Setting Spiritual Intentions - Your Nightly Prayer - January 6th

Alisha Headley

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Your Nightly Prayer

Setting Spiritual Intentions
Your Nightly Prayer
By Alisha Headley

TONIGHT'S SCRIPTURE

“Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” - Proverbs 16:3

SOMETHING TO PONDER

Some nights, our hearts feel heavy and our minds become full as the day comes to an end. It becomes full of all our hopes, questions, and a longing to know you’re walking in the right direction. You think about the day, weeks, and years ahead. I’m a first-time mom with a newborn at home, and already I wonder if I’m doing enough and making all the best decisions for my daughter. My mind, and especially at night as I’m up with her, is flooded with what’s to come. In these moments, it’s easy to feel the pressure to plan better, try harder, or resolve to be “more” tomorrow. I want to be the best mother I can be for her.

But God invites us into something gentler – something more sacred, and less striving.

Instead of demanding perfection, He asks for surrender. Instead of rigid resolutions, He offers a relationship. And as we come to Him at night—tired, honest, and open—we’re reminded that we don’t have to carry the weight of our future alone.

Tonight’s Scripture tells us, “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and He will establish your plans” (Proverbs 16:3). This verse isn’t a promise of ease. It’s an invitation to place our intentions, dreams, and decisions in God’s hands and believe that He knows what’s best and is working on things behind the scenes, even if we don’t see it. Setting spiritual intentions is committing it all to the Lord – our hopes, dreams, goals – all to the Lord. With His will in mind, not our own.

And the best part is, He doesn’t need us to have everything figured out before we come to Him. He meets us right where we are: uncertain, hopeful, weary, and worried. When we surrender our plans, we’re acknowledging that while we can plan, God will order our steps, protect our path, and redirect us when necessary. Committing to the Lord and surrendering is telling God our desires, but then choosing to trust Him with the outcome. It’s trusting that even if the plan changes, God’s purpose still remains.

His purpose remains steady, and His timeline is always perfect. Part of committing to the Lord and allowing Him to establish His plans is trusting His timeline. This can be difficult for some of us. Patience is not always my best strong suit, but it’s a part of what committing our plans to the Lord looks like. And sometimes God is more concerned with shaping our character than speeding up our timeline. When we entrust our intentions to Him, we give Him permission to refine, delay, or completely rewrite the story—always for our good and His glory. It’s important to remember this when we are weary.

When we set spiritual intention, committing everything to His will and not our own, we rest knowing that He is actively at work, even while we sleep. Let’s try to rest in that tonight.

YOUR NIGHTLY PRAYER

Dear God,
Tonight, we come before You with open hands and an open heart. Father, we ask for your forgiveness for all the times we have strived to do things our way and say we trust you, but then try to control everything on our own. We want to commit to You (whatever we do) all to you tonight—our plans, our hopes, our questions, and the things we don’t yet understand. We release the pressure to have it all figured out and ask you to forgive us for being reliant on our desires more than on You. Teach us to trust that You are establishing Your perfect plans for our lives, even if what we see doesn’t look perfect right now. Align our hearts and our intentions to Your heart and Your will. Please give us peace as we begin tonight by surrendering control. As we rest tonight, help us trust that You are already at work—ordering our steps, protecting our future, and preparing what’s ahead. We choose to surrender everything in our hearts and minds tonight. We place this season, this upcoming year, and our lives in Your hands.
In your mighty name we pray,
Amen.

THREE THINGS TO MEDITATE UPON

1. Surrender is not weakness—it’s trust in the God who knows what tomorrow holds.

2. When you commit your plans to the Lord, you trade pressure for peace and striving for security.

3. God is not asking you to figure it all out, but to hand it all over.

Alisha Headley is a writer + speaker who has a desire to meet the everyday woman in her everyday life with biblical truth. Stepping into her true calling, she left the corporate world behind as a former-financial VP to love on her family as a stay-at-home wifey + dog mama, while also being able to pursue her passion as a writer. Healing from a chapter of life consumed with lies she once believed about herself, she is inspired to point women to Christ to experience the freedom + power to overcome those lies with the truth written in God’s word. In her free time, Alisha enjoys road trips around the country, working out so she can eat her favorite foods, and creatively styling her outfits with a craft for fashion. Alisha is a proud wifey and dog mama living in Scottsdale, Arizona.

You can follow her blog by visiting her website alishaheadley.com or connect with her on facebook + instagram.

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