Give Us Our Daily Answer

"Answer my prayers, O Lord, for your unfailing love is wonderful. Take care of me, for your mercy is plentiful.

Psalm 69: 16

Dear Lord,

You and you alone are our God, Savior and King. There is no other whom we love and adore more. How wonderful are your works. Thank you for being near to us in the dark valleys of the past year as well as on the mountain peaks of success.

In your mercy and unfailing love, hear and answer our prayers today. We beseech you to look upon our requests with kindness as we turn our attention from the secular to the sacred. We plead our many causes humbly laying our petitions at your feet.

We do not know how or when you will answer our prayer but we have assurance from your Word that you are always at work in the lives of those who belong to you, those who are called according to your purpose.

Forgive us our pride and sinfulness, come save us again...in Jesus name, Amen.

VMM

Defeats Do Not Define Us

Early we seek your face this morning thankful for a moment to rest in your presence. Thank you for the restorative powers of sleep and the refreshment of rest. Thank you that both were apart of our night time hours.

We look with anticipation to the possibilities of today. We desire that the joys of yesterday will linger today and past disappointments will dissipate with morning dew. As much as we want to float through the day, help us to be present and accounted for in every moment, minute and aspect of the day/

Forgive us again for sins committed by thought word and deed. Help us to release those who have sinned against us through forgiveness.
In Jesus name, assist us in learning from our mistakes. We know its because of your love you chastise us. Thank God our defeats do not define us nor are we doomed to repeat a negative past. Amen. Robert Payne

ETERNITY’S EMBRACE

Let us pray:

In the quiet of the night
My soul reaches for you I breathe deep

As I feel Eternity Embracing me…
In the midnight hour
I whisper my prayer
Knowing that you hear me
I am able to close my eyes
As I breathe (inhale)
(exhale) Just breathe
Listening
As you speak
In a still small voice
That summons me
Down the path
Of my greatest good
As I journey
I see the manger
The cross
The tomb
And I rejoice as I
Dance
Just dance
Into the Light
of Eternity.
Inspired by: Luke 1:46-55 (NRSV)
Rev. Yolanda D. Lehman
Publisher, Ainta That Good News?!: A daily online Christian devotional that makes Good News easy to read and fun to share! © 2009 http://aintathatgoodnews.blogspot.com/

Sing, Laugh and Dance

Let us pray together:

Thank you Lord for being all beginnings and all endings. In the morning you cradle the world and in the evening you heal our wounds so we can fight another day; You are the morning dew and the evening mist; You are the early morning sun kissing the potential of a new day and you are the twilight whispering promises yet to come.
We sing of sorrows and laugh at mistakes; we dance in the rain and laugh at the wind; we dream of things yet to come and believe the things we hope for, the evidence of thing unseen.
When our faith falters and our hopes crash upon the craggy rocks of ambition, renew our strength; let us be caught into your loving arms when we faint and lifted up as we struggle to rise above circumstances that seek our demise. You are a great and mighty God who helps us to live above our circumstances.
It is in the name of Gratitude we pray, Amen VMM

Silent Night

Nights are rarely silent and holy these days. Lord, help us to carry a little bit of the silence that is pregnant with your perfect peace within us as we meet the busy rush of crowded streets, malls and agendas, tinkling brass and sounding cymbals.

Help us to enter into the chaos with your silence to encourage others to be still and know that you are God. Help us to be holy because you are holy in thought, word, and deed. Help us to have the extra calm so that wars and worries won’t capture us today. Help us to reach beyond our own midnight wanderings to help someone trapped at the threshold of Christmas.

When we come to the door of the celebration, Lord show us how to set down our bags and baggage to reach to the door of a new year. It is hard to open the door while holding on to our heavy burdens. Free our minds, freed our hearts and our hands to grasp your new emerging realities.

And when the night comes, may we sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace. In Jesus name, Amen.

VMM

Merry Christmas to you and your families. Plan to begin the New Year with us for a new discipline: The First 31 Days. Do not lose Christ in the celebration but keep Christ in the center of all you do this holiday season. Share your prayers, prayer requests and prayer experiences at praycation2@gmail.com.

Sacrificial Praise

Dear Lord, thank you for this day that you have made. Thank you for the new life you have allowed me to experience through the blessing of my family and my friends. You have been faithful down through the years and during this season of Advent, as I remember the coming of your son Jesus Christ; I ask that you will forgive me for all that I have taken for granted. I have taken for granted my mother, my friends, and the gifts you have granted me.

Continue to have patience with me as I find myself and return to my first love. I ask for your patience with me as you lead me toward the destiny you have ordained for my life. Open my eyes of faith that I might clearly recognize You in every part of my life and then see the greatness you have entrusted to each one of us. Let all of us see this Christmas season as an opportunity to bless someone we don’t know, even as we spend time with family and friends.

Finally, I give thanks for those who sacrifice everyday for my freedom and I ask that you bless the mothers and fathers who will have to sit in a foxhole, patrol a distant border, or fly through the sky somewhere in a foreign country during this season while securing the freedom and safety of our nation. I pray that you will be a blessing to them and remind all of us of the need to die to our selfishness and arrogance so that someone else will know your blessings through our sacrifice. Our song today is, “Come, Lord Jesus! Come and visit your people. We await your coming. ”

Thank you in advance for answered prayer. In Jesus name, Amen!

Rev. Nigal D. Felder

Louisville, Kentucky

Send Help Now!

"Our sins are piled up before God and testify against us...The Redeemer will come..."

Isaiah 59: 12-13, 20

Almighty and Everlasting God, we come confessing we have allowed too many things to pile up before you, even are sins. The work, the emails, the project completing, the thinking, the dishes, the laundry, the assignments, the trash, the mess, the shopping, the cooking, the wrapping, the giving, the tweeting and text responses are piled high even the sins that so easily beset us. O Lord, what can we do?

Isaiah prayed for Israel knowing that they couldn't handle their pile of sins by themselves. Neither can we. As we celebrate the coming of the promised redeemer who can buy us from slavery to sin again in this Advent season forgive us Lord. Then, show us how we can bring down to size the earthly piles of oughts and should. Amen.