Category Archives: Prayers and Poetry

Good Friday Confession

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We come to this night as we do every year to remember.
To recall the sacrifice our Savior, Jesus made for us.
But we cannot kneel at the cross without acknowledging why. Tonight we will also remember the sin that put Him there. Our sin.
So tonight we walk through the darkness of our lives in order to reach the light of our Savior’s presence. Knowing that confession and repentance brings freedom and cleanses us.
We take time to confess our idols: Money. Food.
Government. Work. Video games. Television.
 Phones. Computers. Even loved ones. Anything that stands in the way of God being first in our lives.
My Lord and my God, I claim You as the Source and Object of my life.

We take time to confess our pride and arrogance. Our self-centeredness. Our selfishness. Our expectation that others should do or be what we, ourselves, are not. Putting ourselves ahead of others instead of following our Savior’s example of service.

Father, You are first, not us. Our desires are not centered on ourselves, but are rooted in Your kingdom.

We take time to confess sins of omission: Good or helpful things that were in front of us that we could’ve done and didn’t. Praying fleeting prayers where intensity was required. Withholding good words. Living lives of careless indifference.

Jesus, although You are God’s Son, You spent Your time here on earth in healing, loving, and showing what God is like. We will do the same.

We take time to confess our sins against ourselves: Our addictions, even seemingly harmless ones. Our self-condemnation. Our negative self-talk. Holding onto the shame of things that Jesus has forgiven.

Jesus, we thank you for Your blood that removes Satan’s accusing power over us.

We take time to confess our sins against others: Gossip. Lust. Harsh speech. Unkindness. Holding a grudge. Having an unforgiving spirit. Using God’s gift of grace as a license for immorality.

Father, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us.

We take time to confess our sins against God: Finding little time to spend with Him in Bible-reading, prayer, and meditation. Dismissing our responsibilities to be God’s representatives in the world. Ignoring His Spirit. Ignoring His whispers. Laziness in seeking Him and His will. Tolerating evil instead of hating it.

O God, Who hears the faintest whisper of the weakest of Your children, we are unworthy. But we will stand for holiness as God’s holy people. Cause us to delight in Your Word and Your presence.

Beautiful Savior

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Beautiful Savior, Lord of the nations,

 

Son of God and Son of Man!

 

 

Glory and honor, praise, adoration

 

Now and forevermore be Thine!

 

 

Beautiful Savior by Joseph A. Seiss, Moravian hymn, 1873; Images: jackson-david-8qudl9pDZJ0-unsplash.jpg; zac-durant-_6HzPU9Hyfg-unsplash.jpg

 

Prayer For Inauguration Weekend

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Dear Heavenly Father, Creator of the universe and all good things,

We are so very grateful for Your hand on this nation, The United States. From its inception Your hand of direction and blessing was on it. You led our founders in righteous direction and gave them Your way to set government in three branches: The Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver; the Lord is our King; He will save us. We want that bedrock. We plead for that firm foundation – You – above all others.

As we move forward now with Donald John Trump as our President, we ask three things.

We ask for protection on the gatherings this weekend and going forward. We ask You will put a dome over those gathered for his swearing in and that any nefarious plans of harm above, on or under the earth will be revealed and foiled. We pray every effort for delay, hurt, or destruction will fail in plan and form; that they will trip and fall and be unable to rise. We ask that You and You alone will direct the weather. We ask for spiritual protection: that attacks of any and every type will boomerang back on those sending and intending them. We ask You to rebuke and cast out lesser gods who bring evil to each state, city, and town as well as over our nation. Cast them all out, we pray, never to show their filthy heads again. Replace them in Your righteousness.

We implore protection for righteous leaders and servants in this government, for them and their families and loved ones. We ask that the craft of plans to trip them or entrap them will come to nothing.

We pray that any person, regulation, or rule that is there in an effort to weaken, wound, or impoverish this administration will be revealed and ousted, losing all authority, control, and influence.

We ask for wisdom. You know all the things necessary for righteousness in a nation and we ask for those to be implemented. You know all that is not only unnecessary, but even destructive for a righteous nation and we ask they will be destroyed. Along with wisdom, we pray for insight, discernment, and knowledge. We pray that You will shine Your light on knowledge that has been hidden or interwoven with deceit so that we will know truth and be freed from the slavery that has been the result of those lies. You know all that’s going on in this world of ours, so we ask You to reveal what will help and what will move this nation to what You intended for it to be. We ask for Your strong hand in this matter.

We ask for Your Holy Spirit and Jesus to be present in every corner of government; and also in every part of our families, churches, education, business, media, and entertainment. We pray that Jesus will be lifted above all else. We ask forgiveness for the awful things this nation has taken part in, done from the least to the greatest. We all implore Your forgiveness. We pray for the sifting necessary to purify us completely. And we ask for mercy in this process. We pray You will give Your people pockets of Goshen and that You will deliver us from the evil one and every form of evil. And we thank You for what You are doing and how you are moving. We will watch You while You are watching us. You are not tame and You are beyond our idea of mighty and we love that about You. And we love You.

In Jesus’ blessed Name,

Amen

References: Isaiah 33:22; Celebration Hymnal C. 1997 by Word/Integrity.

What He Said

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Thanksgiving. A time set aside – set aside – for giving thanks to our Creator for the many benefits He gives to us with an open hand. As lovely as Christmas is, it isn’t a time for Christmas yet. Rather, Thanksgiving is a special, precious time of thinking, therefore seeing, our blessings.

The first time our nation celebrated this special day was in 1621, when people in Massachusetts celebrated with a feast of thanks in the New World. George Washington recalled their gratitude by issuing a proclamation of Thanksgiving in 1789. John Adams and James Madison followed suit. Then came the Civil War. There doesn’t seem to be much of anything to be grateful for in a war. Yet Abraham Lincoln designated thanksgiving to be given in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. Thanksgiving has been celebrated in the United States ever since. Or has it?

We have a day we call Thanksgiving. Many people look forward to a feast and football game. But Thanksgiving without true thanks is pretty thin, don’t you agree? With the challenges our nation has faced for a good decade – okay –  a century or more, we would do well to read about the struggles and triumphs of real people, the sacrifices and treasures discovered in the midst of those sacrifices, and the amazing mercy and provision of God through it all. We might even go waaay back and consider what Israel faced during the days of Jeremiah. In fact, to borrow his prayer:

I know, O Lord, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps. Correct me, Lord, but only with justice – not in Your anger, lest You reduce me to nothing.

And then, yes then, we might consider our own lives – the days we breathe in and out from day 1 until now – and consider the near misses, lessons learned, and certainly the blessings over them all. And only then we might begin to understand the mercy of God is beyond description. And our carelessness of thought and appreciation could be wearing a bit thin for Him. And upon reflection, repentance clears a beautiful path to giving thanks.

Sources: https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/thanksgiving-proclamation-1863; Jeremiah 10:23-24; Image: pexels-rdne-5847888-scaled.jpg

Allow One Thing

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Allow one thing to penetrate my thoughts;

One pleasing memory, One blessed time;

Whose simplicity a lesson taught

God’s splendid presence by design.

Allow one merit to inquire of me:

Courage, kindness, energy of youth;

Trust that heaven’s endless glory be

Shown in light of love and light of truth.

Allow in life and trouble and through time

Questions asked and later asked again

With answers changed and changing, yet all mine

Hide and seek, yet found in heaven’s name.

Images: unsplash-andrew-neel-a_K7R1kugUE-unsplash.jpg; pexels-photo-314807.jpeg; zac-durant-_6HzPU9Hyfg-unsplash.jpg

 

That Secret Space

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That secret space;

The place I go alone to seek His face;

A quiet, questioning encounter in His safe embrace;

Silent, still, and list’ning there I go.

 

Music there;

Notes unknown and known play sweet and pure;

They float and fly above imagination without care;

Then rest and speak a language no one knows.

 

 

I linger long;

To understand wisdom that I thought gone;

His tender voice carries a message needed, soft and strong;

A molecule and mountain always there.

 

 

Original poetry by Connie Pease; Images: pexels-valiphotos-589816.jpg; lake-at-sunset-pexels-photo-248800.jpeg; bird-s-eye-photography-of-mountain-1624496.jpg

Underneath

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Underneath the rubble of a tempest through the night;

Downed, a giant tree that stood through many a windy day;

Tangled branches on one side, roots loosed its former height;

Tell passersby a story of a heavy price to pay.

It stood, the tree, for centuries a sentry and a friend;

And greeted friend and foe alike with equal, measured pace;

And those who passed received the shade its branches would extend;

And felt, somehow, of something more of beauty, love, and grace.

But storms must take what they demand: a messy sort of wage;

Yet what is seen is only half the picture – more a sheath;

For that unseen is buried deep beneath the stormy stage;

Life undeterred, a treasure, is the glory underneath.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Original poem: myfiresidechat.com; *https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pace: “The Latin word pace is a form of pax, meaning “peace” or “permission,” and when used sincerely the word does indeed suggest a desire for both.”; Images: pexels-jplenio-1118869.jpg; pexels-lindsey-k-846449-1731457.jpg; Acer_tataricum_twig-wikimedia-commons.jpg

Hear Our Prayer, O Lord

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An old hymn, more of a prayer, really, popped into my mind this morning as I was making coffee. I have not heard or sung this tune in nearly sixty years – maybe longer. I sang it this morning over and over before a weekly prayer call I have with a friend.

Then I paged through some of my old hymnals, failing to find it. I looked in another location and found it, but only the last line since the first had been torn out; no doubt to facilitate a quick transition for some long-ago church service. On a whim, with little hope and much doubt, I perused my latest hymnal. There it was!

It’s simple request is one we need to make to God in heaven right now. Join me?

Image: Hear Our Prayer, O Lord taken from Psalm 143:1 by George Whelpton, The Celebration Hymnal, copyright 1997 by Word/Integrity

Not So Different After All: A Thanksgiving Prayer

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Dear Heavenly Father, Holy, Just, Merciful, Good,

We think back to the first Thanksgiving and imagine that times were uncertain and scarcity was not uncommon. We understand that relationships – both long-standing and new – were sometimes fragile due to differing perspectives and a feeling of living worlds apart. We know that good lives had been lost and were missed by those remaining. How familiar it seems.

And not just then, but through the history of this nation who, a rarity among nations, marks a special day of thanks to their Creator, we have paused amid the clamor of the amazing and common, hopeless and miraculous, and terrible and precious to give thanks.

So on this day spent around a common table, we thank You for food. As we think of cold months arriving, we thank you for shelter; for shelter from nature’s storms and life’s storms both. We thank you for Your comfort in distress and sadness. We thank you for celebrations. We thank you for saving us from the horror of sin, both our own and that of others. We thank you for people all around us, people made in Your Image, and the humor and kindness they show.

For You, Dearest Father, are in all of life. There is nothing hidden. And though times change, human experience varies in some ways, but in others is not so different after all. And You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. And we love You. And we are indebted to You for all of life’s goodness and protection in this present darkness. And we thank you.

In Jesus’ kind and blessed Name,

Amen.

Image:timothy-eberly-yuiJO6bvHi4-unsplash.jpg; priscilla-du-preez-bJPn27RFg0Y-unsplash-scaled.jpg

The Veil

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There is a veil of delicate thread, translucent, yet opaque,

Through which we all must walk one day alone, but not alone;

Friends and family on one side, and those awaiting make

Departing in a quiet hour a blessed going home.

 

Each soul travels in this life of work and prayer and thought

A road. We journey through the days and take what we are giv’n

By One Whose glorious life shone forth and One Whose death has bought

A clearer veil, a sweeter road, the truer rest in heav’n.

Reflections upon the homegoing of a much beloved Uncle John; Image: zac-durant-_6HzPU9Hyfg-unsplash.jpg