Spare Change

I fear Lord that we have been weighed in the scales and been found wanting. I fear the writing on the wall -- that we will be judged rightly and fairly because we have turned our back on life, time and again, for those most in need. I ask for your grace and mercy upon us Lord, not for who we are, and certainly not because of any capital of merit we might think we've earned. I ask this solely and wholly upon Your character and nature and good will. I pray that we -- especially those of us who call ourselves followers of the Christ -- will turn from our wicked ways, that we will fall upon our faces in humble repentence, and we will seek your face so that we might not have to witness your hand of judgment.

I thank you for Terri Schiavo, and how you blessed so many with her. I thank you for how you have revealed your grace and provision, even amidst her suffering. I ask for a double portion of encouragement and peace to those in her family who mourn for her. I pray that in the days and weeks ahead, Lord, you will provide her parents and siblings and friends and other family with recollections and thoughts of happy experiences and joyful memories. I pray Lord that their thoughts of Terri will be when she when she was at her full capacity, and that those thoughts will be uplifting and hope-bringing.

I ask that you would be with Michael Schiavo, his attorneys, the judges, and the legislators who opposed the advocacy for Terri's life. I pray that Your Holy Spirit will reveal truth to them all and that they would respond to Your truth in a way that brings you glory and honor. I pray that you would protect them from anyone who would want to harm any of them, and that the enemy would claim no more victory from this unfortunate, deplorable series of events.

I pray Lord, that with Terri's death, that this would not be the end, but a beginning. I ask You, Lord, that Your Spirit would compel us who follow You to rise up and make a difference so that there would not be "another Terri." I ask You to unify us in an effort to elect only legislators who choose life, to demand the appointment of judges will protect life, and that we will support any leadership who will courageously defend life. I pray for a peaceful revolution, a renewal of our spirits to value the preciousness of the life you give. I ask that this would begin immediately, and that it would begin in me and my home. I thank you for my life and the abundant life I have in belonging to You through Jesus. It is in the name of Jesus, Your Son, that I offer this prayer to you.