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Prayers for the Week – Wonderfully Made

Psalm 139:14

14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. ~ Psalm 139:14 (ESV)

Hello my friends, and welcome to this week’s Prayers for the Week post.  This week, we’re focusing on how God has created us.  Most of our prayer requests revolve around things that our Brothers and Sisters-in-Christ are going through, so it’s important to remember that God made us.  Also, I think it is important to remember that God knows us all, even if we aren’t taking the time to know Him in return, and that He has plans for us.  Let’s remember the wonderful verse to be found in Jeremiah 29:11 in both picture in text:

Jeremiah 29:11

11For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. ~ Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV)

My friends, we are human, and many times we don’t know why things happen to those we love.  Why does my Mom have breast cancer?  Why does Cindy’s Aunt Carol have breast cancer?  Why do other people we know have such serious illnesses?  We don’t know why.  What I know, though, is that it is in times like this that we must turn to God for the support we need.  Our strength is nothing — the strength I have is all because of God.  If you are struggling, if you are hurting, if you are scared or lonely or afraid, I urge you to give your fears up to God.  He will care for you, He longs for you to turn to Him.  He will give you Peace, but you need to ask Him for it.  Now, please read along and pray with us for the rest of our Prayer Requests and Praises.

Prayer Requests and Praises…

  • Please pray for my friend Janice. She has been undergoing a huge assortment of tests, and today found out that her illness is Graves Disease. Please pray for her recovery, treatment, Peace, Comfort, Strength, and her medical team as they work on beating this disease.
  • My friend Jodi has a prayer request for us. Here is what she wrote:Can you please add my friend Laura to your prayer list this week? Her brother Todd, to whom she’s always been extremely close, has been fighting cancer. They learned yesterday it has spread to his brain. He has been sent home with hospice care. Todd is Laura’s son’s favorite uncle, and this is very hard on him too (Sam, age 9). Thank you!Please pray with me:

    Heavenly Father, we hear daily of struggles that people are going through with that horrific disease — cancer. We really are at a loss to understand how these things invade the lives of Your people, but we also know that You have a plan for all of us. We take heart in Your Words from the book of Jeremiah: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” So we know that, despite the disease that Todd is fighting, we know that his life has a purpose, and it is a purpose that You have written for him. Please be with Todd, with his sister Laura, with her son Sam, and with all of their family. Please give Todd the Peace, the Strength, the Comfort, the Love that he needs. Please be with all of them and enfold them in Your Loving embrace so that they would know You are with them. Also, Lord, if it is Your Will, Lord, we pray for healing for Todd. Show us Your Power, Your Glory, and show us that all the medicine in the world means nothing when compared to what You can do. We ask all of these things in the wonderful name of Your Son Jesus with Thanksgiving. Amen

  • Please continue to pray for my Mom, Ellen, who has breast cancer.  She had some tests done, and it cleared up some things that they needed to know, so that was good news.  Thanks!
  • Please pray for Cindy’s Aunt Carol.  She has been fighting breast cancer for a long time now, and is doing well, but when she gets her treatments it wears her out for a day or two, so please pray for her strength during these treatments.
  • Please pray for my sister Robin — she starts her new job on Monday!  Please pray that she would be the light in her classroom that her students need, and that this experience is everything that she hopes it is and then some!
  • Please give great Praise to God for Nora, the newborn daughter of friends of mine.  She was born on the 5th, and all the family is doing well, so please give praise to God for all of that!
  • Please pray for the recovery of my friend Elise.  She had successful surgery and is now back home and is recovering.  Please pray that she would have great healing and that her family can rest easily from now on out!  Please pray for Elise, her husband Randy, and their two wonderful children.  Thanks!

If you have a prayer request, please do not hesitate to leave it with us as a comment.  We pray for all of you, and if you need prayers, we are here for you.  Thank you all for praying for these requests!  Now, please close with me by praying the prayer that Jesus taught His Disciples to pray:

Our Father, who art in Heaven,
Hallowed by 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.

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Trust in the Lord

Prayers for the Week – Proverbs 3:5-6

Proverbs 3:5-6

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
6In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths. ~ Proverbs 3:5-6 (ESV)

Trust.  That can be one of the hardest things to do.  How do you trust someone that turns against you?  How do you put your trust in a process, if you feel that the process is corrupted?  How do you trust a God that you often feel isn’t there for you?  These are incredibly hard questions to answer, and perhaps my answer isn’t the one you want to hear.  We’re going to explore this in more depth over at our Prayers for the Week site, I hope you take the time to click over and read the rest of this post.  Trust does exist in this world.  Trust can be found.  Not everyone will turn against you.  Find out where you can put your trust — and where you can not — over at our sister site.  It may be the most important thing you ever do.  If you do not click over, at the very least, pray the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray with us:

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. Amen.

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Prayers for the Week – Proverbs 27:1-2

Proverbs 27:1-2

{Editor’s Note: Hello my friends, welcome to this week’s Prayers for the Week post!  Starting today, we are sharing things a little differently.  I’ve created a special site, called Prayers for the Week, and that is where we will write our prayer posts on.  However, each week we’ll write an introduction here, and invite you to link over to that post to read it fully.  Please give this a try, and let me know what you think.  It may be that this is a good idea, but it may be that this isn’t, so give it a shot and let me know what you think.  Thanks!}

1Do not boast about tomorrow,
for you do not know what a day may bring.
2Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;
a stranger, and not your own lips. ~ Proverbs 27:1-2 (ESV)

Why do we as a people find it so easy to march to the beat of our own drum?  Why do we insist on telling the world how great we are?  What is it that we absolutely must look after number one?  Why have we forgotten so much about the one who created us?  Over at our Prayers for the Week site, explore with me some of the Biblical reasons for why we are here, and let’s look at how we can change our thinking.  Please click on over and read our post and pray with us!

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Prayers for the Week – Remembering


This past week my wife and I drove her aunt and uncle to Montana for her Uncle’s Memorial service. It was a long, 2,000 mile journey through 11 states, but it was a great trip nonetheless. It was a journey of remembering, of remembering the time Uncle Bud drove school buses from North Carolina to Montana with his brother Sam. It was a journey of remembering the trips that Cindy made in days gone by, and it was a trip of remembering all the trips that Uncle Sam and Aunt Saundra made back to North Carolina. In all, nine of Uncle Sam’s relatives made the trip by car or plane from North Carolina to Montana to be there for Aunt Saundra, Lori Jean, Tom, Allison, and the rest of the family. In each case Aunt Saundra remarked that she couldn’t believe that we came out for Sam. Well, Aunt Saundra, we didn’t come out for Uncle Sam. We came out for you.

In preparing for this message, I found myself drawn to 1 Corinthians 15:52-57:


Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭15‬:‭51-58‬ ESV)

The older I get, the more I draw comfort in the words that God leaves for us. They inspire me, the direct me, they are my hope in a crazy, chaotic world. They help me to sleep at night, knowing that whatever happens, God is with me. Aunt Saundra, Lori, Tom, and Allison, God is with you too. Draw comfort in that fact.

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 into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory forever and ever. Amen.

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Prayers for the Week – RIP Uncle Sam

Uncle Walter, Uncle Bob, Uncle Bud, Uncle Sam, and Uncle Ted in 2008

Uncle Walter, Uncle Bob, Uncle Bud, Uncle Sam, and Uncle Ted in 2008

7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ~ 2Timothy 4:7 (ESV)

My friends, thank you for joining us today on a very special Prayers for the Week post.  We learned on Friday morning that Uncle Sam, pictured in the grey sweater, passed away in his sleep that morning.  It was totally unexpected — we had just seen Uncle Sam just 6 weeks earlier for Uncle Ted’s (far right) funeral.  My friends, thank you for your love and support during this trying time.  In this picture, only Uncle Walter on the left and Uncle Bud in the middle are left, and I know that they are hurting, wondering what is happening.  My wife Cindy and her family has lost three of her uncles in the past 18 months.

My friends, please pray with us, pray for Uncle Sam, for his goodness, for his kindness, for those that he touched in his life.  Pray for Aunt Saundra, his wife, and their children and grandchildren and nieces and nephews and cousins and on and on and on.  Please pray for their comfort, their strength, their peace, pray that God would wrap them up in His arms and care for them for as long as need be.  Most of all, pray that they would turn to God in their grief, that they wouldn’t turn angry towards God, but rather, that they would understand that God needed Uncle Sam at that moment, that, while we don’t know the reason he was chosen at that moment, we know that it is for the Glory of God.  Most of all, pray that if there is someone that does not know God, pray that they would come to know Him through the example that Uncle Sam, Uncle Ted, and Uncle Bob left for us.  These were great men, all of them taken before we wanted them, and I know that the old saying is that these things come in threes, but I didn’t want that to be the case.

My friends, please pray for Uncle Bud and Uncle Walter, that they would stay in good health, and that God would not call them for some time to come.  My wife Cindy and her family need them to stick around for a while yet.  Now, please pray with me 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. Amen.

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