Give us faith to believe what is true

December 10, 2025December 9, 2025 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

The Annunciation, Caravaggio, via Wikimedia Commons

O Holy God of Promise,
we so often place our trust in the things we can see,
and touch, and easily believe.
But you did not ask us to believe what is easy,
you have asked us to believe what is true!
Forgive us, Holy One, when we doubt the ways you work.
Forgive us when we find it hard to believe an ancient story.
Forgive us when we question how you chose to enter the world,
born as one of us.
Forgive our lack of faith and belief
in ways which seem so impossible to believe.
Help us to look in faith, open our belief, and set aside our doubts
that you sent your Son, born of a virgin –
the one who has come to set us all free.
We offer these prayers in the name of your Son,
Emmanuel, God with us.
Amen.

Jan Brooks, Presbyterian Pastor in Kansas

source

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Luke 1:26-29

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy,

God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,

to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph,

a descendant of David.

The virgin’s name was Mary.

The angel went to her and said,

“Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words

and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.

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What part of the Christmas story is the most difficult for you to believe?
Share this with God, and perhaps a trusted friend.

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on the day of my distress

August 28, 2025 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

Photo by Javier Balseiro via Pexels

O Lord, I cry out to you on the day of my distress.
It is a day that is full of challenges and limitations.
On this day, I discover that I cannot handle all of my problems.
My resources and experience are not enough. I have tried.
I decided to change things, but I did not prevail.
I truly need a saviour.

There is no saviour better than you.
You are the greatest and most compassionate saviour.
Therefore, I will not invest my efforts and energy
in recruiting the resources that people use to address their problems.
Instead, I will start with something unique and come to you.
Some trust in guns and tanks, but we trust in the name of the Lord.
In my distress, my life will be different;
my thoughts, feelings, and decisions will be different;
for I shall come to you and trust in you.
I shall trust from the bottom of my heart that the outcome with you is very different.

You alone are God and we are the children of the blessing.
Our King is not deaf or harsh or impotent.
I thank you because you have entered into the day of distress
and turned it into a day of supplication.
You have blessed me in the midst of my distress
and consequently my inner soul has recognized that you are trustworthy.
I surrender my life into the hands of the one who can calm waves and dry tears.

Yohanna Katanacho, 1967 – , Palestinian Israeli evangelical theologian

Praying through the Psalms

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Psalm 20:1-9

May the Lord answer you when you are in distress;
may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.
May he send you help from the sanctuary
and grant you support from Zion.
May he remember all your sacrifices
and accept your burnt offerings.
May he give you the desire of your heart
and make all your plans succeed.
May we shout for joy over your victory
and lift up our banners in the name of our God.
May the Lord grant all your requests.

Now this I know:
The Lord gives victory to his anointed.
He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary
with the victorious power of his right hand.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
They are brought to their knees and fall,
but we rise up and stand firm.
Lord, give victory to the king!
Answer us when we call!

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prayer to live in happiness and peace

April 8, 2025April 7, 2025 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

image by Agnes Leung via Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

O God, our Father,

we know that the issues of life and death are in your hands,

and we know that you are loving us with an everlasting love.

If it is your will, grant to us to live in happiness and in peace.

In all our undertakings,

Grant us prosperity and good success.

In all our friendships,

Grant us to find our friends faithful and true.

In all our bodily things,

Make us fit and healthy,

Able for the work of the day.

In all the things of the mind,

Make us calm and serene,

Free from anxiety and worry.

In material things,

Save us from poverty and from want.

In spiritual things,

Save us from doubt and from distrust.

Grant us

In our work satisfaction;

In our study true wisdom;

In our pleasure gladness;

In our love loyalty.

And if misfortune does come to us,

grant that any trial may only bring us closer to one another and closer to you;

and grant that nothing may shake our certainty that you work all things together for good,

and that a Father’s hand will never cause his child a needless tear.

Hear this our prayer, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

William Barclay, 1907-1978, minister in the Church of Scotland

Prayers for the Christian Year

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Jeremiah 17:7-8

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.

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Draw our hearts to trust

November 15, 2024November 14, 2024 / Eric Mathews / 1 Comment

image by Cliff Johnson via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0

O Lord God, in whom we live and move and have our being,

Open our eyes that we may behold your fatherly presence ever with us.

Draw our hearts to you with the power of your love.

Teach us to not be anxious about anything,

and when we have done what you have given us to do

help us, O God our Savior, to leave the issue to your wisdom.

Take from us all doubt and mistrust.

Lift our hearts up to yourself in heaven,

and make us to know that all things are possible to us

through your Son our Redeemer.

Brooke Foss Westcott, 1825-1901, British bishop and Biblical scholar

The Complete Book of Christian Prayer, slightly modernized

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Psalm 37:3-7

Trust in the Lord and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him and he will do this:
He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
your vindication like the noonday sun.
Be still before the Lord
and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.

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You rule this world

October 31, 2024 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

The Son of Man Enthroned, Lawrence OP, via Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honour
and power and might
to you, Lord Jesus.

You rule this world
with love and grace.

There are days when we have a hard time seeing it
but you have promised that
you are moving all creation toward that time
when God will get what God wants —
a creation where peace and goodness and compassion
shape all of life.

And you give us good work to do
in the time that is ours:
prayer and praise and hope and truth.

We are not always sure how what we do is serving your holy purposes
but we submit our lives to you.
We trust you, our crucified and risen Lord,
to take what we offer and transform it
so that it glorifies you. Amen

Christine Jerrett, minister in the United Church of Canada

source

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Revelation 7:9-12

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude

that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language,

standing before the throne and before the Lamb.

They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”

All the angels were standing around the throne

and around the elders and the four living creatures.

They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying:

“Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honor
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!”

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Allow us to live in today’s Advent

December 14, 2023December 13, 2023 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

photo by Nikita Linkin on Unsplash

O Lord, today we know once more, and in quite practical terms,

what it means to clear away rubble and make paths smooth again.

We will have to know it and do it for years to come.

Let the crying voices ring out, pointing out the wilderness

and overcoming the devastation from within.

May the Advent figure of John,

the relentless envoy and prophet in God’s name,

be no stranger in our wilderness of ruins.

For how shall we hear unless someone cries out

above the tumult and destruction and delusion?

Your Advent message comes out of an encounter of man

with the absolute, the final, the gospel.

It is thus the message that shakes –

so that in the end the world shall be shaken.

The fact that the Son of Man shall come

is more than a historic prophecy;

it is also a decree,

that Your coming and the shaking of humanity

are somehow connected.

If we are inwardly unshaken,

inwardly incapable of being genuinely shaken,

if we become obstinate and hard and superficial and cheap,

then You will yourself intervene in world events

and teach us what it means to be placed in this agitation

and stirred inwardly.

Allow us to live in today’s Advent, for it is the time of promise.

To eyes that do not see, it still seems that the final dice

are being cast down in these valleys, on those battlefields,

in those camps and prisons and bomb shelters.

But just beyond the horizon the eternal realities

stand silent in their age-old longing.

There shines on us the first mild light

of the radiant fulfillment to come.

From afar sound the first notes as of pipes and singing,

not yet discernable as a song or melody.

It is all far off still, and only just announced and foretold.

But it is happening. This is today.

And tomorrow the angels will tell what has happened

with loud rejoicing voices,

and we shall know it and be glad,

if we have believed and trusted in Advent.

Alfred Delp, 1907-1945, German Jesuit, executed for resistance to Nazism

Watch for the Light freely adapted

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Matthew 3:1-2

In those days John the Baptist came,

preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying,

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

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give us the light of reconciliation

April 19, 2022April 18, 2022 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

Lord, God our Father,

through Jesus Christ, your Son,

in the power of your Holy Spirit,

give light to our eyes, that we may see your light,

the brightly shining light of reconciliation!

For this is the greatest sickness,

when one cannot see the light, even during the day.

Free us from this sickness,

us and all Christians who celebrate Easter either well or poorly,

the entire human community, both near and far,

who are again and again being confused and endangered anew!

Bless what comes to pass in this church and in other churches

and communities that are now still separated from us,

that it may be a testimony to your name, your kingdom, and your will!

Reign also over all the various concerns of the government authorities,

administrations, and courts here and all over the world!

Strengthen the teachers in consideration of their high task

for the growing generation;

the people who write newspapers,

conscious of their grave responsibility for public opinion that they influence;

the doctors and nurses,

for genuine attentiveness to the needs of those who are in their care!

Substitute your comfort, your counsel, and your help

for all that would accuse the many lonely, poor, sick and confused among us!

And let your mercy be apparent and powerful to all who are here in this house,

along with their families!

We place ourselves and all that we lack and that the world requires

in your hands.

Our hope is on you. We trust in you.

You have never let your people be put to shame,

whenever they earnestly called on you.

What you have begun,

you will surely finish. Amen.

Karl Barth, 1886 – 1968, Swiss Reformed theologian

Fifty Prayers

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2 Corinthians 5:16-19

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.

Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh,

we regard him thus no longer.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself

and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;

that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,

not counting their trespasses against them,

and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

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Your disposition toward me is goodness

October 12, 2021October 11, 2021 / Eric Mathews / Leave a comment

_{image /peasap / flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0}

Lord, remind me that Your disposition toward me is goodness.

Keep me from the dark suspicion that You are not good.

You act with generosity and benevolence.

Keep me from believing that You are not for me.

You are gracious and compassionate.

Keep me from the assumption that I am beyond Your grace.

You are faithful and steadfast.

Keep me from the opinion that Your disposition toward me could change.

You are rich in love and never petty in Your anger.

Keep me from doubting the richness of Your love for me.

Kurt Bjorklund, 1968- , American Minister and author of

Prayers for Today A Yearlong Journey of Devotional Prayer

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Matthew 7:9-11

You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead?

Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not!

So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children,

how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.

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to you I commit my trust

August 12, 2021August 11, 2021 / Eric Mathews / 1 Comment

Loving and tender providence of my God,

into your hands I commend my spirit;

to you I abandon my hopes and fears,

my desires and repugnancies,

my temporal and eternal prospects.

To you I commit the wants of my perishable body;

to you I commit the more precious interests

of my immortal soul

for whose lot I have nothing to fear

as long as I do not leave your care.

Though my faults are many,

my misery great,

my spiritual poverty extreme,

my hope in you surpasses all.

It is superior to my weakness,

greater than my difficulties

stronger than death.

Though temptations should assail me,

I will hope in you;

though I break my resolutions,

I will look to you confidently

for grace to keep them at last.

Though you should ask me to die,

even then I will trust in you,

for you are my Father, my God,

the support of my salvation.

You are my kind, compassionate and indulgent parent,

and I am your devoted son,

who casts myself into your arms and begs your blessing.

I put my trust in you,

and so trusting, shall not be confounded. Amen.

St. Claude de la Colombière, 1641-1682, French Jesuit priest and ascetic

Hearts on Fire Praying with Jesuits

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Psalm 56:3-4

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise—
in God I trust and am not afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?

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