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.

Unexpected Blessings

Heavenly father. Often I marvel when your blessings appear when I am empty and tired, and without exaltation, expectation or anticipation. Empower me to pour out to others what you have given me. Grant me the endurance to be a blessing where you lead me. Keep me humble in heart to continue to worship you particularly in this season as we celebrate your birth. I honor you and thank you for your presence. Amen.

Herschelle Reed-Morris

Share Your Prayers

As we approach the Christmas Day and the end of 2010, share you prayers and thoughts with the Praycation/Selah family. Just send to praycation2@gmail.com.

Just A Closer Walk

"Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall" Psalm 55:22

Heavenly Father, Help me to walk closer with You so I understand that Your love never fails and never fades. Help me walk closely so that I understand that I can only do what's possible and trust You to do what's impossible. Oh God, help me to walk closely so that when I've come to the end of my rope, I know that You can provide an extension. And Lord, help me to understand that I can only become closer to You by engaging in daily conversation with You; for daily prayer and continuous study of Your word diminishes many cares. For it is Your word that says, "Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall" (Psalm 55:22). For all these reasons Lord, I pray for a closer walk with You because I would rather walk with you in the dark than alone in the light. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Sister Erica Harbin , An excerpt from the book "And Then They Prayed...R.E.V.I.V.E." by Bishop James L. Davis and Supervisor Arelis B. Davis, 9th Episcopal District, AME Church

One More Time

God of promises made and promises kept, come again into our hearts. Come in a way we need the most and help us rejoice again for divinity clothed in human flesh.

Help us to rise above the noise that calls us to less than lofty activities. Help us to ignore the invitations to promote the secular rather than the sacred things of God.

Open our hearts so that we will continue to rescue the lost, strengthen the weak and support your call to this ministry of reconciliation. Open our hearts to create a new place for your glory to dwell.

In spite of what our eyes see and our ears hear, this is the season to rejoice and again I say rejoice!

Awaken old discarded dreams, restart the vision and reset the goals for the coming new year. Show us which one of our priorities of the past your want to be active in our present. In Jesus Name, Amen.

VMM

Advent, Christmastide and New Years Prayers

If you have a prayer to share, send it to bishopvashitmckenzie@gmail.com. Loved to hear your prayer concerns for this season of our lives as well. Blessings!

Change Agent

Dear God,

We are constantly guilty of being wrapped in materialism this season and the fast-paced journeys of our lives that we forget about those around us who are without this season. We are wrong for allowing any of our brothers and sisters to go without food and clothing during this winter season while we continue to shop until we drop. Father, forgive us for what we have done and for what we have left undone.

During this Advent Season, challenge us to be good stewards of your word and bless those who we come in contact with either by word or deed. Allow us to be a blessing to someone else today and allow others to see the spirit you have placed within us. Today allow us to be change-agents through our expression, attitude and demeanor which represent the Love you share for us. Amen.

Stephen A. Green

Tis the Season

Father in the name of Jesus, almighty God, all powerful God, everlasting God, creator of all things we come right now to confess you are Lord over our lives-mind, body, spirit and soul and you are Lord over all things and so we invite you to come now God. Holy Spirit have your way as I come on behalf of your daughters who are struggling in the joyous season.

God I come interceding right now for every individual whose eyes are able to follow the lines here and receive in their heart and every believer who believes in you …We give honor and praise to your name. Your word says in Hebrews 11 “He rewards those who diligently seeks Him”. God here we are seeking you and laying it all before you. God we come surrendering to your will. We put our expectations in you in this difficult season. When we should be celebrating your birth and shouting for joy Father God some of us are not… Why God?

It is in this season anything we struggle with in life becomes magnified. Whatever it is we’re carrying is heavier is like a ton in this season, whatever struggles are in front of us now looks like a brick wall and the result oh God is deadlier than the issue... depression God, suicidal thoughts God, self- medicating … yes God the result of all we’re dealing with is too heavy for us alone to bear. So we need you God.

My sisters are dealing with unemployment, underemployment, financial loss, financial lack, foreclosers thru the mail, eviction notices and pad locks are on the door, grief and bereavement is the only thing that some of us see in this season, physicians with trending diagnosis that we don’t understand and then God there is the pressure of the season. The pressure to keep up, to buy in to darkness, to spend what we don’t have for something we things that have no value or significance… not only are we dealing with this stuff God but the house is struggling in this season-our husbands and men are struggling in this season-our children are struggling in this season-our families are struggling not to mention the community, the Country, the Government, the World.

But God, You God , Elohim, Jehovah, Adonai are the only one capable of handling it all. So God we come to the only source we know in this season and every season. We acknowledge you God as the only one who can shift the climate, change our status, re-write the story, open doors and portals, cancel debt, operate without anesthesia , jump a flat line, comfort the home, rebuild a house, bring the unsaved in out of the wilderness and be our ultimate Commander in Chief in this term, midterm and all terms.

We come today to serve notice to all that is against us, all that is that is deceiving us, all that is wearing us down. I come to declare as daughters of the Most High, heirs to the Throne we will not be moved in the name of Jesus. Your word says in Job 22:28 “You will declare a thing, and it will be established for you; so light will shine on your ways” and believe it. We put our hope in you God because we know “all things are possible for them who love Him”. We know nothing is too hard for you oh God. We know God that it is your will to bless us. We know God according to Jeremiah 29:11 Your plan is to prosper us to give us hope and a future and we believe You God. We come to command this day and take authority over the day in the name of Jesus. We seek you God to set order to our day right now, to set order to our mess right now, to set order to the season right now. We graciously step into the day with gratitude. We greet the day with excitement, joy, anticipation and expectancy. And as we have placed all of our cares upon you Father God “our soul waits patiently for God alone”. We consider it done. We shout now for the victory before any manifestation. In Jesus Name. Amen.

Dee Marshall

Founder and President, Girlfriends Pray

www.GirlfriendsPrayBlog.org

O, Give Thanks!

Thank you Lord for the call during this Advent season to make all things new. Help us to make room for our own nativity, even where there is no room at our own inns. Grant us peace when we are busy but not blessed. Exchange our sorrows for joy and any bitterness for love. If we are lost and cannot find our way, put salvation under the tree. Let this season be a time of hope in spite of wars and rumors of wars, negative prognosis and ill will; let heaven and nature sing, joy to the world, Amen.

VMM

Unconditional Love

Thanksgiving for God’s Love

O, Lord our God, how excellent is Your name in All the Earth!
We pause at this time in the Season of Advent with over flowing grateful hearts
And say, “Thank you, Lord!”
Thank You for Your unconditional love gift of Jesus, the Christ!
Thank You for loving us before we loved ourselves;
Thank You for sending Jesus that we might live through Him.
Thank You God for showing us that true love is patient,
And thank You for teaching us the endurance of true love!
Thank you God, for loving us through our sins
And providing us a way back to You and Your love.
Thank You for Christ’s unspeakable gift of eternal life!
We are truly grateful, Lord, in Jesus Name. Amen.
1 John 4:7a, 9-10

Bishop Sarah F. Davis
16th Episcopal District
AME Church

Double Exposure

"Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the Lord delivers them in times of trouble. The Lord protects and preserves them-- they are counted among the blessed in the land-- he does not give them over to desire of their foes. The Lord sustains them on their sickbed and restores them from their bed of illness."

Heavenly Father,

As the seasons are changing, we see many of our brothers and sisters on the streets exposed to the elements-- Lord be their shelter when they have none; be their provider when others fail-- be their resource, giving them everything they may need. Let them not be forgotten on today.

Lord, touch the hearts of those who may come across those who are less fortunate then themselves this season and allow them to show themselves friendly. Make ways for those who need you to be able to find strength in you. Proctect them dear Lord from sucumbing to trials and times of trouble.

Deliver us; Equip us; Empower us; Rebuild us; Help us being a blessing to others in this season and have kinder regard for those who can not do for themselves.

And God, bless those who are sick on today-- sick with pneumonia, sick with colds and influenza, sick with diabetes, cancer, and other illness that have riddled our bodies. Bless those who are ill and restore their bodies even now. We lift up our loved ones who need you to be a healer on today. Restore them; Heal them and keep them.

In your name we ask all these things, Amen.

Jasmine Saint Jean

Empowerment Temple AMEC

The Joy of Giving

"The wicked borrow, and do not pay back, but the righteous are generous and keep giving." Psalm 37:21

Lord, our soon coming King, you have given us the gift of eternal life through your son Jesus Christ. Now, may the spirit of generosity overcome us and lead us to give our all today. Empower us to speak your word into the lives of those around us; to give wise counsel when asked; to give a kind word and comfort to those who are suffering; to give of our time to causes that need our input and influence; to give our love without seeking reciprocity and to give our treasure to undergird your work. Help us to give unselfishly and grow beyond self-serving lifestyles.

In Jesus name, increase our eagerness to give ourselves to you! Amen.

VMM

ADVENT

The season of seeking is an excellent time to increase your Bible reading time in spiritual preparation for the birth of Christ and His coming back again. On the left side of this blog is a section that contains Scripture readings for all four weeks of the season of Advent. Turn aside from your regular activities to read a verse daily or once a week. Pray that God will open your mind and heart to the truth and power of the Word.

For more information about the season of Advent, scroll down to an explanation on this prayer blog.

Following the Leader

Almighty, eternal, just and merciful God:

Grant us the desire to do only what pleases you,

and the strength to do only what you command.

Cleanse our souls,

enlighten our minds.

and inflame our hearts with your Holy Spirit,

that we may follow in the footsteps of your beloved Son,

Jesus Christ. Amen.

St Francis of Assisi

Required Response

"What does the Lord require of you?"

Micah 6:8

The demands upon our time and tempers keep us distracted from doing what you require. Empower us, Lord God of all, to do what is required of us - to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly before you.

As we seek mercy for ourselves, help us to extend mercy to each other. As we seek justice for ourselves, help us to seek justice for those who cannot help themselves. As we stand boldly before our adversaries, we strive to walk in humble obedience to your will.

In Jesus name, help us to fulfill all that is required of us this day and all the days of our lives. Amen.

VMM

Spiritual Vigilance

"And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”

Romans 13:11

Amazing God, thank you for this season, this moment to draw closer to a love that gave the ultimate sacrificial gift so that we can enjoy by faith through grace eternal life. Thank you for this season where we can stir up the gifts that is within us to apply them according to your will. Thank you for these days where we can shake off a lethargic faith that has been lulled to sleep by disappointments.

We know what we do matters to you, O Lord, and to those we life and work with. Therefore, in Jesus name help us to keep a spiritual vigilance over our words and deeds as we are no longer children of the darkness but children of light. Amen.

VMM