Read Lamentations 3:19-23; Numbers 23:19; Psalm 23:6; Zephaniah 3:5; John 6:37; Hebrews 10:23

Remember my affliction and my wandering,
the wormwood and bitterness.
Surely my soul remembers
And is bowed down within me.
This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
The LORD’s loving kindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:19-23) 

Lord God, thank You for being more than a friend. Thank You for Your sovereign hand upon us, for Your mercies that are new every morning, for Your great faithfulness. Thank You for not leaving us when we should have been rejected and left, for not abandoning us when we deserved it. Thank You for being true to Your Word. Thank You for keeping Your promise that all who come to You will in no way be cast out. Thank You, our Shepherd, for Your sheepdogs—for goodness and mercy and, especially, faithfulness—that follow unrelentingly at our heels. In faithfulness, You will receive those who come to You.

We pray for those who've run away from You. We request that You would win them back through Your compassion and mercy. We ask that they would sense the sympathetic faithfulness of God and that that alone would draw them like a magnet to You.

In the name of Christ, our strong Saviour, we pray. Amen.

Excerpted from The Prayers of Charles R. Swindoll, Volume 1, Copyright 2010 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.