An Advent Prayer

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." Matthew 26:39 (NIV)

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. Isaiah 55:8 (NIV)


Holy Father, we thank You for Your Son, Jesus, whose birth we remember and celebrate in this Season of Advent. We thank You for Your righteousness that provides for the boundaries of a pure and holy life. We thank You that You are Love, Who knows our intrinsic unrighteousness yet loves us in spite of all our shortcomings. We thank You for the love that caused You to sacrifice Your only Son to bestow His righteousness upon us, to save us from our sins, to return our eternity to one of hope and peace and glorifying You rather than one of dark, endless and painful hopelessness.



Help us, Lord, to seek communion with You daily; to praise You in adoration, to confess our sins, to express gratitude for all You have given us, to plead for the healing of body and mind and spirit--for ourselves, for those who surround us in life, and for the world that so needs and hungers for You--even when the world does not recognize the Person to Whom their hunger directs them.



Teach us to have faith that endures when our prayers seem unanswered or unfulfilled. Teach us the faith that understands that our prayers rise in ignorance of Your omniscient and omnipotent will; that He Who allowed His own Son to die a painful and shameful death on the Cross after denying His petition to deliver Him from that death, has ways that are above our ways and purposes that are infinitely beyond our understanding. Teach us that our prayers offered in any manner but complete submission lack the humility of Jesus, for He prayed ultimately that the Father's will be done, not that His own petition be paramount.



Teach us the humility of Jesus and the confidence of Jesus: to offer our prayers without hesitation and to offer them with both the expectation of a response and the acceptance that the response is good, no matter the appearance to our dimly lit vision. Give us grace and love for others, even as they struggle to accept Your answers to their prayers, knowing that when we are strong, we are the Body of Jesus to strengthen others, even as we are strengthened in our weakness by that same Body.



We love You and adore You; we ask for Your blessings in the Season of Advent and throughout the year. Let our focus always be on Jesus, He Who authored and sustains Creation and is the Savior of our souls. We pray all of this in His name. Amen.