Holy and righteous God; loving and merciful Lord,
May this day begin and end in praise to Your glorious wisdom, providence, justice and compassion.
Father, this morning I lift up the brothers and sisters who will participate in the “Contending for the Faith” lectures, and especially for those who have accepted the burden of speaking in Your behalf.
But I also ask that You pour forth Your Holy Spirit into all who seek to speak for You today. Put Your words in their mouths, and meditations upon Your word in their hearts. May all of us who believe be so blessed as to speak only Your words and not our own; to express Your desires and not our own; to demonstrate the love that is in Your heart and not the passions of our own.
Confound our minds when we attempt anything less. Slur our speech. Stop our tongues. Defeat our selfishness.
Help us proclaim by our words and our lives Jesus Christ, and Him crucified and raised so that by the lifting up of our Savior, all men might be drawn to Him.
May Your Spirit of truth compel us to testify about Jesus … guide us into all truth … and sanctify us in the truth; Your word is truth.
I pray especially for David P. Brown, Terry Hightower, Lester Kamp and Lynn Parker – speaking at CTF today. I also pray for those whose works they critique: Todd Deaver, Al Maxey, C. Leonard Allen, Richard T. Hughes and Michael R. Weed and the family of the late Cecil Hook.
Purge from us “all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.”
Grant us the discernment to test every spirit; to “recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.”
May all that is spoken today be spoken in Your irenic Spirit of love and concern for the souls of the saints and the unreached.
May our “conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that [we] may know how to answer everyone.”
May all be said and done to Your glory and Yours only – not ours – this day and every day.
I pray this through Your Son, Jesus Christ:
Amen.
Blog In My Own Eye 
Excellent. Yes. My prayers and thoughts exactly. God, may our understanding love transcend all bitterness and anger.
Keith said: "Confound our minds when we attempt anything less. Slur our speech. Stop our tongues. Defeat our selfishness."brother be careful of what you ask, unless you are perfect, in the ways of God, I seem to remember you have had problems writing lately. could it be hummm.
… and when I remember back to last fall about the kind of things I was thinking about writing, I should probably have been praying this prayer then, laymond.Maybe someone was praying it for me. Maybe you!(Or someone else who cares.)Whoever it might have been, I appreciate it.
Keith, I do pray for you, and not only you but all who insist that the Glory of the Father, be shared by two others of equality. But I have never prayed that your, or their minds be confounded further, I have never prayed that your speech be impeded, nor your tongue be stilled. Instead I pray that minds be cleared, and tongues speak the words of God, and never be impeded by slur. Satan don't need any more help than he has. (note the word verification letters, spell lament)