A Prayer for Courage in Chains

Lord Jesus, you were exalted in Paul's chains. We ask that you would be exalted in ours. Some of us are held by illness, some by grief, some by work that gives no room, some by responsibilities we did not choose. We bring these to you not as excuses but as the actual place where we live.

Give us Paul's eager expectation and hope. Let us not be ashamed. Let us have sufficient courage so that you would be honored in our bodies, whether by life or by death, whether by strength or by weakness.

Where others are preaching you from poor motives, keep us from bitterness. Let us rejoice that you are proclaimed. Where we have called something a setback that you intend to use, open our eyes. And teach us to say with a whole heart that to live is Christ. Amen.