Thou, Dear God: The Prayers of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Prayers that Open Hearts and Spirits

Generally speaking, the prayers here expose King’s own wounds as a source of healing for all who feel tested by life’s trials and who seek sustenance, reaffirmation, and renewal. These prayers are really a blessing, especially for those persons of faith who believe in the possibilities and reality of what King called “divine companionship.” They are prayers that warm the reader’s heart during the dark days of doubt, and they also brighten the quest for faith, meaning, identity, and community.

Excerpted from,"Thou, Dear God”: Prayers that Open Hearts and Minds, by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., (Beacon Press, 2011). Reprinted with permission from Beacon Press.

We Live above Nature

We thank thee, O God, for the spiritual nature of man. We are in nature but we live above nature. Help us never to let anybody or any condition to pull us so low as to cause us to hate. Give us strength to love our enemies and to do good to those who despitefully use us and persecute us. We thank thee for thy Church, founded upon thy Word, that challenges us to do more than sing and pray, but go out and work as though the very answer to our prayers depended on us and not upon thee. Then, finally, help us to realize that man was created to shine like stars and live on through all eternity. Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace; help us to walk together, pray together, sing together, and live together until that day when all God’s children, Black, White, Red, and Yellow will rejoice in our common band of humanity in the kingdom of our Lord and of our God, we pray. Amen.

Excerpted from,"Thou, Dear God”: Prayers that Open Hearts and Minds,

'A Brotherhood That Transcends Race or Color'

Given at Billy Graham Crusade

Let us pray. O God, our Heavenly Father, out of whose mind this great cosmic universe has been created, toward whom the weary and perplexed of all generations turn for consolation and direction, we come before Thy presence this evening thanking Thee for the many blessings of life. We come recognizing our dependence on Thee. We also come, O God, with an awareness. The fact that we have not always given our lives to that which is high and noble. In the midst of all of the high and noble aspects of justice, we followed injustice. We stand amid the forces of truth and yet we deliberately lie. We stand amid the compelling urgency of the Lord of Love, as exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ, and yet we live our lives so often in the dungeons of hate. For all of these sins, O God, forgive. And in these days of emotional tension, when the problems of the world are gigantic in extent and chaotic in detail, give us penetrating vision, broad understanding, power of endurance and abiding faith, and save us from the paralysis of crippling fear. And O God, we ask Thee to help us to work with renewed vigor for a warless world and for a brotherhood that transcends race or color. We thank Thee this evening for the marvelous things which have been done in this city, and through the dynamic preachings of this great evangelist. And we ask Thee, O God, to continue blessing him. Give him continued power and authority. And as we look into him tonight, grant that our hearts and spirit will be open to the divine inflow. All of these things we ask, in the name of Him who taught us to pray. “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. . . .”

Excerpted from,"Thou, Dear God”: Prayers that Open Hearts and Minds,

Father Forgive Them

We are still inflicted with economic injustice—Father forgive them. Simply because we want to be free there are those who will threaten our lives, cripple us with economic reprisals, and bomb our homes and churches—but Father forgive them. There are still those hooded perpetrators of violence who will stop us out on some wayside road and beat us, leaving us half dead—but Father forgive them. Right here in Montgomery, in spite of all our efforts, thousands of us are refused the right to become registered voters—but Father forgive them. Our children, merely desiring education, are spat upon, cursed and kicked hither and yonder—but Father forgive them.

Excerpted from,"Thou, Dear God”: Prayers that Open Hearts and Minds,

We Thank Thee for Our Foreparents

Oh God, our gracious, heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the creative insights in the universe. We thank Thee for the lives of great saints and prophets in the past, who have revealed to us that we can stand up amid the problems and difficulties and trials of life and not give in. We thank Thee for our foreparents, who’ve given us something in the midst of the darkness of exploitation and oppression to keep going. And grant that we will go on with the proper faith and the proper determination of will, so that we will be able to make a creative contribution to this world and in our lives. In the name and spirit of Jesus we pray. Amen.

Excerpted from,"Thou, Dear God”: Prayers that Open Hearts and Minds,

Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Us Around

Almighty God, Thou has called us to walk for freedom, even as Thou did the Children of Israel. We pray, dear God, as we go through a wilderness of State Troopers that Thou will hold our hand. We pray, dear God, as we must go through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, that Thou will go with us and strengthen us for the task. Keep us strong. Keep us calm. Help us to love our enemy. And above all, keep the fires of freedom burning in our hearts, so that no matter what happens, ain’t gonna let nobody turn us around. Because Thou, dear God, has sent us into this place. Thou has sent us to fight, not just for ourselves, but to fight for this nation so that democracy might exist here for the whole world. Keep this vision in our hearts, and may we one day wake up and find the state of Alabama, where all men might vote, where all children might get a decent education, where every man and woman might have a job according to his (or her) abilities, and where every man and woman might live together as brothers, and violence and bloodshed and hatred and prejudice shall be no more. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.

Want more prayers? Check out the book, Thou, Dear God: Prayers that Open Hearts and Spirits