Wednesday Prayers

Good morning Prayer Warriors.  Thank you for your constancy in remembering these needs ~ even when I miss a week!

1. Chris' team has worked through the insurance difficulties for his heart transplant.  They did have to place an LVAD last week and this should help him get through until a heart is available.  Please continue in prayer for him.  You may follow his facebook page here
2. Jody will get to the one-year milestone since the death of her husband Danny in two weeks.
3. Tara is getting ready to be the leader/director of a women's spiritual weekend in the next few weeks.  These weekends are usually preceded by some interesting spiritual warfare.  Please pray for strength of soul and purpose for her, the other women working with her, and the women who will be attending the weekend.
4. Fred's church will have their annual VBS next week.  Please pray for the church and the children who will be attending.
5. Faith is a little girl with multiple medical problems and is now fighting brain cancer.  Her chemo is on hold due to her lab results being off.
6. While news cycles move on, grief does not.  Please continue to pray for Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston.  Pray especially this week for his wife and two daughters.  They lost their husband, Daddy and Pastor.
7. Remember this week to thank God for His answered prayers, for those who have been saved, those who have been healed, and even for the answers that were "No" or "Wait".  God's goodness and lovingkindness to His children is something we can count on.

I am continuing to work through Paul's Letters to the churches.  In opening his letters, Paul writes salutations that are worth a lifetime of study in themselves.  Over and over in these openings, he refers to God as "Our Father".  Over the years I have spoken to many people who have not had good earthly fathers.  When your earthly father is absent, or abusive, or negligent, or trapped in his own sin, it is hard to hear that God is your Father.  The word "Father" does not have a good meaning and memory for you.  Yet I think that even those with the worst of fathers have an image in their heart of what they wish their father could have been.  That image was given to you by God.  It is a picture that He wants you to have.  That image of the man you wish your father could have been ~ loving, kind, patient, just, merciful, wise, affirming, and someone who loved you and defended you with every fiber of his being ~ that is the kind of Father that God is.  It is not a fairy-tale or a wistful dream.  It is God.  He is not only the perfect Father, He is a Father Who is intimately involved in every detail of our lives.  There is nothing too trivial to tell Him.  He is never too busy; in fact, He longs for even more time with you! 

I pray that you will remember this every time you find the word "Father" as you read His word.

His peace to your homes. 

Image from Pilgrimatthecrossroads.com