Thessalonians Prayer

We pray that the Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father will comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say. God loved us and gave us through his grace a wonderful hope and comfort that has no end. We pray that the Lord’s teaching will continue to spread quickly and that people will give honor to that teaching, the same as happened with you.  We also pray that we will be protected from crooked and evil people.  Not everyone believes in the Lord, you know. The Lord is faithful. He will give us strength and protect us from the Evil One. The Lord gives us confidence that you are doing what we told you and that you will continue to do it. We pray that the Lord will cause you to feel God’s love and remember Christ’s patient endurance. We pray that the Lord of peace will give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with you all. In Jesus name we pray. Amen!

{Prayer comes from selected verses in II Thessalonians 2-3}

 

 

An Exiles Plea [Psalm 79]

Father, the unbelieving world is coming against us; the power of darkness is upon us. They have no respect for Your name. Holy things mean nothing to these people. They take every opportunity to make fun of us. “Where is your God?” They say. It is a sobering question that they ask, could it be that we have failed to make You known? Certainly we have sinned Father, more than our ancestors before us. Although we claim to be a nation of believers, we have not honored your name, Your Son or Your day. We have no regard for holy things. As a result, we are captives in our own land; spiritual exiles. Our faith is anemic, our witness pathetic and our worship has to be a stench in Your nostrils. We do more pretending than praising. Our adoration has been turned inward: we love ourselves more than Jesus or others. Have mercy on us O God–we desperately need Your help. We need REVIVAL and REFORMATION. We need a spirit of repentance instead of a spirit of arrogance. LORD Jesus help us! Make us fishers of men. Make us a light in this world of darkness and unbelief. Use Your great and awesome power to break the bonds of sin that shackle Your children and set us free to serve. We are Your people, the sheep of Your pasture. We are totally dependant on YOU! We praise You Father and by Your marvelous grace we will always praise You! In Jesus name we pray. Amen!

 

Pucinelli Painting of The Jewish Exiles in Babylon

LORD, Prop Me Up On My Leaning Side

Every  time I am asked to pray,
I think  of the old fellow who always prayed,
‘Lord, prop us up on our leanin’ side.’
After hearing him pray that prayer many times,
someone asked him why he prayed that prayer so fervently.

He answered, ‘well sir, you see,  it’s like this….
I got an old barn out back. It’s been there a long time;
it’s withstood a lot  of weather; it’s gone through a  lot of storms,
and it’s stood for many years.
It’s still standing.
But one day I noticed it was Leaning to one side a bit.

So I went and got some pine poles and propped it up on its leaning side so it wouldn’t fall..

Then I got To thinking about that and how much I was like that old barn.
I’ve been around a long time.
I’ve withstood  a lot of life’s storms.  
I’ve withstood a lot of bad weather in life.
I’ve withstood a lot  of hard times, and I’m still standing too.
But I find myself   leaning to one side from time to time,
so I like to ask the Lord to prop me up on my leaning side,
’cause  I figure a lot of us get to leaning at times.

Sometimes we get to
Leaning toward anger,
Leaning toward bitterness
Leaning  toward hatred,
Leaning toward cussing,
Leaning toward a lot of things that we shouldn’t.
So we need to pray,
‘Lord, PROP us up on our leaning side,
so we will stand straight and tall again, to glorify the Lord.”