7 September 2025 Prayer for the Chaplain + Deacon + Pastor

Pray along with Pr. Laura right HERE

You’ve got my attention God. I mean, you usually do. I know that following Jesus takes dedication and uncompromised loyalty and faithfulness. And some days I’m 0 for 3 on that list. Or at least that’s how it feels and sometime even looks. It’s a lot and I can so easily confuse my love for you for love for the church, like in the worst possible definition of love and church! So today, just for now, just for now, help me to remember you. Your love. Your love specifically for me. That it’s dedicated and uncompromised and faithful. To me. 3 for 3! Your love for me is not so that I will be a good pastor or deacon or chaplain or even person. Your love is for me. Period. Full stop. So help me to hang onto that for dear life. My own dear life. And as I raise my hands to do just that, let all the other stuff fall away. The resentments and baggage, the ego and the insistence of being right, the self-righteousness. All of it – let it fall away. Or yank it out of my grippy hands, God, so that, well, my hands are free to build a world for peace. Not alone. With you. It always starts with you.

Show your unmitigated love for my family today. Continue to teach us to love each other well. Show up in the lives of my colleagues, especially those in transition in their calls, or as they send off kids to school, to college or to the world of work. Certainly we’re colleagues, and we are humans with these beautiful, complicated, big lives. Thank you for giving us to each other, God. It’s just the best gift.

Help me to love the people you called me to serve. But first, let me remember and bask in your love for me. It’s where it all begins and ends! Thank you, God! I love you so. Amen.

Ok! Deep breaths! Seriously, child of God. You are so loved. Don’t be afraid – God is with you.