Tag: hope

Sunday Praise and a Prayer for the Sick

Posted on by Dorci

Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you. You are the omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent God. You are faithful to hear our prayers, and we thank you for hearing our prayer today. 

Father, we lift up to you those who are facing life-altering and life-threatening illnesses.

For those who know you, we ask that you would renew their strength and hope. We pray you would comfort them and fill them with your peace that passes all understanding. We pray you would surround them with people who support them with love and friendship. We ask that you would also give strength and hope for their loved ones and caregivers. 

For those who don’t yet know you, we pray you would reveal yourself to them in a very personal way. Maybe they’ve blamed you for what they’re going through. Maybe they’re angry, or lost and just don’t know where to turn. We pray you would not allow the enemy to fill their minds with lies.

Father, we know what a personal and compassionate God you are, and we ask that you would show them that you know them and you love them.

We pray you would open their eyes and turn their hearts toward you, that they would receive you as their Lord, their Savior, their Hope to walk with them through this time, giving them all they need and more. 

We pray you would remove all fear and help them keep their focus on You, the God Who is bigger than anything they’ll face here on earth. We pray you would give them strength and courage to walk in confidence with you each day. 

Father, you are also the Great Physician. You created our bodies and you can heal them. If it be your will, Lord, we ask that you would do miracles and grant healing and restoration. We pray you would open doors and move mountains to do those things that need to be done.

We pray you would give the doctors and nurses your wisdom, your skill, and your compassion. 

We pray, Lord, that you would also open doors to provide financially, and that all debt is paid. 

Father, we pray you would be glorified in all these circumstances. What the enemy has meant for evil, we pray you would use for your good. We lay it all at your feet, trusting you, and we thank you ahead of time for what you’re going to do. 

In Jesus’ precious and holy name we pray, amen. 

 

The God Who Hears Us

Posted on by Dorci

“Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts.” Luke 2:25-27a

We don’t always hear a lot about Simeon, and there’s only a small paragraph about him, but there’s a lot behind those few words. 

His name was Simeon, and names held a lot of meaning in the Hebrew culture.

The name Simeon was first used in Genesis as the name Leah gave the second son she conceived with Jacob.

“She (Leah) conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, ‘Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, He gave me this one too.’ So she named him Simeon.” Genesis 29:33

So, why did Leah name him Simeon?  Because in the Hebrew Simeon means “hearing.” 

The Lord heard (same root word) that Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah. He heard Leah’s heart grieve and groan, had mercy on her, and gave her another son. 

Jesus’ birth was the end of 400 years of silence from the God of the Israelites. 

The Israelites had largely turned away from God and His ways, and they endured much persecution, the desecration of the Holy of Holies, and the capture and recapture of Israel by multiple peoples.

God might have been silent, but He was not unseeing or unhearing. 

So “when the set time had fully come, God sent His Son…” Galatians 4:4

God had heard the grieving and groaning of His people and gave the world a Son.  

As Joseph and Mary took the baby Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem to consecrate Him to the Lord, the Holy Spirit led Simeon, whose name means “to hear,” to see the Savior of the world. 

God hears. He is attentive to our cries. He is ever discerning and perceiving of the needs and concerns and trials and tribulations of one person as well as an entire people. 

We need to remember that. Deep down in our hearts we need to believe that because if we don’t we won’t pray. If we think all is lost, if we think it’s useless, that God isn’t hearing us, we’ll give up hope and we’ll stop praying.

Have hope, take courage, we have a God who hears.  

God’s Word shows us, through Leah and through Simeon, that God is a hearing, compassionate, and loving God. 

So as we start this year, let’s remember that God hears our prayers and continue to pour out our hearts to Him who hears us and will answer when the set time has fully come. 

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him.”  1 John 5:14-15

Merry Christmas

Posted on by Dorci

The Spotless Lamb

Posted on by Dorci

I’ve talked about The Chosen, the series about the life of Christ, and the Christmas special that started it all, and I want to share with you that Christmas special. 

You are taken back to the night when the angel of the Lord spoke to the shepherds, shining God’s light into the dark of night, and into the spiritual darkness that filled the whole world. 

This tiny, promised Christ child brought hope and joy for anyone who would turn and follow Him, and He still does. 

My prayer is that if you’ve never turned to Him in faith, you would do that today, right now. In your own words call out to God and and tell Him you need Him, that you believe He sent His Son, Jesus, the Savior, as both the Spotless Lamb given as a sacrifice for our sins and the Shepherd who would continually lead us, and that you desire to follow Him. 

And if you’ve put your faith in Jesus in the past but you’ve walked away, a little or a lot, it’s not too late. God loves you and He’s waiting for you to return. Call on your Heavenly Father, confess your sins, and turn and follow Jesus again with your whole heart. 

God’s Word says “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

Believe this, and He will do it, and the peace of God will fill your hearts, even in the middle of the turmoil we face in the world, as much today as it was in the time of Jesus’ birth.

There is no better gift to give the Lord, and nothing else He desires more, than our hearts.

I pray this Christmas Special blesses you as much as it does me.

 

Merry Christmas!

 

Sunday Praise and a Prayer of Rejoicing

Posted on by Dorci

Dear Heavenly Father, we praise your holy and precious name. We give you glory for all you’ve done to bring us salvation – nothing short of giving your own Son to be born, to grow up and reveal to us who you are, to be the exact representation of your being, and then to give Him as the perfect sacrifice in payment for our sins so we could be reconciled to you. 

Father, we are so grateful for loving us in such an extravagant way. 

As we get nearer to the day we celebrate the birth of our Savior, help us to not let the busyness of this season overshadow the miracle that took place in the stable all those years ago.  

We truly rejoice in the grace and mercy you gave us, wrapped in swaddling clothes. 

We rejoice that you spoke through your prophets about where He would be born and who He would be so we wouldn’t be left to wonder if He really was the Savior. 

We rejoice that He was born with a body like ours, was tempted as we are and identified with us in every way, yet remained sinless, both God and man.

We rejoice in all the miracles surrounding His birth – that Mary and Joseph were obedient to you with such an overwhelming calling, that the angel of the Lord spoke to the shepherds telling them the joyful news of the Savior’s birth, and that a star led wise men from so far away to worship. You brought people near and far to rejoice in you and spread the good news that a Savior had been given to the world. 

Lord Jesus, we rejoice in You and give you glory, proclaiming that you are the long-awaited Messiah, the Savior, the Christ, that you are the good news, the best news the world has ever or will ever know. You’ve given the world hope, and we pray the weary world will turn to you and rejoice with us. 

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us a reason to rejoice. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

 

Be Still

Posted on by Dorci

God of Hope

Posted on by Dorci

Sunday Praise and a Prayer to Live Worthy of Our Calling

Posted on by Dorci

Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you for this beautiful day you’ve made. We praise you for your holiness and righteousness.  You are the Almighty God, the King of kings and Lord of lords. You are our good Father from whom all blessings flow. 

We look to you Father, to fill us again with the hope of your promises, with a steadfast faith, that we may act justly and love mercy and walk humbly with You. 

Father, as we fix our eyes on you, our supreme Hope, help us remember to “submit ourselves for Your sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by You for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is Your will, that by doing right we silence the ignorance of foolish people. That we will act as free people, not using our freedom as a covering for evil, but using it as Your bond-servants.” 1 Peter 2:13-16

Father we submit those authorities into your hands and pray that your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We pray for the salvation of each one, that they would fervently seek you and your wisdom to govern rightly.

In everything, with hope and faith, may we live worthy of the high calling you’ve placed on our lives, as children of the King.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, for Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. 

In Jesus’ holy and precious name we pray, amen. 

 

The Saturday Song – Almost Home

Posted on by Dorci

I don’t have to tell you we’ve all had a rough year. And for a lot of us that’s on top of a rough decade…life…you get the idea.

And the trials of this life don’t show any signs of letting up.  

But this life is not all there is. 

For those who have chosen Christ as our Savior, this world is just a temporary place where we grow closer to the Lord, let His character replace our own, where we let the Author and Finisher of our faith mature us and prepare us for the life He has planned for us – the real life – the life after this, where we’re more alive than ever. 

Right now, we live with our eyes on that prize. We live with a hope and a steadfast faith that seeks to be about our Father’s business, loving and drawing the people He’s given us into that most sacred of relationships so they, too, can live with hope, knowing this life is only temporary, and we’re almost home. 

 

 

Almost Home
by MercyMe
 
Are you disappointed
Are you desperate for help
You know what it’s like to be tired
And only a shell of yourself
Well you start to believe
You don’t have what it takes
‘Cause it’s all you can do
Just to move much less finish the race
But don’t forget what lies ahead
 
Almost home
Brother it won’t be long
Soon all your burdens will be gone
With all your strength
Sister run wild, run free
Hold up your head
Keep pressing on
We are almost home
 
Well this road will be hard
But we win in the end
Simply because of Jesus in us
It’s not if but when
So take joy in the journey
Even when it feels long
Oh find strength in each step
Knowing heaven is cheering you on
 
We are almost home
Brother it won’t be long
Soon all your burdens will be gone
With all your strength
Sister run wild, run free
Hold up your head
Keep pressing on
We are almost home
Almost home
Almost home
 
I know that the cross has brought heaven to us
But make no mistake there’s still more to come
When our flesh and our bone are no longer between
Where we are right now and where we’re meant to be
When all that’s been lost has been made whole again
When these tears and this pain no longer exist
No more walking we’re running as fast as we can
Consider this our second wind
 
Almost home
Brother it won’t be long
Soon all your burdens will be gone
With all your strength
Sister run wild, run free
Hold up your head
Keep pressing on
We are almost home
Almost home
Almost home
We are almost home
Almost home
Almost home
We are almost home

The Saturday Song – God’s Not Dead

Posted on by Dorci

It’s revival day! 

Today’s the day Franklin Graham is leading Prayer March 2020 in Washington D.C. for the healing of our nation, and the day Pastor and Rabbi Jonathan Cahn is leading his event, The Return, also seeking God’s forgiveness, repentance, revival, and healing of our nation. 

Heavenly Father, we come to you in humility and total dependence on You, praying that in Your mercy You would pour out the power of Your Holy Spirit throughout our country to soften hearts and open eyes to the truth of the destruction of sin, and the truth of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross that paid for our sins, that many will turn to You with repentant hearts and that there will be a great awakening and revival of our nation in the name of Jesus Christ.  We pray you would send your warrior angels to bind the hand of the enemy from stopping or disrupting any of the prayer events going on today. We look to You, LORD, for help and hope and renewal. In Jesus’ holy and precious name we pray, amen. 

This is the song the Lord put on my heart to share today.

 

 

God’s Not Dead (Like a Lion)
Newsboys

Let love explode and bring the dead to life
A love so bold
To seek a revolution somehow

Let love explode and bring the dead to life
A love so bold
To bring a revolution somehow
Now I’m lost in Your freedom
In this world I’ll overcome

My God’s not dead
He’s surely alive
He’s living on the inside
Roaring like a lion
God’s not dead
He’s surely alive
He’s living on the inside
Roaring like a lion

Roaring, He’s roaring, He’s roaring like a lion

Let hope arise and make the darkness hide
My faith is dead I need resurrection somehow
Now I’m lost in Your freedom
In this world I’ll overcome

My God’s not dead
He’s surely alive
He’s living on the inside
Roaring like a lion
God’s not dead
He’s surely alive
He’s living on the inside
Roaring like a lion

Roaring, He’s roaring, He’s roaring like a lion
He’s roaring, He’s roaring

Let heaven roar and fire fall
Come shake the ground
With the sound of revival
Let heaven roar and fire fall
Come shake the ground
With the sound of revival
Let heaven roar (Let heaven roar) and fire fall
Come shake the ground
With the sound of revival

He’s living on the inside
Roaring like a lion
God’s not dead
He’s surely alive
He’s living on the inside
Roaring like a lion
God’s not dead
He’s surely alive
He’s living on the inside
Roaring like a lion
God’s not dead
He’s surely alive
He’s living on the inside
Roaring like a lion

He’s roaring, He’s roaring, He’s roaring like a lion
He’s roaring, He’s roaring, He’s roaring like a lion (Roaring like a lion)