31 days of prayer 13

Day 13

This is from a web site titled Friends of Bill W. 12 Step Prayers. Most days I find myself unable to keep my mouth shut. I am forever saying the wrong thing. Must pray harder for God's guidance.

A Morning Prayer:

"God, should I find myself agitated, doubtful or indecisive today, please give me inspiration, help me to have an intuitive thought or a decision about this problem I face. Help me not to struggle, instead, help me to relax and take it easy. Help me know what I should do and keep me mindful, that you are running the show.  Free me from my bondage of self. Thy will be done always." 

Amen.

31 days of prayer 12

Day 12

A virus that has affected the lining around the heart....that is what the Dr.'s said. And I think to myself a virus?! A virus!? His blood pressure is sooo high...141/115, his pulse is 120, his chest feels constricted, he is short of breath and he is 23 years old. These are not normal vitals. And they want to blame it all on a virus??? They have done test, after test, after test and all they can come up with is a diagnosis of a virus. I can feel myself getting all pissy and angry...why can't they give me a better diagnosis than virus?? Something more serious has got to be wrong here. Something was seriously wrong when I brought him into the ER. But the very next day, everything started to improve. BP was going down along with the heart rate. Chest pain was subsiding. All testing was coming back normal. What is going on here??? And in my head, I hear a whisper, a thought, that floats through my brain that says Hey! Didn't you offer this up to the community as a prayer? Didn't you ask the people you know, friends and family alike to pray for your boy? Didn't you ask God to help your boy get well? Well?! Didn't you?? Gulp. Oh boy. I did. I did ask for prayers for my son. I did beg God to heal him. So why the unbelief  then? Why do I doubt the power of my God to heal? Why do I doubt His ability to answer my prayers?  And the prayer today is my own, in my own words:

Thank You Heavenly Father for answering my prayer. Thank You for healing my son. Forgive me for not trusting You enough. Forgive me for not believing, for not seeing Your hand in his healing. Amen

From Biblegateway.com-

“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” Mark 9:23-24

31 days of prayer 11

Day 11

Yesterday I posted about how much harder it is to find meaningful prayers to put on my blog than I thought it was going to be. No sooner had I hit the publish button on that post when my grown son came downstairs and said he wasn't feeling well, again. This past Monday he had felt short of breath and had a heavy sensation in his chest. Allergy season has really been playing havoc with his asthma so he used his inhaler for the shortness of breath with no relief. At work he had been doing a lot of strenuous lifting lately so we thought maybe it was muscle soreness causing the chest pain...maybe a muscle strain...causing him to feel chest tightness....causing him to feel short of breath....we were simply trying to reason out a cause for his discomfort. After taking 4 Advil, he went back to bed. Later that same afternoon he reported that although he had some muscle weakness in his arms, he was feeling much better. Fast forward to Wednesday morning and WHAM! All of a sudden he starts feeling worse...now he is vomiting and feeling weak in his hands and knees. So off to the ER we go. And all of a sudden I realize that prayer is no longer difficult to find. He is 23 years old, a grown man, and suddenly I am worried and he feels like my baby boy all over again.
We are awaiting test results as I type this.

Lord, you love our child as You love all children,
Bring healing to our child who is not well.
Stay by his side and comfort him through this trying time.
Keep us ever mindful of Your loving presence
Bless us with Your powerful healing and comfort us also.
Thank You for hearing our prayer!

31 days of prayer 10

Day 10

It's only been 10 days and already I am having a hard time finding prayers to put here. I thought that I had so many prayers to choose from, but it turns out that all I really had were life quotes or quotes about prayer, or quotes about gratitude and thankfulness. Now I realize that those quotes can be a prayer of sorts, but what I was going for here on this 31 days of prayer blog thingy was for something that started out with a Dear Lord and ended with an Amen. So with that being said...here is today's prayer. I don't know who wrote it and I added the Dear Lord and the Amen at the end. Only 3 more weeks to go...ugh.

Dear Lord, 
Help me release.
Lay Your hands over my fists.
Teach my fingers to relax,
to uncurl and spread wide,
letting my resentment fall away,
and leaving my palms open to receive
Your waiting blessings. Amen

31 days of prayer 9

Day 9

A friend asked me this question on Facebook this morning...." How can I pray for you today?"  And I could think of nothing to say back to her. Nothing! How can she pray for me?? I wonder why that question rendered me mute when not much else does. I swear I felt myself gulp as I tried to think of an answer. What do I need ? How can she cover me in prayer today?  Wow. Um......??? I don't know if the silence in my head is a good thing or not. I honestly don't believe anyone has ever asked me that question before. It's kinda like that gift question, ya know? You can think of a million things that you want to buy for yourself and yet! when someone asks you what you want for your birthday or for Christmas you draw a complete blank. Well, that's me today. So instead of taxing my brain trying to think of something, I think that I will just say a prayer for her instead.

A Prayer For My Friend 
Author Unknown

Lord, I ask You to bless my friend who is reading this right now.

Where there is pain,
may they find peace and mercy.

Where there is self-doubt,
may they gain a renewed confidence.

Where there is weariness or exhaustion,
give them understanding, patience, and strength.

Where there is fear,
reveal your love, and offer to them your courage.

Give them greater vision, bless their finances,
and raise up leaders and friends to support and encourage them.

May their spirit always be joyous and
their days rich and full with love and happiness,

And may they always know that they have a friend

31 days of prayer 8

Day  8

My nephew has been deployed to Afghanistan. For 18 months. His plane landed in that country on Sunday at the exact same time that we were in church praying for him. The Pastor's prayer was especially moving for me and I broke down and started crying. I grabbed on to my sister's hand and held on for dear life. This man who is half way across the world, in a foreign country, in a war zone, is her first born and is also her only son.  It hurts to think about him over there...in possible danger...unable to contact or communicate with us, or her, or even his wife, while he is "in country". He is Special Ops. We will not no where he is nor do we know what he is doing. After these first few days I can only guess that the silence will become deafening. We've all tied yellow ribbons around the trees in our yards. And my hope is that every morning when I open up the curtains, I will see those yellow ribbons and be reminded to pray. Not only for my own nephew, but for all of the other men and women who are serving in a foreign land, in a war zone, far away from their loved ones.

31 days of prayer 7

Day 7


 Dear Lord, I want to follow Your teaching and focus on the blessings You have placed in my life. Please help me learn to look through Your lens and to see today as a new day full of Your mercies. Mercies for me, and mercies for others. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

No clue who wrote this, but it fits me and my life. Love, love, love that His mercies are new every day! 'Nuf said. It's Sunday and I'm going to church.