Father,
I come before You with nothing to hide and nothing to prove.
You are God, and I am not.
You are holy, righteous, merciful, sovereign, and true. I am a sinner saved only by Your grace through Jesus Christ. Before I ask You to change the circumstances surrounding me, I ask You to search and change me.
I confess that I have trusted my own understanding. I have relied upon my abilities, judgment, experience, resources, and determination when I should have depended upon You. I have sometimes delayed decisions I should have made, tried to control outcomes that belonged to You, allowed fear to influence my judgment, and continued trying to solve things long after I should have stopped and sought Your direction.
Lord, have mercy on me.
Show me where I have sinned without excuse.
Show me where pride has disguised itself as responsibility.
Show me where fear has disguised itself as prudence.
Show me where stubbornness has disguised itself as perseverance.
Show me where self-reliance has disguised itself as stewardship.
Show me where good intentions have become an excuse for poor decisions.
Show me where I have harmed others while convincing myself that I was trying to protect them.
Where I have sinned, lead me to repentance.
Where I have concealed truth, give me courage to tell it.
Where I have harmed someone, show me how to make amends.
Where I owe something, help me faithfully address it.
Where I have damaged trust, teach me to rebuild it through truth and faithfulness rather than promises.
Where consequences cannot be undone, give me humility to accept them.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Father, I ask for mercy.
Do not deal with me according to what my sins deserve. Remember that I am dust. Where my decisions have created consequences greater than my ability to repair, intervene according to Your mercy.
Protect others, as You will, from suffering unnecessarily because of my failures.
Give me favor with those to whom I owe explanations, obligations, money, leadership, service, or love.
Correct what can still be corrected.
Restore what should be restored.
And teach me to release what cannot be recovered.
Lord, there is a mountain before me.
Some circumstances seem larger than my strength, greater than my resources, and beyond my ability to solve.
But they are not greater than You.
Teach me not to measure Your power by the size of my problem. Teach me to measure the problem by the greatness of my God.
My strength is insufficient, but Yours is not.
My wisdom is limited, but Yours is perfect.
My resources may be inadequate, but You are the God who provides.
My circumstances may appear impossible, but nothing is impossible for You.
So, Lord, put Yourself between me and my circumstances.
Stand between me and fear.
Stand between me and financial pressure.
Stand between me and uncertainty.
Stand between me and difficult decisions.
Stand between me and disappointment.
Stand between me and everything I cannot control.
Let me see these things through You rather than seeing You through them.
I confess that I cannot engineer every problem, reverse every loss, erase every obligation, control every person, repair every relationship by force, or guarantee every outcome.
I do not know what to do.
But my eyes are upon You.
You are the God who opened the Red Sea when Your people had nowhere to go.
You are the God to whom Jehoshaphat cried when Judah faced an enemy it could not defeat.
You are the God who provided for Elijah, carried Joseph through years he could not understand, restored Peter after terrible failure, sustained Paul through suffering, and raised Jesus Christ from the dead.
Therefore I ask boldly:
Lord, rescue me.
Where immediate intervention is consistent with Your will, do not delay.
Make a way where I cannot see a way.
Provide what I cannot provide.
Give wisdom where I cannot determine the answer.
Bring reconciliation where reconciliation is possible.
Protect those who are vulnerable.
Open doors that should open.
Close doors that should remain closed.
Bring people, opportunities, conversations, resources, provisions, and assignments that I could never arrange for myself.
If there is a legitimate path through these difficulties that I cannot presently see, reveal it.
If you intend to give me provision, provide it.
If there are opportunities I should pursue, make them clear.
If there are people whose wisdom I need, bring them alongside me and give me humility to listen.
If there is something I desperately want to preserve that should end instead, give me the courage to release it.
Lord, surprise me.
Interrupt my plans when Your plan is better.
Close doors even when I desperately want them open.
Open doors I have never considered.
Protect me from confusing my plans with Your will.
I do not merely ask You to bless what I have already decided to do.
I want to participate in what You are doing.
But Father, I also surrender my timetable.
I ask You to act quickly, but I will pray as long as it takes.
If the answer does not come when I expect it, keep me from believing You have forgotten me.
Teach me the difference between Your delay and Your denial.
If I am asking for the wrong thing, correct me.
If I am asking with the wrong motive, purify me.
If I am asking too narrowly, enlarge my vision.
If I am asking according to Your will, strengthen me to continue.
Do not merely give me what I request.
Teach me what I should request.
I trust Your wisdom more than my urgency.
I trust Your timing more than my calendar.
And, Father, I surrender even my definition of rescue.
Perhaps rescue means restoration.
Perhaps rescue means provision.
Perhaps rescue means an unexpected opportunity.
Perhaps rescue means surrender.
Perhaps rescue means letting something end.
Perhaps rescue means accepting a loss while protecting something more important.
Perhaps rescue means walking faithfully through consequences rather than being miraculously removed from them.
I do not know.
So I place the definition of rescue into Your hands.
If this mountain should move, move it by Your power.
If I must climb it, give me strength.
If I must wait before it, give me patience.
If You intend to lead me by another road, give me discernment to recognize Your direction.
And if You perform the impossible, Father, do not allow me to waste the miracle.
If You provide extraordinary resources, do not let me repeat the decisions that created the crisis.
If You restore what has been lost, keep me from claiming the credit.
If You give me another opportunity, make me a better steward of it.
If You give prosperity, make me more generous rather than more independent.
If You give me a second chance, make me more obedient rather than merely relieved.
May rescue become testimony rather than validation of my pride.
May restoration produce gratitude rather than self-confidence.
May answered prayer increase my dependence upon You rather than convince me that my own judgment was right all along.
And Lord, remember those I love.
Protect them.
Draw them toward Christ.
Heal what should be healed.
Restore what should be restored.
Where my failures have affected them, give me opportunities to make things right.
Where they are afraid, bring peace.
Where relationships are wounded, bring truth, forgiveness, and reconciliation according to Your wisdom.
Do not allow my struggle to make me so preoccupied with my own problems that I neglect the people You have entrusted to me.
Finally, Lord, do not allow me to waste this suffering.
Make prayer part of the architecture of the life I have remaining.
Let there be prayers attached to the people I love, the work I undertake, the churches I serve, the communities I touch, and the decisions I make.
Some prayers may be answered today.
Some may take years.
Some answers I may never see in this life.
That is all right.
My responsibility is faithfulness.
I cannot promise that I will never fail again.
But today I can come before You and say:
I repent.
I need mercy.
I need forgiveness.
I need wisdom.
I need provision.
I need courage.
I need rescue.
Most of all, I need You.
“We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You.”
My eyes are on You, Lord.
Not on money.
Not on an improbable opportunity.
Not on my knowledge or experience.
Not on my ability to solve another problem.
Not on another workaround.
Not on another person rescuing me.
Not even on the particular outcome for which I am praying.
My eyes are on You.
I belong to You.
The people I love belong to You.
My work belongs to You.
My ministry belongs to You.
My resources belong to You.
My reputation belongs to You.
My successes and failures belong to You.
My remaining years belong to You.
The battle belongs to You.
The outcome belongs to You.
Whatever remains unfinished when my earthly life is complete, I entrust completely to Your hands.
Father, have mercy.
Christ, be sufficient.
Holy Spirit, lead me.
And according to Your wisdom, Your goodness, and Your will—
Lord, make a way.
Through Jesus Christ my Savior and Lord,
Amen.
