Whew! We made it to the end of the week. I don’t know what your week has been like, but here’s part of a tweet I posted Friday to give you a glimpse into mine:
I feel like this week has knocked the stuffing right out of me. #scarecrowsyndrome.
Do you ever get that way? Just sort of wiped out by your day, week, or whatever?
I’m trying to plan out my next post and all I can really think is that I need the prayers this time. If you’re reading and you’ve had the stuffing knocked out of you as well, then pray this prayer for yourself. God hears – he’s listening.
Dear Lord,
Why is it that when things start to look like they’re going well, then something hits? It’s sort of like the title of Chuck Swindoll’s book says, Two Steps Forward, Three Steps Back. It seems hard to make forward progress when it comes to personal growth.
Lord, I’m tired. It’s been a long week. There’s a lengthy list of the times I’ve failed. An infographic could illustrate my mistakes and missed opportunities this week.
And yet, I’m reminded to be grateful. There is so much that I have been spared from. I have a roof overhead and a warm bed to sleep in (even if I haven’t got the flannel sheets on it yet). You have provided food to fill my stomach and a job to help pay the bills. My health is better than so many others, despite not being able to stop coughing lately.
Help me work through the things that weigh me down. Sometimes it may be a sin that I don’t want to address, at other times it may be comparing myself to others, still other times it may be that I’m starting to see the depths of sin in the world around me. Regardless, you know everything I need. Watch over me and take care of me and my heart. Give me strength to turn away from sin, help me to measure myself only against you, and help me know if there is anything I can do in the lives of those around me.
God, thank you for the reminder, through this song below by Over The Rhine, that I am not alone. We are all broken in one way or the other. We all need you desperately. Show yourself in a real way to us this weekend. Help us turn to you before any other vain thing that will only disappoint in the end. And Lord, my friends reading this may have a different burden on their heart. Listen to it as they whisper a prayer to you. Hear, guide, heal, protect, teach, discipline, correct, or love as needed.
We’re tired, God. Would you help make this a weekend of rest and renewal for all of us?
In the name of Jesus,
Amen
To all my favorite people today: you are not alone.
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This is Day 6 of 31 Days of Prayer for the Hurting (click to find links to the entire series). If you found encouragement from this prayer, would you share this post? You may have friends who struggle just like you.
To read more great 31 Dayer posts, check out the original site, hosted by The Nester.
Maria Dupuis
/ January 4, 2013Today is Friday. My week is so messed up with Christmas and New Years being on a Tuesday this year. Today seemed like a Wednesday. I am tired now and was going to stop reading-until I saw the title for this day 6. I stretched myself to keep my eyes open and continue reading as I listen to my partner snore at 8:00am-he is exhausted too and now resting sound. That makes me happy as did your words and reminders of how blessed we really are. A great reading on a Friday;We’re tired, God. Would you help make this a weekend of rest and renewal for all of us?
In the name of Jesus,
Amen