Helpful Prayers

Sometimes it is difficult to find the words to pray when our hearts are troubled.  If that is where you are, we hope that you find the prayers  below to be helpful for centering your heart and mind in prayer to God.  

After praying written prayers such as these, we also recommend that you simply speak your heart to God…. as if Jesus or our Father in Heaven were sitting right next to you.  You can do this knowing that  God is always near to those who call on Him.

Psalm 145:18
The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. 

Psalm 34:18
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

~ As Jesus taught us to pray (The Message Translation)
Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best —
As above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
Amen

~ Prayer by St. Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled,
as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.

~  Prayer by Reinhold Neibuhr
God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen