September 28, 2015

Praying with help from Jeremiah 29:4-14 today:

The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, sends this message to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem:

Lord Almighty, God of the world
You hold all the nations in Your hand.
You know the hearts of the leaders, and You can turn it.
You rule the skies
and You rule the streets
You move the winds and the storms
and the powerful and the weak.
You see all, You know all, You control all.

Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens and eat the food you produce. Marry and have children.

Lord, we thank You for our food--
elaborate systems that bring us pineapples and grapes and shrimp and curry.
We thank You for our homes.
We thank You for our families--for our husbands, our children, our parents and siblings.
Thank You for this place where You have established us for Your glory.

And work for the peace and prosperity of Babylon. Pray to the Lord for that city where you are held captive...

Thank You Lord for our country. Thank You for this wonderful land You have given us. Help us to share the blessing. Give our leaders wisdom on how to help others. We do ask for the continued peace and prosperity of this place for Your glory. We pray You will unleash the winds of Your Spirit and breathe revival amongst our neighborhoods.

The truth is that you will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me. I will be found by you.

Lord, we ask for Your strength when You have us in Babylon--a place where we don't want to be. May we learn from our trials and grow...grow up. Don't take our troubles off our backs, but strengthen our backs to carry them.

We pray for our Christian brothers and sisters around the world who are being persecuted.

We pray for those facing a PCS. We pray for those wishing for a PCS.

We pray for our husbands: Lord, may they be spiritual leaders, alive in You.
We pray for us: may we be good helpmates in all senses of the word. Help us to see and value and fulfill the missions You have given us.
We pray for our children: Lord, may this generation know Your true joy. May it overflow into all the world.
We pray for our military families and all the extras we have to deal with. Teach us Lord. Through the difficulties, draw us closer to each other.
We pray for those in command; for those with struggling marriages; for those with difficult children; for those with illnesses (including Ansley and Hayden and Gracie and another little girl missing school); for those who are separated from loved ones.
We pray for those who have recently lost loved ones.

We pray for the Chief of Chaplains' office and our husbands' commanders.

Thank You Lord for being right here with us--no matter where 'here' is.
We love You... You first loved us. How marvelous! How wonderful!

September 21, 2015

More Love to Thee by Fernando Ortega

1. More love to thee, O Christ, more love to thee! Hear thou the prayer I make on bended knee. This is my earnest plea: More love, O Christ, to thee; more love to thee, more love to thee! 2. Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest; now thee alone I seek, give what is best. This all my prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to thee; more love to thee, more love to thee! 3. Let sorrow do its work, come grief and pain; sweet are thy messengers, sweet their refrain, when they can sing with me: More love, O Christ, to thee; more love to thee, more love to thee! 4. Then shall my latest breath whisper thy praise; this be the parting cry my heart shall raise; this still its prayer shall be: More love, O Christ, to thee; more love to thee, more love to thee!

September 14, 2015

Click here to worship with Hillsong's The Stand

You stood before creation
Eternity within Your hand
You spoke the earth into motion
My soul now to stand

You stood before my failure
Carried the Cross for my shame
My sin weighed upon Your shoulders
My soul now to stand

So what can I say
What can I do
But offer this heart O God
Completely to You

So I'll walk upon salvation
Your Spirit alive in me
This life to declare Your promise
My soul now to stand

So what can I say
What can I do
But offer this heart O God
Completely to You

So I'll stand
With arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the One who gave it all

So I'll stand
My soul Lord to You surrendered
All I am is Yours

Lord, we can't partly volunteer for the military. Our warriors give their whole body and mind. 

We pray for ranks and ranks of soldiers giving body, mind and heart to You. 

May we stand with heart abandoned to You.

This is our first prayer for our warriors: that they would know You.

We pray for the hurting soldier considering suicide. Lord, send Your angels.

Thwart the hurting's every bad plan. Bind the enemy's lies in their lives.

May they give up--surrender--only to You.

We pray for our warriors' spiritual lives: may they be growing in You.

With all the mire they have to wade through, please renew their minds and their hearts.

Help them find the balance to being in the world and not of it.

We pray for their relationships with others, may they sharpen iron.

We pray for their marriages. Lord, give courage and strength in extra measure for the extra hard times.

We pray for their times with their kids.

We pray for their emotions--help them to understand and work through it.

We pray for those who are preparing for new jobs in the winter rotation, and those retiring.

We pray for their bodies, O Great Physician, Great Creator.

Please keep them safe in deployment, in training, in traveling, in the work place.

Please give them the strength they need to do their jobs; the mental sharpness.

Please help the many who are injured. Thank You for doctors and medical improvements.

But mostly, they need Your touch.

We pray for others in our military family who are ill: for Amy and her baby, for Hayden, for _________

Lord, may the Chaplaincy be relevant and life-changing for You, from the Chief of Chaplain's office

on down.

We pray for Your soldiers around the world: the persecuted Christians, Pastor Saeed, the refugees.

We stand before You--awed--forgiven--amazed by joy as You have this all in Your hands.

September 6, 2015

Praying with the hymn "Take My Life and Let it Be Consecrated."

God who breathes life--
Who tells the baby to breathe
Who pops open the flower
Who gives the horse its strength
And makes the young man run
Who causes the hearts to flutter
Who heals the stricken
Who mends the broken

Who brings the dead to life.

Lord,
Take my life, and let it be 
Consecrated Lord to Thee
Take my moments and my days
Let them flow in ceaseless praise,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.

Thank You Lord for life.
Thank You for the beauty and the joy and the excitement of love.
Thank You for our husbands, God, and the families You have created.
We pray You will take our lives and consecrate them.
We vowed before You for our marriages, may we continue to work out that commitment.

Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love;
Take my feet, and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee
Swift and beautiful for Thee.

Yes, Lord, may we run to serve our spouses, to be their help-mates.

Take my will, and make it Thine
It shall be no longer mine;
Take my heart--it is Thine own
It shall be Thy royal throne
It shall be Thy royal throne.

Lord help us to be unafraid to love. Bring us back into the garden. May our marriages reflect Your perfection. And not just for our own benefit, but may we be a blessing to others.

Take my love, my Lord I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store
Take myself, and I will be
Ever, only all for Thee
Ever, only all for Thee

Lord there are so many pitfalls for the military marriage.
Help us not to grow apart.
Help us find the balance between the needed independence and dependence.
Help us to work together toward a common mission as much as we can.
Protect our hearts when we are apart.

We pray for our deployed and their spouses--for the loneliness, the fears, the exhaustion. May they be growing towards You, and thus growing towards each other even in the absence.

We pray for those who have lost their loved ones.
We pray for Your healing for those who have been betrayed.
We pray for the marriages where a person is seriously ill. We ask for Your grace in their relationship, and we ask for healing. Thank You for hope and progress in recovery for many.

We pray for Your grace to be between us in the hard times, like when we head out again to a new station. We thank You that You have the military plans in Your hands, and we are not out of Your will. Help us to embrace the new adventures.

We pray for strong Christian marriages in the Chief of Chaplain's Office, in the Pentagon, on every post. May we shine as a light for You in this blessing You have given us.

And as always, Lord, we beseech You to help our hurting warriors. May they never give up on life.
May we all live ever, only all for Thee.

August 31, 2015

Praying with Daniel 2: 20-23 this week:

Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;
wisdom and power are His.

Forever and ever! Lord, how awesome to think of eternity with You. Everything changes, and yet nothing changes on this earth--but You are solid, You are faithful, You are constant, You are for ever and ever. When there is betrayal, when there is death, when there is sickness, when there is sin, You are always. You are the I AM.
And You handle this world with all wisdom and all power.

He changes times and seasons; 
He deposes kings and raises up others.

Lord we see Your grace as You continue to spin this earth, continue to send the sunlight by day and the moon by night, continue to bring us the harvest.
Thank You for the boatloads of shiny fish.
Thank You for the purple of the berry jelly.
Thank You for the colors of the fall leaves.
Thank You for the rippling fields of wheat; for the turning heads of sunflowers; for the smooth colored egg shells.
Your goodness Father...Your goodness...

He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.
He reveals deep and hidden things;
He knows what lies in darkness,
and light dwells with Him.
I thank and praise You, God of my ancestors:
You have given me wisdom and power,
You have made known to me what we asked of You...

Thank You Lord. Thank You for using us, Your church, to be Your vessels. Thank You for giving us Your wisdom, for making us shine Your light, for imparting Your power through us.

We pray we would be a more perfect body for You. Lord, fill our chapels. May we be seen as the source of wisdom, light, power in our communities. May people be drawn to our doors. Fill our chaplains' mouths with Your words. Fill our people with Your kindness. Be the grace between us.

We pray for the children's ministries. We pray for the teachers as they deal with many different needs.
We pray our worship would be pleasing to You.
We pray we would have open ears and hearts for our sermons.
We pray we will welcome and care for all in our church body.
We pray we would be people of prayer.

Knowing You love us:
We ask for safety for our traveling and deployed soldiers.
We pray for our hurting warriors. May Your church be able to reach the vulnerable. Please silence the voices they should not hear.
We ask for Your healing touch for those who are sick, including Hayden recovering from infection, Missy after a brain aneurism, our friends with cancer and lymes.
May the Chief of Chaplain's office, and all chaplain's offices, be filled with Your Spirit of wisdom.

Forever and ever Lord, we trust in You.

August 24, 2015

Crowder's After All

I can't comprehend your infinitely beautiful and perfect love
Oh I've dreamed dreams of majesty as brilliant as a billion stars
But they're never bright enough after all

You are Holy
Oh Holy
Holy, Holy, Holy

I will sing a song for you, my God, with everything I have in me
But it's never loud enough after all

You are Holy
Oh Holy
Holy, Holy, Holy

Heaven and earth are full, full of your glory, glory
My soul it overflows full of your glory, your glory
Oh blessed is he who reigns, full of your glory, your glory
My cup, it can't contain all of your glory, your glory
Hosanna we are found after all you are

Holy
Oh Holy
Holy, Holy, Holy,
Holy, Holy

I can't comprehend
You're infinitely beautiful

Lord, there are a lot of things in this world we can't comprehend--

how I can scream at my children

how I can be so frustrated with the man I so longed for

how people can hate and hurt each other 

how deep our sin hurts You.

How much You paid for our forgiveness.

Thank You Lord Jesus.

And no, we can't comprehend Your love. 

Sit us down and remind us of that today.

Lord, a lot of demands are coming at us today as military wives. We pray for those with:

the concern for deployed husbands

the struggle with serious illnesses

the building of relationships with our children, only to let them go

the bone-weariness of long days with little ones

those of us with a bigger microphone--who need to be Your witnesses

those who are on the move or haven't settled in yet

those who have financial burdens like houses to rent

the responsibility to lead our children

the calling to be our husband's help-mate.

Lord, don't just help us with our agenda this week, but make us in line with Your agenda.

We pray for our leaders, including the Chief of Chaplain's Office.

We pray for our hurting soldiers. Lord, we need Your miracles in the face of this suicide epidemic.

We pray for our sisters and brothers in the Middle East, defending Your Name.

We are thankful that we can never comprehend You, can never tire of learning more of You, can never reach the end of Your love.

Thank You for this week.

Amen

August 16, 2015

Do not be afraid, Samuel replied. You have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless. For the sake of his great name the Lord will not reject His people, because the Lord was pleased to make you his own.
As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right. But be sure to fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things He has done for you.--I Samuel 12:20-24 Samuel speaking to the Israelites.

Our Redeemer,
Here we sit, in our own squalor, a mess so big we can't clean ourselves up:

We shrug off our sins of killing babies
Save us, Redeemer.
For good and not so good, we wade into war and find no way out.
Come, Redeemer.
We twist and manipulate truth until we can no longer trust anyone.
Forgive us, Redeemer.
Our god is our stomachs, and we have no idea how not to be obsessed with it.
Change us, Redeemer.
We turn a blind eye to anything that threatens our comfort.
Move us, Redeemer.
We ignore You until we need You.
Be with us, Redeemer.

Thank You Lord Jesus, for redeeming us before we ever took a breath. Thank You for forgiving us on the cross, before we ever knew.
You have forgiven so much, help us to love much. Help us to remember Your grace not with shame but with joy--Your full gift. As Ravi Zacharias says, the cross--where justice, love, evil, and forgiveness all meet. Wow!

We pray You will redeem the lives of Your people around the world.
We pray for the Middle Eastern Christians. Lord, we don't even know how to pray for them; much less how to help. Save them Lord!

We pray for our country. May wisdom and truth prevail. Give our legislators courage to do the right thing.

Lord, be our military's Redeemer.
We pray for the deployed soldiers, still sweating in the desert, still living behind barbed wire, still ducking bullets. May their chaplains be effective. May You redeem this time that they are away by making them closer to You than ever before.
We pray for our leaders. We pray for courage and strength as they fight the administrative and ethical battles. Help the Chief of Chaplain's office to be Your representative to all they come in contact with this week.
We pray for our hurting veterans. Redeem their lives, Lord, redeem them. May the enemy's lies be silenced in their ears.

And Lord, be our children's Redeemer. Give them a double measure of the Spirit You have blessed us with.
We pray for our kids who are in basic training. Strength, courage, safety...please, God.
We pray for our kids who are in college. May they catch the fire of what You would have them do.
We pray for our kids who are considering marriage. Help them to see clearly.
We pray for our kids who are starting school and all the new challenges. Lord, may they find their confidence and identity in You.
We pray for our kids who are starting in a new place. Lord, may they be a blessing to their new friends.
We pray for our kids who are finding their ways through activities--making the team or not, finding new passions, fanning into flame their gifts. Lord, help them to deal with closed doors and with success.
We pray for our little ones learning to handle their emotions.

We pray for safety for those PCSing. Lord, please help us with renting and finding and selling homes.
We pray for our friends struggling with major illnesses, miscarriages, heart aches.

Father God, You are the only one capable of changing things, changing hearts, changing the world! Thank You for loving us enough to redeem us. We will sing for joy today in the hope You give us!