Prayer of the Day

God, I am lost. Not the kind of lost a map can fix — the kind where I look at my own life and cannot tell how I got here or which way is forward.

The plans I made have gone quiet. The things I was sure of have gotten less sure. People keep asking what's next, and I have run out of confident answers.

But Lord, I remember this: You are good at finding people. You found shepherds in fields and fishermen at their nets. You found runaways under broom trees and doubters behind locked doors. Being lost has never once hidden anyone from You.

So find me here. Not where I said I would be by now — here, in the middle of this fog, holding a plan that didn't work.

I am not asking You to explain the last few years. Some of that may never make sense this side of heaven, and I am learning to leave it in Your hands. I am asking for something smaller and harder: the next step, and the courage to take it.

Lead me by paths I have not known. Make the darkness light in front of me, and the crooked places straight enough to walk. If the way forward is not the life I pictured, help me grieve that picture and then let it go, because Your plans have outdone mine before.

And while I wait for the fog to thin, keep me faithful in the small things I can still see: today's work, today's people, today's kindness. Wandering feels less like wandering when I am walking it with You.

You have never lost anyone You meant to keep. You will not start with me.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Lord, be with me tonight.

The day took more than I expected, and I'm coming to You with what's left of me — which isn't much. You've never asked for more than that.

Whatever tonight holds — quiet or chaos, a full house or an empty one — be in it with me.

Guard my home while the lights go out. Guard the people I love, near and far, under whatever roof they're sleeping tonight.

Take tonight's worries — the ones about tomorrow, the ones about money, the ones about people — and hold them until morning. If they still matter then, we'll talk. Most of them won't.

Give me peace tonight, Lord. Not because everything is settled, but because You are here, and You are good, and You'll still be both when the sun comes up.

In Jesus' name, Amen.