Prayers from (Recent) History - Frank Hudson

Recently during our Week of Prayer, we published a number of prayers which were originally prayed by famous believers down through history. But one of the most incredible things about prayer is that it is universal! We believe as Christians that anyone who lifts their voice in prayer has a direct line to their Heavenly Father! That’s why we pray, because we know that God listens to each and every one.

Today we share a prayer from someone who might not have been as famous, but was just as important in the eyes of God, Frank Hudson. Frank is the late father of Mandy Hudson, a member of the Redeemer Family who has written for this blog in the past, below she shares the story behind today’s blog…

My Dad was 80 when he died. He became a Christian when he was 45. Previously, he'd been a spiritualist medium, a gambler and very independent minded. He encountered Christ through the witness of his family (including me, I hope!) and would testify later that he was delivered when he read the words about how God gives good gifts to his children. (Matt 7 v11). He always celebrated his relationship with God, was an evangelist, Gideon and methodist lay preacher.

After my Dad died we found this prayer in his Bible which he used each day to start his devotions. I think it's from a combination of sources but what was good to read and see the challenge of giving every second to God.

I hope you enjoy reading his prayer.

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Heavenly Father,

Thank you for creation, for today, for my life, for your great love, faithfulness, forgiveness and mercy.

Thank you for Jesus.

Thank you, Heavenly Father, that you sent your only Son - Jesus Christ to live among us. Jesus died on the cross for my sin, for my sake.

Praise you, Lord Jesus, you rose from the dead, you ascended into heaven, you sit at God’s right hand. You pray for your people.

Heavenly Father, thank you for Jesus.

Thank you for sending the Holy Spirit, thank you for His work in my life. Thank you for grace and peace and rest in God. Thank you for all the gifts, thank you, Lord for prayer.

Lord, I pray that you will forgive me for my sins of today. I have sinned in thought, word and deed. I am sorry for my sin and I ask for your forgiveness.

I pray Lord for your continued watch over my life, watch over my going out and coming in.

I pray that you will watch over me every second and I pray that I will give you every second.

Amen

Prayers from History - Reinhold Niebuhr

This week at Redeemer is our Week of Prayer! We believe that prayer is a crucial part of the Christian life, not just personally, but on a corporate level. When we join together to pray we believe that we have access to the power of God to transform our own lives, and the lives of our friends and family, as well as situations across this city, this nation, and the nations. This week there are plenty of opportunities to get involved in our prayer meetings, and you can find all of the details HERE. We would love to have you join with us!

We’re also taking this opportunity to join in prayer with some mighty men and women of faith from history! Each day we’ll be publishing a blog featuring a prayer written by someone in history, which we hope will encourage you to engage in personal prayer yourself, and remind you that prayer is not a one time event, but can be something that lasts and remains in peoples hearts and minds for years.

Today we pray with Reinhold Niebuhr, an American Reformed theologian and political commentator.

God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

Prayers from History - Phillis Wheatley

This week at Redeemer is our Week of Prayer! We believe that prayer is a crucial part of the Christian life, not just personally, but on a corporate level. When we join together to pray we believe that we have access to the power of God to transform our own lives, and the lives of our friends and family, as well as situations across this city, this nation, and the nations. This week there are plenty of opportunities to get involved in our prayer meetings, and you can find all of the details HERE. We would love to have you join with us!

We’re also taking this opportunity to join in prayer with some mighty men and women of faith from history! Each day we’ll be publishing a blog featuring a prayer written by someone in history, which we hope will encourage you to engage in personal prayer yourself, and remind you that prayer is not a one time event, but can be something that lasts and remains in peoples hearts and minds for years.

Today we pray with Phillis Wheatley, the first African-American author of a book of poetry - Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral - published on September 1st 1773.

Oh my Gracious Preserver!
hitehero thou hast brot [me,]
be pleased when thou bringest
to the birth to give [me] strength
to bring forth living & perfect a
being who shall be greatly in-
strumental in promoting thy [glory]
Tho conceived in Sin & brot forth
in iniquity yet thy infinite wisdom
can bring a clean thing out of an
unclean, a vess[el] of Honor filled
for thy glory—grant me
to live a life of gratitude to thee
for the innumerable benefits—
O Lord my God! instruct my ignorance
& enlighten my Darkness
Thou art my King, take [thou]
the entire possession of [all] my
powers & faculties & let me be
no longer under the dominion
of sin—Give me a sincere &
hearty repentance for all my
[grievous?] offences & strengthen
by thy grace my resolutions
on amendment & circumspection
for the time to come—Grant me
[also] the spirit of Prayer & Suppli[cation]
according to thy own
most gracious Promises.

Prayers from History - John Wesley

This week at Redeemer is our Week of Prayer! We believe that prayer is a crucial part of the Christian life, not just personally, but on a corporate level. When we join together to pray we believe that we have access to the power of God to transform our own lives, and the lives of our friends and family, as well as situations across this city, this nation, and the nations. This week there are plenty of opportunities to get involved in our prayer meetings, and you can find all of the details HERE. We would love to have you join with us!

We’re also taking this opportunity to join in prayer with some mighty men and women of faith from history! Each day we’ll be publishing a blog featuring a prayer written by someone in history, which we hope will encourage you to engage in personal prayer yourself, and remind you that prayer is not a one time event, but can be something that lasts and remains in peoples hearts and minds for years.

Today we pray with John Wesley, the English theologian and evangelist, who was the leader of a revival movement which gave rise to the Methodist church.

I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

Prayers from History - Martin Luther King

This week at Redeemer is our Week of Prayer! We believe that prayer is a crucial part of the Christian life, not just personally, but on a corporate level. When we join together to pray we believe that we have access to the power of God to transform our own lives, and the lives of our friends and family, as well as situations across this city, this nation, and the nations. This week there are plenty of opportunities to get involved in our prayer meetings, and you can find all of the details HERE. We would love to have you join with us!

We’re also taking this opportunity to join in prayer with some mighty men and women of faith from history! Each day we’ll be publishing a blog featuring a prayer written by someone in history, which we hope will encourage you to engage in personal prayer yourself, and remind you that prayer is not a one time event, but can be something that lasts and remains in peoples hearts and minds for years.

Today we pray with Martin Luther King Jr., the African American minister and activist, who was a vocal member of the civil rights movement until his assassination in 1968.

Lord…
We thank you for your church, founded upon your Word, that challenges us to do more than sing and pray,
but go out and work as though the very answer to our prayers depended on us and not upon you.
Help us to realize that humanity was created to shine like the stars and live on through all eternity.
Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace.
Help us to walk together,
pray together,
sing together,
and live together
until that day when all God’s children
- Black, White, Red, Brown and Yellow -
will rejoice in one common band of humanity
in the reign of our Lord and of our God, we pray.

Amen.

Prayers from History - Elisabeth Elliot

This week at Redeemer is our Week of Prayer! We believe that prayer is a crucial part of the Christian life, not just personally, but on a corporate level. When we join together to pray we believe that we have access to the power of God to transform our own lives, and the lives of our friends and family, as well as situations across this city, this nation, and the nations. This week there are plenty of opportunities to get involved in our prayer meetings, and you can find all of the details HERE. We would love to have you join with us!

We’re also taking this opportunity to join in prayer with some mighty men and women of faith from history! Each day we’ll be publishing a blog featuring a prayer written by someone in history, which we hope will encourage you to engage in personal prayer yourself, and remind you that prayer is not a one time event, but can be something that lasts and remains in peoples hearts and minds for years.

Today we pray with Elisabeth Elliot, the Christian author and speaker, who was a missionary for two years to the tribe in Ecuador that killed her first husband, Jim Elliot.

Loving Lord and heavenly Father, I offer up today all that I am, all that I have, all that I do, and all that I suffer, to be Yours today and Yours forever.
Give me grace, Lord, to do all that I know of Your holy will.
Purify my heart, sanctify my thinking, correct my desires.
Teach me, in all of today’s work and trouble and joy, to respond with honest praise, simple trust, and instant obedience, that my life may be in truth a living sacrifice, by the power of Your Holy Spirit and in the name of Your Son Jesus Christ, my Master and my all.

Amen.

Prayers from History - St Patrick

This week at Redeemer is our Week of Prayer! We believe that prayer is a crucial part of the Christian life, not just personally, but on a corporate level. When we join together to pray we believe that we have access to the power of God to transform our own lives, and the lives of our friends and family, as well as situations across this city, this nation, and the nations. This week there are plenty of opportunities to get involved in our prayer meetings, and you can find all of the details HERE. We would love to have you join with us!

We’re also taking this opportunity to join in prayer with some mighty men and women of faith from history! Each day we’ll be publishing a blog featuring a prayer written by someone in history, which we hope will encourage you to engage in personal prayer yourself, and remind you that prayer is not a one time event, but can be something that lasts and remains in peoples hearts and minds for years.

Today we pray with St Patrick, a 5th century bishop and missionary in Ireland.

Christ with me,

Christ before me,

Christ behind me,

Christ in me,

Christ beneath me,

Christ above me,

Christ on my right,

Christ on my left,

Christ when I lie down,

Christ when I sit down,

Christ when I arise,

Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

Prayers from History - Mary McLeod Bethune

This week at Redeemer is our Week of Prayer! We believe that prayer is a crucial part of the Christian life, not just personally, but on a corporate level. When we join together to pray we believe that we have access to the power of God to transform our own lives, and the lives of our friends and family, as well as situations across this city, this nation, and the nations. This week there are plenty of opportunities to get involved in our prayer meetings, and you can find all of the details HERE. We would love to have you join with us!

We’re also taking this opportunity to join in prayer with some mighty men and women of faith from history! Each day we’ll be publishing a blog featuring a prayer written by someone in history, which we hope will encourage you to engage in personal prayer yourself, and remind you that prayer is not a one time event, but can be something that lasts and remains in peoples hearts and minds for years.

Today we pray with Mary McLeod Bethune, an American educator, missionary and civil rights activist.

Father, we call Thee Father because we love Thee.

We are glad to be called Thy children, and to dedicate our lives to the service that extends through willing hearts and hands to the betterment of all mankind.

We send a cry of Thanksgiving for people of all races, creeds, classes, and colors the world over, and pray that through the instrumentality of our lives the spirit of peace, joy, fellowship, and brotherhood shall circle the world.

We know that this world is filled with discordant notes, but help us, Father, to so unite our efforts that we may all join in one harmonious symphony for peace and brotherhood, justice, and equality of opportunity for all men.

The tasks performed today with forgiveness for all our errors, we dedicate, dear Lord, to Thee.

Grant us strength and courage and faith and humility sufficient for the tasks assigned to us.

Amen