A Lenten Prayer

The following prayer is exerpted from Prayers Public and Private(Arthur Nelson, Covenant Publications, 2010, 53-4):

Holy God, Servant of all, we know this wilderness and temptation-living, this Servant-following, this cross-taking and cross-bearing is a risky and strange way to live in our culture. Being glorified this way doesn’t fit well into our categories. Thank you for showing us that we don’t have to live and behave by everyone else’s social rules. Thank you for not changing your mind at the mountain of temptation, in Galilee, at Gethsemane, or on the cross. Thank you for loving us to the end, from beginning to end.

So when we are tempted to give you a long wish list of desires, or to seek changes we would like you to make, remind us that what you can freely give us is your Spirit. We dare to believe that this is what we really need, and we are willing to have faith that is what we will freely receive.

So when in this Lenten time we repent of our shallow and sinful lives, we also intercede for others who suffer from many temptations and wounds. And when we do so, we want to pave the way for the love and your Spirit to fill them, anticipating for them and for us the great wonder of the victorious Christ.

Amen.