faith that saves from despair

September 12, 2024September 12, 2024 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

Bonhoeffer by AldrianMimi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Lord Jesus Christ,

you were poor and miserable, imprisoned and abandoned

like me.

You know all human needs;

you stay with me when no one stands by me;

you do not forget me, but look for me;

you want me to know you and to come to you.

Lord, I hear your call and follow.

Help me!

Holy Spirit,

give me faith

that will save me from despair and evils.

Give me the love for God and other people

that removes all hate and all bitterness;

give me the hope

that frees me from fear and despondency.

Teach me to know Jesus Christ and to do his will

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1906 – 1945, German theologian and martyr

I Want to Love These Days With You

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1 Peter 2:21-23

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you,

leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.

When he was reviled, he did not revile in return;

when he suffered, he did not threaten,

but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

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Grace to believe and to love God

September 5, 2024September 5, 2024 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

Flannery O’Connor, Cmacauley, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Please let Christian principles permeate my writing

and please let there be enough of my writing (published)

for Christian principles to permeate.

I dread, Oh Lord, losing my faith.

My mind is not strong.

It is prey to all sorts of intellectual quackery.

I do not want it to be fear which keeps me in the church.

I don’t want to be a coward, staying with You because I fear hell.

I should reason that if I fear hell, I can be assured of the author of it

But learned people can analyze for me why I fear hell

and their implication is that there is no hell.

But I believe in hell.

Hell seems a great deal more feasible to my weak mind than heaven.

No doubt because hell is a more earthly seeming thing.

I can fancy the tortures of the damned

but I cannot imagine the disembodied souls

hanging in a crystal for all eternity praising God.

It is natural that I should not imagine this.

If we could accurately map heaven some of our up & coming scientists

would begin to draw blueprints for its improvement,

and the bourgeois would sell guides 10 cents the copy to all over 65.

But I do not mean to be clever although I do mean to be clever on 2nd thought

and like to be clever and want to be considered so.

But the point more specifically here is,

I don’t want to fear to be out, I want to love to be in;

I don’t want to believe in hell but in heaven.

Stating this does me no good.

It is a matter of the gift of grace.

Help me to feel that I will give up every earthly thing for this.

Flannery O’Conner, 1925 – 1964, American Catholic writer,

A Prayer Journal, journalled when she was 22

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Psalm 145:9-13

The Lord is good to all;
he has compassion on all he has made.
All your works praise you, Lord;
your faithful people extol you.
They tell of the glory of your kingdom
and speak of your might,
so that all people may know of your mighty acts
and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures through all generations.

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to crave the graces of your Holy Spirit

May 31, 2024May 30, 2024 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

image, Gloucestershire, UK via Pexels

Lord God, you know I need to call on you for my daily bread.

But how much more reason have I to crave the graces of your Holy Spirit –

for supplying my soul with heavenly food,

especially with saving faith.

When I am tossed about with the storms of doubts and fears,

show me how to lay hold of your word and promises.

Then all the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil,

will never prevail over me, since I know in whom I have believed.

Increase the light of my faith,

that it may daily cast forth more clear beams.

Preserve that faith in the darkness of death,

that it may guide me to eternal life.

And rule and govern me by your Holy Spirit,

that I may never lose faith by agreeing to do anything

that is against the light of my conscience.

Confirm the good work you have begun in me,

strengthen me inwardly, and preserve me blameless

until the day of the Lord Jesus Christ,

that I may inherit eternal life.

Amen.

Robert Parker, c. 1564 – 1614, English Puritan minister and scholar

Piercing Heaven Prayers of the Puritans

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2 Timothy 1:12

That is why I am suffering as I am.

Yet this is no cause for shame,

because I know whom I have believed,

and am convinced that he is able to guard

what I have entrusted to him until that day.

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Teach us to pray

May 17, 2024May 16, 2024 / Eric Mathews / 1 Comment

image via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED

Lord, teach us to pray.

Some of us are not skilled in the art of prayer.

As we draw near to you in thought, our spirits long for your Spirit,

and reach out for you, longing to feel you near.

We do not know how to express the deepest emotions

that lie hidden in our hearts.

In these moments, we have no polished phrases

with which to impress one another,

no finely molded, delicately turned clauses to present to you.

Nor would we be confined to conventional petitions,

repeating our prayers like reverent mantras.

We know, our Father, that we are closest to you

when we have left behind

the things that have held us captive for so long.

We do not want to be ignorant in prayer and, like children,

make shopping lists for you.

Rather, we pray that you will give unto us only what we really need.

We do not want to make our prayers so that they annoy you,

an omnipotent God, so that you do what we want you to do.

Rather, give us the vision, the courage,

that enlarges our horizons and stretches our faith

to the adventure of seeking your loving will for our lives

We thank you that you are hearing us even now.

We thank you for the grace of prayer.

We thank you for yourself.

Peter Marshall, 1902 – 1949, Chaplain of the US Senate
HarperCollins Book of Prayers, freely modified

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Matthew 6:6-8

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door

and pray to your Father, who is unseen.

Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret,

will reward you.

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans,

for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need

before you ask him.

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believing in the resurrection of Jesus

April 12, 2024April 11, 2024 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

image, by William Hole, via Wikimedia Commons

Almighty God,
Who through the death of your Son

has destroyed sin and death,
And by his resurrection

has restored innocence and everlasting life,
That we may be delivered from the dominion of the devil,

and our mortal bodies raised up from the dead:
Grant that we may confidently and whole-heartedly

believe this,

And, finally, with your saints,

share in the joyful resurrection of the just;
through the same Jesus Christ,

your Son, our Lord.

Martin Luther, 1483-1546, German Reformer

Encyclopedia of Prayer and Praise

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John 20:31

But these are written that you may believe

that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God,

and that by believing

you may have life in his name.

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answering our askings

February 9, 2024February 8, 2024 / Eric Mathews / 2 Comments

image source

Lord God,

grant us to see that

even as the Word must become flesh,

the prayer must become physical:

grant our prayers

eyes to see the invisible,

ears to hear the inaudible,

lips to voice the unspeakable,

hands to clutch the intangible.

Then to complete the body of yearning,

equip our prayers with

legs to step out on faith,

legs to progress one step at a time,

legs to walk with our Savior

in answering our very own askings.

In the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Cecil L. Murray, 1929 – , African American Pastor and Ethicist

Say Amen!: The African-American Family’s Book of Prayers

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Acts 2:42-45

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship,

to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

And awe came upon every soul,

and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

And all who believed were together and had all things in common.

And they were selling their possessions and belongings

and distributing the proceeds to all,

as any had need.

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prayer about growing old

December 28, 2023December 27, 2023 / Eric Mathews / 2 Comments

image by Vinoth Chandar via Flickr CC BY 2.0 DEED

When the signs of age begin to mark my body

and still more when they touch my mind;

when the illness that is to diminish me or carry me off

strikes from without or is born within me;

when the painful moment comes

in which I suddenly awaken to the fact that

I am ill or growing old;

in all these dark moments, O God,

grant that I may understand that it is you,

provided only my faith is strong enough,

who are painfully parting the fibers of my being

in order to penetrate to the very marrow of my substance

and bear me away within yourself.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, 1881 – 1955, French philosopher and Jesuit priest

The Westminster Collection of Christian Prayers

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Isaiah 46:3-4

Listen to me, O house of Jacob,
all the remnant of the house of Israel,
who have been borne by me from before your birth,
carried from the womb;
even to your old age I am he,
and to gray hairs I will carry you.
I have made, and I will bear;
I will carry and will save.

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believing to understand

October 13, 2023October 13, 2023 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

Understanding by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images

Lord Jesus Christ; Let me seek you by desiring you,
and let me desire you by seeking you;
let me find you by loving you,
and love you in finding you.

I confess, Lord, with thanksgiving,
that you have made me in your image,
so that I can remember you, think of you, and love you.

But that image is so worn and blotted out by faults,
and darkened by the smoke of sin,
that it cannot do that for which it was made,
unless you renew and refashion it.

Lord, I am not trying to make my way to your height,
for my understanding is in no way equal to that,
but I do desire to understand a little of your truth
which my heart already believes and loves.

I do not seek to understand so that I can believe,
but I believe so that I may understand;
and what is more,
I believe that unless I do believe, I shall not understand.

Anselm of Canterbury, c. 1033-1109, Benedictine monk and archbishop

The Oxford Book of Prayer

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Psalm 119:97-104

Oh how I love your law!
It is my meditation all the day.

Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
for it is ever with me.

I have more understanding than all my teachers,
for your testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the aged,
for I keep your precepts.
I hold back my feet from every evil way,
in order to keep your word.
I do not turn aside from your rules,
for you have taught me.
How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Through your precepts I get understanding;
therefore I hate every false way.

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a prayer of love

July 19, 2023June 1, 2025 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

photo by didin emelu on Unsplash

Gracious Lord,

Your name is love,

in love receive my prayer.

My sins are more than the wide sea’s sand,

but where sin abounds, there is grace more abundant.

Look to the cross of the your beloved Son,

and view the preciousness of his atoning blood;

Listen to his never-failing intercession,

and whisper to my heart, ‘Your sins are forgiven,

be of good cheer, lie down in peace.’

Grace cataracts from heaven and flows for ever,

and mercy never wearies in bestowing benefits.

Grant me more and more to prize the privilege of prayer,

to come to you as a sin-soiled sinner,

to find pardon in you,

to converse with you;

to know you in prayer as

the path in which my feet tread,

the latch upon the door of my lips,

the light that shines through my eyes,

the music of my ears,

the marrow of my understanding,

the strength of my will,

the power of my affection,

the sweetness of my memory.

May the matter of my prayer be always wise, humble, submissive,

obedient, scriptural, Christ-like.

Give me unwavering faith that supplications are never in vain,

that if I seem not to obtain my petitions

I shall have larger, richer answers,

surpassing all that I ask or think.

Unsought, you have given me the greatest gift,

the person of your Son,

and in him you will give me all I need.

The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions

slightly updated

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Romans 5:20-21

God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were.

But as people sinned more and more,

God’s wonderful grace became more abundant.

So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death,

now God’s wonderful grace rules instead,

giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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