June 13, 2025. Prayer 1977. Looking from a Distance
Perspective is everything from architecture, to building a healthy life and a just society. When we cling to our preconceived notions and biases so tightly, there is no room for new possibilities. On the day that Jesus died on the cross, we hear in Mark 15:40 “there were also women looking on from a distance—those who had followed him and ministered to him in Galilee.” These same went on to see Jesus risen on the third day. These loving disciples had learned how to take a bigger perspective on the harsh world in which they lived and closed that distance with great faith.
Dear God, grant me a much bigger faith perspective that I may give your love and mercy to this world. Amen.

June 12, 2025. Prayer 1976. Following at a Distance
In our Spirit Life, we want to follow God, but do we naturally want to follow at a distance? In Matthew 26:58 when Jesus was handed over to the authorities, “Peter was following him at a distance.” What happens if Peter draws too close? Will he also be taken, abused, and left for a derelict’s death? What inside us is afraid to follow Jesus more closely? Peter is recognized and challenged, and then Peter denies he even knew Jesus to begin with. Peter makes that distance even greater. And yet, Peter keeps following. Even though we follow at a distance, the Lord will draw us back and forgive us.
Dear God, I have not the faith of Peter. And yet, I do seek to follow you. Come to me. Send me out to love. Amen.

June 11, 2025. Prayer 1975. Standing at a Distance
Who in our society is standing at a distance? Those who need healing? Those denying healing power? This is exactly the moment Jesus steps in the breach. In Luke 17:12 Jesus is met by ten lepers “who stood at a distance.” They cry out for mercy. Jesus has them go to the healing authorities to reinstate them back to standing in society. One turns back realizing they were healed. True healing did not come from waiting on the human authorities lack of compassion or fear to be near them. True healing comes between the Lord the person when the person seeks mercy with all their being.
Dear God, help me to use all my powers, whether big or small, in word or deed, to ask for and create mercy. Amen.

June 10, 2025. Prayer 1974. Distance Heals, Distance Denies
When we are struggling, we feel distant from God. And yet, when we struggle, we often want God to keep a distance from us. Why is that? What are we afraid of that God will do? In Matthew 8:30 we see a herd of pigs “feeding at some distance” from Jesus and a “demon-possessed” person. The demons beg Jesus to cast them into the herd upon which they ran into the water and drowned. The villagers saw the previously demon possessed neighbor fully restored. The villages begged Jesus to leave their region. This shows the villagers as demons. God’s power is threatening to them.
Dear God, help me not to deny what needs to be done for hope, for healing, for closing the distance between us. Amen.

June 9, 2025. Prayer 1973. From a Distance
Life has a way of changing our appearance drastically. In Job, we see a blameless and upright person who has integrity and deep faith. In a moment Job loses his children, property and health. His friends make an appointment to show him sympathy and comfort. In Job 2:12 we read, “And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. They raised their voices and wept.” Then no one spoke a word to him. Suffering can change us so much that even our closest companions are shocked, can’t recognize us, and have nothing to say. Faith however, can speaks to us from a distance.
Dear God, grant me the courage to visit with those who have lost so much that we may all draw closer to you. Amen.

June 6, 2025. Prayer 1972. Earnest Love
Love has a quality about it that never gives up. It stretches across good times and bad. It goes to places well loved and goes to places no one would ever want to go. 1 Peter 4:8 says, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins: show hospitality; don’t grumble; serve one another with your gifts; be good stewards of God’s grace; speak God words to each other; serve with the strength God supplies.” The gift of love we have to share is earnestly, vigorously, and fervently at work in the world. Our faith informs us to be resilient with and for love.
Dear God, on my worst days remind me that your endless supply of love helps me to hold on and hand out love! Amen.

June 5, 2025. Prayer 1971. A Mother’s Love
We learn to love well when we are loved well. When a loving parent fully serves in the nurturing role of being a parent, a child grows in confidence that God’s divine love is real because the many large and small acts of love that have been received over time. A mother’s love can be described as a “soft power.” In 1 Peter 3:4 we hear, “let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.” We say external beauty is skin deep. Internal beauty is everlasting and it moves mountains and hearts.
Dear God, let me meditate on my soft powers from within, that I may return gentleness and love to a noisy world. Amen.

June 4, 2025. Prayer 1970. Everlasting Love
Love has a way of creating more love. This would be the opposite principle of burning fossil fuels, an unrenewable energy source. Love is never depleted. The Bible tells us that love is a divine gift from above. God’s love keeps loving us no matter how far we have strayed from God’s way of holiness and reverence for life. In Jeremiah 31:3 we hear God say, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you. Again, I will build you and you will be rebuilt.” This everlasting love gives us the hope and the energy to rebuild war torn worlds with new life.
Dear God, may your everlasting love enter the deepest parts of my soul that rebuilding begins with me! Amen.

June 3, 2025. Prayer 1969. Loving Mercy
When life brings us to the breaking point, when conditions in the world that are way beyond our control diminish and threaten our life, what do we pray? Psalm 31 has us sing out to God, “My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hands of my enemies; make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love!” When we remember God’s mercy, we “remake” and “refashion” and “remodel” ourselves in mercy. This means that in a harsh time, we make it an occasion for love. It means that in a Godless and unholy time, we make it an occasion to speak of God and holiness.
Dear God, when the world removes my strength and peace, reform me by your steadfast love and mercy. Amen.

June 2, 2025. Prayer 1968. Loving Neighbor
At the foot of Mt. Sinai well over three thousand years ago, Moses gave God’s instructions to the people in the way to live. This included what is referred to as “The Law of Moses.” There are hundreds of statutes of how to organize life as God’s holy children. In Leviticus 19:18 we read, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” God says to the people, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” The instruction is to feed the hungry poor, do not oppress them, do no injustice, do not curse them, stand up for the elderly, and treat strangers well, in fact, love them.
Dear God, we see the result of so much hatred in this world, make me an instrument of your love and peace. Amen.