Burdens and Cares

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for Friends Weighed Down with Various Burdens

     Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7

     Dear Jesus, huge snowflakes are gently falling as we meet this morning, covering my yard with a blanket of beauty. It makes me think of the cross and how you’ve washed us whiter than snow by the sacrifice of your blood. Thank you, a million times over. We are completely forgiven and now dressed in the matchless beauty of your righteousness. Nothing will ever separate us from your love. We praise and adore you…you are such a wonderful, merciful, caring Savior.
     In light of your great love for us, we bring friends before you today who are weighed down with various burdens and cares. Whether it’s the cold weather or simply the winter blues, it makes no difference, Jesus, there are multiplied stories of duress, stress and struggles all around us. Where else can we go but to you? Hear our prayers for those we love.
     We pray for friends dealing with health issues. All along the continuum of common colds to uncommon cancers, we ask you to bring your mercy and healing, Jesus. Whether by the special grace of divine intervention or the common grace of good medicine and health care, it makes no difference. Mete out sufficient grace in each situation. Bring great glory to yourself. Make your presence clearly felt even if your ways cannot be easily discerned.
     We pray for friends struggling financially and career-wise. You don’t promise us abundance or surplus, Jesus, but you do promise to meet all our needs. We especially think of friends whose are closer to mental and emotional bankruptcy, than financial collapse. By the power of your resurrection, and for your name’s sake, open doors that seem locked and bolted. From your storehouse of everlasting goodness, bring forth the right provision at the right time. It’s most likely you will use us as a part of the answer to our prayers. May we be generous and gracious in serving our friends.
     Lastly, we pray for friends who are burdened relationally. Marriage will always be a center of intense, unrelenting spiritual warfare, for this relationship is meant to tell the story of your great love for your Bride. Pour out your Spirit, Jesus. Humble the proud… bring hope to the despairing… dial down the anger… clarify the issues… supply the right counsel… grant miracles of forbearance, forgiveness and reconciliation.
     We ask the same for whole families, longstanding friendships and local churches under the siege of broken relationship and battered trust. Do way beyond what we can ask or imagine, for the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love. Help us, Jesus, for your glory and fame. So very Amen, we pray, in your peerless and priceless name.