Hey Friend,

When I don’t know what else to write, it’s prayer.

Really, whatever I am writing is a prayer. If it isn’t something I wouldn’t say to God, I shouldn’t be saying it. That doesn’t mean I don’t say certain four letter words, it just means I should avoid lies and trivial gossip and ugliness like that. What even is prayer? It is honest conversation with God in order to know Him more. Both listening and speaking. Both praising and mourning. If you think your prayers have to be censored and pretty, you’ve missed the point completely.

Our model for prayer, David, prayed very few “pretty” prayers in the Psalms. He doubted, questioned, yelled, and cursed his enemies. But his prayer did something. It led him closer to the heart of God. What if we looked at the name man after God’s own heart as less of an adjective and more of a verb? David was after God’s heart. What other way would you ever want to be described?

So anyways, here is my prayer for you today, friend:

I pray that you will be brave. I pray that whatever this crazy world might throw at you that you will still lean in. That you will still choose to be you regardless of how anyone might feel about that. I pray that whatever that thing is that scares you? That makes your heart beat a little faster? Maybe do it. Maybe ask what it would look like to take one more step towards that goal, that dream, that thing you’ve always wanted to do. I pray that you won’t let fear win, but that courage would be the refrain of your life.

I pray that you will be free. Free to say whatever it is you might need to say, free to feel whatever you need to feel. Free to be who God made you to be. I pray for you to experience freedom from whatever ugly, heavy burden you might be dragging around: legalism, addiction, insecurity, racism, abuse, prejudice, shame. I pray that you will believe that your sin has no hold on you anymore – that the devil’s first trick is to get you to sin, and his second is to keep you in it. He tells you to hide behind it because then you can’t see God clearly. And when you can’t see God clearly, you can’t see yourself clearly. So the irony is that in order to see that you are perfectly clean, you have to step out from behind the thing that makes you feel unclean. You are free.

I pray for openness. I pray that you would not be afraid to hear the voice of God in your life. I pray that you would believe that He is speaking to you. Believe that He is paying attention to your life. I pray that you would be open to the idea that you might be wrong about something. Be willing to confront your wrong-ness, and change. Be open to the idea that you might be right about something, maybe something that you have been silent about. The world needs your voice of love and justice.

I pray over you today a peace that passes all understanding, a JOY that outweighs all pain, a hope that is unmovable, a trust that is unshakeable, a love that is outrageous and offensively encompassing. I pray that you would know the depth to which God loves you, that you would be a person after His heart which is for you. I pray that you would seek truth without fear, knowing that what is actually true is always found in the end. I pray a redemption of all things broken, a restoration of all things stolen, and a resurrection of what was always meant to be.

Hugs and JOY,

Kal.