Dear Lord,

We confess, Mondays can be hard.

Yes, we are so grateful for our weekends. For the sometimes slow-moving Saturday mornings that are a direct result often of a fun-filled Friday evening at the ballgame or out to dinner or even in the backyard. Later bedtimes can be a great gift when they are spent doing something you enjoy with the ones you love.

Thank you for the blessing of home and the ones who fill it. And, yes, the ability to spend more time there during the weekend. Accept our gratitude, Father for the protection you have provided throughout our activities and plans this past weekend. Help us to learn to savor those times at home with no plans and no agenda, just family and you to fill our weekend hours.

Thank you for the opportunity to worship you and celebrate your righteousness. We are forever grateful for the freedom to do so. Help us to be mindful of these freedoms and to never take for granted the gift of spending time with you in worship. Not only on Sundays, but everyday. Grant us a heart that would seek to be in your presence every day.

Please offer protection for all of those in harm’s way as they worship. Help us to remember the many others who are suffering because of their faith, Lord, and to be more convicted than ever to make the most of every opportunity we have to be in your presence. As there are many who are losing their lives longing to do just that.

We confess, as we look at the week ahead, often the joy of the weekend fades all too quickly and the week can be daunting. Yes, we really need you to be ever-present every day, but especially in our Mondays.

Help us not to jump ahead and rush too far into the week, but instead to feel your presence in each and every moment today. Trusting you to direct our plans and guard our hearts all along the way. Gaining a deeper understanding of you as we go.

Guide us, Lord, so that we might bring you blessings this week. As we love you and love others. Give us eyes to see and hearts to know who might need an extra portion of love this week.

Help us to grow in wisdom, Lord, so that we might bring you glory throughout the mundane and ordinary this week.

Strengthen us with your power so that we might have great endurance and patience as we face all of the demands of the coming week.

Help us to joyfully give thanks in all circumstances this week as we focus more on you, Lord and less on those things that cause us to be stressed.

Please help us to remember in what seems like such a cruel, dark world, that you Lord reign. Because of you, we are light and live in light. Help our light to shine brighter in this dark world.

Thank you most of all for your precious Son and the redemption and forgiveness of sin that his death on Calvary gives us all.

And, yes, even though they can seem overwhelming, thank you for Mondays. Help us to see you more clearly in our Mondays and every day. Not our plans, Lord, just yours.

In the precious name of the One who gave it all, Jesus.
Amen