A Prayer for the Sunday Night Dread

Lord, the weekend is ending and that familiar dread is rising in my stomach again. The thought of Monday, of the week stretched out ahead of me, of putting on the face I wear and doing it all over, makes my whole body tense. The evening light feels heavy with everything I am not ready for.

I confess I spend these last free hours bracing instead of resting, already living in a tomorrow that has not come. I rob myself of tonight by dreading the morning.

So I turn to You here in the dimming Sunday light, the One who holds Monday already and is not anxious about it at all.

Quiet the dread in my chest. Pull my mind back from the whole impossible week into this one manageable evening. Help me trust that I will be given what I need when each day arrives, and not one hour before.

You told me not to worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself, and today has enough of its own. Let me leave Monday in Monday and simply rest tonight.

I surrender the coming week and my dread of it into Your keeping. I do not have to carry Friday's weight on a Sunday. Grant me peace for tonight, and meet me freshly when the morning comes. Amen.