Lynn Sicheneder recently read the book Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper. Out of it he composed a prayer that if lived out would drastically change our lives. I read the prayer and thought it definitely worth sharing. So here it is…

Father, I look to You today with a desire to live with a single, soul satisfying passion for Your supremacy in all things. Today I want to experience You as my Highest Power and Authority, and to enjoy You as the Ultimate Joy. My desire is that my single, all consuming passion would be to experience Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and to be set on fire by it. To be satisfied in You and treasure You above all else. To cherish Your beauty, Your power, and Your love, and to draw others attention it. I long for others to see and enjoy Your tremendous worth, and for my life to have eternal significance by having Your Name and Your Renown as the desire of my heart. I want to live today in a way that I will not be ashamed, but with courage exalt Christ with my body whether it be by life or by death.

Lord, I don’t want to waste this day, but to live to spread a passion for You, in all things, for the joy of all people, through Jesus Christ. If I’m not already, I want to be willing to lose my life for Your sake. Whatever I thought of as something to strive after in the past, I consider it now as loss for the purpose of knowing Christ. In fact, I want to count everything as loss for the far greater value of a close trusting walk with Christ Jesus, even to the extent that I would gladly suffer the loss of anything that may get in the way of experiencing Christ. To be willing to come after You, to deny myself, take up my cross and follow You. To treasure You above health and wealth and life itself. I don’t want to consider this physical life of great value, nor consider it precious to myself, but that my only desire would be to finish the course You have put me on, and testify to Your wonderful grace. I chose today that my living would be dying, dying to self, dying to comfort, dying to security, dying to reputation, dying to health, wealth, family and friends. You may chose to take any of these from me at any time. I accept with thanksgiving whatever You graciously give, but also embrace a life of loss for Christ’s sake. By Your grace I will live today in a way that shows You as my All Satisfying Treasure.

Father, please help me remember today that everything , everything good, and everything bad that You turn for good was purchased by Jesus’ death on the cross, so I will not take anything for granted. Help me see Jesus and enjoy Him as the great Purchaser of my every undeserved breath and every heartbeat. I will not be surprised at trials that come upon me to test me, as though something strange were happening, but rejoice that I can share in Christ’s sufferings, and see every experience in my life today is designed to magnify Christ and His Cross. Help me be willing to stay on the Calvary Road of love and suffering, with the promise that nothing can separate me from the love of Christ.

Today by Your grace, I will gladly risk to make people glad in You, risk to show others that You are more precious than life itself. By the strength You supply today, I will risk for the cause of Christ. Regardless of the outcome I will trust You Lord, to do as Joab said, “what seems good to You”, as queen Esther submitted, “if I perish, I perish, and as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the fiery furnace, but even if He does not, we will not serve your god. So also I will not count my life as precious to myself. I am not my own, You bought me with a price, therefore I will honor You with my body today.

With all my heart, soul, strength, and mind I desire to pay close attention to You, to be deeply considerate of You, and be very careful how I live this day before You. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight. I must take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. As I meditate on Your Glorious Worth my heart is full of wonder, fear, and love, for who is like You my Lord and my God. There is no one like You! HOLY, HOLY, HOLY are You Lord Almighty! The whole earth is full of Your Glory!