Margaret Bird Steinmetz

Daily Prayer 🙏 Guide

Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest.

– Exod 23:12

This is the gospel of labor—ring it,

Ye bells of the kirk—

The Lord of Love came down from above

To live with the men who work.

This is the rose he planted, here

In the thorn-cursed soil;

Heaven is blest with perfect rest, but

The blessing of earth is toil.

~ Henry van Dyke

No man is born into the world whose work

Is not born with him. There is always work

And tools to work withal, for those who will;

And blessed are the horny hands of toil.

~ James Russell Lowell

My Father, I pray for the love of work, and the desire to cultivate life. Stir me, that I may be ambitious. May I not stare at life in an everyday way and forget that others are watching for the surprises. Help me to be considerate and kind in all that I do. Amen.

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Prayer Guide

Today I invoke heaven and earth as a witness against you that I have set life and death, blessing and curse, before you. Therefore choose life so that you and your descendants may live! — Deut 30:19

The Great Being unseen, but all-present, who in his beneficence desires only our welfare, watches the struggle between good and evil in our hearts, and waits to see whether we obey his voice, heard in the whispers of conscience, or lend an ear to the Spirit Evil, which seeks to lead us astray. Rough and steep is the path indicated by divine suggestion; mossy and declining the green way along which temptation strews flowers. Then conscience whispers, “Do what you feel is right, obey me, and I will plant for you firm footing.”
— Charlotte Brontë

God help us do our duty, and not shrink,
And trust in heaven humbly for the rest.
— Owen Meredith

My Father, as I review my life I am impressed how accurately my deeds have copied my thoughts. And though I have failed the so often, yet I pray that thou wilt accept my yearnings, to think and work for the best in every day. Amen.

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Prayer Guide

As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God! 

— Ps 42:1 NET

Rivers to the ocean run,
Nor stay in all their course;
Fire ascending seeks the sun;
Both speed them to their source;
So a soul that’s born of God,
Pants to view his glorious face,
Upward tends to his abode,
To rest in his embrace.
— Robert Seagrave

 

As the bird trims her to the gale
I trim myself to the storm of time;
I man the rudder, reef the sail,
Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime;
Lowly faithful, banish fear,
The port well worth the cruise is near
And every wave is charmed.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

My Father, I pray that if I meet with difficulty, I may not go backward, nor stand still, and fear to go forward. Unfold to me the depth and breadth of the ideal and beautiful, that I may not be content to succeed in the shallowness of life: but may I aspire to the height of the soul, even if I fail to acquire great things. Amen.

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Daily Prayer Guide

Then your light will shine like the sunrise; your restoration will quickly arrive; your godly behavior will go before you, and the Lord’s splendor will be your rear guard.— Isa 58:8

Prune thou thy words, the thoughts control
That o’er thee swell and throng;
They will condense within thy soul,
And change to purpose strong.
— John H. Newman

Think truly, and thy thoughts
Shall the world’s famine feed;
Speak truly, and each word of thine
Shall be a fruitful seed;
Live truly, and thy life shall be
A great and noble creed.
— Horatio Bonar

We ought to love everybody and make everybody love us. Then everything else is easy.
— Alice Freeman Palmer

Almighty God, look upon me with pity; so often I have obeyed the thoughts that have been misleading and profitless. Make me more careful of what I think and say, and may I learn from my mistakes the forbidden paths. Help me to keep my mind in unity with thy will. Amen.

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Daily Prayer Guide

May you give support to the one you have chosen, to the one whom you raised up for yourself! Then we will not turn away from you. Revive us and we will pray to you!

— Ps 80:17-18 NET

God will keep no nation in supreme place that will not do supreme duty.
— William McKinley

Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and the angels know of us.
— Thomas Paine

The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.
— George Eliot

My Father, I pray that I may be just and be given to kindness. May I be conscious of my virtues, and use them to overcome my faults. May I hear clearly thy call that I may be sure of the way as I lead others to duty and happiness. Amen.

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Daily Prayer Guide

He brought me out into a wide open place; he delivered me because he was pleased with me. — Ps 18:19 NET

The sun withholds his generous beam;
Athwart my soul the shadows stream;
The weird winds boisterously blow,
And drift the melancholy snow.

When I, in sorrow and despair,
Expect the storm, with tender care
He rends the clouds and through the blue
The glorious sun breaks forth anew.
— M.B.S.

So with the wan waste grasses on my spear,
I ride forever seeking after God.
My hair grows whiter than my thistle plume
And all my limbs are loose; but in my eyes
The star of an unconquerable praise;
For in my soul one hope forever sings,
That at the next white corner of the road
My eyes may look on Him.
— G.K. Chesterton

Loving Father, if I may be discouraged to-day, strengthen my faith. May I not weary of waiting for thee, but trust in thy promises. Amen.

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Streams in The Desert

Waiting is Hard

When the cloud remained over the tabernacle many days, then the Israelites obeyed the instructions of the Lord and did not journey.

[Num 9:19 NET]

This was the supreme test of obedience. It was comparatively easy to strike tents, when the fleecy folds of the cloud were slowly gathering from off the Tabernacle, and it floated majestically before the host. Change is always delightful; and there was excitement and interest in the route, the scenery, and the locality of the next halting-place. But, ah, the tarrying.

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