Margaret Bird Steinmetz

Prayer Guide

Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts.

~ Zech 4:6

I never saw a moor,

I never saw the sea;

Yet know I how a heather looks

And what a wave must be.

I never spoke with God,

Nor visited in heaven;

Yet certain am I of the spot

As if the chart were given.

~ Emily Dickinson

I don’t want to possess a faith; I want a faith which will possess me.

~ Charles Kingsley

My Father, may there be no room in my soul for doubt. Help me to be cautious and careful that my own neglect and carelessness may not cause the loss of my faith. May I be trustful as I look for the great light that guides me over the uncertain way. Amen.

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Daily Prayer Guide

A friend loveth at all times; And a brother is born for adversity.

~ Prov 17:17

I wrestle not with rage

While fury’s flame doth burn;

It is vain to stop the stream

Until the tide doth turn.

But when the flame is out

And ebbing wrath doth end

I turn a late enraged foe

Into a quiet friend.

If I can lend

A strong hand to the fallen, or defend

The right against a single envious strain,

My life though bare

Perhaps of much that seemeth dear and fair

To us on earth, will not have been in vain.

Gracious Father of us all, if I may have cause to be provoked to-day, help me to rise above my angry passions, and not from weakness plunge into that for which I may be sorry. Make me self-forgetful, that I may be willing to make peace with those whom I may have displeased. Amen.

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Prayer 🙏 Guide

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee.

~ Isa 26:3

How comes it to pass, then, that we appear such cowards in reasoning, and are so afraid to stand the test of ridicule?

~ Earl of Shaftesbury

He that of such a height hath built his mind,

And reared the dwelling of his thoughts so strong,

As neither fear nor hope can shake the frame

Of his resolved powers; nor all the wind

Of vanity or malice pierce to wrong

His settled peace, or to disturb the same:

What a fair seat hath he, from whence he may

The boundless wastes and wilds of man survey?

~ Samuel Daniel

O Lord, it is not that I am ashamed to ask thee for the truth that I do not more diligently seek it, but it is because I fear the sacrifice that may follow in obtaining it. I would that I could understand that thy strength is given in the sacrifice. Make me braver as I seek to live in the truth. Amen.

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Prayer Guide

Take us the foxes, the little foxes, That spoil the vineyards; For our vineyards are in blossom.

~ Song 2:15

In love, if love be love, if love be ours,

Faith and unfaith can ne’er be equal powers:

Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all.

It is the little rift within the lute

That by and by will make the music mute,

And ever widening slowly silence all.

The little rift within the lover’s lute,

Or little pitted speck in garner’d fruit,

That rotting inward slowly molders all.

It is not worth the keeping: let it go:

But shall it? Answer, darling, answer no.

And trust me not at all or all in all.

~ Alfred Tennyson

Loving Father, help me to put away the distractions and cares that make me discontented. Grant that I may not set myself in “gilded pride” and keep out the precious things of life. Help me to abandon doubt and suspicion, and keep the faith that is happy to believe and willing to forgive. Amen.

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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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