KAREN HESSLER

There is healing power in the beauty of nature.

Tag: prayer

Presence

By

On March 13, 2023

In Prayers

This is a modern psalm about seeking the presence of God.

Presence



I wake up in the night
empty in my soul
looking for you

but I cannot feel
your presence

"don't go by your feelings"
they say

but I want to sense you
I want to perceive
your indwelling

what are feelings
if not messengers
from within

pointing out what
truly matters?

I long to touch you
to reach out
and grasp your hand

if an invisible God
cannot be seen
or felt

how do I know
you are there?

my soul cries out
for the living God

impress yourself
upon my heart

emboss me with
your design

speak to me
in the way
I understand

if I cannot see
your face

then let me feel
your heartbeat

and let me sense
your presence

let me know
that you have not
abandoned me

let all your promises
come true

Let Me Have Eyes To See (A Prayer to the Most High God)

By

On January 11, 2023

In Poems, Posts, Prayers

eyes to see

Let me have eyes to see the signs of your personal love for me!

Synchronicity is the evidence of your presence, the evidence of your workings, the evidence of your tender love.

Though you are shrouded in mystery, I can always trust you are near, so close that we could share a breath. Right beneath the tissue of my skin you live, and move, and fill my being with your holy light, casting out darkness, destroying evil, repairing the damages that result from life in a fallen world.

You choose to make your home not in the heights where the eagles fly, not in the castles where kings reside, not in the buildings across the world, but right here in the hearts of the people you love.

What kind of God lives within a human heart? Only the Most High could do – would do – such a merciful thing! How willing you are to mingle your blood with ours! You must desire closeness more than we do. You must have a plan bigger than our plans. We must be very special to you – the evidence is here for all who have eyes to see.

My Advent Prayer

By

On November 30, 2022

In Poems, Prayers

In the days leading up to Christmas, and through the weeks of winter’s darkness, I offer you an Advent prayer. May the light gently find you right where you are.

Advent Prayer




Lord, I lift my face
to let you find me

let me be
open

to this Advent
to the blessings
to the grace
to the possibility

of the light
that comes

You are
the light
that finds me

Immanuel
God is with us
luminous

A Writer’s Prayer

By

On October 25, 2022

In Prayers

A Writer's Prayer

From the longings of my heart comes this writer’s prayer – my prayer to bless you. 




A WRITER'S PRAYER


I long to have beautiful words spill from my hands, blessing all who read them. Words that flow like music and colors. Words that shine with loveliness and light. I long for a river of beauty to stream forth from my soul. 

Can heavenly beauty pour down into the mudholes of earthly life? I believe it can! Maybe all it takes is a willingness to receive. Lord, may I be willing.

I want to be willing to carry words and release them to the world, like healing balm. I want to embrace the call to write, and I want to write the call of beauty - the healing power in the beauty of nature. 

Lord, you make it easy for us to receive your love. May the words I write make it easy for all who receive them, whether it be in nature or in the grittiness of daily life; whether it be in celebration or in suffering. Lord, let beautiful words fall from my lips onto the page, sealed with a kiss of love and adoration for you. 

Let me live and move and have my being in you, in the secret place, in your presence where no enemy can withstand. Let the words come, Lord - words of peace and promise, words of hope and expectation, words that bring life and words that come true, words that paint the colors of goodness in all its living glory.

Amen.
May it be so.

Longing and Belonging

By

On August 2, 2022

In Prayers

Longing and Belonging




Lord I bring
to you
my deep longing
for you

and I hope
with all my heart
you will meet me
in the longing

don't leave me
languishing
in loneliness

meet me with
your presence
in the fields 
of my heart

let me feel
your love
like wildflowers
springing to life

let me hear you
say my name
I belong
I belong

Prayer in the Desert of Despair

By

On June 23, 2022

In Prayers

A modern psalm of despair

(because life is not all roses)

Prayer in the Desert of Despair




Lord, don't abandon me!
I need you more than ever
I can't feel your closeness
I can't feel your presence

In the darkness, faith is blind
my hands are groping
feeling for the unfeelable
clutching for the untouchable

Oh, Lord, make a way
for me to reach you
I am alone and I
don't know what to do

My tears fall on desert ground
where nothing grows
where loneliness pervades
barren and empty desolation

miserable hopelessness
desperately needing a miracle
Lord, send forth your spirit
and make me come alive again

Show me the way to new life
where in your presence
is fullness of joy and
streams of living water

Oh, I need you
but I can't make you
come to me, I can
only wait

Oh, the utter helplessness,
wretched creatures are we
Lord, don't abandon us!
Have mercy and save us!

And Darkness Fell: Seeking God in Troubled Times

By

On April 12, 2022

In Prayers

This is a prayer about seeking God in the dark days. As we enter Holy Week, may we hear His voice and find our way to the light.

And Darkness Fell: Seeking God in Troubled Times



Lord, help me!
weariness has wrapped
around my bones

bringing me to my knees,
weakness and weeping
follow me

like dark shadows
pressing me down
flattening my vivre

I listen for your 
voice, but all I 
hear is the wind

lonely, empty echoes
blowing through my
soul, devoid of life

where is your breath
Lord, where are you
in these troubled times?

if you are in the
cracks of this broken
world, then there shall

I go, seeking your
face in the shattered
pieces of this fragile

life, seeking you among
the fallen, the crippled
and crushed

I will look for your
face until I find
some kind of sign

a glimpse, a touch,
a fragrance rising
out of the ashes

a wisp of hope,
a quickening like
the flutter of wings

a butterfly emerging
from darkness into light
with the promise of flight

let my heart
attune to yours, Lord,
lift me out of the darkness

let me walk in the light

A Prayer for these Last Days of Lent

By

On April 8, 2022

In Prayers

Meditations on these last days of Lent.

A Prayer for these Last Days of Lent



Lord, we are so 
fragile

our lives could 
snap

at any moment
our breath

could end and we would
depart this earth

leaving behind our
loved ones

to pick up the pieces
without us

may we find You in
the broken

pieces of this world
may You take

our brokenness into
Yourself

and give us Your
resurrected life

let us live our days
on earth

infused with Your
love

wrapped in Your
protection

overflowing with goodness
for each other

blessed to be blessings
encouraged to give courage

healed to touch lives
let our days on earth

be filled with You
and let us know

that You alone are the one
we can count on

forever

Untie The NOTs: Not Enough

By

On August 4, 2021

In Poems, Prayers

Untie The NOTs: "Not Enough" - a poem for when you struggle with everything you think you are not

“Not Enough” – this poem is for all the times you struggle with everything you think you are NOT.

There's a big ball
of NOTs
in my chest

a tangled list
of all that
I am NOT

but when I
surrender
the NOTs

to the great
I AM

He shows me
all that I am
in Him


"And those who know Your Name put their trust in You, for You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You."    
 ~ Psalm 9:10 ESV

The Secret Place

By

On May 2, 2021

In Poems, Prayers

I don't carry a totem
 in my pocket
 but I have a secret place 
hidden in my heart 
that grounds me
 tethers me to reality 
gives me strength  for the journey 
reminds me I am not alone in this
 even though I am alone in my own skin. 

Beneath the shadow of God's wing
 there is a place of stillness 
a place of Presence 
a place of knowing 
a place of being
 a place where no enemy 
can withstand
 a place where I return
to come back to myself.

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