Tag: others

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For Awareness to Serve Others

Servant Lord,
Whatever plans I have in mind for today, I submit them to you. When I order my days, I often do so from the viewpoint of what I want to do or need to do. Instead, lead me first to approach each day with consideration for what you would have me do. For you not only know what is best for me on a daily basis, but also how best to use me to bless others through me. Keep my eyes and my heart open every day for opportunities to set aside my own agenda when the needs of others become apparent, and give me a willing spirit to meet those needs however I can. Let me glorify you as I serve as your hands and feet to others.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Avoid Favoritism

Dearest Jesus,
You warn us against favoritism, directing us to treat others equally. Multiples case studies in your Word underscore how much damage and dysfunction results in families and relationships when favoritism is involved. Nevertheless, it comes naturally for us to pay extra attention to those we favor. We give special treatment to those who are in a position to potentially return the favor in some way or another.

The truth is, when I behave in this way, I am not serving my neighbor, but myself. I am using others to selfishly gain personal gifts or advantages. Forgive me for my favoritism and make me aware whenever the temptation is there for me to fall into it again. You are the perfect example, as you had nothing to gain from putting us first. No reward or favor could ever be returned to you from fallen man, yet you gave yourself up for us anyway. You didn’t give to get anything in return, but rather so that in you, we could have everything we need. That’s not favoritism, but grace. May I reflect it in the way I treat others. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For Grace to Live Humbly

Loving Lord,
Ever since your image was lost in the Fall, we all come into this world with one thing on our mind: ourselves. Even believers, who have had your image restored through faith in Jesus, still battle selfishness daily. Only through your grace can we ever hope to win that battle.

Grace shows me what true humility looks like. Grace shows me a Savior who put sinners before himself. Grace shows me I have all the approval and affection I need from you, which could never be obtained through my own accolades or achievements. Grace equips and frees me to love others and concern myself with my neighbor’s needs and wants before my own. Grace forgives my many failed attempts at humility, and puts me back on the path toward it whenever necessary. Therefore, as I pursue humility, let me look no further than your grace. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Expand the Reach of My Prayer Life

Providential Father,
Not only do you invite and welcome my prayers, but you also guide and direct them, including those for whom I should pray. When I do pray, the majority of my prayers are on my own behalf or for those within my own family, social, and church circles. But you invite me to pray for all people, which exponentially expands the list of those to include in my prayers. I can bring up the needs of others with the confidence that, whether or not I even know them, you know them by name and are more qualified to address their needs than I am to ask for them. 

So I pray for the greatest need of many: their salvation. Work through your Word, proclaimed to and through your church, to reach the lost with your powerful gospel. Where other needs or concerns prohibit the gospel from being heard, address them by meeting them or removing them according to your will. In doing so, let a double measure of your goodness be known to many by your concern for both their temporal and eternal welfare. Then, as you bring them to faith, shape their own prayer lives to multiply the prayers offered up on behalf of all people. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Manage My Time So I Can Serve Others

Selfless Savior,
There is a much to be said for being productive and efficient, as we want to manage your gift of time well. However, if we seldom pause to reflect on why we are driven to get more done in less time, then we easily end up simply filling that extra time with more work. Grant me the blessing of setting aside margin and moments to reflect on how I might use time for more than just getting more done.

Time is one of the most valuable blessings we have, and it isn’t just about getting more done, but about what we get done in that time – and how we serve others with it. Sometimes just spending time with others who are lonely can be a tremendous gift. Serving others through acts of service that are difficult or impossible for them to carry out on their own can refresh their spirits. Taking care of mundane or menial tasks for those who are busy caring for others uplifts and encourages them. Help me then, to continue to strive for productivity and efficiency, but not for my own sake; rather, let it free up time for me to bless and serve others in meaningful ways that matter to them. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Love Evangelically

Loving Savior,
This week I ask that you help me better see how to LOVE: Lead Others Voluntarily & Evangelically. When it comes to loving others, you aren’t merely concerned that we love others, but also why we love them. When we go through the motions and treat our service to others like a checklist that needs to be completed or a deed that needs to get done, we miss the point. I want to lead others evangelically – that is, motivated and empowered by the power of the gospel, the good news of God’s grace that we are saved through faith in you alone.

The gospel filters how I view others – as souls for whom you died, and as individuals loved and treasured by you. When I forget this, loving others takes a back seat to serving self. But when I remember this, how can I do anything but love those loved by you? Help me to remember that my loving service to others may be the first step that eventually results in their experiencing your love through the joy of the gospel. Finally, in order to love others evangelically, create in me the constant hunger to be personally filled up with the gospel regularly, so that it naturally flows through me to others.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Love Others Voluntarily

Loving Savior,
This week I ask that you help me better see how to LOVE: Lead Others Voluntarily & Evangelically. While you command us to love others, it isn’t the threat of punishment or the fear of consequence behind that command that drives us, but rather your fierce and freeing love for us that compels us. By your perfect obedience and the outpouring of grace and forgiveness that flows from the cross, we are no longer slaves under the law.

Therefore, in this new life of freedom, I ask that you create in me the genuine desire to voluntarily seek out opportunities to love others. Make my will like yours, seeking to lead others voluntarily in love. Remove from me all reluctance and resentment tied to your command to love others, and replace those sentiments with eagerness and excitement to display your love to others through my loving service. As I voluntarily render this loving service to others, use my example to initiate and inspire waves of love to continue spreading everywhere, so that believers everywhere help make your love become more and more prevalent all over the world.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Love Others (more than myself!)

Loving Savior,
This week I ask that you help me better see how to LOVE: Lead Others Voluntarily & Evangelically. When it comes to loving myself, I’m a natural – I was born into this world thinking that I’m the most important person in it! And, as much as I try convince myself that the reason it’s so difficult to love others has more to do with them, the real reason it’s hard is that I simply love myself too much. Forgive me, and turn my love away from self and onto others, just as you did perfectly.

Leading others in love is truly challenging. It’s easy for me to make it more about how I prefer to show or speak love into them than about what they really need. Help me let go of my insistence on loving others on my terms and free me to better love others on theirs. Whether it’s the biological family under my roof, my church family, or my neighborhood and community, opportunities abound to love others. Guide me to manage my time in a way that allows me to love others whenever doors open to do so each day. Grant me the joy of seeing the impact you can make when you use me to lead others with love. Through my Christ-like love for others, let it also be clear to others that I am your disciple.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Display My Discipleship Through Love

Dear Lord,
The world will know we are your disciples by the way we love one another. How easily we forget this! We slip into thinking that other issues like political views or certain social standards should serve as the giveaways to let others know we are Christians. Keep me from falling into this rut and lead me always to see that love is the better way. As challenging as it can be to love others, you have equipped us well, for your radical love set the standard we strive for. Lead us to love others not primarily as we prefer to express it, but instead, according to their needs. Our desire is for others to see your love extended through us so that ultimately, they might be drawn to you and your incomparable love. Help me to love in this way!

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Love Others – Even My Enemies

Lord Jesus,
My ego makes loving others a big enough challenge on its own, so when you up the ante and direct me to love even my enemies, I cringe. Honestly, I don’t want to hear it. The last thing I think my enemy deserves is anything good from me. Instead of love, I would prefer to see a heaping dose of misfortune and misery directed at him. When I find myself wishing ill will on others, then I think pretty highly of myself for not actually following through or saying the types of things that come to mind. But your charge to love my enemies means that even when I just do nothing against my enemy, I still fall terribly short! 

Love as you define it includes action. Love as you demonstrated it included action – sacrificial action that saw you hung up and crucified for me. And it might just make sense if I had done anything noteworthy for you or someone else that merited such sacrifice; but I did the exact opposite. My sin reveals my status as sworn enemy by nature, and daily I demonstrate that that enemy is still a part of me. So what did you do for the likes of me? You suffered for me. You died for me. You rose for me. You live for me. You love me.

Now spur on my love for others, even my enemies. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.