Father God,

My heart is swirling with emotions, as a flurry on a cold winter’s night. Your profound love is like the hearth, burning with a passion that gives me safety and warmth, protecting me against winter’s embrace. As I draw closer to the flames, the familiar numbness begins to fade, and I am utterly overcome with your grace.

I can still hear the unforgiving winds outside, ever persistent in its pursuit of my life, or anyone foolish enough to face it alone. I know, O Mighty God, that your fiery presence will go with me, pushing back the cold shadows, lighting my way as my trust falls solely on you. No longer do I fear the evil one; it makes its presence known, howling through the trees with great fury, inciting fear in the hearts of unwary travelers; but you my Lord are my midsummer’s eve in the midst of the icy tempest.

My prayer to you this night, Father, is not for me, but for those still wandering through the cold, either because they lost sight of you somewhere along the way, or they have yet to find their way to you.

This fire you have gifted me Lord was never mine to keep; it was for me to give, to bring your warmth to those you meant for me to reach. So, as my heart dwells on those caught in the gale, I pray you would use my fire to draw them to your shelter. I can see them, God, they rely on their manmade constructs for peace of mind; but it is only a reprieve, a brief escape from the harsh reality that surrounds them, and numbs them to the pain that is meant to expose their need.

I pray that you would show them the folly of their ways, that only your relentless love can satisfy them, that they would never thirst again. Shine bright within me, lover of my soul, that the light I carry would bring the newness of Spring to those caught in the enemy’s deathly grip. Let them not succumb to the offerings of this world one more day; rather that they would recognize that it is all vanity, a chasing after the wind.

I trust you to complete the work that you began, Lord, in my life and all those you have called. Let your bride go as one body, and scatter the darkness to the corners of the earth, so that nothing can hide in the dead of night. Let the sun fall upon their skin, and your unfathomable love reform them after your heart and mind.

In your perfect name I pray, amen.