Morning prayer · 21 August

Pillar of fire and cloud

A single lamp burns with two flames fused into one — one flame orange like fire, one flame pale like smoke — showing fire and cloud held together as one steady light.

Holy Spirit, let me find my strength in you. I need you, so I can be strong everywhere. I long to be free from the pull of circumstances, whether cloud or sunshine. I want a power that keeps me from sinking into gloom and from soaring into pride. I want both a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud: a refuge in the night of hard times, and a shield in the day of good times. I can find them in you, who rule both night and day. Come into my heart, and your power will be my power. I’ll win over every circumstance, at home anywhere, at rest whatever happens. I’ll walk on scorpions unharmed. The world will be mine when your Spirit is in me. Amen.

And the LORD went before them in a pillar of cloud to guide their way by day, and in a pillar of fire to give them light by night, so that they could travel by day or night.

Exodus 13:21 (BSB)

Adapted from George Matheson, via Prayers Ancient and Modern (1897), in plain words. The verse is from the Berean Standard Bible (public domain). Drawing: Mutter.