Prayer

Today is really Monday November 10, 2008 no matter what blogger shows for today's date. So yesterday, November 9, 2008, was my turn to give the congregational prayer. This was my prayer I gave:

Heavenly Father,
We come before You this morning with various needs. We have hurts and disappointments. We're making our way through trials and afflictions; pains and sorrows. We think we can control our own lives and we run helter skelter, here and there, and then we realize we aren't really going anywhere at all. We're stuck in the muck and the mire of this life and we don't have any strength ... or we just can't figure out the next step to take. So we come to You this morning, Lord. Some of us have joys and some have sadness. Some of us know exactly where we're going and some of us are lost and can't seem to find our way at all. So we come to You, our Rock. Our Fortress. We confess that most of us are bent and broken. But some of us are stronger than we've ever been. No matter where we are in our walk, we come to You. You are our Strength and our Compass; our Help and our Comforter. You fill us when we are empty and rejoice with us when we are filled. In You, we find our purpose and fulfillment. In You, we discover who we are meant to be. In You, we find shelter when the storms of life prevail against us. And so this morning we come to You with our needs and praises, fully expecting You to continue to work in our lives, just as You said you would.

Lord, You are our mighty God. Holy and Pure. Strong and Faithful. We believe Your Word, Lord. You have promised to care for us and walk with us through our trials and stresses. And we believe You. You have promised us that You'll always go before us against all odds. And we believe You. You have promised to be our God if we will but trust You; and we believe You. You are dependable and faithful, trustworthy to do all You promise to do. And we praise You in joy and thanksgiving. We praise You for Your faithfulness and we will always trust You to do what's right. We may get bogged down in our failures but You are always trustworthy to do all You say You'll do. And we praise you in our spirits and our lives. We praise You for Your love and care.

Forgive us, Father, for our failures and sins. So many times we promise we'll do better, only to fail, and then to fail again. We are guilty of our unfaithfulness, our unbelief, and our out-right, blatant sins. We confess that we are sinners of the worst kind and we beg for Your forgiveness.

We thank You, Father, for providing a way for us to stand ... redeemed before You. We thank You, Jesus, for dying for us and filling us with the hope of eternity. And we thank You, Holy Spirit, for giving us the assurance of acceptance. Lord, we thank You for Your unfailing love. We thank You for being everything we need no matter what the circumstances. And so we stand before You today ... totally forgiven, totally righteous in Christ, and totally humbled that You would accept us just as You find us. We thank You, Lord, for Your grace and ask that You glorify Yourself in our lives as we go about our daily routines in this dark world. We love You, Lord, with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. May Your light shine brightly in all of us. And when people notice the light, may they turn and see Christ Jesus in us. May we live the rest of our lives for Your glory alone, Lord, and toward this goal we stand in awe before You. Amen.

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Rather than doing a devotional I thought I'd let my prayer be the devotional. I was so nervous since this was my first time to pray before the entire congregation. My mouth got so dry I thought it was the Sahara Desert in disguise! It was awful. I was literally tripping over my tongue there at the end. If there is a way to stub a tongue, I did it. I always get a good case of dry mouth when I'm nervous. I had thought about chewing gum because that always helps but I hadn't wanted to have talk around gum, that's always a no-no in public speaking. My dear friend suggested I place a glass of water up at the lectern before services next time so I'll be able to battle my dry mouth. I wish I'd have thought of that because I knew I was going to have a problem. But I made it through without messing up. I choked once over something and had to cough lightly, but I was surprised how well I did up there. God truly blessed me with a sense of calmness (is that a word?) and it really is to His credit not mine. But once I found my voice it really went smoothly. I didn't know how long to take but I figured five mins wouldn't be too long and so I kept it right at 5 mins and I was able to pray slowly. No case of motor mouth like I feared. Everyone will always talk faster in front of people so I mentally planned a few pauses. They worked. I was really quite please with the way the Lord worked it all out.

We had small group this morning and my adorable son led the discussion group. He did really well and we all learned a few things about the church itself. One of the discussion points was: In one sentence, explain the "church" to someone who doesn't know anything about the church. (Or something like that.) We had some really long sentences LOL. No, all kidding aside. It amazes me how much thinking the believer is responsible for. When I was a Jehovah's Witness, they always did the thinking for us. No matter what issue was being discussed, individual thinking was frowned upon. When they asked a question they always supplied the answer and it was the only correct answer. If you didn't understand something you were to let the governing body or the "remnant" explain things to you. And so the errors were passed down through the years. Of course they say they are the only ones who know the "truth" so where else could you go for answers. Having your own opinion was discouraged and bordered on heresy. Having your own definition of something was called "higher criticism" and if you disagreed with the "food" they put out, then you were on the Devil's side. There is only one truth to them and that is the Jehovah's Witnesses organization's idea of the truth. Never, never let anyone else do your thinking for you. Especially on matters pertaining to your salvation!!! I can't emphasize that enough. Always make sure that you know what the Bible says and aren't relying on someone else to tell you what it says. That's the heart of much blasphemy. God does not have an earthly organization no matter how ardently they say He does. God has an individual organization. A group of just two. God and the believer. The Lord works within each and every one of us, individually. It's a relationship consisting of just two persons. You and God. We have the indwelling Spirit to teach us Scripture. He will use various methods and various people to lead us, but only the Holy Spirit can interpret Scripture for us. And He will do it. He has His own ways but His ways are always right.

It's time for me to feed all my animals so I'm going to let this be it for today and maybe I can get back to you with some other thoughts later in the week. Until next time...