Prayer for the deep reach of God’s hand in a most desperate struggle

A prayer you pray
for when you don’t sense God
but know by faith
He’s not far away...

O God at my depths, when and as I fall still in descent to the caverns of a most desperate spiritual plight, sensing You have abandoned me, show me more so, that You trust me to work my way back to You.

Even as my flesh battles with the Spirit in me, and I am tempted to run in the opposite direction away from You, make me to see that in seeing my flesh, I am seeing with the eyes of the Spirit.  Help me to dispel the condemning voice of the enemy and embrace the quietude of soul that can come only from You.

O unchanging and unfathomable God, remind me of the portent of your grace, that in not rescuing me from my most desperate circumstance, I could know that You trust me to rely on this truth: “For My grace is sufficient for you, and My power is made perfect in your weakness.”  That grace that was made right for the circumstances that threaten to overwhelm me, that only as I trust it, do I overcome.

How is it, O Lord, that you hem me in, and hold me, safe and protected it seems, within the painful truth, so much so that as I endure it, I grow?  Protect me from my flesh, Father of the heavenly lights, that I might both see the works of your Spirit as they endeavour to work deep within me to transform my licentiousness into purity that pleases You and not come to despise this process of becoming disciplined.

God of my creation and redemption, Author and Perfecter of the faith I have given my allegiance to, help me to see the deep and faithful reach of Your hand, as you work in me, and make me to not resist You.  Even if I languish, let it be known to me that my languishing is serving my present and future good, even as I look forward to entering the promised land You have provided for me.

As You hold me close to Yourself, even in situations that I in my flesh find diabolical, help me to continue to trust You, that in being humble in my weakness I can exemplify Your strength.  Help me to see this is the epitome of trust: to resist fighting and fleeing when the going gets tough, and to hold to Your goodness, even as the enemy tries to deceive me that it is darkness.  Hold me deep in this truth, that You mean me no harm and only good, all the days of my life.

I ask these things in the gracious and loving name of Jesus.

AMEN.

This prayer was written to channel a most dear but not so near client.  Of course, the travail expressed in this prayer is quite a common one and one I’ve regularly faced.  Just not what I’m experiencing now.  It is provided for the reader who needs it most today.

Photo by Dave Hoefler on Unsplash