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Prayer topics
Thank You for Role-Model Leaders
Joy In the Adventures God Sends My Way
I've Been Drifting, Lord... Please Forgive and Fill Me
The Narrow Way
Tsunami Reflections

Thank You for Role-Model Leaders
Date: November 18, 2004

Last night at life group was good. ____ is so patient with us as we are, I believe, slowly catching on to the vision God has given him in leading us. Poor ____, good thing he can “doodle!” We so easily get caught up in a certain point or wander off-topic… and he patiently lets us kind of blow off steam and then gently but firmly guides us back on-track. I think he is wise to let people talk things out, share their little “ah-ha!” moments and the stories that are helping them understand, letting them work through to at least a beginning of understanding of where God is leading through him. And he produces some amazing “doodles” while he patiently waits for the others to “catch it”… and he helps us see how our bits of illumination (and sometimes our total off-track moments) relate to the path he is pointing out to us. Lord, help me to listen and be patient and focused and kind and firm like ___! What a wonderful example and role model You have placed in our midst. Thank You, Lord! Thank You, too, for the way he gently deals with people’s concerns which are often dangerously close to gossip and slandering. Thank You for his wisdom, Lord. Help me to learn this kind of kindness and wisdom, Lord, from You and Your Word and Your Spirit, and from the example set by ____.

Lord, we seem to be so afraid to do things like set goals, in case they don’t turn out and we are disappointed. Well, Lord, help us to get so close to You that our goals are Your goals, and let us trust in Your ways and timing, so we will not be disappointed, but rather see Your path as an incredible adventure with long term purposes (laid out in Your word) and in the short term, lots of surprises along the way. It is exciting to see what You are going to do!

Thank You for the good prayer time we have last night. At least we are praying and most of us are participating. That is cool! You are doing Your work. Thank You, too, for people beginning to get a glimmer of what it might really mean to be a church.

I really sense that You have brought this little group together for a reason. We are all kind of different, and we are people who aren’t content to go with the status-quo even if we are kind of hesitant to step out and move in another direction at the same time. Thank You for ____’s direction and leadership.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Joy In the Adventures God Sends My Way
Date: November 24, 2004

Such a good sermon, Lord, this morning. I realized how far You’ve brought me. At one time, every time something “bad” happened, I’d “freak out”. Then I got to the point where I’d remember to pray – frantically! Then I started to say, “Praise the Lord, anyway.” Now I do pray, but not frantically, because I know God is in control and is working out all things for His good, for His purposes. And I think I’m really beginning to understand that the gift of Jesus is the ultimate good, and it’s available for everyone who will accept it. I don’t know if I can say I’ve reached the point of “joy unspeakable”… but I know I am so often “surprised by joy” that I’ve started looking forward to it, actually looking with some anticipating to walking through each new adventure God sends my way (and sometimes being a bit concerned if things seem to be getting too comfortable!, not because I want trouble, but because I wonder if I’m slacking off and the devil wants to keep me there. Still, I should be joyful for the joy because of happy circumstances too!).

It seems to me that my husband telling me I have to stop my church work was actually from You, and that You have reinforced it with my sickness and tiredness. I don’t know what You are planning, but I do think it has helped in my relationship with my husband, as I have simply been unable to “do it all,” and have had to let him “be in charge.” He is just treating me so gently and being so strong for me, and there for me, and taking a real leadership role in our relationship, like deciding how much I should take on and stuff.

"Conquered by You"

Lord, I feel that You are bringing me into a place of being conquered by You, of my whole being brought under the omnipotent feet of Jesus, where “let the circumstances be what they may, it seeks only for God and His will, and it feels assured that God is making everything in the universe, good or bad, past or present, work together for its good.”

Thank You, Father.

"Faithful, Merciful God"

“Faithful One, so unchanging. Ageless One, You’re my Rock of peace. Lord of all, I depend on You. I call out to You, again and again; I call out to You, again and again. You are my Rock in times of trouble. You lift me up when I fall down. All through the storm Your love is the answer. My hope is in You alone.” That song got me through so many hard times, when all things seemed so dark and hopeless and impossible.

Oh, dear God, thank You for those hard times, thank You for being You, for loving me. Thank You for Your faithfulness.

“Because of the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed. The Lord’s lovingkindnesses never cease. For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.” (Lam 3:22-23).

“Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not. As Thou hast been, thou forever wilt be. Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!”

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I've Been Drifting, Lord... Please Forgive and Fill Me
Date: December 29, 2004

Lord, You know I’ve been “prayer walking” as I do the paper routes, and it is getting harder and harder for me to pray as I go. I’m tired, of course; and because I don’t know most people I feel sometimes as if my prayers are so repetitive. And then I wonder if I’m really reaching anyone, and how long it might take for results. Of course those are all arguments of the enemy, and he tries to get me distracted, too, by the weather, by discouraging encounters like the lady this morning who totally ignored me when I said “good morning”, and so on.

And Lord, I haven’t been in Your Word or doing any other serious praying for a week, since I finished the French New Testament, so I am allowing myself to get weak and make it easier for the enemy to attack with his vicious little darts! Oh, dear God, please forgive me. Here I am, right now. Please cleanse my heart, Lord, and refill and overflow me with Your Spirit that I may stand firm in You. Thank You, Lord.

Lord, please be with all those people who were devastated by the terrible tsunami on Christmas Day. Oh, dear God, please show Your love and mercy toward the survivors, and draw many people towards Yourself. In Jesus’ name! If there’s something we should do to help, please show us, Lord.

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The Narrow Way
Date: Dec 30, 2004

Lord, You are gracious and bless us – but so often it is in ways we do not expect or even understand. I long for Your name and salvation to be known among all nations, as Psalm 67:1-2 says. But I wonder what that will really take? In Acts, people turned to You when Your disciples prayed until Your Spirit fell on them in a great way, and suddenly their lives were transformed, totally transformed, and people took note that “they had been with Jesus.” And they knew the disciples were Christians because of their love. And “the Way” was a community that had strict rules, a narrow way, a way that truly feared God, a way that led to joy in persecution and suffering for the sake of Christ, even to martyrdom. It sure wasn’t a rose garden, unless it was a bramble of wild roses with their wild and glorious beauty and scent on the surface but full of thorns underneath – yet in which the small creatures and birds find refuge. We can’t just choose to sniff the blossoms, can we? You do bless us, guide us, judge us uprightly, but it isn’t all blossoms.

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Tsunami Reflections
Date: December 30, 2006

Lord, where does the death of 100,000 plus people in a tsunami fit into Your purpose and plan? Someone I know glibly announced that it was Your punishment against terrorists in that region. I wonder. It seems to me more like the sun shining and the rain falling on the good and evil people both. I wonder. Will it drive people to You? Or will they bitterly blame You for destroying peace on earth on Christmas Day! It doesn’t really seem to me like it changes anything much. “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven… a time to die… a time to uproot…. a time to kill… a time to tear down…. a time to weep and mourn…. a time to give up as lost… a time to tear apart…. God has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart…. Everything that God does will remain forever…. For God has so worked that men should fear (be in awe before) Him… For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore, let your words be few.” (Ecclesiastes). God has indeed set eternity in man’s heart that they should fear Him – and come to know Him through Jesus, His Son and our salvation! Praise God! Amen.

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