Tag Archives: fruits of the spirit

Prayers for the Week: Fruit of the Spirit – Forbearance

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ~ Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV)

Hello everyone, and welcome to today’s Prayers for the Week post.  We continue our series on the fruits of the Spirit, this is the fourth week, and that means this week we are discussing forbearance, or more commonly known as patience.

As there are no coincidences when it comes to God, let me tell you straight out that this particular fruit comes to us at the perfect time.  We have a lot of prayer requests this week, and an equally great number of praises, but in the unspoken requests category, one of my biggest needs as a Christian brother is to learn to better draw upon the patience that God has granted me.  I far to often tell others that I wasn’t given this particular fruit, but you know what, that is flat out not true.  God doesn’t withhold from us the fruits of the Spirit — rather, it is us that choose to accept the fruit from Him, but by saying that you weren’t given a particular fruit, really, isn’t that a case where we are just blaming God for our shortcomings?  If so, Lord, please forgive me and thank You for doing so.  I’ll try and be better in the future.

Before we feature our prayer requests and praises, let me ask you something.  Do you ever have a situation where you need to make a decision on what to do — this path or that path — and just aren’t sure which path to take?  I’m sure we all have been there.  When that situation arises next, ask God what you should do, and then, wait for God’s answer.  Listen from your heart about what He wants from you.  He will tell you by way of the Holy Spirit, and then, when He tells you, make absolutely certain that you obey His direction.  You will be glad you did.  Now, please continue reading and praying with us our prayer requests and praises.

Prayer Requests & Praises

  • Hiro starts us off today with her prayer request: Hi everyone! Could I ask for prayers…
    this time, every year, my daughter has her annual appointment at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. She has a rare eye condition called Ocular Melanosis (you can kind of see it in my profile pic). So far everything has been okay, but of course as a parent, I am anxious and worried.
    And thank you to Mike for his prayers last year when I asked for the same prayer request and posting Bible verses for me to read. I really appreciate it.
  • Brandi has a prayer request: My husband has applied for a bank manager position and another position (not sure about the title) and I would love some prayers sent his way. His name is Brad. Thanks!
  • Lori has a prayer request: I am awaiting and so hoping for an interview next week. This possible new job is literally 3 minutes from my home where I could come home and let my girls, Thelma & Louise, out at lunch!!! Please keep us in your prayers!
    • UPDATE: Thank you all for your prayers!!! I have an interview on Monday afternoon! Literally 3 minutes from our home….God knows if it is meant to be!
  • Jodi had a prayer request for the Facebook Group and a followup as well: My Mock 1 class for VIPKIDS is at 9AM (Eastern) Friday morning. Prayers appreciated!
    • UPDATE: It went pretty well! I did advance to the Mock 2 class, which I will do Tuesday morning at 9AM, and *should* be offered a contract after that.
  • Please pray for my friend Laura – she lost her Grandma.
  • Please pray for my friends at UNC-TV. The Master Control and Transmitter Control folks are losing their jobs, and after a year of dread over this, finally have their date for termination — July 31st. They will be receiving severance packages but please pray for them to land on their feet quickly.
  • Please pray for Shannan’s friend Darleen, who had heart surgery this week.  Here’s what was performed: Update on my friend Darleen:
    What Dr Fong did:-5 bypasses
    -Maze procedure
    -Mitral valve replaced, cow valve
    -Closes a PFO hole between the atrium
    -Removed some tissues waving in the aortic valveNow we wait for her to wake and come off the vent in ICU.
  • Amanda has a prayer request regarding her husband Daniel.  Please keep praying for this family! We got Daniel’s FoundationOne results today. There are some mutations which makes him a possible candidate for immunotherapy but there are not any FDA approved immunotherapy drugs that he is a candidate for. The good news is he is a candidate and there are several possible clinical trials. The bad news, it’s not something simple and we will have to travel for one of the trials. But I’ll take the answered prayers – we have options!! Thank you all for your prayers! Please continue to pray especially that we can be placed in a trial close to family/friends and that his numbers stay in the range they need to be to qualify for a trial. Also, my brother and SIL have just filed paperwork to foster to adopt a child. Please pray for them as well. Thanks again! Each of you are in my prayers daily!
  • Sad news from my friend Mrs. Lucas. Please pray for her friend: Thanks for all the prayers for my friend’s husband, Tom. He passed away as there were too many complications. Pray for Trudy and their children, please!
  • Jodi has another request for her family: Please keep my relatives in prayer! They had a mini-reunion over the 4th of July, and several have come down with a nasty virus, including my 99-yr-old grandma! She’s been in the ER twice for fluids and is doing ok, but my uncle Al, who was already in poor health due to a stroke last year is currently hospitalized and also fell yesterday. His wife, my other uncle & his lady-friend, my brother, my nephew, and my cousin’s wife all have this bug too.
  • Now, how about some big praise reports!  I’ll start us off: We’ve had a string of tough prayer requests lately, so let’s lift up a big praise! I’ll start. I’m praising God for my friend Maureen and her recent engagement to her soon to be husband Jamie! Congratulations Maureen!
  • My sister Robin gave praise for Vacation Bible School at her church!
  • Amanda has a praise: My brother and SIL decided to pursue adoption thru foster care!!! So excited!
  • Pat has a praise regarding her son: My son was diagnosed with scoliosis & told that the more he grows, the worse it will get. They expected to have to put him in a brace at our last visit. Instead of getting worse, it actually improved with LESS curvature at our last doctor’s visit, no brace needed! I’m praying and believing in complete healing from it and total reversal of the curvature already there from it.
  • Leslie is praising her soon to be daughter-in-law: Praising God for my new daughter-in-law in three weeks! The Lord really answered my prayers that my son find a wonderful woman to share his life with.
  • Sheila is giving praise for their new 3 month old German Shepherd puppy named Queen!
  • Jodi has a huge praise regarding her RA: I have a big praise! Just got a call from my Rheumatologist with lab and x-ray results. (I’ve had Rheumatoid Arthritis for 20 years!) The wrist x-rays show some narrowing of joint space but no damage or destruction! PRAISE! And a lab we do periodically to judge certain markers shows improvement. Two yrs ago I was in the severe range, one year ago in the moderate range, and today, I have dropped another 13 points and am in the MILD range!!! Big praises!
  • Mikel has a praise: Praising God for my five wonderful grand babies – oh yeah and their parents too
  • So what are your prayer requests?  And just as importantly, what praises to God do you want to share with us today? Whether you share them with us is irrelevant, but make sure you tell God how much you love Him!

Lastly, please pray with us 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 that trespass against us.

Lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the Kingdom, and Power, and Glory
Forever and ever. Amen.

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Joy

Prayers for the Week: Fruit of the Spirit – Joy

Joy

Hello everyone, and welcome to this week’s Prayers for the Week post!  Today we continue our look at the fruits of the Spirit.  Last week we explored Love, this week, we are turning our attention to Joy.  This is the second of the fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22.  Here is the verse again for you to remember:

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ~ Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV)

But, as you will soon see in our prayer requests, this week has been about anything but joy for so many of our Brothers and Sisters!  How are we supposed to find joy amongst so much sorrow, so much grief, so many broken hearts?  Well, my friends, that is not easy for certain, but it is possible.  To this poor man’s thinking, the joy is not with regards to the joy that the world can provide — no, the world is fallen, and death, sadness, and destruction are by-products of all of that because of our sin and the fallen state of the world.  To me, the joy comes in knowing and living for God.  We may not know why we suffer, or why our loved ones suffer, but we do know that we have in our corner a loving God.  Remember today the words from the Prophet Jeremiah as found in the book bearing his name:

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)

The Lord made that promise to the people of Israel while they were in exile in Babylon.  They didn’t know that it would take 70 years of captivity before they would be released, but it did — and still they called on God to hear their prayer.  Now, we can call of God directly through His Son Jesus Christ, and He will hear our prayers, and He will respond accordingly.  My brothers, in my opinion there is no greater joy to be found than that!

To those that are hurting right now, though, we lift up our prayers to God for you and your families.  Please continue reading and pray with us our prayer requests and praises below.

Prayer Requests & Praises

  • Jodi starts us off with a prayer request: Please keep my friend Caria and her family in prayer. Her father passed away this morning. Just last week, he fell while walking the dog and sustained a head injury. Not sure if something else was cause (anuerism, stroke?). Thankfully, he was a firm believer, as is Caria and her family, but it is still a difficult loss. Thank you!
  • Amanda has a prayer request for her husband Daniel: My husband goes in for his PET Scan on Thursday morning. Please pray that the scan is better than the last (which was great!), that it shows no new tumors or cancer, no spread of cancer, that the tumors that were resolved last scan are still resolved or gone and the other tumors are smaller and less active, resolved or gone. Please also pray that the FoundationOne test comes back that he is an candidate for immunotherapy and pray for us to have peace and give it to God between now and when we get the results next week some time. Thanks!
  • Kipp has a prayer request: Please pray for Alan’s mom Phyllis who is in the hospital dealing with her Chrones disease this morning. This is a very chronic, debilitating sickness that takes its toll on the body. It is in the IBS family. (irritable bowel syndrome).
  • Please pray for my cousins Janet and Susan and all of their families today. We lost my Great Aunt Genette today. She was a wonderful woman and I will remember her fondly from all the times she welcomed me into her home. Please pray for God’s Peace, Comfort, Strength, and Love to surround all of them in the days and weeks to come.
  • Please pray for my sister-in-Christ Genevieve and her family.  Her week started with her younger brother Mark being in a bike accident with a car, and being in ICU.  They saw improvement, evidence of God’s miracles in his brain activity, and they prepared for him to be transported to a different hospital for further care.  Then, the last thing any of them expected happened.  Her brother’s heart failed, and they had to say their goodbyes to their brother, son, grandson, and friend.  Please pray for Genevieve and her family; pray for their grief, pray for their broken hearts, pray for their shock at losing Mark when no one was expecting it. Pray that God would surround that family with His Peace, His Comfort, His Strength, and most of all, His Love, and that He would take care of them all each and every moment of every day. Pray that they would know the joy in knowing that Mark is with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
  • Lastly, please pray for my friend Candice. Her mom passed away peacefully in the care of Hospice.  Please pray for Candice and Martha and all of their family and friends that knew her.

Remember that the Lord has plans for us, plans for our welfare, not for evil towards us, plans for our future, plans for us to have a hope.  Remember to look for the joy even in the midst of all of the sorrow, anger, and hurt in our lives.  Look for the joy.

Now, please close out by praying 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 that trespass against us.

Lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the Kingdom, and Power, and Glory
Forever and ever. Amen.

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