Sunday, December 24, 2017

Sunday, December 24, 2017

‘Tis the morning before Christmas, and all through this house

The silence is lovely as I sit quiet as a mouse

As every morning, sipping coffee and preparing to share

From the heart of our Father, and a guided parent’s prayer!

Merry Christmas Eve to each of you! I am blessed and excited to share our prayer today. God bless you each as we pray together for our children!

Prayer:

Thanksgiving:

Good morning, sweet Father in heaven! How good it is to walk into Your Presence, how good to share in Your beautiful creation. I thank You for Your great love for me and for my family. I thank You for Your provision. I thank You for the health we enjoy. I thank You for clean air and water, and I thank You for shelter. I thank You for sending Your Son Jesus, and for Your great Plan of Salvation that was prepared for us before the foundations of the earth. I thank You for faith, and for sending Your Holy Spirit that we might commune with You and be transformed throughout our lifetimes. Bless You, Holy Father. Bless You, and thank You for Who You Are. You are Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. You are in all, through all, above all. (Spend time giving God glory for His great and mighty nature. List praises and answers to prayer. Close your eyes and pause, thanking Him for every thing you can think of. Journal things that stand out.)

Confession:

Lord, I confess that I need You and I can’t live without You. I open my heart daily before You and ask You to continually refine me. Do not let me enter into shame or condemnation as I confess, but teach me to embrace confession as a place of healing, cleansing and renewal. (Take time to journal confessions. Remember, James 5:16 reminds us that healing comes through confession with another (safe) believer. In a counseling setting, with a close, safe and trusted friend who is a believer, with a pastor or lay minister, the Lord has set up a wonderful gift of healing through confession. At this time, journal before the Lord the things that He is setting before you today. Attitudes, wrong choices, ongoing sin, temptations that are overtaking are a few areas I confess. This is a time to cleanse and renew and prepare to enter into prayer each day.)

Supplication:

I lift my needs to You today and ask for You to intervene. 1 Peter 5:7 tells me that I may cast my cares, anxiety, worry on You and that You will care for me. You will take care of the needs and concerns. Help me to roll them on to Your shoulders and teach me not to take them back from You. (Journal needs and requests. Do not be afraid to pray for the exact things you prayed for yesterday. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous (person) avails much (James 5:16b). Keep on asking the Lord to touch the challenges in your circumstances.)

Intercession:

I lift my children to You today, Lord, and I give them to You. I release control and ask that You will help me to surrender them to You. You are their true Father. You are the One Who created them, and You always knew the parenting challenges we would face with each child You gifted us. Since You made them, and You made us, You also know exactly what they need and how we can best address those needs. Show us how to pray. Make us into people of prayer more every day. (Journal progress, victory, and praises. List needs, concerns, requests. Pour your heart out to the Lord. Remember, if you have more than one child each child has individual needs. If you have one child with a special needs and one who is typical, or one who is strong willed and one who is compliant, the child who does not have the particular parenting challenge often gets overlooked or even neglected in the face of dealing with the “fires” of parenting a child with high demand needs. Take time to foster the needs of each child within the prayer closet.)

Blessing and Benediction:

May the Blessings of Christmas be with you,

May the Christ Child light your way,

May God’s holy angels guide you,

And keep you safe each day.

-An Irish Christmas blessing