Month: January 2025

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Comfort the Mourning

Loving Redeemer,
You came into a world all too familiar with the grief of loss. You experienced it firsthand as you mourned the loss of your dear friend, Lazarus. Yet in that moment of grief you unveiled a powerful demonstration of why you came into this world: to minimize mourning and ensure that it will one day come to an end altogether. In raising Lazarus from the dead you foreshadowed your own resurrection, which would limit death’s reach and hold out eternal life to all who believe. 

Having risen and ascended, you now entrust that message of salvation and eternal life to us. No matter the cause of mourning, we have the solution. Make me bold to proclaim it, that those covered in tears and ashes of sadness may know joy again. As I speak your words of hope and life to others, turn grieving to gladness and sorrow to splendor. Lift up those weighed down by the crushing blow of death and grant them life to the fullest here and now and for eternity.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Free the Captives

Loving Redeemer,
As Isaiah prophesied, you came to proclaim freedom for captives and release from darkness for prisoners. The imagery of being imprisoned paints a powerful picture of how trapped so many are by their sin. While many experience the physical consequences of their sin, literally serving time behind bars as convicted criminals, Isaiah’s visual applies primarily to those who are figuratively and spiritually captive. For those ensnared by addictions to vices like drugs, alcohol, or pornography, it is as if they are held captive and are slaves to such things. Others feel imprisoned by guilt, unable to free themselves from it no matter how hard they try.

You’ve tasked me as your messenger to proclaim the freedom you won for them. Let me make known to them that your saving work has thrown open all prison doors – those of guilt, addiction, and all other enslavement. Let your gospel be for them the key to set them free, and compel me to go to work with that key as often as possible – the prisoners are waiting to be free!

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Bind up the Brokenhearted

Loving Redeemer,
For more reasons than we could possible imagine, many are brokenhearted. Their hearts are heavy because they grieve the loss of loved ones. Their hearts hurt because others have harmed them, sometimes emotionally; other times physically. Their hearts are broken because their own past wrongs leave footprints of guilt that they cannot sweep away. 

You saw this when you walked among us. You hurt alongside the brokenhearted. But you also came to heal them, to bind them up. With your powerful touch and your healing words, you restored and made well again.

You give us the same powerful Word to bind up the brokenhearted. Let me speak that Word with the confidence and courage that it can heal wounds and soothe spirits. As I speak your Word, let the medicine of your grace and forgiveness, your mercy and relentless love, bind up the brokenhearted as only you can do, and as personally and intimately as each individual needs it. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Enrich the Spiritually Poor

Loving Redeemer,
There are so many who are spiritually poor. You have given me the good news to not only brighten their day, but to enrich them with what matters for eternity. Help me to see those without faith in you as they are spiritually: poor and penniless. No matter what earthly riches they may have, they are completely empty-handed without you. I have the message that changes that. I have the gospel. I am rich. Lead me to use the riches I have in your Word to transform the lives of those who are impoverished without you, so that they, too, might become rich.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For Renewed Commitment to Be Your Witness

Loving Redeemer,
Your Word uses a so many different pictures to illustrate the condition of those without faith in you. Let those images serve as vivid reminders of how lost those without you truly are, so that they regularly remain in my thoughts and on my heart. 

But it is not enough merely to think about them, for that will bring them no closer to you, Lord. No, let my words and actions serve to continue carrying out the work the Holy Spirit anointed you to do. This week, as I reflect on the prophet Isaiah’s poetic descriptions of the lost, may they generate in me a deeper concern for the lost, a more urgent desire to actively engage them with the powerful gospel, and a renewed level of commitment and determination to follow through with those desires and carry out my calling to be your witness. Use me in your work of evangelism to reach the lost. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Be Attentive to the Preaching of Your Word

Heavenly Father,
Sundays are sacred. They provide me with the opportunity to hear the preaching of your Word when I gather with believers in worship. And, when the under shepherds of the Good Shepherd know the sheep of their congregation, the sermon often speaks specifically to the flock in that congregation. Open my ears to listen for your law, that it might uncover or expose any sin in me of which I am unaware. And in any areas where I have become too nonchalant or even comfortable with sin, let that same law accuse and convict me, for that is its work.

But that is not its greatest work of your Word by any stretch. That work belongs to the sweet and soothing certainty of your gospel, which points me to Jesus and his complete pardon from my sin. Let my ears perk up when the preacher pours out your gracious forgiveness to wash over me. May the good news be proclaimed with color and variety, so that the gospel doesn’t become washed out by the grays of monotonous and mundane preaching. Let your preachers and their sermons be a breath of fresh air and new life as they direct our eyes and our hearts to our Savior.  

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Help Me Comfort the Grieving

God of All Comfort,
Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the promise of eternal life for all who believe, you hold the key to comfort for all who are grieving the loss of a loved one. While death may turn our lives upside down when it happens, whether expected or not, you overcame it and offer hope to all who face it. I pray that any experiencing that heavy burden of the death of someone close to them may find comfort in you as they mourn. 

It can be difficult to know how to comfort and console the grieving in those situations. It can make me feel uncomfortable. I struggle to find the right words. I worry about saying the wrong things. At those times, give me a rich measure of your Spirit so that my words and actions deliver the help and healing that I desire to offer. Guide me in pointing others to your powerful promises of salvation, eternal life, and our heavenly home for all who fall asleep in Jesus. When those who died were not believers, provide me with words of encouragement that still hold true for their living loved ones, so that they may know and believe before their own time of grace on earth concludes. Let my confidence in comforting the grieving be based not on my own merit or ability, but on the rock-solid certainty of your Word.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For the Grace to Forgive Others

Forgiving Father,
Right now there are people in my life that I am struggling to forgive. Some have hurt me. Others have hurt those I care about. Certain people are also extremely difficult just to like or even tolerate. Often I respond in anger, either wanting to treat them the same way, or shutting them out and avoiding all contact. I justify waiting for them to come to their senses and apologize for their wrongs. I find my own bitterness and resentment toward them leading me to wish wrong on them until they take the first step to make things right. But all of this is wrong. I know this. I struggle with this. I imagine my withholding forgiveness is somehow doing a great deal of damage to them. Meanwhile, it all leaves me with a toxic spirit. 

Forgive me. Cleanse me. Purify my stubborn, vindictive heart. Show me the ugly irony of how deeply I need your grace every bit as much as anyone else – even the very individuals I struggle to forgive! Help me realize that although you have every right to feel toward me the way I feel about others who have wronged me, you don’t and you will not. Instead, you choose mercy. You do not treat me as I deserve. Let that reality sink into my stubborn heart and soften it, opening me up to forgive others.

Just as you have forgiven me.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For Believers to Help Heal Our Nation

Dear Lord,
As our nation adjusts to a new administration governing our country, there is a great deal of both hurt and happiness at the same time. Send an extra measure of your Spirit into the hearts of believers to powerfully equip us to be peacemakers. Help Christians to look beyond party affiliation and see neighbors to love and care for, regardless of how they cast their vote.  Forgive believers when we are judgmental, brash, or abrasive with others regarding their political stance. Give us instead a gentle and patient spirit.

Let us take the lead in helping heal in every way possible. Grant us sensitivity and understanding regarding the views of others, and accept any differences with civility. Let us pray for all politicians and government officials across the board, so that they can be unified in their goal of seeking what is best for our country. Bless us with a genuine desire to seek not our own self-interests, but the interests of the greater good. As we let our light shine by loving our neighbors, let it attract many souls to you and the light of your salvation, thereby unifying us in the best way possible – as loved and forgiven saints.  

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Keep My Lust in Check

Might God,
While the world neither holds to nor respects the sacred union between your gifts of marriage and sex, I want to uphold that union. Although promiscuity, immorality, and adultery are normalized and portrayed as harmless, the physical, emotional, and spiritual damage that results from them is undeniable. Everywhere I look, sex sells, and everywhere I look, Satan is selling sex as nothing more than the gratification and fulfillment of a basic need. 

Turn my eyes away from extended stares and second looks. Give me the discipline to scroll past what catches my eyes for the wrong reason. Help me honor your gifts of sex and marriage by skipping through the inappropriate scenes in movies and shows, or avoiding them in the first place. Keep me away from course joking that degrades women and diminishes your precious gift of sex. Guard my heart and keep lust from it. When it does spark to life, quickly extinguish any and all flames of lust, so that my thoughts and desires do not prompt immoral behavior. Surround me with like-minded men who don’t shy away from accountability in this area, who are also quick to support and defend each other through sexual struggles. Hold me close to you, so that I honor you in how I respectfully handle your gift of sex properly.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.