planted within me. You remind me of the plans that you have for me, and they are good plans--every one of them. When I fight you, saying that I can do it on my own, you wait patiently for me to realize that I can't. And then you step in and put things right again. Your infinite patience and compassion astound me. There is no one like you!

You know that I've been hurt, Father, because you've been there with me when it happened. You saw the deeds done, you heard what was said, you know how deeply I have been wounded by my past--whether from others, or from pain that I have inflicted on myself. You know better than I how much I am broken. You know that I've listened to the lies of the enemy...how I've believed that I am worthless, that I am ugly, that I am a shameful mark on your people. It is so hard to break free from that bondage! But I want to be free. I want to be whole. I want to forgive and let the past stay where it is.

Jesus, I accept not only your redemptive work on the cross...your sacrifice that brings me to you forever--I thank and praise you for that!--but also your promise that you came to heal the brokenhearted. You came to set the captives free. I choose to renounce the lies that I've held onto. I release the pain, the bitterness, the shame, that has held me back from my true self that you have created. I open my heart--hesitantly, because it has been broken before--to let you in more. I open my heart and ask for vulnerability, so that I can show your heart to those around me.

Spirit, I ask that you will work in my life. Give me discernment in my thoughts and desires that I will see what needs to be uprooted. Guard my heart from the lies of the devil, from any traps that might be laid. Help me to know when to let go, when to hold on, when to endure. Help me to see those broken around me. Use me to reach these people--your beloved.

I lay it all down. Take my life and make me what you will. I trust you, God. I know that you will not hurt me.

I love you.


amen (let it be so, Lord!)