Word of Encouragement (02/11/2022)

Another prayer to finish the week:

“GRACIOUS GOD, as the day ends I come, seeking you. I cry out to you to create a little pool of heavenly peace in my heart as I lie down to sleep. I want to let go of the busyness, noise, and worries of today, so that my heart and mind can be still as I wait expectantly for you and meditate on your love.

“Dear Father, give me tonight a deeper sense of gratitude for all your gracious gifts. Your goodness to me has been wonderful. At every moment you have cared for me and there was not a split second when I had to stand by my strength alone. When I was too preoccupied to think about you, you—though you hold the whole universe in your hands—were not too preoccupied to remember me.

“O God, I am bitterly ashamed that I have to keep confessing how I forget you, how feebly I love you, and how capricious and spiritless my desire is for you. How many of your clear commandments I have disobeyed today! How many times I have held back kindness and care from you, Jesus, by not showing to the least of your brothers and sisters whom I have encountered today!

“Dear Lord, if I were to think only about the sorry state of my own heart and conscience and the good things that I did not do today, I would not have any peace before I sleep, only bitterness and despair. Therefore, dear Father, I choose instead to think of you and to be glad that your love blots out all my sins. Loving Jesus, I choose to think of you, the Lamb of God, and to trust in your perfect righteousness. I cannot trust my own efforts nor take pleasure in what I am, but only in what you are, and what you have suffered in my place. O Holy Spirit, make my heart and mind an instrument of your work, so that as the days go by I may become more like Jesus Christ my Lord, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”