My Father in Heaven, thank You for the opportunity and ability to live a life I can honestly say I’m not ashamed of. I’ve had plenty of chances to ruin my life, but You have always been there for me, from my darkest moments to my brightest. I have always felt Your love over my soul, and it has spread to the many people I have had the pleasure of calling friend, family, mother, brother, sister, and father.
Because of Your love, I was able to look at myself and smile. I was able to see the darkness in me and fight it to the strongest of Your ability, because I have always been weak without You. I have succeeded in many areas that men like me fail because I have had Your grace and mercy following me continually throughout my life. I am most grateful for every opportunity to see You in different lights, and I am thankful that You have chosen me to share these insights with the world. Your kingdom is really on earth as it is in Heaven. You reign, and I, Your son, am glad You chose to do so in my life as well.
Father, I come to You for the readers of this book. I do not believe in chance, but divine intervention. They picked up this book because they needed to see You in a different space than they have seen before. May their minds and hearts be open to hearing from You in everything that they do. From a dream to a memory; from a song to statement. Let them grow in their ability to distinguish personal thought from Your voice. Mature them in the hearing of Your voice and recognition of Your spirit. May they hear You in their darkest hours and their happiest years.
May we all continue to learn that there is not a box big enough to contain You. May we continuously allow You space to show us just who You are. You are everything and everywhere. There is no hiding place for sin nor a distant place for grace. All of You lives with us here and now, and I am thankful that all of You is here for us. May we never feel You’ve withheld anything from us that was for our good. May we obtain every gift You hold in Your hands for our lives.
Forgive us of ours sins, both known and unknown. May the known sins be defeated and the unknown sins be brought to the light for their destruction as well. May we take honest looks at ourselves and see we have been saved by Your hands and we have been elevated by Your desire and design. May anyone who would bait us into further sin be defeated in Your name. May anyone who causes us to stumble be forgiven, but exposed. Help us learn who is truly for us and truly against us.
Knowing that You are for us, let anyone who stands against us be defeated. May those enemies see that they are not standing at all, but rather being herded towards their destruction so that we may live lives engulfed in peace. May victory be our path. May overcoming be our nature.
You and You alone are God. I have tried to express Your sovereignty in this book and can only hope that I succeeded. For every sin, there is love. For every blessing, there is grace. You are not a harsh king, but a loving father. I have recognized this very early, but the depth of Your love still baffles me. May readers learn even more about Your heart than I have. May they learn one thousand times more than I know.
Lord… I say this prayer at the end of this book because I know how one can feel lost in this life. I wrote this book because I know the loneliness, depression, envy, and absent-mindedness that can take over. I know each of these things can be overcome with Your help. I say this prayer to cover the lost, the traumatized, the broken, those without identity, those confused about their identity, and those who feel forgotten. I say this prayer for those who are searching for You in a world that often looks like it has defeated You. May they all know Your power, determination, livelihood, and relentlessness. When it comes to Your creations and Your children, You do not play.
Thank You, Lord, for the lives changed by this book. May the change be permanent and never temporary. May the change be real and not superficial. May the change be natural, supernatural, mental, emotional, and physical. Let not just the hearts be healed, but the minds and bodies also. If there is a mute looking for You to help them speak, may they speak as they read these words. If there is a lame looking for You to help them walk, may they stand as they read, declaring their healing. May Your will be executed with each word.
Thank You for hearing my prayer this day. Thank You for a space to pray for those who need it. Thank You for caring about the people I prayed for long before I knew I needed to pray for them. Thank You for having a heart much stronger, wiser, more consistent, and loving than mine. Thank You for being God. Thank You for being omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. Thank You for being my friend, my shelter, my strength, my comfort, my encouragement, my Lord, my king, my counsel, my love, my hope, my faith, my all. I love You from this world beyond the next. I look forward to the day We embrace with no doubt for anyone in existence. We will see You as God, the one and the only, and we will bow before You and declare, “Jesus truly is Lord.”
Amen