Purposed Prayer and Filed Under Grace

This month I spent a lovely bit of time with ladies from church at our annual retreat. We ate plenty, worshiped, prayed, quieted ourselves, learned and listened.

We practiced what I will call purposed and intentional prayer. The process I learned (in my own words) is as follows:

• Identify an area that needs prayer. I began by listing things that have burdened me recently. Ask God to lead you to the thing He wants you to focus on.

1. kids fighting, disrespect
2. negativity in our home
3. overcoming despair, feelings of failure

• Simplify the current area. A word jumped out to me as an answer to my list: JOY.

1. I desire joy, in my own personal walk with Christ, in my family, in our home
2. My Bible study homework this week highlighted joy, and I felt that confirmed this to be God's leading to pray for joy.
3. My middle name is Joy! How appropriate!
4. If I am seeking Joy in Christ in all things, that above list should just take care of itself

• Gather thoughts and words pertaining to the area for prayer.

1. I looked up joy in Scripture
2. I studied books (in this case my weekly Bible study homework on the subject)
3. I listened to what the Holy Spirit made "pop out" at me as I researched.

• Write out a prayer, using the research, words, truth you have found. Make it personal and powerful, claiming promises God has given you.
• Pray knowing and understanding that God will do things in His own time and way, but continue to pray with confidence in what God has led you to pray, until resolution comes. 

I love this! I took the time given during the retreat, resisting the pull to discuss and visit, and quietly listened and dug into my study. Praying like this, with purpose, yet letting God lead, helped me be more specific in my prayer time.

And I am now joyfully watching as He answers. It seems no matter what I read lately, I keep stumbling onto this topic of joy. I'm listening and He is increasing my joy.

This process is derived from the teaching of Graham Cooke. 

This month: Filed Under Grace
Our hearts have been with some new friends who have been experiencing a financial squeeze since the husband lost his job a while back. He was able to find some temporary work, and we hired him to do some work for our company, but it was just not enough, especially considering they are expecting their first child. As is God's way (Never Late, but Rarely Early) our friend just landed an awesome job in his field of choice!

 As far as our family goes in this area, being self-employed and all, I consider every month we can pay our bills an answer to prayer! More than a year ago, the company we do business for was letting droves of its people go, and we were unsure what that meant for us. As whole floors of their cubicles emptied, we braced for the worst. A month went by, then another, then another. And here we are today, debt free and just fine. Worry profits nothing. Faith, everything I really ever needed. It's all grace.


 Matthew 6
²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
    ²⁸"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

How has our Lord been answering your prayers? Have you even been asking and watching for his answers? Do you have a story of His grace to share? For all the details of how to participate, read this, then come back here and link up! 

If you  have an answer to prayer you'd love to share, but don't have a blog, post your story in a comment. I'd love to hear it!

Filed Under Grace- Documenting Answered Prayer

Do you pray? When God answers, do you pay attention, take note? Do you keep track of His care, write it down for yourself and for your children?

I want to remember, to keep an account of His grace and mercy in my need. He is here, with me, answering before I ask. I want to remember. The grace is His gift, to me, to you. The Glory is His. He has done these things, and He deserves the credit.

So let us gather together and bring praise to the One whose love is extravagant, whose compassion is never failing. Whether it be a prayer answered, or a desire He knew and answered before you could even ask, would you share it here and encourage the community?

I ask no great commitment. Once a month, on the last weekend of the month, bring your accounts of His answers here.We will start Saturday and the linkup will be available for one week.

They need not be great big answers to prayer, though those are indeed for His glory! He sees and cares for the sparrows, and he cares about our daily struggles as much as the agonizing ones. Bring them all here and let us tell what God has done for us. Spread the word, please?

Like any carnival, I will have a MckLinky for you to link your post. Please link to your Filed Under Grace post, not your home page. Link back here on your post so your readers can find more stories of God's grace. Thank you.

I'll make a list of God's gracious dealings, 

all the things God has done that need praising,
All the generous bounties of God…
— Compassion lavished, love extravagant…

Isaiah 63:7-8

The Message

A Tough Post

I broach this subject publicly with some hesitation, but at this point, prayer is a greater need than privacy. I post this with permission.

We are a family touched by HIV/AIDS. The diagnosis came 8 years ago for John, my husband’s twin brother, and until recently he's been essentially healthy. Earlier this spring, after experiencing vision problems, he was diagnosed with Cytomegalovirus (CMV), which in healthy individuals rarely causes illness. Because of his HIV, CMV almost cost John the eyesight in one eye. He underwent a lengthy treatment at that time, and appeared to recover. He has since suffered a relapse of CMV and also recovered from pneumonia. Today, he appears healthy, but his health is precarious.

He recently requested we begin praying for him. Robb and John’s family live out of state and John has preferred to remain emotionally distant from them. We are his support. Being a twin myself, my heart understands and aches for my husband and his twin brother as we face the road ahead.

Please pray with us.

• Pray that John would feel the love and forgiveness of Christ
• Pray that Truth will prevail and all false beliefs will be exposed
• Pray that John would find comfort and peace in Christ instead of fear
• Pray for protection from illness, especially as flu season approaches
• Pray that we would communicate clearly with John and have an accurate understanding of his health status. The unknowns are hard. Denial comes easy.

Thank you.