SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS IN CHRIST

Ephesians 1:3,4 "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  For He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight."

Lord in Your faithfulness

You have pursued me:

Gently and tenderly,

Lord, You have wooed me.

Who could imagine I would find,

All of the riches that are mine?

So great a salvation,

So costly the gift,

So great a redemption, 

So the dying might live,

So great a salvation,

So high the price,

So, kind a Redeemer,

Supreme sacrifice

Great is Your love,

Great is Your love!

~David and Becky Durham (1998)

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Peace

Jeremiah 29:7 (KJV) 

7 And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace. 

Matthew 5:9 (KJV) 

9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. 

2 Corinthians 13:11 (KJV) 

11 Finally, brethren, ..... live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you. 

Father in a world whose history is one of violence and war we are still called to be peace seekers, peacemakers and to live in peace with others. What an impossible challenge and quest. Even so, You, who are the God of all peace, the source of peace, and the only one who can bring true peace, do not lessen the mission for us to be peacemakers.

Thank you, Father, that this is possible through what Christ has done for us. "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."  Romans 5:1 (KJV) 

In the name of Jesus who's the Prince of Peace and will ultimately bring peace on earth. Amen.

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trusting in the silence

Lord, As we watch war beginning in the Ukraine, we are encountering feelings of helplessness and pain. It is so hard to watch innocent people suffer.

We intercede for all those involved, asking that love might triumph over hate and light over darkness. We pray that wisdom would be given to those who are defending themselves.

In all things we ask for the ability to trust you and let go of control. Help us to be still and know that you are a God who cares and will bring good from human evil.  Amen.

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prayer of invitation

Come into my heart Father God.

I release all of my worries to you.

Come into my heart Lord Jesus.

Forgive me, as I forgive others.

Come into my heart Holy Spirit.

Refresh me, that I might live for you.

Amen

 

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It’s time!

What time is it?? 

It’s time to PRAY!!

There has never been a time in our lives that it has been more imperative for us to PRAY than now!!

Our world is in a mess and it is time for the people of God to bend our knees and get on our faces and CRY OUT to our God!!!

We must be a people of Prayer and the time is NOW!!

“If my people…will pray.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Amen

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a prayer for mental wellness

 

O God, our liberation and our peace, we seek the strength of your Spirit, that we may live in a more deep and powerful union with you. May Your faithfulness be a source of comfort for us as we live in the reality of a world, a community - and even our own hearts - that struggle to thrive in the midst of loneliness, and the heavy weight of being two years into a global pandemic. 

Teach us to give grace when we don't understand.

Give us eyes to see those who are drowning in despair.

Give us hearts to help, and feet that are ready and able.

May Your hope overcome despair,  may Your love be felt by those who feel far away from it, and may Your provision come to those who need it. Grant that we may gain courage to love and understand each other, and live with mercy toward those that need Your help and our help. May the Great Comforter - the Holy Spirit - wash over each one of us this day and every day forward.

Amen

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YOU CARRY US

Thank You Lord for Your compassionate care.  How we need Your Spirit to deliver us in our distresses.  We need You to carry us where the road is too rocky or the path too faint for us to follow.  Lord, we cry to You for Your manifest presence.  Help us to keep the highway clear between our hearts and Yours.  I love You.  Amen.

googleimages.com

Amen

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Tenacious Love

I have loved you with an everlasting love;"  

Jeremiah 31:2-3 (ESV) 

George Matheson Song:

O Love that will not let me go,

I rest my weary soul in thee;

I give thee back the life I owe,

That in thine ocean depths its flow

May richer, fuller be.

Thank you, Father for Your love that is the greatest comfort, for our souls and the assured hope of our eternal future in Your loving presence. May Your people be encouraged with such abiding love every day.

Romans 8:38-39 (NLT) 

 "...I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 

39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Thank You Father for such tenacious love. In the name of Your beloved Son and our Savior Jesus. Amen. 

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help us to remember to be present today

Dearest Lord,

Our minds are anxious about tomorrow.

Help us to remember to be present today.

We feel regret when we remember our failures.
Help us to remember to be present today.

Fears about the future have immobilized us.
Help us to remember to be present today.

Our lives have gotten so out of control.
Help us to remember to be present today.

Amen

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a prayer for the persecuted

Loving and most merciful God,

We intercede for believers who are prevented from accessing food, shelter, and other resources because they follow and love you.

May these who are persecuted be strengthened and encouraged to trust and follow you in the darkest of times and hardest of journeys.

May they know you as their provider and the one who is compassionate, merciful and loving. Show them an increase of your grace. 

We pray in the name of our savior. Amen.

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All my life you have been faithful

Sometimes in our prayer lives, we simply need to sing praises to our God.

Sometimes in our prayer lives, we just need to give thanks to Him for all He has done.

Sometimes in our prayer lives, we need to remind ourselves of His goodness to us always.

Sometimes, our prayers need to just be our voices lifting praise and honor to the One who is worthy.

Amen

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sharing peace

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. - John 14:27

Jesus, you shared peace 

around a table of anxiety,

peace with the bread, peace with the wine,

peace in the face of then certain,

peace in the place of pain.

May we share tables of peace

in places of pain,

sharing food and friendship

and words and life.

Because you came to a fearful world

and found your place

around those tables.

Amen

(from Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community) 

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Dwight L. Moody

"I prayed for faith and thought that someday faith would come down and strike me like lightening.  But faith did not seem to come.  One day I read in the tenth chapter of Romans, "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."  I had up to this time closed my Bible and prayed for faith.  Now I open my Bible and began to study, and faith has been growing ever since."  ~D.L. Moody

Heavenly Father, you have given us Your Word in the Holy Scriptures.  That is where we find everything we need for life and godliness.  Give us hearts to open the Scriptures and study them over and over and seek Your face and see our faith grow and we grow in our knowledge and understanding of You.  Amen.

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Amen

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Praying for People

"... the Spirit intercedes for the saints

 according to the will of God." Romans 8:27 (ESV)  

Father as I pray for people, I want to follow the example of the Holy Spirit and pray for Your will to be done in and through their lives. Whatever the sicknesses, circumstances, trials, problems or opportunities.

  

Father I know that Your will reveals Your glory in and through their experiences and will result in your power and providence working on their behalf. That is why Romans 8:28 is such a wonderful following verse: "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."

Thank You Father for the privilege of prayer and to be able to share and intervene in prayer, according to Your will, for others. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Romans 8:26-27 (ESV) 

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 

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prayer of confession

O thou Eternal God, out of whose absolute power and infinite intelligence the whole universe has come into being.

We humbly confess that we have not loved thee with our hearts, souls and minds and we have not loved our neighbors as Christ loved us.

We have all too often lived by our own selfish impulses rather than by the life of sacrificial love as revealed by Christ.

We often give in order to receive, we love our friends and hate our enemies, we go the first mile but dare not travel the second, we forgive but dare not forget.

And so as we look within ourselves we are confronted with the appalling fact that the history of our lives is the history of an eternal revolt against thee.

But thou, O God, have mercy upon us.

Forgive us for what we could have been but failed to be.

Give us the intelligence to know thy will.

Give us the courage to do thy will.

Give us the devotion to love thy will.

In the name and spirit of Jesus we pray.

Amen.

- a prayer of Martin Luther King Jr

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Ravensbruck Prayer

O Lord, 

Remember not only the men and women of good will but also those of evil will.

But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted upon us; remember the fruits we have borne thanks to this suffering –

    our comradeship,
    our loyalty,
    our humility,
    our courage,
    our generosity,
    the greatness of heart which has grown out of all this;

And when they come to the judgement, 
let all the fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness.

Amen.

Written on a piece of wrapping paper found near the body of a dead child
in Ravensbruck where 92,000 women and children died in the Holocaust.

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Prayer for Peace

I would dare say we all could use a refreshing dose of PEACE in our lives.

Peace only comes from the Hand of God.

Peace is only ushered forth by our LORD.

When we simply feel the weight of the world upon us, it’s time to look up and cry out to Jesus for peace.

He is the peace-giver and He will bestow it on us every time we ask Him to. 

“The LORD bless you and keep you;

The LORD make His face to shine up you and be gracious to you; 

The LORD lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)

Amen

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a prayer for transforming grace

Father,

We come before you this day knowing that you have given us freedom. your power and your grace break the stronghold of sin, and because of all that you are and all that you've done, we can stand boldly in freedom from the bondage of sin.

But we still struggle. We are tempted and we give in. Father, remind us there is no condemnation for those in Christ. Remind us that our relationship to sin has changed - it's still there but it no longer hold any power of us, for you are stronger than our sin. Remind us to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.

May we strand in the power of your transforming grace, Lord. Do a great work in us by removing the feelings of shame we feel when we fail, covering us in Your love.

Amen

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Love's Greatest Prayer

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, ”  Luke 23:34 (ESV) 

Father as I contemplate Jesus on the cross seeing and hearing the mob as they ridiculed him, the Scribes and Pharisees as they mocked him, the Roman soldiers as they scorned him, He prayed love's greatest intercessory prayer, "Father forgive them." In the cruelty of crucifixion, the total humiliation of human indignity, let alone the incompressible rejection of God the Son, that such mercy and compassion would come from Jesus is love beyond measure. 

Father, Isaiah's graphic description of the Savior's sacrificial death in our place is overwhelming.            

"Isaiah 53:3-12 (ESV) 3 He was despised and rejected by men; 4 he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows 5 he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities6 the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:11 (ESV) 11 the anguish of his soul Isaiah 53:12 (ESV) 12 he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors." 

With the Apostle Paul: " ¹⁷  I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸  may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--" Ephesians 3:17-19 (NIV) 

Thank You Father for such infinite love that is truly greater than all our sin. In the name of Your Beloved Son and our glorious Savior. Amen.

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fill me with mercy

Father of All Mercies,

Help me see those around me that are in need of my compassion. Cause me to listen to them and hear what they are saying. Bring me along side of them that I might speak a word of encouragement and healing.

Life can be so busy and personal demands can cause me to focus on myself. Teach me to look outward instead of inward that I might see and hear the cries of those who are suffering and lead painful lives. Amen.

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prayer for discernment

I am listening Lord.

In need of your guiding hand.

Help me to be still and wait on you.

Teach me to discern what you are saying.

Guide me in the ways of your spirit.

Open my heart to the voice of compassion.

Open my eyes that I might see you.

Instruct me in the way that I should go.

I commit my life to the ways of discipleship.

Bless me that I might serve you diligently.

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Too deep for words…

“ Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26)ESV

Amen

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