Little Prayers 4

Now if you aren’t into singing through Matins while you are on your way to church or just our running errands, here are some other short prayers you can pray and sing at the same time. 

One of my favorite hymns/ prayers is LSB 422, On My Heart Imprint Your Image.  It is just one verse but makes for a beautiful prayer to God every day of our lives as we ask for his heart to rule and reign in our heart and to sync our heart with his heart—"On my heart imprint Your image, Blessed Jesus, King of grace, That life’s riches, cares, and pleasures Never may Your work erase; Let the clear inscription be:  Jesus, crucified for me, Is my life, my hope’s foundation, And my glory and salvation!”

Another great hymn verse is from LSB 868, “Awake, My Soul, and with the Sun”.  In verse 5 we pray these words concerning our actions for the coming day—“Direct, control, suggest this day All I design or do or say That all my pow’rs with all their might In thy sole glory may unite.”  As we pray this prayer, we also have the added benefit of meditating on our request—we are asking God to have control over every aspect of our life!  Another similar prayer comes from the hymn, “Forth in Your Name,” in LSB 854:1—"Forth in Your name, O Lord, I go, My daily labor to pursue, You, only You, resolved to know In all I think or speak or do.” 

A hymn I remember from early on in my youth is LSB 783, “Take My Life and Let It Be”.  It is a most beautiful hymn in which each verse is a prayer to God to totally mold and shape our heart, mind, body, and soul into the desires and will of His heart and mind.  In verse one we pray that our entire life would be devoted to our heavenly Father and that our life lived would be one of praise and glory to Him! “Take my life and let it be Consecrated Lord, to Thee; Take my moments and my days, Let them flow in ceaseless praise.”  In verse 3 we pray that the words that come from heart and lips may always be His words and may they always be words that build up rather than tear down.  “Take my voice and let me sing Always, only for my King; Take my lips and let them be Filled with messages from Thee.”  And finally, in verse 5 we pray that God’s throne would be our very heart!  “Take my will and make it Thine, It shall be no longer mine; Take my heart, it is Thine own, It shall be Thy royal throne.” 

As Martin Luther would say, these hymn verses/ little prayers are “no child’s play”.  In fact, these prayer requests are pretty heavy duty, for we are asking the Lord in each one of them to turn our life around in a 180 degree turn and do with us as He will do with us; we are acknowledging that he owns us through the blood of His son, Jesus Christ.  But what we give up pales in comparison to what we gain!  The blessing of ceaseless prayer and praise keeps our heart and mind focused on our Lord and his will for us; and we will find the Lord doing for us “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us!”