Category: Prayer

Meg

A Prayer for Perspective

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”

–Ephesians 3:20

When my little Math whiz runs into a problem she can’t easily solve, it sends her little Irish temper into overdrive. Perspective, “the way you ‘see’ things as a result of who you are and what you do,”drives our daily lives. If we’re operating under the wrong influence, we can travel for long distances before we run out of gas and wonder how we ended up broken down.

Sometimes, just like my little and her minor Math conundrum, we can let small detours completely derail us.

“Take your time and figure it out,”I often remind her, “you’ll figure it out …you’re really good at Math.”

She will inevitably perk up a little as my compliments and encouragement sink in, but the hole in her Math paper remains as she tries to work around it to find the answer.

When minor mistakes and frustrations threaten to launch our temperaments into extremes, we can remind ourselves of the truth of this verse from Ephesians. Surely, our great God who is capable of all things, is not going to let a small mistake or frustration hold us back from the great life He has purposed for us. Not even a hole in our paper, or our plan.

Click here to continue reading …

Advertisements

Meg

A Prayer for Pre-Teen Parents

I fumed about my older daughter’s lack of timeliness, as I thrust the car door open and lunged in. Her little sister sat alone in the backseat, and worried tears streamed down her face. Stunned from watching her best friend run out of her sight, her seven year old voice was as panicked as her eyes were.

“I don’t know where she went!”

The engine hummed and the door hung wide open, as I tore around the yard. We called out her name and searched the hiding places. Flashes of missing kids paraded through my mind as I ran along the edge of our property. Stopped cold, I reached into my pocket to execute every parent’s worst nightmare. 

“My daughter is …missing,” I managed to verbalize, as I ached in prayer for God to protect her.

How had we gotten here?

That morning, I allowed the one thing that my daughter struggled with to snap my patience and leverage a war on her pre-teen emotional state. As she explained herself to the three police men parked at the end of our driveway that day, a guilt that I had failed her washed over me.

Click here to continue reading …

Meg

A Prayer for Those Caught in the Gossip Trap

The fibers in my stomach began to fly off with my lunch as mud slung out of my smartphone speaker. For seven years, I had tried to find the good and lend an understanding nod, until God revealed my agreeability made me guilty of conspiracy. Afraid to come across judgmental, I refused to weigh in directly.

Confidence at a high volume lofted a convincing argument on dishonesty’s behalf, and a strangling hold on the hand of truth that threatened to lurch out of my stomach. I always found something positive to say about the person in vocal peril, but ran the risk of being directly associated with the entirety of the conversation.

“Stay away from ungodly babbling because it will only lead deeper into a godless lifestyle.”1 Timothy 2:16 (VOICE)

Through the Holy Spirit abides in every Christian heart, and the uneasinesses I felt was a warning for me to evacuate that phone call. God is the protector our hearts, alerting us to falsities that attempt to crack through the surface.

Click here to continue reading …

Meg

A Prayer to Answer Compassionate Calls

“The heart is free where the Spirit of the Lord is.” 

–2 Corinthians 3:17 (NLV)

My daughter and I curled up on the couch one typical winter Tuesday that found both of us leveled with Influenza A. As we sat and colored pictures and fought aches and coughs, we watched a movie about a little girl in another country that found herself in an unfair state of affairs.

“I don’t want to watch this movie, Mommy,” she said,“it’s making me uncomfortable.”

The movie was “Queen of Katwe,” about a young girl who made history as a chess player in Uganda. Her life was anything but glamorous, and the reality of her reality made my daughter uncomfortable.

“It’s important to be aware,”I explained to her.  When the unfair circumstances of others make us uncomfortable, I believe that’s the seed of Christ’s compassionate heart nudging us to do something about it. 

There was one scene in particular that completely confused my church-going child. She knows about hunger, donates to help those in need, and raised her hand to sponsor a child. But until that moment it was still so very far away for her.

Click here to continue reading …

Meg

A Prayer to Escape Doubt

“For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and unblemished in his sight in love.” Ephesians 1:4 

(NET)“Are you ready?!”I asked my daughter excitedly as we drove away from the school day and onto a new adventure.“Mommy …” she trailed off in amazement as the ballet company practice came into our line of sight. Nervous, but sure of her dream, she stretched and gazed upon the very thing she had envisioned herself doing so many times.

Our dreams are road maps to God’s growing process for our individual purpose. He chose us so specifically and specially to walk out into the world equipped with the ability He put in us, to spread His love in the way that only we can.

The word chose in the above verse is the Greek word, eklegomai, a verb that means “to choose, set apart, elect.” “It sometimes refers to decisions made by people …but can also signify the electing activity of God according to his divine purpose and grace.” -Mounce’s Complete Expository DirectoryDo we realize, when we walk out into a day filled with clouds of doubt, that the God of the universe is concerned about what we’re up to?

Click to continue reading …