March 3, 2025. Prayer 1903. Transfigured by Love
In the twinkling of an eye, says the Apostle Paul, “we shall be changed.” In Luke 9:29 the appearance of Jesus’ face is called heteron, which is Greek for “different, other, altered, changed.” On the mountaintop, the disciples see Jesus transfigured before them into the radiant glory of God. When we have surgery a body part is altered or removed. We are changed forever. We function differently. We see our lives differently. A changed part means we move beyond one condition into a changed state. During the changeover, the Lord says, “You are my Beloved.” We are changed by love.
Dear God, grant me the faith to see how all the ways I have been changed reveal a glimpse of your creator’s love. Amen.

March 4, 2025. Prayer 1904. Set Apart with Love
Love puts another on a pedestal for glory, on a rock to be steady, in a shelter to be safe. God sets us apart for love. In Psalm 60:5 we hear God’s way is to attend to the people who have seen hard things. God sets up a sign to show the people where to flee to safety, “that your beloved ones may be delivered.” God speaks in holiness. To be holy is to be set apart, to be acknowledged as different, special, and worthy of great concern. To be changed we must be “broken of our defenses.” When exposed to enemies of body, mind and spirit, only love creates a way to ultimate security.
Dear God, you have set us apart with great love. Protect us from all danger and return our hearts to holiness. Amen

March 5, 2025. Prayer 1905. Ashes and Dust
We receive our frame from the earth. Who are we but complex systems of cells which require water, oxygen and nutrients continually. In Genesis 3:19 we hear the Lord remind our earlier selves, “you were received from the earth, and to the earth you return, you are dust.” This is the humbling beginning point of faith. On Ash Wednesday we enter a “Holy Lent.” A season to reflect on the condition of our soul and how we are living with God and each other by faith. We all stand in need of prayer. We all struggle to keep these dust particles working together for the good!
Dear God, journey with us through Lent with love. Show us the way to live differently, set apart, with a holy flame. Amen.

March 6, 2025. Prayer 1906. Who Loves Correction?
Who likes being corrected? Why do we feel, even though we were wrong, that it must be shown we knew what we were doing all the time and that we are in the right? In Proverbs 12:1 we are told, “The one who loves learning receives knowledge, the one who hates reproof is barbaric. In Hebrew the word ba’ar means “unthinking, irrational, brutish.” The word oheb means to “love, befriend.” The one who befriends learning is a person who is thoughtful. What more can we learn of ourselves? What more can we learn of others? Let’s let the Spirit reveal to us new insights!
Dear God, let me not grow complacent in what I have learned so far. Let my soul be inclined to your correction. Amen.

March 7, 2025. Prayer 1907. Covered by Love
Teamwork means we say to each other, “I’ve got you covered.” When we are busy at the task in front of us, who is watching out around us? Solomon says in Proverbs 10:12 “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.” The wisdom does not mean forgive bad and hurtful behavior, but rather seek understanding, speak the truth of life, and do not conceal evil deeds with false language. Martin Luther King, Jr. taught us that “hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” Night covers the world in darkness as a blanket. Daytime covers the earth in light. Faith covers us in love.
Dear God, shape my soul to be a place where love resides, love is understood, and love is shared freely with all. Amen.

March 10, 2025. Prayer 1908. Loving Kindness
One of the most enduring verses of scripture that inform the way of the faithful is from Micah 6:8. “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” At the time of the prophet the people were living in relative prosperity but Micah saw the poor being oppressed and treated with cruelty and a lack of compassion. Micah speaks of a new ruler to come who will be as a shepherd caring for the flock and leading the people to find security and peace. Sins will be cast into the sea and compassion will mark the life of the community.
Dear God, let my words and actions be filled with your call for humble, loving kindness. I can do this! Amen.

March 11, 2025. Prayer 1909. Loving Requests
Who wouldn’t give a child a good gift? Living a life by faith has us always looking out for ways we may fulfill the needs of another. In Matthew 7:7 Jesus teaches, “Ask, and it will be given you.” God loves to give us good things! Pay attention to what we are asking for! Jesus says, “If you, then are “poneros,” know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will God in heaven give good things to those who ask!” The Greek word “poneros” means, “bad, oppressed by toil, burdened, worthless, immoral, unethical.” Though we carry many burdens and are not perfect in faith, ask God for help!
Dear God, thank you for hearing and receiving my requests in mercy. Teach me what to ask for! Amen.

March 12, 2025. Prayer 1910. God Loves Cheerfully
It is so important to remember that God loves us cheerfully. It is a great sadness to hear voices that describe God as some sort of distant being just waiting to judge and condemn. In 2 Corinthians 9:7 we hear, “God loves a cheerful giver.” We may be poor in things, poor in resources and talents, but we can always be generous towards others with a joyful heart. “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” Love begets more love. Hate begets more hatred. Withholding love does not let it grow. Sow cheerfully!
Dear God, fill my heart with so much joy that I can’t hold it all in to myself. Create me to be a cheerful soul! Amen.

March 13, 2025. Prayer 1911. Worthy of Love
Intent matters. When a community is in distress, how we look upon each other makes a big impact. In Deuteronomy 15:9 we are instructed that if someone among us becomes poor, “Take care lest there me an unworthy thought in your heart,” and your “eye look grudgingly” on your poor sibling. To look with an “Evil Eye,” in the Hebrew scripture, is to see our fellow human as unworthy of love, and literally to look upon them as if they are deserving of receiving an unethical action, of doing harm to them, or causing them personal distress. God tells us that our poor neighbor is worthy of love.
Dear God, I too share in your frustration of things gone wrong in the world. Let me also share your intent to love. Amen.

March 14, 2025. Prayer 1912. A Lovely Meeting Place
God is about bringing people together. That sounds odd to say in the face of human history with all its wars fought in the name of God. Psalm 84:1 begins, “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart, my body sings for joy to the Living God.” God’s dwelling place for the ancient Hebrews was called the “Tabernacle,” the “Tent of Meeting.” It was movable. It went wherever the long journey took the people. And, the people called it lovely. It was a place of endearing love. To be together along the hard road of life, what joy!
Dear God, when the world takes away my joy of faith, let me enter into your dwelling place and find a happy tent! Amen.

March 17, 2025. Prayer 1913. Love Meant for Everyone
Moses led the people out of their misery with the great love of God. In Deuteronomy 4:5 comes the instruction for the faithful: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” In Hebrew this prayer is called the Shema which means “heard.” Moses tells the people to fix these words on their hands, their foreheads, and on their doorposts. This prayer is meant for everyday life of all the people. In those times literacy was held only by the educated elite. Loving God with all our breath, all our body, all our heart is for everyone!
Dear God, let me keep your words before me everyday in prayer. Form me and reform me with your divine love. Amen.

March 18, 2025. Prayer 1914. The Earth is Full of Love
Psalm 33:5 proclaims, “God loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.” As we are right on top of Spring, we rejoice with all of nature to see early flowers emerging, songbirds singing, warm air returning. It is the breath of life. “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made” giving breath to all, the depths of the oceans, all inhabitants of the world stand in awe of the Lord. The faith person’s response to the presence of God in the world is awe. In awesome wonder we are recreated from people prone to war and hatreds into people waiting for God’s love.
Dear God, it is never too early nor too late to pray for peace. Your love is in the world. Let us wait upon your love. Amen.

March 19, 2025. Prayer 1915. The Lord’s Everlasting Love
Love, true love has an everlasting quality about it. We read in Jeremiah 31:3 “Thus says the Lord, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” God gathers us as a shepherd keeps the flock. “Our life is like a watered garden, we shall never languish.” With great consolations and supplications God leads us back “I will let them walk by brooks of water, they shall not stumble on their path.” A prayer begins with asking God to tend to our greatest concerns, our deepest sorrows, and then tears flow that lead us to life as surely as a spring brook overflows.
Dear God, through Lent let my prayers continually flow from my soul that you may lead me to on the path of love. Amen.

March 20, 2025. Prayer 1916. First and Second Love
Those who would debate with Jesus asked, “Which commandment is the first of all?” In Mark 12:28, Jesus replies with Moses’ prayer, “Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” And then adds, “And the second is this: love your neighbor as yourself.” By this Jesus means that love of God and love of one another is a whole way of being. We are called to be selfless in our concern. To strive towards giving an unconditional love. We see strangers as close to us as beloved siblings. When loving in this way, Jesus says, “you are not far from the very powerful presence of God.”
Dear God, shape me to use my powers for the cause of love, a deep love, a broad love, that holds room for all. Amen.

March 21, 2025. Prayer 1917. Full of Love
The Apostle Paul instructs us to be full of selfless, divine love. In Romans 13:10 he writes, “Love does no evil to a neighbor, therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” Recalling the first and second loves in the Ten Commandments, we first love God above ourselves, and we secondly love one another as we would have us be loved and treated. The word pleroma means “to make full.” God’s word comes to fullest expression when our daily lives are marked by the love of God and neighbor. The goal of faith is to fill the world with love. The world is in great need of divine, selfless love.
Dear God, with all the hatreds and divisions in this world, let my heart be a dwelling place for your divine love. Amen.

March 24, 2025. Prayer 1918. Re-Arranged with Love
Estrangement. When we look at the world today, we see so much dislocation. Words and meanings are under attack. Children of other cultures are under attack. So many are refugees from deep conflicts and inhumane living conditions around the world. This human condition is as the most ancient of Bible days. Deuteronomy 24:17 gives us a concrete instruction: “You shall not deprive a resident alien or an orphan of justice; remembering you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there.” We are still moving away “from there.” Love those estranged.
Dear God, may your ancient words speak freshly to us today that divine love turns strangers into community. Amen.

March 25, 2025. Prayer 1919. Lifted on the Wings of Love
Fear and foreboding. Terror and tempests. We are troubled. The beauty of the ancient words of the Psalms is that they express our acknowledge our anxiety, lament our losses, and release our rage. And, they lift us up and carry us home. Psalm 55:6 wails, “O that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest; I would find shelter in the storms.” Psalm 17:8 has us pray, “Hide me in the shadow of your wings.” Psalm 36:7 affirms, “How precious is your steadfast love, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.” God’s love carries us as a bird’s feather goes aloft.
Dear God, I deny not my condition, nor do I despair my future, for in your love, my soul takes flight and finds rest. Amen.

March 26, 2025. Prayer 1920. Gathered with Love
Church life is about being in God’s community of light and love. Though the world around us be falling, we stand with the faithful in every time and every place saying, “God is Holy!” “God is in our midst!” Jesus sees the troubling times ahead for him in Jerusalem. He laments in Luke 13:34 “Jerusalem! Hill-top-of-peace! How you stone those sent to you! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” The ancients teach us that God has the power to save. Are we willing to let God’s will be done in our will?
Dear God, let me not resist the ways you are saving the world through every gathering of your beloved children. Amen.

March 27, 2025. Prayer 1921. On the Edge of Love
Healing is the presence of the Lord in thought, word and deed. In Malachi 4:2 we hear the hope of the faithful, “You who revere my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.” Sun is poetically used by the prophet as referring to a faithful person standing in the bright light of God’s perfection. We glow with a divine radiance, not from us. Healing is “wholeness” and wings is being “on the edge.” When we gather with the faithful, offering our soul in reverence to the Lord of Creation, just on the edge of this bright light and love, we are healed.
Dear God, let me be healed in the brightness, as reflected in the loving light of a loved one smiling and radiant. Amen.

March 28, 2025. Prayer 1922. Remembered with Love
When the world rages, we pray. When the days grow dark, we remember God illumines. When the poor and vulnerable are attacked in the urge to name the problem, the faithful heart searches for God to provide and protect us from the worst of ourselves. Psalm 74:19 has us pray, “O Lord, do not deliver the souls of your dove to the wild animals…the enemy scoffs, the dark places of the land are haunted by violence, rise up, let the poor and needy be filled with praise.” A faith person’s response to humanity in Bible days and in our own days is to remember, God remembers us with love.
Dear God, as we make this way through Lent, let love by our guide, remembering that love is divine and humane! Amen.

March 31, 2025. Prayer 1923. The House of Love
Our life-long faith journey is about coming home. When we find the place that we belong and our soul is at rest, we have arrived. The Bible encourages to know we reach this destination through listening to God’s Word. In the beautiful 23rd Psalm of David, we hear the last verse: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the House of the Lord forever.” In the Lord’s House of Love, fear is dispelled. Disconnect becomes reconnect. Dislocation becomes relocation. Rejection becomes acceptance. Cursing becomes blessing. Forever!
Dear God, on the tough days, remember to me the pathways and the words that lead me home to you. Amen.

April 1, 2025. Prayer 1924. Finding Home
No good thing is withheld in God’s House. All who enter the House of Love find strength and sing out for joy. Psalm 84:1 begins, “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of Hosts!” As in the spring-time rush of our backyard birds, “Even the sparrow fins a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young” at the altars of the Lord. God’s holy dwelling is of course located everywhere. We enter into God’s House through the heart. “Our heart are the highways to Zion.” The next generation finds the way home by listening to the voice of love. Speak of it generously.
Dear God, let me be that dwelling place as if birds find a home, and neighbors and strangers find belonging. Amen.

April 2, 2025. Prayer 1925. The Home of Compassion
In the parable of the prodigal son, we see a lesson in coming home to God. As Jesus tells the parable, in Luke 15:20 it reads, “And he arose and came to his father but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” His long-lost son was home. Speaking Aramaic, Jesus may have said, “Rachamim” meaning a “deep, maternal care and tenderness.” What does it take to embrace a loved one who took your money and took off and lost his senses on the way? The heavenly parent is ever watchful to see the lost coming back.
Dear God, here in Lent, let me be like the heavenly parent, always ready to embrace the lost soul of another. Amen.

April 3, 2025. Prayer 1926. Our Home with God
Before Jesus departs, he shares many words with his disciples that offer comfort, direction, and the goal for their lives to come. He speaks of being at home with God. In John 14:23 he tells us, “If anyone loves me, and will keep my word, my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” Do you see the origin of the action? It is that the Lord will come and make a home with us. When we seek to live by love, love comes. God’s house is built with loving words and loving actions. It begins in the heart, and it is the singular, distinctive attribute of Christ’s Way.
Dear God, help me to be genuinely more loving, more ready to love, more able to love, and to receive love. Amen.

April 4, 2025. Prayer 1927. Calling Home
When we are far away it is good to call home. A young person away at school, in the service, taking a job in a far away city, returns home in the heart with a phone call. We return to ourselves when we call loved ones. The Lord has been calling the children home since the foundation of the world. In Hebrews 3:4 it reads, “For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.” And the lesson of the book is that by listening to our heavenly calling at all times, we will enter God’s rest. Just like God rested on the seventh day, we rest whenever we call home to God.
Dear God, guard me throughout this Lenten journey to continually listen for your call, and to call on you! Amen.