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A Prayer for Caregivers

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A Prayer for Caregivers

Recently I’ve been feeling some empathy for caregivers, not because I’m personally in that position but because I have family members and friends who are. I see many of them suffering silently (and some not so silently!) as they care for ailing loved ones. The mixed emotions are evident as it is apparent that they deeply love who they care for, yet they themselves experience such fatigue and frustration and maybe even some feelings of failure. I’ve seen where it’s sometimes so hard to offer compassion and then the guilt that immediately follows. What a rollercoaster of emotions these caregivers must ride.

My dad has had his fair share of medical problems (and that’s putting it lightly). Several years ago he was having some serious health problems. My mom has always been his primary caregiver. During this time, a friend of mine and I were having a conversation, and she was inquiring more about my mom than my dad which I thought was odd. My mom wasn’t the one with the major health problems at the time—my dad was.

However, she went on to explain something that I hadn’t thought of prior to that. She said, oftentimes people focus more on the patient, and the caregiver gets neglected (by others AND by themselves). She went on to say how many times when the caregivers are neglected, they end up being worse off than the patient in both physical and emotional health, especially if they are older or have any health problems of their own.

I’ve learned that caregivers have a higher risk of stress and medical problems, in addition to the emotional and mental turmoil on top of that. In light of that, this week I’d like to give you a prayer for caregivers. 

What a rollercoaster of emotions caregivers must ride.

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A Prayer for Caregivers

Lord, help me remember I am doing your work.

Help me to clothe myself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, and love.

Help me to live out and embody the fruit of the Spirit showing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Enable me to see them through your eyes.

Help me to have compassion as you did and to follow your example.

Ease my burden and provide times of rest and refreshment.

Give me the energy necessary to fulfill my tasks.

Grant me the strength and extra grace to be able to handle things I might not normally be able to handle.

Help me not to lose my joy and give me moments of laughter.

In moments of frustration help me to be slow to anger and to refrain from letting any anger or frustration give a foothold to the devil or lead to any sin.

Comfort me as I mourn what I have lost.

Fill me up with your love so that I’m so full that your love overflows out of me–I do not have the sufficiency to pour this out of my own supply so I need YOUR supply.

Thank you for supplying all of my needs according to your riches in glory through Christ Jesus.

Help me to just be your conduit and means through which you work and help me to remember that it’s you THROUGH me.

Thank you for trusting me with this role of caring for another.

Scriptures for Caregivers (above prayer is based upon these scriptures)

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Pray for Your Enemies

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Pray for Your Enemies

“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:43-48 (NLT)

Who do you automatically think of when the words “enemy” or “enemies” are used? Do you have a particular person come to mind? Does a certain situation play out in your mind? Is it personal for you or do you think about that word more generally (as in ISIS or terrorists, etc.)?

I think sometimes there are seasons of life. Sometimes we have personal enemies. Sometimes we don’t. Other times “enemy” might seem like too strong of a word, but we still harbor feelings of hurt or abuse caused by someone else. It can be difficult to think of these people who cause us pain in a positive light, much less think of having to forgive, love, and pray for them. However, scripture is very clear what our response to our enemies should be. It is also quite clear in directing us to love and pray for our enemies.

Scripture is quite clear in directing us to love and pray for our enemies.

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Our response to our enemies should be…

To love and to pray:

“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:43-48 (NLT)

“Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” Luke 6:28 (NIV)

To control our own temper and overlook an offense or a wrong:

“If you are sensible, you will control your temper. When someone wrongs you, it is a great virtue to ignore it.” Proverbs 19:11 (GNT)

“Good sense and discretion make a man slow to anger, and it is his honor and glory to overlook a transgression or an offense [without seeking revenge and harboring resentment].” Proverbs 19:11 (AMP)

To respond with kindness and not retaliate:

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Prayer for You This Year–2018

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Prayer for You This Year 2018

Photo by Ümit Bulut on Unsplash

Prayer for You This Year–2018

As many people start the year with a fresh start and New Year’s Resolutions, it’s a time to look toward the upcoming year. The same is true for me. I’ll be participating with my church in a 21 day challenge involving 21 days of prayer, discipline and bible study. During the month of January, I will be spending some time in concentrated prayer. As part of my prayer time, I will be spending time praying for my blog, readers, and subscribers. I plan on praying for each person on my subscriber list individually.

There will be some general areas that I will be praying for each of you, which I’ll detail below. However, I’d also like to take this opportunity to reach out to you and see if you have any specific needs or prayer requests that you would like me to pray about. I would love to hear from you!

You can let me know your requests by:

  1. Posting a comment below (at the bottom of this page)
  2. Sending a message through my contact page by clicking here
  3. Sending me an email at tracy at happyhealthyandprosperous dot com (I have to list the email this way to avoid those crazy spam robots! :P)

I will add your specific requests to my list, and I will commit to praying for you and your needs. If you don’t have any specific needs, please know that you are still being prayed for by name anyway!

General areas I’ll be praying for

  • Spiritual growth and relationship with God and for you to also grow in wisdom stature and favor like Jesus did
  • Health, healing and emotional well-being
  • Relationships with others in your life
  • Work
  • Finances and prosperity
  • Gifts, calling and purpose
  • Direction
  • Strength and courage
  • Peace
  • Open doors for you this year and close the wrong ones
  • Experience God’s love this year

My prayer for you this year…

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Prayer for Your Finances

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Prayer for your finances...

Prayer for Your Finances

For some, Christmas can be a time of excitement, fun, and generosity. Unfortunately though, for others it can be a time of worry and anxiety due to finances. Sometimes the end of the year, corresponding with Christmastime, comes with extra expenses. Then on top of that, purchasing gifts can add up…especially if you have numerous events like family celebrations, work parties, church events, Secret Santa gift exchanges, outreaches or charitable giving that requires some of our finances, etc. Sometimes it can be stressful figuring out where the money is going to come from for all of that.

The wise thing to do would be to budget for the end-of-year expenses and Christmas giving. It’s a good idea to allocate or set aside a little bit of money each week or each month for this purpose. Regrettably, many of us haven’t exercised this kind of wisdom (or unexpected events and expenses have prohibited us from doing so). Because of this, when we don’t use wisdom sometimes we have to pay the consequences of poor decision making. That being said though, God still cares about our finances. He cares about the details. Additionally, even when we mess up He still cares about helping us.

Several years ago, I learned a few strategies for praying over finances. With Christmastime being a stressful time for finances for many people, I thought this might be a good opportunity to share some of those strategies and a Prayer for Your Finances. These strategies and prayer work anytime though–they don’t just apply at Christmas!

Remind God of His promise provision

God is our provider. We can approach God boldly with His promise of provision. Philippians 4:19 promises us that God will supply all of our needs. Jesus also gives us an example to pray for our needs in the Lord’s Prayer. Moreover, one of God’s names is Jehovah Jireh, which means “the Lord will provide”. All throughout scripture you will see countless examples of the Lord’s provision. When praying over your finances, remind God (put Him in remembrance) of His promise of provision.

“Put me in remembrance; let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right.” Isaiah 43:26 (ESV)

“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19 (KJV)

“Give us this day our daily bread” Matthew 6:11 (KJV)

“Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the LORD will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”” Genesis 22:13-14 (NLT)

“God is my helper! The Lord is the provider for my life.” Psalm 54:4 (GW)

Take a look at this hilarious short video clip of Joe McGee when he was at a point in his life where he was frustrated financially and decided to put God in remembrance of His promise of provision.

Pray for wisdom over your finances

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Praying a Hedge of Thorns

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Praying a Hedge of Thorns

Praying a Hedge of Thorns

Growing up in a Christian family and in church, I often heard people pray a “hedge of thorns” around someone. This type of prayer could be prayed on behalf of a person that might be wandering off track or pursuing things or people that may not be good for them. For some reason, it always makes me picture the scene in Sleeping Beauty where Maleficent makes a forest of thorns appear around King Stefan’s castle to block Prince Phillip. Of course, Phillip DID make it through that hedge of thorns…but then again that hedge was made by evil forces, not God. 🙂

The Bible gives an example of a hedge of thorns built by God:

“Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them. Then she shall say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.’” Hosea 2:6-7 (ESV)

So when should we pray for a hedge of thorns? Here are a few examples when this prayer might be helpful…

Hedge of thorns for unfaithfulness in marriage

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Prayer of the Confused

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Prayer of the Confused

Prayer of the Confused

I thought I’d do something a little different this week.  Today, I thought I’d share a poem that I wrote back in April 2010.  I wrote it for a close friend of mine who was really confused, struggling and making some poor life choices.  I imagined that I was writing from their perspective and what they would pray.  Most lines are based on several different scriptures (as I often do when writing prayers).

I’m very happy to report that this friend has made some monumental life changes and is now on the right track in their relationship with God! 🙂

Prayer of the Confused

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Prayer to Help Understand the Bible

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Say this prayer to help you understand the Bible better...

Prayer to Help Understand the Bible

Sometimes it’s hard to understand the Bible, which can be very frustrating. Often this will tempt us to just stop and give up trying. This is especially true if we’re not in a habit of reading it on a regular basis. However, I will say it gets easier the more consistent we get in our reading habit. Today, I’d like to share some scriptures and a prayer based off of scripture that we can pray to before we begin reading in order to glean the most out of our reading session.

God wants us to read our Bible. He also wants us to understand the Bible. He doesn’t want it to be difficult or overwhelming for us. We should be at peace and not in a state of confusion. God is not a God of confusion. Scripture is given to us to help us, not to hinder us. It’s meant to be useful for us to help us lead a successful, happy, healthy and prosperous life. It is effective and powerful and always relevant to any and every situation we face.

“For God is not a God of confusion but of peace…” 1 Corinthians 14:33 (ESV)

“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.” 2 Timothy 3:16 (NLT)

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 (NIV) 

Scripture is effective and powerful and always relevant to any and every situation we face.

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There is simplicity in Christ

Pastor Beth Jones explained once that we don’t have to understand all of the complex parts of the Bible to learn about Jesus and have relationship with him. Beth compared it to driving a car. You don’t have to understand all of the inner workings of a car engine to be able to drive the car.

Similarly, you don’t have to be all deep and philosophical and intellectual when reading scripture. He’ll help you out along the way. You’ll grow in knowledge and understanding as you walk with him. In fact, Jesus liked to keep things simple. It was the other religious leaders of the day that tried to make things confusing, complex, and super formal. He’ll meet you where you are and help you to understand little by little.

“But I fear, lest somehow, he serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:3 (NKJV)

 Scriptures to use when we need to understand the Bible 

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A Prayer For Lost Hope: Follow This Example of How to Write a Prayer Based Off of Scripture

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A Prayer For Lost Hope: Follow This Example of How to Write a Prayer Based Off of Scripture

A Prayer For Lost Hope: Follow This Example of How to Write a Prayer Based Off of Scripture

I received a nice comment recently on a blog post for a prayer for those who make bad choices. The reader mentioned as a person who struggles with prayer, she was enjoying fill-in-the blank prayers.

It was a nice confirmation to hear that because I had actually been thinking lately that I need to start writing some more of those. I have always loved Stormie Omartian’s prayers like this (i.e. Power of a Praying Wife, Power of a Praying Husband, Power of a Praying Parent, Power of a Praying Grandparent, etc.). If you have never read or used any of her material I HIGHLY recommend it.

I thought today I would take you through the process of how I come up with and write these prayers. It’s easy! Anybody can do it. I’ll show you how by giving you an example of writing a prayer for lost hope.

Take the Same Practical Steps I Take in Order to Write a Prayer Based Off of Scripture with this example of A Prayer for Lost Hope:

Step 1-Decide what I need to pray for and make a list of specifics.

For example, I pray for my students in my college classes each semester. Sometimes there seems to be a theme of what I’m praying for a particular group of students. This semester the word that keeps coming to mind for this group is “hope”. I get a feeling that many of them lack a sense of hope or that they feel hopeless. Therefore, some specifics I’d like to pray for them are:

  • That God would give them a sense of hope
  • I want them to see a hope in me, something that they desire, and I’d even like them to ask me about it, giving me an opportunity to tell them why I can hope even in seemingly hopeless situations
  • That they can see a hope in their future and that they don’t give up

Step 2-Find verses and promises in the bible that correlate with the specifics that I want to pray.

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