As you know, I have kept Prayer Journals for a lot of years. I encourage you to do so, too.
It's just a lined notebook in which I put quotations from scriptures and articles I like, and prayers people request. What is does for me is provide a wonderful compass of where I am at on my journey with Jesus, how much I have grown as I try to keep Jesus at the center of my life. "The Lord is near to the broken hearted, and saves the crushed in spirit." (Psalm 34:18) "I sought the Lord, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears." (Psalm 34:4) Episcopal Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, encourages all of us to adopt "The Way of Love." To consider ways we can keep Jesus at the center of our lives. Adopt a practice he says that include turn, learn, pray, worship, bless, go, and rest. He gave me a lot to think about and do. Why don't you give it a try? We have nothing to lose and everything to gain: Jesus. Blessings and love, Fr. Jack. The Brick Wall Prayer
Our Mike Gollihur sent me this prayer recently. I'm placing this in my 2019 Prayer Journal for sure. Blessings and love, Fr. Jack A Prayer to Know God's Will for Your Life. By Rachel-Claire Cockrell "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29: 11) The Brick Wall Prayer (A Prayer to Know God's Will): God, you know me better than I know myself. You know my fears and my desires. You know how much I want this. You know how much I will be devastated if this doesn't happen. I know you love me. I know you have a plan for me. Please, Lord, don't let my desires blind me to your will. If this is not within your plan for me, throw up a Brick Wall. Give me an obstacle I cannot get past. Help me follow your will Father. Give me peace about whatever is to come. If this falls through, I will know it is your hand. Thank you for loving me. Amen. This is from my 2019 Prayer Journal.
I like it because it tells all of us just how much God loves us. Blessings and love, Fr, Jack. "I lift my eyes to the hills-from where will my help come? My help comes the Lord, who made heaven and earth." (Psalm 121: 1-2) "Our God is the God of always more. As Saint Paul so beautifully put it in his letter to the Ephesians, 'Can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.' (3:20 ) Such is the overflow of God's richness, the generosity of God's outpoured love for us and for all that God has made." (T.S. Haller, BSC. The Anglican Digest, Summer 2018 ) I like this prayer from my 1983 Prayer Journal.
It has been very helpful for me. Blessings and love, Fr. Jack. A Healing Prayer Only by calling on God are we able to forgive and forget. Father, we praise you for your healing mercy. Thank you for loving and accepting us with all our hurts, hangups and sins, but thank you even more for caring enough to change us. Thank you for saving us from ourselves and our unwittingly self-destructive tendencies. We reach out and open to receive your tender mercies, praising you for showing us that we are forgiven so that we may be able to forgive - both ourselves and others! Amen. (Jon Eargle, Healing Where You Hurt on the Inside) |