Abba, You are faultless. What looks like unanswered prayers can only ever be a faulty perspective on our end. You work things out for the best. Always. You don’t make mistakes. We can completely trust Your decisions and the way things turn out and know that if it IS, it must be what’s best. You aren’t impersonal, but deeply involved in our emotions and our experience. You so want us to trust You and be content and at peace. That’s why You offer us Your Word and urge us to give thanks in all things. You promise to keep us in perfect peace when we put our trust in You. You are the author of that perfect peace, ready to wrap that warm blanket around us the moment we turn to You.
I confess that I let myself get emotionally caught up in the upheaval yesterday. I confess that I thought about little else but myself all day, wallowing in the sadness of letting my boy go off into the world to school. I confess inherent racism still present in me, which I absolutely hate, but cannot deny. I still am much more comfortable sticking to familiar faces and I haven’t gone out of my way to befriend many African Americans at the Manna Room.
Thank You for bringing this to my attention, and thank You for the book of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches. I am so enjoying those! Thank You for whatever reason You have for making me so attracted to those! Thank You for my new girlfriends in life and online who are ready and willing to collaborate and create unimaginable new futures together. Thank You for our great walk + conversation last night and that my husband and I are both being drawn to Appreciation over achievement and Presence over productivity.
Please keep that theme heavy and large in our lives today. Give me wisdom and Presence as I head into lunch with my two fantastic girlfriends who are very much not Believers, and whose priorities are therefore skewed. Help me to stay aware of You and Your goals for these precious women, and to be the Presence of the Kingdom, an Ambassador bringing the reality of Heaven to earth. Please fill me with Your Holy Spirit so I can minister peace + reconciliation! And bless the work of our hands as we write together, if this story is something You want written through us. Thank You for their friendship and for bringing me this focus! Help me to remember that I’m headed out into the world today, bringing light with me, and that I need to Expect Opposition, Recognize Opposition, and Neutralize Opposition. May I end this day feeling deep gratitude and satisfaction.
In Jesus’ mighty name I pray, amen!
The Prayer Jar 