July 18

Lord, I am filled with sadness, yet I praise You this morning because I am making my choice to "choose life". I will see your goodness and the blessings of this life instead of focusing on the problems and hurts.God, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven! Lord, pray through me - let me be an instrument of your peace. I pray this morning for Muslims everywhere, that they will begin to see the truth and move in the direction of your Way. I pray for robin Howard as she ministers to Muslims in Europe - give her the insight she needs. I pray for Nancy Schaffer at the NJ Womens Center - help me to reach out there and see if I can help. Lord, I pray for my church - GMVUMC - I think it does good for people, but help it to be able to change to meet the needs of a new generation (help me also). And for all the Church - help it not to be just an institution but truly your Body, the incarnation of your love and justice. And God, I feel impelled to write some things and need to set aside a little time - help me to do that. God, I just want to live in your Will, trusting that you will guide my steps - help me to pray appropriately. Lord, my greatest concerns this morning in my family are for Donald and Ashley. They need to really know You - Lord I know you have revealed some aspects of yourself to them - continue to reach out to them and show them how submission to your Way would help them. Pour out Love upon them - the love that even I have for them, imperfect as it is, but Your love is so precious! Help me to be the bringer of that Love to them- my heart overflows with it and I need to be able to demonstrate that Love in new ways. And I pray for the baseball event that our church is involved with this weekend - infuse your spirit into all the games and fellowship so that people will see You.
Amen

Thoughts of the Day

God, I am thinking much about Shane and his death, and I am feeling very sad. It makes me think of Alison also and my heart cries for her. Help me to work through this current sadness and not to inflict my sadness on the rest of my family. My heart is full of emotion that I don't know what to do with. Help me find appropriate outlets for all this grief. I am now aware that grief and mourning are 2 different things and I wonder how my mourning that I do in external ways looks. I crave some other ritual right now and don't know how to make it happen - help me think of something.

Jesus, I love you and your words are life to me. You alone know what we need.

Arms Reaching Up to God

This is to be a prayer journal for my reach to God. I have been thinking lately about the fact that my heart is full of prayers that I can't seem to articulate and I think the Holy Spirit desires to pray through me. This will be for that purpose.

Lord, I want to do your will, and I pray that your will be done on earth as in heaven.
My heart is filled with the problems of family and friends and I don't know how to pray for them, because I don't understand what outcomes would be best, but You do. So I mention their names before you and realize that You know their pain --
for Donald, Ashley and Shane, Sierra and Jimmy
for Paula and Denny
For Carla
for Nancy and Ed and Jeanie and Mike
for Charles and Marie
for Monica and Mark

These are who is on my heart today.

God, help me to develop my prayer life and accomplish whatever You desire through it.

God, I understand that it is Your will that we should be frustrated with the world as it is, that we should be upset with the evils in this world, and that being unhappy with those things should make us seek You. It has done that for me - I pray that it will have the same effect on these others.