A Prayer Inspired by Some Friends

I've been reading through the Old Testament in recent months. Today's prayer arises as a reflection from some of this reading. Hopefully a phrase or two within it will inspire a word of prayer of your own.

Talk to you again on Thursday, but for now, let's pray!


Kind Father,

I have been enjoying the privilege of reading of the saints of old. I find your servants in the most interesting places.

What were your finest representatives in Babylon doing in a furnace? Walking around in the flames with you! My furnace is not as hot as theirs, but could I come through this "fire" without even the smell of smoke, unbound and completely whole?

How is it that in reward for decades of faithful ministry, Jeremiah is rewarded by being thrown into a muddy cistern? Thank you for the friends who, like Ebed the Ethiopian, have come to my defense and rescued me from the muck I've found myself in from time to time.

I'm stunned to see the godly young Joseph forgotten in a dungeon. But, I celebrate that you never forgot him and he never forgot you. When the king finally called his name, Joseph was just one shave away from being ready to serve as your spokesperson. No matter what my circumstances may be, may I live convinced that you have not forgotten me so that I may ever be ready for service to thee.

Daniel could have avoided spending the night with the lions. All he would have had to do was close his window! Surely you would have heard his prayers just as well if he prayed privately. But Daniel would be who he had always been and would do what he had always done--despite a death threat. And you were there with him even in the den. Did he get to use one of those lions for a pillow? I want to be like him and do what is right, even if it might lead to negative consequences for me. I can trust you with the outcome, can't I?

I find Job, a righteous man, sitting in ashes while scraping his festering boils with a broken piece of pottery. Do you always treat your friends this way, Lord? I know the answer. It's "no." You treat each of us uniquely. I thank you for that. But, I also thank you for the example of a man whose life has fallen apart, but whose faith digs in deeper. "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him," Job declares--teeth gritted or utterly humbled?--to you. I want that same resolve.

And then, the unimaginable happens. We find your Son--your only Son--agonizing on a Roman cross. I am to bear mine as well, you have said. I will do so, but only for today. Thank you that this is all you ask me of. I need not attempt to take up tomorrow's cross. Today's cross is my only assignment.

God of Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and Daniel; God of Jeremiah, Job and Jesus; God of fires, dens, pits, ashes and crosses; God of ages past and God of today, I praise you that the very same Spirit that enabled the saints of old to endure and even thrive in hard places resides in me as well. It was by your Spirit that they endured, persevered, preached, lived and died. It was by your Spirit that they completed the task you assigned for them. It is by that same Spirit that I may do so as well. This gives me hope. This gives me courage.

Whatever my fire or pit, den or cross, I believe you will grant me what I need to serve you from that place today.

And I know that, in your kindness, not every day is a pit or den. You bring us to some very pleasant places as well. Thank you. May I be no less ready to serve you from the palace as I am in the dungeon.

You are good and can only be good,
Amen