13Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 17Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. 19My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. ~ James 5:13-20 (ESV)
Hello everyone, and welcome to this week’s Prayers for the Week post. I’ve got just a couple of prayer requests and praises today, but they both speak to the power of prayer and the verses we are sharing today. Please read and pray with us, and please include your prayer requests in the comments so that we can pray for you too!
Prayer Requests and Praises!
- Big Praises from my friend Amanda and her husband Daniel! Here is what she wrote:Hello again! I believe this may be the last update I will send for this particular journey we have been on!
Daniel’s colonoscopy/EGD came back with no concerns. They took a few samples to biopsy and everything came back okay. So, his hernia repair surgery is scheduled for tomorrow. He will spend a few day in the hospital and then we will be home indefinitely! The only remaining planned surgery will be to remove his port if he has 2 more PET scans come back clean. The oncologist is monitoring him every month in case we get another recurrence and the scans will be done every 3 months for a while. I like to say we are doing the finishing work – like when you get new floors and it takes a bit for the baseboards to get installed! (unless the work is being done by a certain family flooring company up north!). So if you can pray that the hernia repair goes well, there are no infections or complications and it works, as well as Daniel remaining cancer free, we would much appreciate it!
We want to also thank you for walking this journey with us. Without your support and prayers, we wouldn’t have gotten here. Almost a year ago, I hoped upon hope that we would make it to this point but I never allowed myself to dream that we would actually get here. We are here because of the miracles your faith and prayers helped happen. I thank you for having the deep faith, trust in God and love for God and Jesus to pray for us prayers that were answered. I thank all of you for being there for us – no matter if it was shuttling Cate around, listening to me go on and on about the what ifs, the notes and gifts to say you were there, or any just being out there rooting for us. These messages have been an outlet for me. A way to organize the chaos into something that seemed doable. Knowing we had a support network filled with so many wonderful people helped in ways you might never understand. Many of you we have never met, but you supported us and we thank you for that. Mostly, we thank you all for loving us enough to care and travel with us while we tackled this challenge God put in our lives. While we have made it through with the best possible outcome, we have also grown in our faith and perspective and, at least speaking for me, are better people for it. I hope that one day you will trust us to return the favor by supporting you when you need it. Maybe when our lives settle down, we can do a victory tour to thank you all in person! Hopefully, God won’t put this nasty obstacle in our paths again. But if He does, rest assured, I will come bother you again!
Love and Thanks!
Amanda, Daniel and Cate - Please pray for my Brother-In-Christ Elisha and his family. Elisha has been fighting back issues, and today it got worse to the point that he had to go to the hospital. Please pray for his healing, and for Peace, Comfort, and Strength for him and his wife Cynthia. Elisha is as close a friend as I have at work, we’ve known each other for almost 20 years. Thank you for your prayers!
Now, please pray with us the prayer that Jesus taught his Disciples 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 into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory forever and ever.
Please pray for my friend Teresa. Here is what she wrote:
Tonight a very dear aunt of our passed on. She was a huge part of our lives – full of love, understanding and always there for you no matter what. We will all miss you and love you forever Aunt Gilda. RIP – Give dad a big hug from me when you meet him again there in heaven
My friend Jodi has sad news to pass along for prayers. Here is what she wrote:
Oh my heart is completely broken! Adam’s Little League coach from last spring just lost his oldest daughter Hallie & her 5-month old baby Brayson yesterday. Their jeep had become stuck in the mud, and they were in the backseat, keeping warm when they were tragically poisoned by CO2 coming into the vehicle. Please pray for the Lewis family!