CLEAVER: Prayers for Seasons

      Executive Editor’s Note: The following are excerpts from Dr. Cleaver’s book, Prayers for This Year that is available on Amazon.

Introduction

     People need to pray. Christians want to pray to their Lord, and recent polls indicate that most Christians pray daily. Some of us who have lives with ragged edges probably pray more than once a day. Here are 366 prayers for this year. Use them as an impetus to spur your own prayers onward and upward!

     There are many aspects of praying. I remind myself of these easy-to-forget simplicities as I pray:

     • Think of being in divine presence — pray that way.

     • Think of being in desperate need — pray that way.

     • Think of being in dire hopelessness — pray that way.

     • Think of being in delirious joy — pray that way.

     I hope these words will assist some other sister or brother along the way as we all walk together in the path of the pilgrim following Jesus. Words of Christian greats have influenced me as I have prayed. I am not a Christian great, but I hope these words can encourage you to be a great Christian as you pray.

I wrote these prayers over a period of three years from my calendar of significant life events. Because of that, the sequence, may at times, be out of chronological order. Keep this in mind as you read and pray with me each day in Prayers for This Year.

Thanksgiving

     Lord of the harvest, hear my prayer this great American day. I didn’t know until I lived in another country that everyone did not celebrate Thanksgiving. I assumed as a child — even as an adult — that all people celebrated this Thanksgiving Day like I had always done. Well, I found out they don’t. Other countries may call it by another name or celebrate it in another season.

     That first Thanksgiving is written in all our minds from childhood. We dress in Pilgrim costumes, Indian costumes and other assorted theatrical clothes to present the “First Thanksgiving” at our elementary school play. That is good. It helps us to recall a grand event.

     That first Thanksgiving was not necessarily one of abundance as I know it. It came from sickness, death, privation, hardship, cold, fatigue and relentless work in a strange land. What a day that must have been! What a contrast to today. I bow my head at Your beneficent hand on my land. I bend my knee for Your grace. I let my heart rejoice in Your blessings on this land. Thank you.

     May I celebrate this Thanksgiving with the true “thanksliving” of a Christian on a pilgrimage joined hand to hand with those around me and connected to those in the past. This Thanksgiving is due to the open-handedness of the God of Heaven. It is due to the sacrifice of those who have gone before me. I do not sit at this loaded table on my own.

     As I sit here, may I remember there are those who are not with me in abundance. May I focus my “thanksliving” on them in order to alleviate some of their hunger, disease, and hopelessness. I think this best done through Your Church. Bless this prayer today that others may have good in this land. Amen.

The Gift of Christ

     Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for Your gifts to me. The unspeakable gift is Christ. His life, ministry, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and coming again made possible my salvation. This is a gift that comes to a person like me totally undeserved but of Your grace and mercy! Thanks be to God for this unspeakable gift!

Certainly, and surely, I enjoyed the giving of gifts in my home this Christmas. Our tree was surrounded by gifts to this one and from that one. The family was gathered in celebration of this season. I praise God for this gathering of family in this traditional time of the year.

     The gold, frankincense and myrrh were gifts of the Magi. I don’t think I know what myrrh or frankincense are. I have seen a little gold in some jewelry. These gifts were given to the Child. Probably his parents received them in His name. I don’t know if the gold was used to go to Egypt or the spices used for His burial later in life. Whatever the use, before they gave their gifts, they worshipped Him. So let it be now in my life. I worship You now, Lord Jesus. Receive the gifts I bring to You because of Your gift of Christ to me. Amen.

Between Everlastings

     Dear God of years, months, days, hours and minutes — Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. I cannot imagine time when there is no time. But You are God from eternity past through time to eternity future. I worship You and I want to serve You today. Hear my prayer; mine is not unlike countless others who petition You right now.

     Today is not the end, even though it is the end of the year. Today is the beginning, and it falls at this period of Advent. Today is the beginning of life with You. May I make it the best beginning I have had in a long time? I don’t know what to expect this day, much less as I face a new Western calendar year. I know this past calendar year has been good through Your grace.

     From everlasting to everlasting, and I am right now in the middle of that phrase, in this period we call time between everlastings. I am not an Abraham, Isaac or Jacob. I am not a Peter, Paul or even one of the unnamed Christians of the first century. I am not that caliber of man, but I am the man You can use in the service of Christ and His church. Here I am. Send me. Through Him, in Him, by Him; all things are in Him and by His power. I pray this prayer in His name. Amen.

Speak, Lord (New Year)

     Dear heavenly Father, hear my prayer this morning — I want to pray to You. I want to be with You. I want to spend time with You. Today is that day called New Year’s Day. I do not know if it is a day to begin or end. Obviously, the old year is gone. Today is that first day of this brand-new year. So may I take this time to be still, to listen, to be in Your presence.

     May I speak and act on words similar to the little boy Samuel when he said, “Speak, Lord, Your little child is listening.” You had already spoken to him several times. Now he was ready to hear You as You spoke again. May I hear You this day as You speak again in my life and the life of my world.

     Quietly, in Your company, and in reverence I ask to hear a word from You. Yes, I want to tell You about my leaving undone so much good and doing the wrong things so often. More than that, I need to hear words from You. The words You have for me to hear are life words and words of wholeness. May I attend this year with You in moments like this each day. Will You help me to do this? I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.