An evening devotional led by Pastors Jonathan Malone and Charley Eastman. The topic this week: Prayer

Here is the prayer by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

O God, early in the morning I cry to you.

Help me to pray

And to concentrate my thoughts on you;

I can’t do this alone.

In me there’s darkness,

But with you there’s light;

I’m lonely, but you don’t leave me;

I’m feeble in heart, but with you there’s help;

I’m restless, but with you there’s peace.

In me there’s bitterness, but with you there’s patience;

I don’t understand your ways,

But you know the way for me.

O Heavenly Father,

I praise and thank you

For rest in the night;

I praise and thank you for this new day;

I praise and thank you for all your goodness

and faithfulness throughout my life.

You have granted me many blessings;

Now let me also accept what’s hard from your hand.

You will lay on me no more than I can bear.

You make all things work together for good for your children.

Lord Jesus Christ,

You were poor and in distress, a captive and forsaken as I am.

You know all man’s troubles;

You abide with me when all men fail me;

You remember and seek me;

It’s your will that I should know you and turn to you.

Lord, I hear your call and follow;

Help me.

O Holy Spirit,

Give me faith that will protect me

from despair, from passions, and from vice;

Give me such love for God and men

as will blot out all hatred and bitterness;

Give me the hope that will deliver me

from fear and faint-heartedness.

Amen.

And the prayer by Philaret:

Lord, I do not know what to ask of you. You know better than me what my needs are. You love more than I know how to love. Help me to see clearly my real needs which I did not see. I open my heart to you. Examine and reveal to me my faults and sins. I put all trust in you. I have no other desire than to fulfill your will. Teach me how to pray. Pray in me. Amen.

Orthodox prayer; prayer of Philaret – metropolitan of Moscow – 1782-1867