Morning and Evening Prayers

These prayers have been adapted from the morning and evening prayers in Every Moment Holy by Douglas McKelvey.

Morning
Heavenly Father help us to love you this day by cultivating thankfulness, by serving others, and by offering to others the same mercy and compassion and kindness that has been offered to us in Christ. Help us to be faithful in our various vocations, to delight in your creation, and to care well for that which you have given us to steward. We look to you in our weaknesses and inconsistencies; please continue to sanctify us by your Spirit this day, and accomplish your purposes through us. We open our hearts anew to you this morning, casting our cares upon you and surrendering our agendas to you. Prepare our hearts and minds and bodies for the labors of this day; may our choices and words and actions be offered to you as expressions of worship. Lead us in each step of this day, that we might walk its paths in the light of the hope of our coming redemption. Amen.

Evening
Heavenly Father we rest in you at this day’s end. We thank you for the blessings of this day, recognizing you as our provider in all things. We also confess our shortcomings of this day: impure thoughts, wrong motivations, responses that were lacking in grace, unwise choices. We confess these things freely, in confidence of Christ as our Savior, remembering once again our need for him in every moment. May our inabilities to love you perfectly drive us continually to the arms of Christ, so that we might experience afresh the enormity of your mercy and lavishness of your grace. As we now rest afresh in your forgiveness, help us to retire to sleep with your peace and comfort surrounding us. Though the night is upon us, may we remember that you are still actively watching over us, and that we are one day closer to the beauty and perfection of your coming kingdom. Amen.