Once again today I'm sharing a prayer from another of my Xanga friends, poetically_truthful (Shannon). It was originally posted here.

Dear brothers and sisters, please ask the Holy Spirit to examine your heart and love for the Lord Jesus Christ as you prayerfully read her words here.

Love Song for Jesus

Perhaps I've been distracted, maybe I've been lost. Maybe I've been growing, or learning something new. I don't know. All I know is I looked around and I see no fellow sheep standing in my field!

You have been far from distant, but I would still like to come running home. You are everything to me. You're the life inside of me, the very air I breathe. It's no exaggeration. I know who you are to me. I know what you've done for me. I know how you love me. It's very possible I was on the road to forgetting...

I cry when I remember my love for you. When I remember October three years ago, and that visit you paid me in that dream, the LIFE you've given me... it's a free gift. I could never deserve it otherwise. I guess I could sit in regret and guilt about that, but I think there's another option. Confession? I confess that my focus is not always on you. I confess that at times I take you out of my life's equation. I confess that over time, I've grown... complacent? I confess that I have lied and not been responsible. I confess that I have neglected areas in my life that I should not have neglected. Most importantly, I confess that I miss you.

Things are changing in my life and I certainly don't understand it all because changes bring new things. Please check up on me often- I don't ever want to stray from you.  

I love you.
♥

* * *

Holy Spirit, be gracious to each of us, open our eyes and show us the true state of our hearts and our devotion.

Brothers and sisters, Please add your prayers as His Spirit leads you.

Gracious and loving Father,

There are so many people out there who need to know you, but they don't even know how to find you. They don't even know You need to You. We see them pouring out their hearts to you right here in their blogs. There are others we don't even see. They are pouring out their hearts sometimes behind their pictures and their words; they hide their pain. They hide away in their bedrooms and in the dark places. They hide behind their addictions and destructive behaviors. There are so many whose hearts and souls are screaming and groaning. They are so poor and needy. (O, yes, Lord, we have to say it too about ourselves. We are always poor, always needy, we are nothing, we have nothing apart what You have given to us in Yourself through Your Son Jesus Christ. You are are all in all. You have richly blessed us for His sake. We are totally unworthy of Your blessing. Where would we be without You and Your gracious love and tender mercies showered on us in Christ?)

But You, O Lord God, You cannot be found by seeking. We know this. We know You opened our eyes to the light of Your glorious Gospel. Once we were blind, but now we see. Not because of our own ability or our own will but because of Your gracious mercies. We have been in the place these many souls are today. They have cried and cried and they sought and sought and they have tried and tried to find You ... but they continue to try but they continue to come up empty. Be gracious to them. Illumine their hearts and minds. O, they are blind to Your goodness and grace, apart from Your Spirit breathing on them. Breathe life into them. Open their blind eyes, may the scales fall off. Lead them to Your house and Your presence. May Your kindness lead them to repentance. They keep seeking joy and peace and life and happiness any and everywhere but You. There is no true joy, no true peace, no true life, no true happiness apart from You, O Lord. (O, we know, there are times we wander, we continue to pursue happiness everywhere else, then Your kindness leads us back to repentance. You draw us back to Yourself again and bring us to our senses when we forget You alone are our life and when we seek anywhere else we are headed on the road to death.) You have created us to know You and to worship You. Apart from knowing You and apart from worshiping You, we are empty and lifeless, and life is hopeless and meaningless.

Help us to continue to lift these souls to You in prayer. Open our eyes so we might see them. Open our ears so we might hear them. Open our hearts to love them. Give us Your wisdom and discernment to know when to speak and to know when to listen. Impart to us Your words of life by Your living Spirit so men and women who are seeking might come to seek You. We agonize with their cries. We know You do as well. We know these are matters for which we are incapable apart from Your power and strength. We have no resources but what You provide us. We have no life to show them or to tell them of but the life of Christ in us. Keep us abiding in You, so we might bear fruits of grace and truth, so our offering of our lips might bear fruit in their lives. We have no food to give them but the true Bread. We have no drink to give them but the living Water. We ask You to keep us eating and drinking of You and provide for us so we might provide for these hungry and thirsty souls. Give them a hunger and thirst for You so they might come and eat and drink of You and be satisfied. May You fill us to the uttermost with Your Spirit so we might bubble up and overflow with rivers of living water here in this dry and thirsty land, where many dry and thirsty people are lost and wandering and seeking now.

Chief Shepherd, Your eyes are looking with compassion on the sheep scattered, weary and helpless without a Shepherd here. There are many false shepherds, but they will never lead to abundant life and true and lasting joy and peace that passes understanding. O, Good Shepherd, draw them to Yourself. Help us to be ready and willing to be used in the process of gathering and feeding and nurturing and nourishing here. You have promised not one of Your sheep will be lost. Help us to have Your shepherd heart as we look at the sheep here. Help us to have harvesters' hearts as we look at the fields here. It is too easy for us to become complacent and lukewarm. We get wound up and absorbed in ourselves and do not have eyes to see the fields white for harvest. Stir our hearts with a passion for You and Your Name and a compassionate and deep love for lost souls. How will they come to know You if they have not heard of You? May we speak with boldness and assurance as Your Holy Spirit carries us along. May You open stopped ears to hear Your words of eternal life and may many come to repentance and life in Jesus Christ, who alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

You know we often sin and often wander, but in the end You turn us back to You. We humbly bow before You and say thank You. That is not our doing but Your grace. We cannot imagine life without You; it would be unlivable and unbearable and intolerable. We pray you might bear these souls on Your eagles' wings now and give them Your new life. They are dying on the vine here. They are tired of eating in the pig sty, but they do not yet have a hunger for You. They are desperate. They have nowhere to turn. Have mercy on them. Be gracious to them. Turn them to You. Carry those who have fallen and are homeless. Lift up the heads of those today who are desperate and have nowhere else to turn. Help them to come to their senses and turn them and cause them to run home to Your house so they might seek You and find mercy, grace, love and goodness in Your arms. Help them to come and see, to taste and see that You are good.

Show them the Christ they have mocked and cursed is their only means of salvation. Show them His beauty and glory. Show them His love that sent Him to the cross to die for helpless sinners. Show them that You will not cast out any who come to You. May we be faithful to lift up Christ and Him crucified, for there is no other salvation, no other way to be saved but through Your Son. There is no other hope we have to offer to hopeless souls but the sure hope we have in Jesus Christ. There is no other life we have to offer to dead souls but His life.

We ask these things in the name of Jesus. It is by His blood we come to You now, knowing we were not deserving and not even seeking You, but You sought us, bought us with Your blood and sealed us with Your Spirit and made us Your children. May You use us to bring many souls to You right here in this place for Your glory. May Your Kingdom come here in a greater way now through us. Use us as You wish. May we be consumed with Your Kingdom and Your will in our lives. Keep us seeking hard after You. Fill us so with Your Spirit so we cannot help but speak of Jesus Christ, our Savior. May we never quench, grieve or limit Him. Unloose our tongues to speak and animate our fingers to type of You. May You alone get the glory, honor and praise.

Amen.

I've been reading through "The Fight of Faith," the second volume of Iain Murray's biography of Dr. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones. I would like to share a portion of the book with you here. (As way of background: this incident took place in 1949 when Dr. Lloyd-Jones was pastor at Westminster Chapel in London; he had lived most of his childhood in Wales and his first pastorate was in Wales before coming to Westminster Chapel.)

Roger Weil, who was  a member of Westminster Chapel, recalls seeing a side of his minister's character in a new light when he happened to visit the Lloyd-Joneses during one of their summer holidays in Aberystwyth [in Wales]. They spoke together in the course of an evening on the state of the Welsh churches, past and present, and this was followed by family prayer which, as usual, closed the day. The English visitor writes:

Our Father,

Because we still dwell in this fallen world even though we are saved out of the world and even though we are no longer of the world, even though we are your new creation, even though we are your children, we are still subject to that same bondage to decay, we are still subject to temptation and the lusts of the flesh and the wiles of the devil.

We have seen the decay to some extent, but help us to see it through Your eyes. Certainly You are sad, groaning and grieving for us, for Your Church, for Your children, today.

O, yes, we do look forward with hope to the redemption of our bodies! But we also look forward with hope to Your coming to revive us again before that time.

We confess we have become an astonishment, a proverb and a byword in the world today. Have mercy on us, forgive us our sins. Cleanse us from all unrighteousness for Jesus' sake. Purify us.

Place into our hearts such a deep note of sadness, such groaning of spirit, such grieving for the Church today.

Along with the creation, may we grieve and groan over the state of the Church today. Stir our hearts, O God. (How can we say we love You if we do not grieve and groan? How can we say we are Yours if we do not grieve and groan along with You? How can we remain apathetic about these things?)

O, how much decay there is in Your Church today and in our own lives. We are to be a glorious Church, a chaste virgin, called out of the world to live holy and blameless lives, yet we fall so short of that. How we have taken Your Holy Word and corrupted it. How we have continued to obey our lusts and remain yoked to the world. Forgive us, O holy God, our Redeemer, for Jesus' sake.

Almighty and eternal God, You have promised to give us all things since You have given us Your Son. You cannot lie. We are appealing to You and Your sure promises to give us an increased burden for Your Church, a greater love for You and for her, a clearer vision of You and the Church You have called us to be. May we be driven to Your throne of grace day and night, never ceasing in prayer for Your Church, the way our Lord continues at Your right hand in prayer for us. This is a great time of need for us. There are many enemies of You and Your Gospel within the Church and all around us. Strengthen us to persevere in prayer before Your throne of grace so we might find grace and mercy to help us for we are in a great time of need. We are in need of Your Spirit coming once again to revive us. There is no hope apart from Your falling fresh on us once again. We are at the end of our resources. We are looking by faith and with hope to You, O Lord God. Be gracious and merciful to us. Hear our prayers for Jesus' sake. We know Your timing is perfect and You are waiting to be gracious to us so You alone might be exalted. We wait on You. We trust You. We know we will not be ashamed as we wait on You to come in fullness of power. We know You are for us for Christ died for us. We know it is Your intent that we be a glory and praise in the earth once again. We know You will not forsake us for we are Your people, we are Your children purchased with the precious blood of the Lamb. O, how we long to be revived for Your glory, honor and praise. Have mercy on us, O God. Amen.