As day begins...

"Lord...there is nothing that can possibly happen today that you and I cannot handle together." (submitted by Louis Cavaliere)

O God, I Need Thee Howard Thurman (1951)

I need thy sense of time

Always I have an underlying anxiety about things. Sometimes I am in a hurry to achieve my ends, and am completely without patience. It is hard for me to realize that some growth is slow, that all processes are not swift. I cannot always discriminate between what takes time to develop and what can be rushed, because my sense of time is dulled. I measure things in terms of happenings. O to understand the meaning of perspective, that I may do all things with a profound sense of leisure, I need a sense of time.

I need a sense of order

The confusion of the details of living is sometimes overwhelming. The little things keep getting in my way providing ready-made excuses for failure to do and be what I know I ought to do and be. Much time is spent on things that are put into an insignificant place in my scheme of order. I must unscramble place in my scheme of order. I must unscramble affairs so that my life will become order. O God, I need a sense of order.

I need a sense of the future

Teach me to know that life is ever on the side of the future. Keep alive in me the forward look, the high hope, the onward surge. Let me not be frozen either by the past or the present. Grant me, O patient Father, Thy sense of the future without which all life would sicken and die. Amen.

(submitted by Caesar Bradley)

Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.

An original prayer by Carole Lytell

When the ache is greater than the strength you feel inside, Christ is just a prayer away.

Prayer of Faith, from Unity ca. 1946

God is my help in every need
God does my every hunger feed
God walks beside me guides my way
Through every moment night and day.
I now am wise, I now am true
Patient, kind, and loving too
All things I am, can do and be
Through Christ the truth that is in me
God is my health I can't be sick
God is my strength unfailing quick
God is my all I have no fear
Since God and love and truth are here.

(submitted by Carole Lytell)

Morning Prayer [The 24th Day, from a Diary of Private Prayer, by John Baillie]

O God, ever blessed, who hast given me the night for rest and the day for labour and service, grant that the refreshing sleep of the night now past may be turned to Thy greter glory in the like of the day now before me. Let it breed no slothfulness within me, but rather send me to more diligent action and more willing obedience.

Teach me, O God, so to use all the circumstances of my life today that they may bring forth in me the fruits of holiness rather than the fruits of sin.

Let me use disappointment as material for patience:
Let me use success as material for thankfulness:
Let me use suspense as material for perseverence:
Let me use danger as material for courage:
Let me use reproach as material for longsuffering:
Let me use praise as material for humilty:
Let me use pleasures as material for temperance:
Let use pains as material for endurance.

O Lord Jesus Christ, who for the joy that was set before Thee didst endure the Cross, despising the shames, and art now set down at the right hand of the throne of God, let me consider Thee who didst endure such contradiction of sinners against Thyself, lest I be wearied and faint in my mind.

'But that toil shall make thee
Some day all Mine own,–
And the end of sorrow
Shall be near My thone.'

Holy God, I would remember before Thee all my friends and those of my household, especially.... and...., beseeching Thee that in Thy great love Thou wouldst keep them also free from sin, controlling all their deeds this day in accordance with Thy most perfect will. Amen.

Evening Prayer [The 1st Day, from a Diary of Private Prayer, by John Baillie]

O Thou who art from everlasting to everlasting, I would turn my thoughts to Thee as the hours of darkness and of sleep begin. O Sun of my soul, I rejoice to know that all night I shall be under the unsleeping eye of One who dwells in eternal light.

To Thy care, O Father, I would now commend my body and my soul. All day Thou hast watched over me and Thy companionship has filled my heart with peace. Let me not go through any part of this night unaccompanied by Thee.

Give me sound and refreshing sleep:
Give me in my sleep freedom from restless dreams:
Give me control of my thoughts, if I should lie awake:
Give me wisdom to remember that the night was made for sleeping, and not for the    harbouring of anxious or fretful or shameful thoughts.
Giver me grace , if as I lie abed I think at all, to think upon Thee.

My sould shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my
mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips; when I remeber thee
upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.

To Thy care also, O Father, I would commend my friends, beseeching Thee to keep them safe in soul and body, and to be present in their hearts to-night as a Spirit of power and of joy and of restfulness. I pray for...and...and...I pray also for the wider circle of all my associates, my fellow workers, my fellow townsmen and all strangers within our gates; and the great world of men without, to me foreign and unknown, but dear to Thee; through Jesus Christ our common Lord, Amen.

(submitted by Joe Zucca)