It's Yours!

“ The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, 


the world, and all who live in it;…”

Psalm 24:1

The Earth is yours, O Lord. You have given the world life and everyone who lives in it with fullness and glory. You have founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Help us today to take better care of the seas, rivers and the life that lives within it and beside it. Equip us with new wisdom and knowledge to overcome environmental negligence. Please help us in this hour as the seas and it creatures are being spoiled by pollutants that may change the world you so carefully created forever. In this hour of need we pray in Jesus name, Amen.

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PRAYING THE PSALMS

In this season of transition from autumn to winter, let us pray together the Psalms. It is a wonderful book filled with joy and lament, excitement and sorrow, poetry and prose that speaks to the depth of our souls. Let’s see what God wants to say to us!

Dawn's Early Light

"In the morning, O Lord, hear my voice. In the morning, I lay my needs in front of you, and I wait."

Psalm 5:3

Orchestrator of the Universe help me this morning and every morning that you grant me life, to come to you in the quiet of dawn's early light, before caffein, rush hour, the opening bell, the punched clock, while there is a hush all over the house. Before I take on too much of the day or before the day takes me on, I come before you to hear Your voice telling me which way to go.

I present myself, my soul and body as a reasonable sacrifice. I bring you praise and thanksgiving before I lay my needs before you. I bring the possibilities of the day and ask you to use it for your glory. I bring whatever patience I can gather to wait, wait to hear your voice in every matter. In Jesus name, Amen.

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PRAYING THE PSALMS

Sometimes we are not sure where to begin when it time to pray. Start with the Book of Psalms! Join us during this transition season between autumn and winter to pray the psalms. Let this time be your jump start into your daily devotions or pray it as a sustaining moment during the day.

Let me know if you will be praying the Psalms with us as well as what is your favorite Psalm?

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Why God?

“Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?”

Psalm 2:1

Let us pray:

O Lord our God, we are overwhelmed with questions today. We are inquisitive children. We seek to know the unknowable.

Why do the nations rage? Why do people plot against each other in vain? Why do they desire to stand together against You and your anointed?

Show us how to navigate between those who are distracted by greed and those distracted by arrogance. Remove from us the desire to join their plots. Forgive us when we have submitted to our own selfish motives. Forgive us when we have become the they.

Help us to love what is right in such a way that wrong will not be tolerated. Help us to speak truth to power and speak it in the way of Love. In the matchless name of Jesus, Amen.

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Stand Strong

Praying Through the Psalms

We are living between the golden glow of autumn and the icy glare of winter. Many of you have already tasted the snow or cold menu that winter provides: the early morning chill has given way to plummeting temperatures; jackets are shed, coats dug out of closets, boots located, snow covered the not yet fallen leaves, planes diverted and travel plans changed.

In this transition, I asked the Lord what should we do. The answer came back, pray the Psalms. The Book of Psalms offers us an opportunity to transform this transitional season into powerful encounters with God. You can turn each psalm into your own personal prayer or testimony. We may not pray through all 150 psalms by Thanksgiving and the genesis of the Advent season. We will however touch upon several Psalm-subjects from anger to zeal, fear to power, oppression to joy and healing to guidance.

1. Center your attention on God in your prayer space.
2. Assume your prayer posture whether it is standing, sitting, lying prostrate or simply lifting your face towards heaven.
3. Be still while invoking the presence of God
4. Read the Psalm of the day or a portion thereof.
5. Pray the Psalm and discover its power.

Let's try this prayer discipline. Let me know in the comment section is you will join the journey.

Let us pray:

“And he shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season.”

Psalm 1: 3

God of all seasons, I desire today to walk hand in hand with your goodness, stand strong beside virtue and sit in the seat of your Truth. I delight in your Word and will dwell on it day and night.

Position me in a place where I can grow and flourish like the trees planted beside the streams of waters. Stretch me beyond my comfort zone so that I may produce good fruit in due season. Even in the uncertain seasons of transition, cause me to prosper in whatever I do today.

In Jesus name, Amen.

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Good Morning!

Let's pray together:

Good Morning Father. Thank you for awakening me to brand new mercies. I can’t wait to see what you are up to today. You are awesome! I worship you!

You are my shelter and my safe place. You’re my peace in the midnight hours; my strength when I am frazzled, my wisdom when I don’t know what to do. You are my healer when doctors have no clue! There is no God like my God!

Teach me your ways, for your ways are above my ways. Your ways are righteous and just when I would seek to right, or strike back at a wrong. Your ways bless others when I can get preoccupied with myself.
Lord show me your path. Your path leads to hope, salvation, and peace. In Your presence is truly the fullness of joy!

Thank you for not dealing with me according to my transgressions—for I do sin and fall short of your glory! I miss the mark and overstep your boundaries. On my best days, you know I am prone to err. So create in me a clean heart. Start me all over again. Protect me from the works of the devil.
I praise you for victory in Christ! Prosper the work of my hands that you may receive glory and your people are built up.

I ask all these things in the marvelous, matchless name of Jesus, my savior, Amen!
(Inspired by Psalm 25:4-7)

Rev. Dr. Rosalind P. Denson
Associate Pastor
West Side Missionary Baptist Church
St Louis, Missouri
http://afruitfullife.blogspot.com

Rest vs Rush

“Rest. Rest. Rest in God’s love. The only work you are required now to do is to give your most intense attention to His still, small voice within.”

Madame Jeanne Guyon

Lord, we live in a world of rush, busy, do, demand, now, stress, test, tiring and more rush. Rest has been taken out of the lexicon of the 21^st century. Role models of rest are limited. Paradigms of rest are few. Rush and rest wrestle for control of our agendas.

Help us today to begin to prayerfully cultivate a life where rest, renewal and restoration have a place. We release the cares and woes of this week into your hands. We relinquish worry. We exchange the jangling discords church, community and country for the rest of soul and body in the solitude of our desert wanderings. We silence ourselves to sit in the holy hush of your presence. Speak Lord, for you servants are listening.

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Money Can't Buy

It’s amazing. Sometimes that the things we want and need the most seems to elude us. It is not that we don’t have the financial capability to purchase it. Money cannot buy everything. Who can buy peace of mind, a clear conscious or salvation?

Let us pray:

Lord, you promised if we confess you would be faithful to forgive. We come today confessing that we have sought fulfillment upon the altars of culture and possessions. Our happiness does not lie in knowing the right people, or having more money, power or prestige. Bigger houses, cars and land doesn’t satisfy the soul nor more than ‘striving after the wind.’ (Ecclesiastes 12:13) Our salvation lies in knowing you in the pardoning of our sins.

You have given us freedom. Help us to use it wisely everyday. Draw us closer to you so that we will not be pawns in the hands of the enemy of our souls.

We place you again at the center of our lives. Strengthened us in our weak places and when we have been strengthened, we will strengthen others. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

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