Pray for Families (Indescribable Gifts)

Greetings Prayer Warriors!

Spend the weekend in gratitude, giving thanks and praise for the family you have been blessed with! Then pray for those who no longer have a family, that they may experience the embrace of the Holy Family, and the joy of His presence through others.

All good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. James 1:17 

YOU all are a gift to others.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! 2 Corinthians 9:15

With gratitude for all of you, I am praying  that you are filled with… Peace, Love, and Joy,

Janet

Give praise! Pass it on! https://simplyinspiredprayer.blogspot.com/

Pray for Marriages (An Attitude of Gratitude)

 Greetings Prayer Warriors,

Many of you are getting ready to travel or just stay home for Thanksgiving. You may be hosting or being hosted, but either way it is a time of preparing and welcoming, or arriving with gratitude. Holidays can be a time of both joy and stress. Which one predominates, depends on your preparation.

Ground yourself in prayer. Ask for help if you need it. Offer to help without being asked. Develop an attitude of gratitude. Every minute God gives us in this world is a gift, and everyone he brings into our lives is for a purpose, so spread kindness and joy! Focus on what you love about everyone, especially your spouse. Consider voicing that gratitude!

Always seek what is good [both] for each other and for all. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:15-18

Most of all, don’t forget to gather around the table, bow your heads, fold your hands in prayer, and give the Giver your thanks, for His gifts are plentiful and abundant! (Even our crosses are a gift to be revealed!)

You adorn the year with your bounty; your paths drip with fruitful rain. The meadows of the wilderness also drip; the hills are robed with joy. The pastures are clothed with flocks, the valleys blanketed with grain they cheer and sing for joy. Psalms 65:12-14

Thank you dear Lord, for such blessings, and the blessing of these prayer warriors; those that pray often and even those who have only prayed once. Bestow on them abundant graces, especially in their marriages and within their family.  Meet them in their needs, temper them in their wants, surprise them with your compassionate and extravagant  love. Hear the groanings and gratitude in their hearts, and lead them to greater joy. Accept our collective prayers of thanksgiving and may they bring you delight and be a soothing balm for your Most Sacred Heart. Amen.

Peace, Joy, and Love, 

Janet

 

Increase in gratitude. It’s contagious! Pass it on!

Pray for Families (Sacrificial Love)

Greetings Prayer Warriors,

Each of you has at least one family member you worry about. Regardless of the why, it is easy to feel helpless. Yes, we can do something. Prayer is an action that not only helps them, but calms us! Personal sacrifice, such as fasting for a time period, from anything you love (food, video games, etc.), and abstinence, abstaining from something you really enjoy, when given up in offering for another, is a beautiful and acceptable gift to God.

Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:1-2

Such living sacrifice is transformative to whomever you ask God to bless. However, just as our progress isn’t visible with every grace given, temper your expectations by sacrificing more for a family member (or two).!

Lord, when we imitate your sacrificial love, we know you find it most pleasing. So take each  gift of our self-denial, accept the gifts of our gratitude for each joy, and receive them for the good of our family. You hear our prayers both spoken and unspoken. We trust in the generosity  of your grace. Amen.

With prayer and fasting, [they] commended them to the Lord in whom they had put their faith. Acts 14:23

Peace, Joy, and Love,

Janet

Pray and fasting are the perfect pairing. Pass it on! 

Pray for Marriages (Mindful of the Lord)

Greetings Prayer Warriors,

When we love someone, we will endure injustices, slights, inattentiveness, and all the other human flaws. We may be upset, but we give the other person some grace, especially if those behaviors were not meant with malice. Yet, when perhaps there is some malicious intent, we speak up regarding our displeasure, but then it is for our love of God, that we bear the momentary pain and seek to forgive. 

For whenever anyone bears the pain of unjust suffering because of consciousness of God, that is a grace. 1 Peter 2:19

Without a dependence on God, how much of our response might be rage, flaming arrows, and words and behaviors that we can’t take back? Let us first work on our own imperfections so that we might increase in virtue and speak with kindness. Strive to build a greater reliance on the Lord, that you may learn temperance, fortitude, and perseverance. 

A soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse one breaks the spirit. Proverbs 15:4

Do not return evil for evil, or insult for insult; but, on the contrary, a blessing, because to this you were called, that you might inherit a blessing. 

1 Peter 3:9

Lord, teach us your ways! Since there is ample opportunity within marriages to offend you in both sins of commission and omission, help us to first gain custody of our tongues! In our daily prayers, infuse us with your love, that it may overflow to our spouse in word and deed. May we be quick to forgive and forget offenses, as we too hope for the same. Keep us from focusing on our spouses flaws, but rather understanding and reforming our own. Guide us in the path to perfection, for only in You can we even gain sight of it! Jesus, we trust in You!

We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19

Keep praying for marriages new and old! None are immune from the snares of the Evil One!

Peace, Joy, and Love, 

Janet

Build the army of prayer warriors and pass it on! 

Pray for Families (Building the Fortress)

Greetings Prayer Warriors,

There is something wonderful about the innocence of childhood.  For the most part, we feel loved, protected, and provided for, and thus see goodness all around us. As we grow in maturity, our eyes are slowly opened to reality, a mix of sweet and sour as we encounter different personalities, different cultural norms, and different environments. When we mature spiritually, we begin to sense a different realm, one of good and evil. We encounter their influence on ourselves and those around us. This can be confusing, overwhelming, and concerning to say the least.

For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens. Ephesians 6:12

It’s painful to see family members go astray, led by the darkness of this world. Yet, we too are not immune from this same influence, as Satan delights in destroying marriage and the family. The Lord, however, has provided us weapons for battle, so let’s utilize them. 

Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground. 

Stay in a state of grace, and reconcile with our Lord frequently. For the devil hates the holy.

So stand fast with your loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate,

Read Scripture daily to hear the voice of God.

and your feet shod in readiness for the gospel of peace.

Bear good news; Proclaim Christ is King!

In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all [the] flaming arrows of the evil one.

Frequent the sacraments to augment your faith, hope, and love.

And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 12:13-17

Have faith that the victory is His, and share the Good News of salvation. For if we stay grounded in Christ, we have nothing to fear. 

Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war; My safeguard and my fortress, my stronghold, my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge. Psalm 144:1-2

Pray, for the Evil One finds loathsome the names of Jesus and Mary!

The LORD is far from the wicked, but hears the prayer of the just. Proverbs 15:29

Peace, Joy, and Love,

Janet

Help others be battle ready!  Pass it on! 

Pray for Marriages (Managing Priorities)

Greetings Prayer Warriors,

My hope is that your prayer routines are so fixed, that my many recent lapses of missing these prayer reminders, go unnoticed.

Each day is a series of managing priorities. The hope is that our decisions to order our day are grounded in prayer. We must be on the lookout for the Evil One who loves to derail us. But what should be prioritized is not always clear. Do we pursue a worthy spiritual venture alone, or spend that time with a spouse? Volunteer with the church, or help a child with their homework?  Build relationships with those who don’t know Christ in hopes of one day facilitating a conversion, or instead spend that time in prayer? The Lord has a plan for you. Ask the Holy Spirit for discernment here.

Love righteousness, you who judge the earth; think of the LORD in goodness, and seek him in integrity of heart. For the spirit of the LORD fills the world, is all-embracing, and knows whatever is said. Wisdom 1:1, 7

What are your negotiables and what are your non-negotiables in your marriage? If the Lord is not your foundation, how easy would it be to constantly go astray? Spend some quiet time with the Lord. How can you better honor your marriage? Your family? In what ways can you accomplish that without dishonoring God, but rather glorifying HIm? (Hint: Missing Mass to watch football with your husband doesn’t fly.  Neither do kids select sports team schedules relieve you of your Sunday obligations). 

Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the last times some will turn away from the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and demonic instructions. 

1 Timothy 4:1

For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want. Romans 7:19

Lord, help us find the silence in a noisy world that seeks to drown out your voice. Shepherd us when we go astray and guide us to the Truth. Help us live our vocation of marriage as you designed it, and grant each spouse the grace of daily conversion. Help us to forgive, especially when we cling to unforgiveness like a life vest. Give us the grace to surrender our wills to yours so that we may become a shining example to the family that you have gifted us. May your blessings be abundant! Amen.

Peace, Joy, and Love,

Janet

Keep praying and pass it on!