O God, Give me strength to live another day.
Existing is easy, but that’s not the same thing as living.
Give me the wisdom to choose living over existing, Lord.
Without you, I might not have it in me to choose living.
Give me strength. Amen.
[This is one in a series. For the full prayer, click ” For Today:Phillips Brooks Prayer” above]
The world wasn’t created by me, and it isn’t limited to my life span or experience. I wasn’t self-created, and I’m not self-sufficient or self-sustained. I am a beloved child, living in God’s creation – not the center of it.
As I begin my day, may I remember that this life of mine is a gift from God. I am never alone.
And the same is true of everyone and everything else.
For the full prayer, click “For Today: Phillips Brooks Prayer” above.
It’s the last thing you read before you leave one Forward Day by Day for the next one. I’d call it a way to redefine the day from a given number of hours to accomplish tasks to another chance to live humbly before God and in loving relationship with self and neighbor. It was written by Phillips Brooks, the man who penned the word to “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” and served as rector of Trinity Church in Boston, Massachusetts. There’s an old fashioned air to this prayer, and a powerful use of words. It’s going to be the focus of these post-Easter writings, and my daily prayer. I hope you join me in praying:
O God: Give me strength to live another day; Let me not turn coward before its difficulties or prove recreant to its duties; Let me not lose faith in other people; Keep me sweet and sound of heart, in spite of ingratitude, treachery, or meanness; Preserve me from minding little stings or giving them; Help me to keep my heart clean, and to live so honestly and fearlessly that no outward failure can dishearten me or take away the joy of conscious integrity: Open wide the eyes of my soul that I may see good in all things; Grant me this day some new vision of thy truth; Inspire me with the spirit of joy and gladness; and make me the cup of strength to suffering souls; in the name of the strong Deliverer, our only Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
[Forward Day by Day, Forward Movement, Cincinnati, OH, www.forwardmovement.org]
This is the first in a series on this prayer. For more on this prayer, click “For Today” above.