A Prayer for Relief
Please, dear God, make this ache go away. And if you can’t make it go away, sit in the muck with me and help me endure. Please bring respite soon! Open my eyes to see the world around me: even dead leaves can remind me there can be beauty in letting go. Where there is loneliness, help me feel Your presence. In the places in my life where I feel like a victim, please empower me to take action. I want to respond to the ways You initiate movement in my life. When I feel under attack, please go to battle for me. When I can’t even find the words to ask for Your rescue, hear my groans and turn them into prayers. Please, God, give me hope! I am desperate to know if I’m where You want me to be at this stage in my life. Do You want me to stay put for just a little longer, or is it time to move forward in some way? Speak boldly and plainly so I can differentiate Your guidance from my desires and fears. Give me vision to see Your ways, and trust to follow You. I’m afraid to even ask this, but is it too much to request that You do something big in my life? (And by big, I don’t mean more painful. Please not that!) Open my eyes to see You, God. Help me be a leader for You, knowing You are my ultimate boss and my righteousness. I want to be courageous enough to stand alone even when no one else supports me. Help me speak truth when it’s necessary, but shut me up the rest of the time. Help me obey Your will, even (especially!) when it seems contrary to what I want. Please show me the way out! Thank You for hearing my prayers and for not thinking I’m a whiny baby. And when I am whiny, thank you for rocking me like the baby I am. Amen.
“After all they had endured, they remembered that God, the Most High, was their Rock, their Redeemer…” (Psalm 78:35 VOICE)