The Help

Advent Praycation 2012

Have you noticed that some of the traditional stories circulating within our cultural matrix every year strives for a happy ending when help finally arrives? Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer had a very shiny nose. He helped out when the weather turned into an obstacle on Christmas Eve. The Grinch finally had a change of heart and became a help not a hinderance  in Whoville. Scrooge finally gets it in the end and helps Tiny Tim. God bless us everyone. Kris Kringle gets sent to a psychiatric hospital in Miracle on 34th Street but gets help in court, which affirms that he is genuine. George Bailey in Its A Wonderful Life thinks the world has come to an end when Clarence, an angel trying to earn wings helps out. In the Bible Mary and Joseph needed a place to stay. They didn’t have a reservation but an innkeeper helps out by finding space for them among the animals.

Everyone needs help every now and then. In these uncertain times, now and then comes along a lot. We need the kind of help that we can provide to each other. The help may be a kind word, a hand up, a few coins, food, shelter, safety, security, a hand to hold and sometimes a shoulder to cry on.
We also need the help that only comes with Divine intervention. We need God to step into the situation to either make everything all right or make us all right with everything.

Today repeat your Advent Affirmation throughout the day: Lord, make everything all right or make me all right with everything!

"I lift up my eyes to the hills from where my help come. My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth."
Psalm 121:1

Lord of heaven and earth, we come to you in weakness seeking your strength. Our lives are too empty without your joy. Our burdens become too heavy without your help. Our fears run away with us without your peace. Our anger becomes too destructive without your love.

Our world has become fractured, hungry and hurting. We look to you for help. Help us Lord and give us the power to help, and make our helping effective. Please make everything all right or make s all right with everything. In Jesus Name, Amen

VMM

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Guiding Light

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will counsel you and watch over you.”

Psalm 32:8

Lord, we come to you today asking you to show us the way to go when it is hard to see the road ahead. Help us to know when you are guiding us and when we are holding on too long to wrong assumptions and answers. Show us the best way to follow your voice, how to wait until the time you choose to answer our prayers and how to move forward with confidence when the answer arrives.

Help us to be more like You. Help us in the midst of this uncertain season to be quick to love and slow to anger. Help us to love each other better beyond what we speak to what we do. In Jesus name, help us to choose wisely our actions today whether it is deciding to work or play, shop or study, sleep or start a project, leave or go, pray or procrastinate. Amen.

YOUR MORNING, NOON AND NIGHT PRAYER ASSIGNMENT: Today pray for all houses of worship and where the Word of God is preached and taught. As this is the AME Church Connectional Day of Prayer, pray for our Zion.

PRAYCATION LENT 2011 CONFERENCE CALL

Remember to call tomorrow, Thursday morning at 6 AM Central/ 7 AM Eastern for prayer, study and testimony for the Praycation Lent Prayer Conference Call. Just call 1-218-936-2800, access code 812713 and invite others to do the same!

On Guard!

“He guards you when you leave and when you return, he guards you now, he guards you always.”

Psalm 121: 8

Great God of Creation, call us today to a greater devotion to love and serve you.

Help us to turn away from impulses that dishonor your glory.

Help us to resist the temptations that distract us from our spiritual disciplines.

Help us to deny the fear that if we give what we have we will have less.

Help us to discern that by giving we shall receive more.

Help us to discover a richer faith that holds up under pressure, high gasoline prices, unemployment, and deployment, mortgage and nuclear reactor meltdowns, polluted water and soil, infants, adolescents and aging parents.

Let each step taken today lead us to know that we are preserved by You, accompanied by You, ruled by You, and guarded by You, now and forever more, in Jesus name, Amen.

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MORNING, NOON AND NIGHT PRAYER ASSIGNMENT

Today pray for your co-workers. Pray for those who share responsibilities with you to achieve goals at work. Pray for their health, safety and wellbeing.

Help Us To Stand Again!

God of grace and glory, we humbly ask you to stand up in us as we face the challenges of the uncertain seasons of this time. We stand and after we have done all, stand again.

Forgive us when we have neglected the lessons you taught us that helped us to stand in the heat of the day.

If we fall again, help us to rise. Put within us a faith and hope that cannot be quenched. Inspire all harrassed and struggling souls of every race, nation, religon and hue with the assurance that all the forces of good are working for them and are moving them on to peace, health and holiness. We shall stand...and in Jesus name, after we have done all again..we shall stand. Amen.

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

Help When You Need It

"I lift up my eyes to the hills from where my help come. My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth."

Psalm 121:1

Lord of heaven and earth, we come to you in weakness seeking your strength. Our lives are too empty without your joy. Our burdens become too heavy without your help. Our fears run away with us without your peace. Our anger becomes too destructive without your love.

Our world has become fractured, hungry and hurting. We look to you for help. Help us Lord and give us the power to help, and make our helping effective. In Jesus Name, Amen

VMM

Into God's Hands

"Hope means to keep living
amid desperation
and to keep humming
in the darkness
Hope is knowing that there is love,
it is trust in tomorrow
it is falling asleep
and waking again
when the sun rises.
In the midst of a gale at sea,
it is to discover land.
In tje eyes of another
it is to see that you are understood...
As long as there is still hope
There will also be prayer...
and you will be held
in God's hands."

Henri J. M. Nouwen
"With Open Hands"

Uplifted Voices

Let's sing a song filled with the melodies of faith not fear and hope not harassment.

Today, we lift our voices for the young. Lord, help them as they aspire to make this a better world. We lift our voices for our sons and daughters. We pray that their zeal and idealism will be nurtured towards responsible action. We pray for the mature. Our prayer is that they fulfill their purpose in the uniqueness of their personalities and responsibilities. We pray for those who need sustenance and provision. We pray for those who cannot grow beyond sorrow and for the sick in body, mind or spirit that they may prosper and be in good health according to your word.

Yes, let us continue to sing new songs, filled with praise and thanksgiving!

In the name of Jesus, Amen

Lord Help!

Lord, help us to receive the answers we have been awaiting with joy and gladness. Help us to run with Your promises fulfilled.
Help us to tell the testimony of how You did the impossible, fixed what was broken, solved what was problematic, straightened what was disfigured, and restored what had been taken away. In Jesus name, Amen.

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If It's Not Too Much To Ask

Lord and Liberator, if it isn’t too much to ask that if the tension on the string of a violin creates a beautiful sound, please use the tension and stress in our lives to create something beautiful. If it isn’t too much to ask, help us to remember to inspire others by what we say and do today. If it isn’t to much to ask help us to see it is impossible to fail, there's nothing impossible to you and it is impossible not to live holy.

In the name of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit, together let us say, Amen!

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Help us to Receive

Lord, help us to receive the answers we have been awaiting with joy and gladness. Help us to run with Your promises fulfilled.

Help us to tell the testimony of how You did the impossible, fixed what was broken, solved what was problematic, straightened what was disfigured, and restored what had been taken away. In Jesus name, Amen.

Our Hope

O God, our hope and source of all life. We acknowledge today with joy the gift of life. Forgive us when we have taken for granted this precious gift or failed to redeem the time.

Lift our thoughts from to self to you, from the me-soever to the whosoever; from the littleness of our deeds to the majesty and wonder of your mighty acts.

Grant us grace for another day. Send joy in the midst of sadness and forgiveness in the face of transgressions. Help us to find the strength to stand in the face of slander.

Our hope is in you, O God, to put all things right which are wrong. Open our eyes so we can see through faith that you are at work even when present circumstances deny it. In Your name, Amen