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Hello, my name is Donna Ramstead and I am honored and humbled to be leading you in prayer today. I originally thought I would be leading you in an encouraging prayer for mothers or parents, but it turned out that God had other plans.
The verse that God led me to is from Jeremiah 18:1-10.
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
Let’s pray.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we come before You today in repentance, with our faces to the ground. Forgive us, Lord, for the sins we commit against You in thought, and in spoken word, and in deed.
Remove the scales from our eyes, expose every secret place of sin in our lives, and convict our hearts so that we would run from our sins and run instead to You.
Forgive us, Lord, for the idols that we have put in your place and the hypocrisy we have allowed in our lives. We confess that we as a nation have made idols of our own happiness and success, and our children’s happiness and success, while allowing for the murder of innocent lives and the turning away from the needs of those less fortunate than us.
We cherry-pick your Word, watering down the Way, the Truth and the Life to make everyone feel “comfortable.” Yet, we as the Church are quick to convict and shame others when they fall short, instead of helping them back on the path to You. We punish them when they break our rules, instead of loving them as we love ourselves.
We repent, Lord. Help us from this day forward to seek You first with all of our hearts; and to love every one of your children with the same mercy and compassion and unconditional love that we ask You to give us.
Let this be a turning point in our lives, and a return of your blessing and your favor over our people and our nation.
In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Donna Ramstead
Donna Ramstead is the COO, editor, contributing author and struggling technician for Beyond Influence, Inc. Donna has been married to John for over 30 years and together they have been blessed with 3 sons, 1 daughter-in-law and 1 grandson, who are (without a smidge of bias) all beautiful inside and out.
Donna is a mostly retired physical therapist and a reluctantly retired homeschool teacher. She still has absolutely no idea what she wants to be when she grows up, having serious passions and mild acclaim in renovating, decorating, travel planning, event planning, photography, sketching, writing, cooking and baking.
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