Pray for Our World Daily in 2011

Here we are with another chance for new begginings! Concious of our "oneness" with each other and with the world, let us begin each day of 2011 with a prayer for the world and for love to abound in it.

I agree with Reverend Desmond Tutu who believes our relationship with God is a love affair with our Beloved. Ultimately our greatest joy is just to be with the Beloved, to drink in the beauty of the Beloved in the silence of just being together in prayer. He adds, "We are made to live in a delicate network of interdependence with one another, with God and with the rest of God's creation....God is smart, making us different so that we will get to know our need of one another."

Rabbi Harold Kushner's prayer in the photo embraces this love for one another that is so needed in 2011 for the healing of our world. May this prayer touch your heart and inspire you to pray your own prayer for the world as you awaken to each new day.

Here is another beautiful prayer, this one from Desmond Tutu's An African Prayer Book:

An African Canticle

All you big things, bless the Lord.

Mount Kilimanjaro and Lake Victoria

The Rift Valley and the Serengeti plain,

Fat baobabs and shady manto trees,

All eucalyptus and tamarind trees,

Bless the Lord.

Praise and extol Him for ever and ever.

All you tiny things, bless the Lord.

Busy black ants and hopping fleas,

Wriggling tadpoles and mosquito larvae,

Flying locusts and water drops,

Pollen dust and tsetse flies,

Millet seeds and dried dagaa,

Bless the Lord.

Praise and extol Him for ever and ever.

Robert Lax also wrote a beautiful verse about Love being the beginning and the end of creation:

The Circus of the Sun

And in the beginning was love. Love made a sphere: all things grew within it;

the sphere then encompassed beginnings and endings, beginning and end.

Love had a compass whose whirling dance traced out a sphere of love in the void:

in the center thereof rose a fountain.

A Christ-like Deed of Love a Day in 2011.

“Joy to the World the Lord is come; let earth receive her king! Let every heart prepare him room and heaven and angels sing!” (Isaac Watts)

We all love singing this hymn at Christmas time. But after the “joy” part Watts is telling us to make room for Jesus Christ in our hearts. How do we make room for J.C. in our hearts and lives? We are too busy, too frantic, too worried, too tired. But Christ said, “Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11: 28) As Christians, our trust is to be in Christ and we are to rest in him and allow him room in our hearts and lives.

In David Bryant’s book: Christ Is All! He explains his belief that the most significant crisis emerging today among Christian churches everywhere is the diminishing of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Do you believe Jesus Christ was more than a man? If not, then why worship him?

"For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels- everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was supreme in the beginning, and – leading the resurrection parade – He is supreme in the end. From beginning to the end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. The mystery in a nutshell is this: Christ is in YOU. Therefore, you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple." (From The Message version of Colossians 1).

“You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is the Son of God; or else a mad man or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool; you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.” (C.S. Lewis)

Jesus Christ showed us God’s love by his deeds. Christ calls us to GO out into the world to DO something that demonstrates God’s love for all his children. From the very beginning of Christ’s life, God asked people to show they are Christians by their actions. The shepherds had to believe and GO to see the child. The Wise Men had to trust in the star’s guidance, and GO by risking their lives to find the baby in a manger. Mary and Joseph had to pack up and flee and protect their precious baby from death. Our God is a God of loving actions. We are not to sit around and judge others as not as faithful or worthy as we are. Jesus said “Go and make disciples of all nations.” You do so by showing the love of Christ in all you do and say wherever you may be. Let Christ dwell in your heart and life by doing a loving action a day for your New Year’s resolution in 2011. Then they’ll know you are a “Christian” by your love.