Pray for Marriages (Fruitful Prayer)

Greeting Prayer Warriors,

Every day we work and hope we accomplish something.   Sometimes the fruits of our labors aren’t very apparent; lots of activity but what to show for it?  Prayer is the one activity that always bears fruit.  We may not know how or what, but we can be assured that the Lord honors every prayer. 

It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.  John 15:16

Honor a couple you love and pray for their marriage.  If it is a good marriage, ask the Lord to make it even better.  If it is a weak marriage ask the Lord to stand in the gap.  Prayer is always time well spent.

Peace, Joy, and Love,

Janet

Help someone feel a sense of accomplishment.  Ask them to pray for a marriage and pass it on!

Pray for Families (The Freedom Illusion)

Greetings Prayer Warriors,

When I was growing up, it was not uncommon to hear adults label activities, speech, or behaviors as “sinful”.  It was a personal wake up call to make good choices.  Today, many youth and young adults never hear the word “sin” and if they do, it is considered something from ancient history. The irony is that as our culture moves from truth to relativism, the word sin has been replaced by its antonym, freedom.

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? Romans 6:16

Lord, free us from our sin.  Grant our families a spirit of discernment to always know the truth.  Grant us the gift of faith and reason.

In Pope St. John Paul II’s encyclical Fides et Ratio, he states, “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves (cf. Ex 33:18; Ps 27:8-9; 63:2-3; Jn 14:8; 1 Jn 3:2).”

When we know and love God, we see the truth of ourselves and are thus more disposed to love others, especially those who appear most unlovable. We change the world when we respond to antagonism or hate with love. With prayer, supplication, praise, and thanksgiving ask the Lord to equip you and your family by giving you the grace needed to grow in the virtues of faith, kindness, patience, and charity (love).  For it is through YOU that He enters the world and changes hearts.

Peace, Joy, and Love,

Janet

Make an effort to touch someone’s heart each day. Pass it on!

Pray for Marriages (Total Eclipse of the Heart)

Greetings Prayer Warriors,

Around the country today, especially if you are near the “path of totality” the eclipse is on your mind and lips, amidst an atmosphere of excitement.  To behold such an extraordinary phenomenon and to see the moon block the sun and darkness fall in the middle of the day has to be mind altering.

In marriage, sometimes darkness descends too.  One may fear the dark and think it will never end, feeling alone and abandoned.  However, one must realize the Son has never left you and will never leave you. He is only being obscured.  Yet in the darkness, His crown of glory still emits its healing rays.  It is when you heart is being eclipsed that he is all the more present.   

In Bonnie Tyler’s song, Total Eclipse of the Heart she sings, “Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time”.  This of that as Jesus.  He is with us all of the time, both in the light and in the darkness.  Let us pray that no one in marriage despairs in the darkness, but rather calls out to the Lord to sustain them and give them the grace to know He is there.   May our prayers always illuminate your darkness.

No longer shall the sun be your light by day, nor shall the brightness of the moon give you light by night; rather, the LORD will be your light forever, your God will be your glory. Isaiah 60:19

Peace, Joy, and Love,

Janet

Help someone losing hope in the darkness.  Pass it on! 

Pray for Families (60-second challenge)

Greetings Prayer Warriors,

• Here is a 60 second challenge
• Stop what you are doing
• Find a quiet place
• Focus on the presence of God
• Say a sincere prayer for your family
• Believe that is will be heard and answered

“Be still and know that I am God!” Psalm 46:11

Jesus, help us to surrender to your will and trust in You!

Peace, Joy, and Love,

Janet

Encourage others to take the 60-second challenge.  It’s risk free! Pass it on!  

Pray for Marriages (Almighty Love)

Greetings Prayer Warriors,

Whatever your state of marriage is, rejoice for your God is with you!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement, who encourages us in our every affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God. For as Christ’s sufferings overflow to us, so through Christ does our encouragement also overflow. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5

Difficult times are transient, but His love endures forever!

“Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them [as their God].” Revelation 21:3

Your Almighty is a mighty companion. Allow Love to always walk with you in your marriage. We are praying for you!

Peace, Joy, and Love
Janet

Encourage one another in the journey called marriage. Pass it on!

Pray for Families (Illuminating Love)

Greetings Prayer Warriors,

Recently I had some major surgery.  You may have remembered the day that I couldn’t seem to send out this blog correctly. It was that day. Pre-surgery, during surgery, and still post-surgery, I was and am blessed to have many praying for me.  Additionally, there were those who brought meals, came to visit, or brought flowers. A relative, not used to seeing this type or level of response, commented: “It must be a girl thing.”  Actually, no I thought, it’s a Christian thing.  It is very humbling when one is at a point of weakness and is showered with such love.   All theses people, whether behind the scenes praying or up front in action, were a reflection of Christ’s love and it shined through them ever so brightly. 

You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.  Matthew 5:14

When His Light is so charitably shared through loving kindnesses, it penetrates the heart.

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth. Ephesians 5:8-9

We are children of the Light, one family in Christ.

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  Galatians 3:27-18

  

This world is greatly in need of Love and Light. Pray that we all increase in our ability to love, so that through each of us Christ’s light may one day illuminate the whole world and all may know we are ONE in Him. No need to be eloquent in words, for by your kind actions alone, hearts will be transformed.

Peace, Joy, and Love,

Janet

Love is a verb.  Show your love for someone with a kind action. Pass it on!  

Pray for Marriages (Facing Distress)

Greetings Prayer Warriors,

Each marriage is a special union. Ups and downs are inevitable and most of the time it is easy to go with the ebb and flow.  But what happens when you hit a wall and it seems like there is no way through, over, under, or around it? You feel left in total distress. It is times like these that we may cry out to the Lord and say, “I’m done.” Help me or just take me!

We are not alone.  Even Moses got frustrated with the weight of his mission and the complaining of the Israelites as he tried to lead them out of the desert.

If this is the way you will deal with me, then please do me the favor of killing me at once, so that I need no longer face my distress.”  Numbers 11:15

Perhaps it is at these times that we gain a deeper understanding of our dependence on God. As a result, we seek to deepen our relationship with Him. He then pulls us close and asks us to trust Him for He has a perfect plan even if like Moses, we can’t yet see it.

I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do. John 13:15

Lord, we delude ourselves by thinking that we know what’s best for our marriage, but when our will fights with yours, things only get worse. Help us to patiently trust you, to continue to honor our vows, and to love even when we don’t feel like it. You Lord, who rained down manna in the desert, can certainly perfect a marriage that’s wilting in the heat. Rain down restorative grace! Most importantly, help us to allow You to reign in our hearts always.

Peace, Joy, and Love,

Janet

God is the solution to one’s distress.  Pass it on! 

Pray for Families (Stuck in the Thicket)

Greetings Prayer Warriors,

Everyone has family members that they worry about.  It’s one thing to worry about someone’s physical health.  It’s another thing to worry about the health of their soul.   While you can’t always force someone to see a physician, once their health deteriorates enough they will more likely warm up to the idea.  So too it is with the spiritual life.  When all is going well, who is thinking of God?  Yet when one’s soul-satiating activity is replaced by activities feeding one’s ego and pride, they will eventually find themselves stuck in the thicket with no way out.

I have wandered like a lost sheep; seek out your servant, for I do not forget your commandments.  Psalm 119:176

Perhaps it is at this time they call out to the Lord. The Lord hears their every cry, and like a Good Shepherd He seeks out His lost sheep who have lost all sense of direction.

I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest—oracle of the Lord GOD. The lost I will search out, the strays I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, and the sick I will heal. Ezekiel 34:15-16

Let us praise our God who never gives up on us!! 

Lord, we lift up to you our family members who weigh heaviest on our hearts; those who have strayed the furthest from you.  We are confident in your mercy, compassion, and love so please seek each of them out and call them to you by name.  Open their ears that they may hear your voice. Extricate them from all that binds them.  Hear the prayers of your faithful Lord, and renew in us our desire to continue to pray.  Jesus we trust in You!

Good and upright is the LORD, therefore he shows sinners the way, For the sake of your name, LORD, pardon my guilt, though it is great. Who is the one who fears the LORD?  God shows him the way he should choose.  Psalm 25:8;11-12

Peace, Joy, and Love,

Janet

There’s a simpler way to get out of the thicket.  Call out to the Lord! Pass it on!