Chapter Five: My Prayer

This is what I am currently praying for. If you wish to know who I am or what I love or what is important to me, then keep reading. This is who I really am before my Father.

"Dear Lord. Mighty are your ways and wondrous is Your timing of all things you bring in and out of my life and the lives of those around me.

I thank you for the things you've been doing in my life and that of my friends.

I pray for the friends of mine who have yet to know you, that they would see You inside of me and through that example would realize that you are not the dead Jesus of religion but the risen Son of God who is the Source of love and all good things in this world.

I thank you for the friends you have given me that are following You and encouraging me. What a blessing it has been for me and the progression of my life. I am so grateful to have such a beautiful thing in my life.

All of my friends and family make me feel like the most blessed person on this earth. Whether they are saved or unsaved, such a diverse group of multi-talented people that have given me so much in this life. I am so very thankful for them.

Protect my brothers and sisters, all of them, wherever they may be. Send Your love into their lives and allow me to help them in any way you would have me. Set them apart, make their dreams and destinies larger than they could fathom.

Thank you for my parents, may they go to a new height in their walk with You. May they be the leaders in their homes to the children they still live with. Give me the discernment to know how to give back to them the many things they have given to me. Thank you so much for their love and teachings that I have girded around my waist.

I thank you for Your truth and more specifically Your knowledge and wisdom. Like Solomon may I receive these things more than anything else I could receive in this fleeting life. Give me the tools to save the world and know how to break the deceptions that the enemy has spread throughout this place.

Like that worship song, come like a flood and saturate me - You are all I want. Make Yourself sufficient for me. Make me into who You want me to be and not who I would want myself to become. Use me in ways I never thought possible. Fill me so much that my cup runeth over and into the lives of those around me.

Bless the work of my hands. My last name means Potter and my first name means Beacon of light. So may 'the work of my hands be a beacon of light to the world.'

Help me to bring truth into this world. Real, lasting and ever present truth.

Help me now, to gain patience through the things I used to complain about. Help me to glory in the parts of life that seem tough but train my hands for war. May Your will and the tribulations of the day sharpen and shape me into who You have called me to be.

Make me into a man. Not a man of this world but a true man in Your eyes. May I do this now so that I don't carry the foolishness and sins of my past and past generations into the family that you have picked out for me and the girl that will rival no woman; past, present or future - at least in my eyes.

Lord please take care of that girl, whoever and wherever she may be. Teach her not to let her guard down for anyone but me and of course for You. Fill her so much with you that I would only truly be drawn to her because I see You in her. Train her up in the ways of a godly woman that would be pleasing to you and edifying to me. May she not need me as much as she needs You. Help her to see that it is You that she must also see in me and train her eyes to look for no other quality as much as that - without compromise.

May she truly feel beautiful in Your eyes, for they are the only standard for which she should live. Until I am able to remind her of how perfect you made every facet of her, tell her that truth when she seeks after you in the secret and quiet place. Don't let her conform to how the world views women and how they should be but make her set her sights upon pleasing you above all things so that if I ever forget or lapse in her presence, I would immediately be brought back by her example of You. For that is Christ-like.

Give me the qualities that will bring her closer to You and closer to her dreams. Help me to make her matter and her desires matter more than my own. Not just once, but every day.

May my children of the future have so much more than I ever did. May they learn to be servants at a young age. I pray that I am able to bring so much truth and wisdom from my experiences into their lives so that they may avoid the pitfalls that I had to suffer to gain such principles the hard way.

I want to learn what love is now so that my wife can experience it at a maximized level and so my kids don't have to search for it in the dark places of the world like I did.

Help me study Your word and understand its depth in an entirely new way. Give me what I need for each day and nothing more. Not only that, but keep me content in the simplicity of your Will and intrigued by the complexity of your vast amazing wonders that you reveal to me at your choosing.

Bring in more people into my life that you would have me help and they me. May we build each other up and may I keep the goal of populating Heaven and depopulating Hell as my mission statement that hangs from the walls of my heart.

Increase the effectiveness of my writing and the potential in my stories and characters to literally change who people are. May they, most of all, bring people closer to You.

Blessed be your name, You who are Holy and sit upon the throne of the world, dealing good to those who serve you and keep Your commandments wrapped around their necks. May we learn more of the goodness of your ways so that we may find ways to praise You more than ever before.

Forgive me of the things I have done and those I haven't responded in a Christ-like manner to. Help me to do thirty times more positive things to those I have done one negative thing to. Help me to build them up and make them better rather than tearing them up with the foolishness of my tongue. Make it my slave, as well as my eyes. Help me to see and speak pure things that may be worthy of You.

How excited I am to see You and present myself before You as a living sacrifice. You are my King and the Author of my story. A Poet, Lover and Fighter - perfect in more ways that I could ever say and document if my life was dedicated to the pursuit of such a desire.

May those that walk in darkness see the Light in my life and flock to it. May I have no other purpose with how I filter my thoughts and actions then to see the Kingdom come and for Your perfect will to come about.

Change every part of me that is not of You and replace it with what You have always had in store for me. Thank you for setting me apart and giving me a destiny before the foundations of the world. May I walk in Your ways as You have always seen me do.

Thank you for waiting for me in my selfishness. You have shown me an example of everything that I am supposed to live for and could ever want in this world.

You are my perfect Portion. Forever and ever.

Amen."