The Methodist Book of Daily Prayer

Introduction

The Methodist Book of Daily Prayer is for pastors, other ministry leaders, and Methodist people of all kinds who seek to strengthen and sustain their spiritual lives with a daily practice of prayer. It offers prayers for morning and evening, plus brief passages of scripture and reflective readings for each day. Wesleyan theology undergirds each selection. Psalms are emphasized. Hymns appear regularly. Classic and familiar writings are included along with original new writing. The practice is structured around the liturgical seasons, following the ancient rhythms which have ordered the practice of our faith since before John and Charles Wesley.

This book was born out of hundreds of conversations with Christians, church leaders, and pastors who are tired. It isn’t the kind of fatigue that can be fixed with a personal day, a long weekend, a vacation, or even a sabbatical. This collective exhaustion is much deeper, conceived from habits that are out of rhythm with the God who created us. The solution can’t be found in time off, or even in better self-care. This weariness can only be addressed by creating lives from which we do not want to escape. Essential to a whole and fulfilling life is reconnecting with the One who gives us that life. Critical to leading others to Christ is being connected to Christ oneself.

Christians are notorious for talking about things that we do not do. It is easy to say that people need to pray more, connect with God, or spend time each day in devotion. But it is difficult to persist in new habits. There are several reasons we find it hard to keep a daily discipline of prayer and reading. We are busy, our schedules are erratic, our spaces are often cramped, and many of us lack a resource to help us. We don’t know where to start with reading the Bible, we aren’t always sure what to pray, and many of us want a devotional resource that is thoughtfully curated, historically rooted, theologically nuanced, and enriched by diverse contemporary voices that are engaged in day-to-day ministry. John Wesley used the Book of Common Prayer, which those in Anglican traditions still use today. A similar resource—one less cumbersome and more Wesleyan—might assist Methodists everywhere in the very Wesleyan habit of regular prayer and reflection. The Methodist Book of Daily Prayer seeks to be that resource.

The Structure

This book is simple to use, accessible no matter your experience with scripture. It requires a small commitment of time. It is organized by the Christian year, with weekly themes. It provides text and prompts for morning and evening prayer practices. The prayers are provided at the beginning of each week and are to be repeated each day. A new set of prayers is included each week. Each morning and evening includes scripture, a brief theological reflection, and prayers. The book is designed for individual use but can easily be used by a group.

The Theological Reflections

The reflections are theologically rich. They vary daily, providing a wide range of forms to engage the heart and mind, including prose, poetry, academic writing, and—of course—hymns. Sources include contemporary writers, all of whom are Methodist pastors, as well as historical Christian works. For a new Christian or someone just beginning a devotional habit, the reflections are accessible, thought-provoking, and relevant to everyday life. For church leaders, the writings offer variety and depth we often find lacking in similar resources. In addition to a manageable and meaningful daily spiritual practice, pastors will find much to provoke a sermon idea or illustration along the way, as the book follows the seasons of the church year.

The Prayers

The prayer texts and prompts are at once universal and specific. They draw from our common human state and help us to name our particular, individual circumstances. The morning prayers focus on petitions and Christ-focused living for the day ahead. The evening prayers focus on gratitude and reflection on the day just spent. The prayers can be done in a few minutes or can extend as long as you like. Using the same set of prayers each day, your prayers will develop and change over the course of the week. You might sometimes find this leads to surprising insight. It certainly leads to a profound connection with God.

How to Adopt the Practice

Here are a few suggestions for beginning (or returning to) the habit of daily prayer and reflection: Decide on a consistent time each day when you will read and pray. Stick to that specific time as best you can. Choose a dedicated place for your daily prayer. It can be a certain chair, a particular room, or a spot in your office. Be sure to keep this book out in the open so you see it every day. The daily prayer exercises are interactive, asking you to reflect on and voice your own petitions with the given prompts. Choose a method to write down your thoughts, your petitions, and points of gratitude. This is an excellent way to make the habit stick and to track your prayer life over time. The scripture passages are brief and printed in the book. If a passage sparks your interest, get a Bible and read more. You might invite another person to use the resource along with you. Perhaps check in with a text each week to encourage each other to stay consistent. Consider stacking this new habit with something you already do each day. Maybe use it as you have your morning coffee, pick it up immediately after dinner, or read it as soon as you finish working out. Find something you do each day and then include this practice before or after it. And don’t be hard on yourself. If you miss one day, just let it go and jump back in the next.

One logistical note: The book is undated so you may begin or return to it at any time. For assistance in understanding the liturgical seasons, or to determine which week you are in, we recommend this site administered by Vanderbilt University: https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu.

Building the Practice Over Time

The importance of this book is in the daily habit that it seeks to form, not the amount of time you spend doing it each day. If at first the practice feels forced, persist. Habits are powerful once they are formed, but the formation takes time. As you build this habit, prayer will become easier, richer, and more natural.

This book is meant to be used daily, but devotional habits fluctuate with the seasons of life as our needs and circumstances change. So, this resource is flexible. At certain times, you may read only the scriptures and daily reflections. In another season you may simply use the prayer practices each day, leaving aside the scripture and reflective readings. You may choose to do only the morning or evening practices for a time.

The book is also meant to be used year after year. These prayers and reflections will take on new meaning and depth as the seasons of your life and ministry develop and change. If you must, set this book aside for a time, but keep it close at hand, for the opportunity and need for it will return. You can pick up the practice again at any time. Release any guilt over inconsistent efforts. God welcomes us back repeatedly, no matter how far we’ve strayed or how distant we may feel.

The Power of the Practice

The power of this practice may not be obvious at first, but the regular connection to God becomes powerful over time. It creates space for a healthy ritual of repetition, which leads to ever-deepening insight and can soothe our disjointed souls. It connects us across time with the saints, those faithful ones who’ve gone before us, who created this path for us. It also connects us with our contemporaries—pastors, theologians, and writers living in the recent past and today whose work and devotion we share. It connects us across dividing lines of all kinds, presenting voices and perspectives we have not heard or considered. It undergirds our Wesleyan way of thinking, reminding us daily what we believe and why. It is an offering to God, returning to God one of the most valuable gifts we receive: time.

Most of all, this practice supports our important work, responsibilities, and schedules, while providing a deeply significant rhythm for life, giving shape to our days, weeks, seasons, and years. This rhythm causes us to pause, to be quiet, even to rest. God offers us rest as a gift, and asks us to practice, not for God’s sake, but for our own. This rhythm of work and rest, of going out and coming back, living life, and returning to the source of that life is crucial to addressing the deep-seated fatigue we all experience. May God bless you in this new discipline and may you hear God’s voice more clearly as you open your heart, mind, and life to God. May this resource help you create a life from which you find no need to escape.

Advent

WEEK 1

Hope

Morning Prayer of Petition

God, as I start a new day I renew my hope in you and belief that you are at work in my life. There is a gap between the way the world is and the way you want it to be. That same gap exists in me. May I look beyond, hoping and working alongside you for what will be. Today I name:

my hopes for what you might do in my life,

my hopes for what you might do in my relationships and friendships,

my hopes for what you might do in my church,

my hopes for what you might do in my neighborhood and community,

my hopes for what you might do in our country and world.

As I name my hopes to you, enlist me to play a role in the work you are already doing. Amen.

Evening Prayer of Gratitude

God, as the day draws to a close, I confess that I did not always live out of a sense of hope. Forgive me for the way that today I:

chose cynicism over promise,

assumed the worst instead of the best in others,

gave up or gave in instead of standing up or stepping out,

acted as if your power is not real instead of believing you are able.

As this day draws to a close and as I sleep, renew in me a sense of hope and possibility. Amen.

Day 1

Morning

Therefore, once you have your minds ready for action and you are thinking clearly, place your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:13)

Reflection

The source of our hope is a consequential matter. We sometimes find ourselves believing in God but not acting like it. This is called functional atheism, which Parker Palmer defines as the belief that ultimately responsibility for everything rests with me. We might pray, go to church, read scripture, and sing songs about the power of God. But then we stress, over-function, and burn out, all under the misguided notion that our lives are shaped by our own efforts. We place our hope in God, but only in part. Peter reminds us to rely on Jesus—on grace—as our source of complete hope, trusting that God is worthy, not only of our partial faith but all of it.

~Prayer of Petition~

Evening

But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more. (Psalm 71:14)

Reflection

What does it mean to hope continually?

Perhaps the way to embody hope is to disconnect it from an expected outcome and, instead, to take on a posture that declares a movement toward some alternate reality. Hope can be so fleeting, present one moment and then gone the next, leading to disappointment and discouragement.

But when hope is a posture, hope is rooted in the onward movement toward that alternate reality. It accepts that life will have its ups and downs. This posture allows for one to hope continually because the end of the journey is belovedness, when all would know God’s hope, joy, peace, and love.

What is interesting is the way that the psalmist ties these two actions in the future tense. Despite the experiences that have brought the psalmist to write these words, and despite the circumstances that bring the psalmist to cry out for rescue and relief, there is a commitment to hope and praise. It isn’t conditional; it is simply a declaration of what is to come.

May our hope be continual, firmly grounded in God’s promise of God’s preferred future.

~Prayer of Gratitude~

Day 2

Morning

The expectations of the righteous result in joy,

but the hopes of the wicked will perish. (Proverbs 10:28)

Reflection

Hope and hopefulness are not intrinsically good. Money can be both the object and source of hope for a greedy heart. Physical security could be the source of hope for a fearful heart, achievement for a selfish heart, or acclaim for an insecure heart. Each one is fading and temporal, bringing at best only fleeting happiness. And there are many others, of course, but none are worthy objects of our deepest hope, none are truly a source of enduring hope. The proverb challenges us to consider the nature of our own hearts. It calls us to question where our hope comes from and what we hope for. It prompts us to recognize God—God’s wisdom and God’s presence—as our true sources of hope. This hope leads to deep and lasting joy.

~Prayer of Petition~

Evening

And all who have this hope in him purify themselves even as he is pure. (1 John 3:3)

Reflection

For were you to be disappointed of your Hope, still you lose nothing. But you shall not be disappointed of your Hope: it will come, and will not tarry. Look for it then every Day, every Hour, every Moment. Why not this Hour, this Moment? Certainly you may look for it now. If you believe it is by Faith.

—John Wesley, Scripture Way of Salvation

~Prayer of Gratitude~

Day 3

Morning

Return to the stronghold, prisoners of hope.

Moreover, declare today that I will return double to you. (Zechariah 9:12)

Reflection

Perhaps you’ve heard a version of the idea that Christians are never allowed to give up hope. Believers in Jesus are hopelessly hopeful! We cannot stop trusting that God is at work in our lives and in the world. We cannot stop believing that the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in our lives as well. We cannot stop putting our confidence in a God who is making all things well. If Christ is risen, if the Holy Spirit is present, if death has been defeated, and if God is reconciling all things to Godself, then pain, suffering, and evil are on a timer. Real though they are, they will not last. To believe in Jesus is to be, as the prophet says, a prisoner of hope.

~Prayer of Petition~

Evening

I meet the predawn light and cry for help.

I wait for your promise. (Psalm 119:147)

Reflection

Whatever may be the tensions and the stresses of a particular day, there is always lurking close at hand the trailing beauty of forgotten joy or unremembered peace.

—Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart

~Prayer of Gratitude~

Day 4

Morning

Lord, show us favor; we hope in you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in times of distress. (Isaiah 33:2)

Reflection

What does it mean to place our hope in God? Why would such a hope give us strength and salvation during times of distress? Part of the answer lies in the difference between something that is temporary and something that is eternal. Many people struggle with seasonal affective disorder. When the air is cold and the sky is gray, a depression sets in. If you experience this condition, you learn something over time. The winter season may seem to drag on, but we know it is temporary. It will change, and it will break forth into spring. You can place your hope not in the day-to-day weather, but in the confidence that spring is coming. In life, our hope comes not from our day-to-day circumstances, which can vary, but from a strong confidence that even today, God is working for our good and that something better is coming.

~Prayer of Petition~

Evening

This hope, which is a safe and secure anchor for our whole being, enters the sanctuary behind the curtain. (Hebrews 6:19)

Reflection

Do you ever wonder if Jesus had hope?

Into a world of oppression, a world defined by the rules of empire, Mary births the one called Emmanuel, God with us, and with him would arrive the hopes of all the nations. He would go on to shoulder the burdens of imagining a new and better way, one that is different than the kingdoms of earth, one centered on belovedness, togetherness, and oneness with God and with community …

Through it all, did Jesus himself have hope? Did he experience this human emotion of expectancy for a world that could be?

Too often, it is the human condition to connect hope to an uncertain outcome, to assume that hope requires a component of unknowing. And, therefore, one’s Christology might then disqualify Jesus from having hope.

But I need Jesus to have had hope so that he might fully be the embodiment of humanity’s hope. I need a hope-filled Jesus who lived his life and died his death with the expectancy of a world not yet, so that the ways we model our lives—anchored in his ways—might move us from a world not yet, into a world that could be.

~Prayer of Gratitude~

Day 5

Morning

We even take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. This hope doesn’t put us to shame. (Romans 5:3-5)

Reflection

Hope is forged in the midst of hardship and struggle. If life were always to unfold the way you expect, then there would be no need for hope. You don’t need to long for something that you already have. But life is full of surprises, changed plans, disappointments, and problems. These challenges can either be the occasion for despair or the beginning of a pathway that leads to hope. These troubles can produce perseverance and strength. This kind of strength can shape and mold our hearts and lives. And in the midst of this persistent determination to keep moving forward, we can craft a hope that comes not from a trouble-free life, but from knowing that God is more powerful than our current trials.

~Prayer of Petition~

Evening

I hope, Lord.

My whole being hopes,

and I wait for God’s promise. (Psalm 130:5)

Reflection

Come thou long-expected Jesus,

Born to set thy people free,

From our fears and sins relieve us,

Let us find our rest in thee:

Israel’s strength and consolation,

Hope of all the earth thou art,

Dear desire of every nation,

Joy of every longing heart.

Born thy people to deliver,

Born a child and yet a king,

Born to reign in us forever,

Now thy gracious kingdom bring;

By thine own eternal Spirit

Rule in all our hearts alone,

By thine all-sufficient merit

Raise us to thy glorious throne.

—Charles Wesley, Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus

~Prayer of Gratitude~

WEEK 2

Peace

Morning Prayer of Petition

Holy God, your son is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. Today I pray for peace, plead for peace, and ask you to fill the places in my life and in our world that need your peace:

I pray for peace in my inner spirit where I am distracted and anxious.

I pray for peace in my relationships with family, friends, coworkers, neighbors.

I pray for peace in my community, city, and country where divisiveness seems to reign.

I pray for peace among people globally, especially where conflict and war are an expected way of life.

As we prepare to celebrate the coming of your son into the world, may the peace He embodies and offers be made real on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Evening Prayer of Gratitude

Gracious God, as I look back on this day, it is too easy to focus on places of discord and division. Instead, I give you thanks for the ways you are working in my life for peace and wholeness. Today God, I thank you for:

the ways you are working to bring peace to my emotional and mental being,

the way you are working my relationships, especially those that are strained or fractured,

the ways you are offering a picture of peace in my church or community.

As I rest and look forward to a new day tomorrow, may I have the eyes to see where you are at work for peace in the world, and may I have the courage to join you in that work. Amen.

Day 1

Morning

A child is born to us, a son is given to us,

and authority will be on his shoulders.

He will be named

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

Reflection

One of the words most often associated with the coming Messiah is peace. In a world of division, anger, strife, and conflict, the coming of the Messiah means a coming of peace. Of course, peace is not merely the absence of conflict. But the peace of Jesus is deeper and more challenging. The peace of Christ is a reconciliation, a putting back together of relationships and realities that have been torn apart by sin and suffering. This kind of peace, or wholeness, is radical because it signifies that even the lion will lie down with the lamb, and that even enemies will eat at a common table. The ones far off will be brought near, and the disparities in our world will be made level. The coming of Jesus is the beginning of this kind of peace, and while not yet complete, it only grows as we welcome Christ more into our lives and world.

~Prayer of Petition~

Evening

To give light to those who are sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death,

to guide us on the path of peace. (Luke 1:79)

Reflection

Oh! I said, I see it. And somehow I seemed to sink down out of sight of myself, and then rise; it was all in a moment. I seemed to go two ways at once, down and up. Just then such a wave came over me, and such a welling up in my heart, and these words rang through me like a bell: God in you, God in you, and I thought doing what? Ruling every ambition and desire, and bringing every thought unto captivity and obedience to His will. How I have lived through it I cannot tell, but the blessedness of the love and the peace and power I can never describe. O, what glory filled my soul! The great vacuum in my soul began to fill up; it was like a pleasant draught of cool water, and I felt it.

—Amanda Berry Smith, from In Her Words (edited by Amy Oden)

~Prayer of Gratitude~

Day 2

Morning

Let the Lord give strength to his people!

Let the Lord bless his people with peace! (Psalm 29:11)

Reflection

While peace is an external reality among peoples, countries, and tribes, it is also an internal reality. Conflict resides not only in the world but also in our own hearts. The peace that the Lord offers is at once at work in the world and in our own spirits. As much as it may seem like peace is making slow progress in our world, scripture indicates that it can happen quickly in our lives. The Lord blesses us with a kind of peace rooted in God’s presence, which we can experience right here, right now, even in the midst of a conflicted and troubled world. This kind of peace is a gift, one that we can ask for, one that we are told to pray for, and one that can be received even now.

~Prayer of Petition~

Evening

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I give to you not as the world gives. Don’t be troubled or afraid. (John 14:27)

Reflection

In 1955 a songwriter, Jill Jackson, penned these words: Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me. Her words invite us to take a moment of sacred pause. In that pause, we are called to ask ourselves, Are we creating an atmosphere where we are cultivating peace or are we cultivating chaos? Are we leading with peace or are we leading with anxiety? Jesus tells us in John 14:27, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I give to you not as the world gives. Don’t be troubled or afraid. Jesus understood that we would experience seasons of restlessness and dis-ease. He understood that there will be moments when our peace will be shaken because of death, divorce, injustice, war, oppression, depression, or simply life. Yet, he propels us to have faith in a God who does not leave us comfortless, but gives us the ability to tap into a relationship with a God whose very presence ushers in peace.

~Prayer of Gratitude~

Day 3

Morning

Faithful love and truth have met;

righteousness and peace have kissed. (Psalm 85:10)

Reflection

Another word for righteousness is justice, and here the psalmist reminds us of the inextricable relationship between justice and peace. There is an unbreakable connection between love and truth. One cannot be present without the other. A peace that covers over hurt, ignores the realities of sin, or fails to name sources of brokenness is not peace at all. Love that does not want to name the truth is not authentic love. Christ’s peace is not a superficial focus on everyone getting along and being polite. Christ’s peace brings with it righteousness and justice, a naming of what is broken, and making right what is wrong. In Jesus, righteousness and peace are wed together, and wholeness only comes when both are present.

~Prayer of Petition~

Evening

There will be vast authority and endless peace

for David’s throne and for his kingdom,

establishing and sustaining it

with justice and righteousness

now and forever.

The zeal of the Lord of heavenly forces will do this. (Isaiah 9:7)

Reflection

Though opposed, I went forth laboring for God, and he owned and blessed my labors, and has done so wherever I have been until this day. And while I walk obediently, I know he will, though hell may rage and vent its spite.

—Julia A. J. Foote, A Brand Plucked from the Fire

~Prayer of Gratitude~

Day 4

Morning

Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors. (Luke 2:14)

Reflection

The angelic announcement of Jesus’s birth was a proclamation of peace. This is not the promise of peace but the declaration that what had been waited for was finally here. The birth of Jesus is also the arrival of peace. The natural question is, then: Why is so much conflict still present? The answer is that the work of peace is present but not yet complete; it has been born, but it is not yet fully grown. But the mere arrival offers those who have been waiting for it a reason to celebrate, to be joyful, and to sing. For the peace that comes with Jesus, as the story will eventually show, is one that cannot be stifled, stunted, or stopped.

~Prayer of Petition~

Evening

Pray that Jerusalem has peace:

"Let those who love you have rest.

Let there be peace on your walls;

let there be rest on your fortifications." (Psalm 122:6-7)

Reflection

Psalm 122 is one of the songs of ascent. This means that those who were traveling to Jerusalem to celebrate one of the Jewish festivals would sing them as they were traversing uphill to get to the house of the Lord. In this psalm, the singers are petitioning God for peace because they carry with them intergenerational trauma. Their collective memory has been shaped by slavery, exile, and persecution. Yet, they sing this song of praise. The singers are literally inviting peace to rest on the holy city. They are praying for the walls to be fortified and for God’s peace to reign.

During the Advent season, we are invited to pray the words of Psalm 122 for our own cities, communities, and churches. We struggle with our own collective memory of trauma and we all need God’s peace to rest on us so that we can overcome it.

~Prayer of Gratitude~

Day 5

Morning

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I give to you not as the world gives. Don’t be troubled or afraid. (John 14:27)

Reflection

When kids are little, they are often afraid of the dark. Sometimes, when we were young, we might have even been afraid to enter a dark basement or to be left alone in a dark bedroom, afraid that there were monsters there. But if someone, usually a parent, would go with you to that dark basement, or sit beside you as you fell asleep, well, that made everything better. Their presence didn’t make the dark go away, and presumably it didn’t mean the monsters weren’t still there, but not being alone was powerful enough to give you a peace that allowed you to move forward. The same is true of Jesus. He is Emmanuel, God’s very presence always with us. That means that we are not alone. We do not walk the path by ourselves, and we do not face the challenges of life with no one by our side. Instead, we have the power and presence of God with us always. Knowing we are not alone is powerful enough to give us a peace that we can move forward, even in the dark.

~Prayer of Petition~

Evening

Yes, you will go out with celebration,

and you will be brought back in peace.

Even the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you;

all the trees of the field will clap their hands. (Isaiah 55:12)

Reflection

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace;

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

—Francis of Assisi, Lord, Make Me an Instrument

~Prayer of Gratitude~

WEEK 3

Love

Morning Prayer of Petition

God of love, as I begin a new day, shape me as a person of love. Help me to be attentive to the people you call me to love and the ways that you are challenging me to grow in love. Today I name:

one way that I can grow in love of self,

one person you are challenging me to love more fully,

one person whose love I need to receive more fully,

one way I can grow in loving my neighbor or community.

As love comes down at Christmas to meet us, help me to live more fully into that love today. Amen.

Evening Prayer of Gratitude

Good and loving God. As I look back on this day, I am reminded of the ways that you are showing up as love in my life. I am grateful for:

the family that have and continue to nurture and love me,

the friends who show up for me when I need them most,

surprising people that you bring into my life for a season,

those who have helped me to grow in my ability to love myself and others,

pastors, spiritual friends, and mentors who have taught me how to love you more fully.

As you came to us in Christ, you continue to come to me through the power of your Spirit and through your people. As I rest tonight, work on my heart that I may receive the lessons of love around me. Amen.

Day 1

Morning

Your faithful love is priceless, God!

Humanity finds refuge in the shadow of your wings. (Psalm 36:7)

Reflection

Have you ever gotten together with old friends that you haven’t seen in a while and picked up right where you left off? You find that the relationship you share doesn’t seem to diminish over time or space. It is surprisingly resilient through the years and unaffected by all that might have occurred in your life and theirs. There is a Hebrew word, hesed, which occurs over