South Carolina United Methodists' 40 Days of Shared Prayers For

A Future With Hope

Bishop L. Jonathan Holston invites South Carolina United Methodists to join him in 40 days of shared prayer each day from Monday, Jan 14, through Friday, Feb. 22, leading up to the 2019 Special Session of the General Conference, scheduled for Feb. 23-26 in St. Louis, Missouri. Together each day, let us join one another in prayer, believing that God hears every word.

These beautiful prayers are worth repeating, so I plan to add them to my daily prayers past Feb. 22. Thank you Bishop Holston!

Each Sunday: Gracious and loving God, we give thanks for your presence in our lives and the promise that you have plans for us to prosper and not be harmed. Continue your good work in our families and our lives. Help us to understand how we can make a difference - in our church, in our community, and in our world - as your instrument of hope. Amen.

Each Monday: Mericiful God, help us to see the many opportunities before us to serve you by serving our neighbors. Open our hearts and our hands to both receive your grace and toffer it to everyone we neet. Amen.

Each Tuesday: Almighty God, we confess to you that we have not loved your with our whole hearts. We have often failed to be an obedient church when we have not heard the cry of the needy. Free us for joyful obedience that, where there are corridors of shame, despair and want, we might create corridors of faith, hope and love that glorify you. Amen.

Each Wednesday: Gracious God, I know that you are the potter and I am the clay. Mold me and make me into a disciple of Jesus Christ. Show me how to offer your grace and mercy in ways that transform the world. Amen.

Each Thrusday: Lord, we know that when we make space in our hearts for you, Jesus redeems the broken pieces of our lives. We ask you, O God, that you will be at work in us and through us to make a difference in the lives of the hurting and the hungry in our midst. Amen.

Each Friday: God, we thank you for the gift of faith that carries us through those times when we cannot yet see what your are doing in our midst. Help us to walk in your light and to be a light for others. Amen.

Each Saturday: God of Heaven and Earth, as your humble servants, we know that the needs around the world and around the corner are great. Open our eyes so that we can see how to use the gifts you have given us to serve our neighbors and be in mission in the community and beyond. And give us the strength and perservance to get started in this holy work. Amen.

Prayers for the United Methodist Church

 Lord, please cleanse the United Methodist Church by your precious blood.  Please expose what needs to be exposed and guide the leaders to do what you would have them to do.  Please cleanse the people of the United Methodist Church by your precious blood, exposing the lies and revealing the truth to our hearts and minds, so that we may more fully surrender our lives to you and be filled with your Spirit; paving the way for your Holy Spirit to be poured out in fullness that we may take the gospel to the whole world.

The Special Session of the General Conference of The United Methodist Church will be held February 23-26, 2019 in St. Louis, Missouri.

The Wesley Covenant has a great article called, "A Calm Critique of the One Church Plan." It's short and easy to read.
http://wesleyancovenant.org/2019/01/14/a-calm-critique-of-the-one-church-plan/ 

Blessings

This song is one of my very favorites. The melody is beautiful, the lyrics are inspirational and Laura Story's voice is so lovely singing it. I'm providing a link to the music video and including the lyrics as well.

Blessings
We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not our home

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise

Songwriters: Laura Story

Pray Again and Over Again

Luke 11:8-9

I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."

The commentary in The NIV Life Application Study Bible, says that "Persistence, or boldness in prayer overcomes OUR insensitivity, not God's. To practice persistence does more to change our hearts and minds than His, and it helps us understand and express the intensity of our need. Persistence in prayer helps us recognize God's work." I find this very helpful because I struggle with why I need to keep repeating the same prayer. I mean God is the ruler of all, He knows what I am asking for even before I ask it. Jesus told us to keep on asking. He must have had a reason. It makes sense that it is for US not Him. Chris Tiegreen says that we don't know why persistence is required, Jesus doesn't tell us that. But it is clear that it is required, not optional and that we are to be relentless. No where in the Bible does it say that God's silence means no. His silence means keep on asking. This is illustrated for us in the scriptures below.

Matthew 15:22-28

A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 says simply, "pray continually."

Prayer Journals

I came across a web site this week that really inspired me to be more organized in my prayer life. Courtney Joseph, who has spoken with Lysa TerKeurst at Proverbs 31 Ministries, wrote about her prayer journal. I've never been one to journal much and I pray every day, but after reading Courtney's article, I realized that the spiritual discipline of journaling would help me a great deal. I too, crave order so anything color coded, or lists, plans, or schedules appeals to me! Yes, I've read about keeping a prayer journal before, but something about this approach really spoke to me. I thought I'd share in case you found it helpful too. I've adjusted the topics I'll use a bit to suit my needs. You'll find them below. I'm doing the first three every day, and 4-5 when I am inspired to do so.

If you'd like to read  Courtney 's article, you can find it here: https://womenlivingwell.org/2013/02/putting-my-prayer-life-in-order/ She has some printables to share that you may be interested in as well.

1. Prayers - Can be in list form or sometimes write out entire prayers.

2. Confessions - Confession of sins, which can be just brief phrases.

3. Praises - Again, these can be in list form or sometimes write out entire prayers of           thanksgiving.

4. Quotes and Ideas of Inspiration - Quotes or ideas that have touched my soul.

5. Scripture - I will sometimes use the SOAK method for the scripture. It's an inductive reasoning method, like Anne Graham Lotz and our own Rev. McClendon use.

S – Scripture.

O – Observations.

A – Applications.

K – Kneeling in Prayer.