Romans 1:18-32 (ESV)

¹⁸For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. ¹⁹For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. ²¹For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²²Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
²⁴Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
²⁶For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; ²⁷and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
²⁸And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. ²⁹They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, ³⁰slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. ³²Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

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Hello everyone, and welcome to this week’s Prayers for the Week post. Today we are starting a hard lesson, understanding how we are under God’s Wrath and what we can do to change that. This world is so full of chaos, clutter, confusion, anger, and hatred, and until we know why that is, we will never have the opportunity to change it.

My prayer for this post is that God would use these words I’m writing to drill down deep into all of our souls and see where we are lacking, with the aim of improving ourselves, and by extension, improving the world around us.

The opening chapter in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the people of Rome is a hard word for us all to hear. The sad fact is that our world we live in is fallen; we have girls being killed and left in the woods; we have people battling cancer; we have sorrow and sadness all around, no matter where we turn. So much of this is because we have turned away from God. Now, this is not to say that if we were 100% focused on God, that our lives would be perfect and that we wouldn’t be going through these things. That is not necessarily the case.

However, a big key for us to remember is this: When we turn our attention to God, and call on His Guidance, His Peace, His Love, and His Strength, He will see us through the trials and tribulations, and we will be better off than we would otherwise be.

The beauty of the Bible is that God’s Hope for us all is found throughout. Even though we have the hard truth of Romans 1:18-32, we also have the incredible words of John 3:16. ¹⁶“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Our world is in upheaval. The only one that can change that is God and His Son, Jesus Christ. We may not be able to change the world on our own, but we can pray to God that He would use us to help bring that change to the world. Change that transcends politics, that transcends all of the normal things that we complain about in our day to day lives. Change that brings more and more people to God as His adopted children. That is the change that our world needs to see.

For now, you can start that process by praying along with our prayer requests and praises.

Prayer Requests & Praises

• Scarlett has a prayer request for a friend of theirs: “Please pray for our young friend, Mike! He is at the Anderson Clinic for a trial therapy! Pray it is successful!“
• Pam asks for prayers and remembrances for her friend. “Hey Mike. I’m asking my fellow prayer partners to remember my dear friend, Debbie, today. She lost her mom this morning and that is always hard, especially on Mother’s Day. Thank you!“
• My Aunt Kitty asks for prayers for her cousin Linda: “Mike our family n friends need to pray for my cousin Linda who fell last night n broke her pelvis in three places. I’ll let you know of any updates I get. Please pray for her.“
• My cousin Deb has a prayer request for housing: “Please pray that we find a home to rent asap, been packing by faith not by sight.“
• My friend Joe has a prayer request for a friend in need of housing: “Needing prayer for friend. Him & his family just got evicted. Doesn’t have ANY family in NC.“
• Connie has a prayer request for her cousin’s husband: “Cousins husband has cancer around the vena cava, a large blood vessel in the chest. He has had chemo and radiation, now a very tricky surgery tmrw to remove the rest. Prayers greatly appreciated!!“
  • Update from Connie: “Surgery went well and recovery is going smoothly, thank you for prayers, they are working. God is good.“
• Please pray for the family and friends of Riley Crossman, the 15 year old that was abducted and killed in West Virginia. Please pray for her Mother, for her Friends, and all of the rest of her family. Also please pray for justice, and if it was her mother’s boyfriend that did this, that he would be punished for his crimes.
• Sheila has a prayer request for her co-worker Liz: “Please pray for my co worker Liz , she was just recently diagnosed with breast cancer and is scheduled for surgery on May 24,2019. Please keep her in your prayers.“
• Please pray for Kyle and Steph, a married couple that is facing infertility issues. Please pray that God would use their situation for His Glory, either through a miraculous pregnancy or adoption of some wonderful children.
• Lastly, please pray for all of the Christians in the world; pray that they would rely on God in all circumstances, and that they would avoid the persecutions that we hear about. Pray that we would be the change that the world needs to see happen, and that God’s Kingdom can continue to gain more and more co-heirs with Christ!

Now, please pray with me the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray:

Our Father, who art in Heaven
Hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done
On earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not in temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the Kingdom, and Power, and Glory
Forever and ever.
Amen.

Thank you for joining us today in prayer. We’ll see you next week, please add your prayers below so we can pray for you and your family and friends!