Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Wednesday Prayers

Good morning, Prayer Warriors.  Thank you all so much for your help over the past couple of weeks!  There have been some wonderful answers to your prayers and your help is appreciated.  Prayer is not easy work but it is blessed work.  Sometimes in life you just can't quite get a handle on what it is that God wants you to do.  Perhaps you are in a new season of life with the kids gone from home.  Perhaps your season of life is being up throughout the night with a crying baby.  Maybe you don't have the energy any more to do the things you used to do.  In all of these seasons, the work of prayer is calling.  If your home is newly empty and housework is no longer time-consuming, use that time for prayer.  If you are up at all hours with an inconsolable baby, use that time to pray.  If you don't have energy to chase toddlers in the nursery at church, you can still pray.

Take a few minutes as you begin prayer to settle down your heart and mind.  It is so easy to be distracted by the flitting thoughts of what to fix for dinner, or how to help your children, or your frustrations or irritations with family and/or co-workers.  Take a few minutes to think about Who you are going to.  Meditate on Who He Is.  Get lost in the wonder of His goodness and mercy and holiness and justice and peace.  He is infinitely good and He is the source of all that is good (Nahum 1:7).  He is infinitely just and the source of all that is truly just (Psalm 9:7-8).  He is infinitely merciful and the source of all true mercy (Psalm 25:6).  He is infinitely holy and the source of all that is truly holy (Revelation 4:8).  He is your peace (Ephesians 2:14).  You may not get any further in prayer today than to meditate on these things.  I think that is a wonderful use of your prayer time!
However, if you do manage to get to a point of intercession, here are a few things that we need to remember this week.

  1. Persis' baptism was a very sweet and precious time for four generations of family.
  2. John and Penny are moved into their new home and their children are thoroughly enjoying playing in their big yard.  Please continue to pray for healing for John's knee.
  3. Elise is feeling better.
  4. Kevin is in the hospital with an MRSA infection on his heart valves.  Again.  Please pray for complete healing, and for spiritual protection for he and his wife during this time.  Pray that the Christian community around them will know how best to show Jesus' love to them through this.
  5. Kate McRae continues to battle brain cancer.  This is her third bout of this kind of cancer.  She and her parents are weary.  Please hold up their arms.
  6.  Nancy's chemo was cancelled for this week due to some lab levels being off.  She is due to resume in two weeks.  Please pray for protection from infection and for joy in this small break.
  7. Please remember the Christians in Nepal.  Please pray for them in the aftermath of the earthquake and pray that God will use them for His glory in the days ahead.  Pray that they will be able to direct their unsaved neighbors to the Light of the world.
  8. Please pray this week for the folks ~ whether paid workers or volunteers ~ who staff the nursery rooms in your church.  This is work and it is crucially important work.  Can you think of any job more important than showing babies and toddlers (and their parents!) the love of Jesus?  I still thank God regularly for those who loved my son as he was growing up.  Thank you, Gloria Boy! 
  9. update: please add Amber to this list.  She was injured in a car accident this week and is in ICU.  Please pray for Amber, her husband, and their young daughter.  Thanks!
After writing this, the name that is most profound today is the one found in Ephesians 2:14.  I can never read this verse without hearing James Ward sing it.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man i place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

Jesus is our peace.  He surrendered his own peace (Matthew 26:38) in order that we might have peace.  May His peace fill your hearts and your homes.  Thank you for joining in the work.

prayer-warrior

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