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A Prayer About Weary Friends and a Caring Jesus

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

(As I offer this prayer with a few very specific friends in mind, please do the same. Who might you bring to Jesus’ throne of grace today? Maybe it’s you… certainly it’s you.)

     Almighty and merciful Jesus, though I slept well, I begin today restless with concern. I’ve got a few friends dangerously depleted, spiritually numb and as close to giving up as I have ever seen them. One can no longer fight the strong undertow of rage she faces every single day in her home. She’d rather drown than continue to fight the cruel current. Another brother lives in a swirling vortex of shame, either unable or unwilling to believe you won’t crush him if he comes to you. Then there’s the married couple, who know better and are better, but they keep on fertilizing and feasting on weeds of bitterness and spite, not realizing the impact on their hearts, and more tellingly, on their kids.

     Jesus, not my experience as a counselor… none of my stock, even good words… nothing from my training matters at this point. Except… except remembering you. The weariness and the burden I bear today is for these very friends, and I do bring them to you right now. Out of the strength of your gentleness and the power of your humility, give me what I need to love them well… to know how to pray and wrestle in the Holy Spirit for them.

     Free me to be comfortable with not being able to fix anything. None of this is about my competency, it’s about their crisis… and your glory. Indeed, more than anything, I want you to receive much glory in each of these three very broken stories.

     Jesus, you are the God who raises the dead because you are the God who was raised from the dead, to justify your Bride and to make all things new. Bring your resurrection power to bear in each of these three situations, I pray. The things that are impossible with me, as a mere man, are more than possible with you, for you are fully God and fully man.

     Keep me redemptively restless for my friends, Jesus, but keep me fully resting in you. So very Amen, I pray, in your gentle, humble-hearted name.

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