A Prayer for Those Grieving

Father, this morning I know several people who are grieving and feeling the emptiness of loss. I lift them up to you. I ask you to speak comfort to their aching places, and I ask you to give them courage as they walk through this valley. Give them the courage to look beyond the grief to the joy that memories will bring, and I ask that during this grieving you would give them reprieves--reprieves from the pain so they can breathe and think without the fog of hurt and loss feeling like it is sucking the life out of them and a reprieve from the forward march so they can grieve deeply and honestly. I ask that you protect them from thoughtless statements of others that inflict more pain, and I ask you to send kind hands and words to encourage them, to carry them when need be. I ask you to impart hope for a day that doesn't hurt "like this one does".

 

And, Father, for those who feel alone because of so much loss, I ask that you would speak as only you can. Be the presence only You can be. Give hope of how you can fill the void because you can. Your word promises that you sit the lonely in families. You take care of orphans, widows, and the lonely because you know it is not good for us to be alone.

 

I pray that each of these people grieving this morning would know with all they are that they are not alone. That you are with them, that they are loved, and you are filling the empty places if they have the courage to heal and love again. And sometimes, Father, that takes a LOT of courage. I ask you to give them that courage too.

 

Thank you, Father, for the precious lives that have lived and poured into each of these who are grieving. Thank you for the gift these loved ones have been. THank you for how they have made each of these people better, enriched their lives, continue to impact the world through their influence. Thank you for these beautiful treasures that are being celebrated evening among, and with, the tears. You give lavish gifts, and these who are being mourned are incredibly lavish gifts. Thank you.

 

Father, thank you for hearing my prayer. Thank you for answering in your love and mercy. Thank you for being a kind, gentle, and concerned God. I praise you for your trustyworthiness and your tenderness. You are beautiful, and I thank you for who you are.

 

With faith for answers to each of these petitions and absolute certainty of your love and concern, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen

 

--Jerri L. Kelley--

www.jerrikelley.com

If He Prayed for Me

Saturday I wrote a blog and FB post about women praying for the men in their lives in a way that is focused on the men, not on what the women want from the men, and it has left me wondering. I wonder two things:
1. What would I want the man who loves me to pray for me?
2. What would I want the kids' dad to pray for me?

As many of you know, the kids' dad and I were in the process of divorce when he died seven years ago, but if he were alive, I would still be praying for him as their dad because the way a dad lives affects his kids in every aspect of their lives. I hope he would also pray for me as their mom, and if he did, I would hope he would pray something like this:

Father, help Jerri not to live in unforgiveness of any kind because that closes her heart to love, and I want her to love our kids deep and wide.
Give her wisdom for her finances because in taking care of those, she also takes care of our kids.
Give her wisdom for disciplining the kids, and help her to never discipline out of anger, frustration, or fatigue.
Show her you love her in ways she knows and feels.
Help her see our kids as you created them to be and bless that in them even when it is hard or stretches her or causes differences of opinion.
Help her to listen to the kids and see things through their eyes, too.
Help her to never compromise your Word but to live what she tells them she believes.
Help her to see her value as a mom when she wonders if she makes a difference at all.
Give her friends to encourage her on hard days.
Bring the people she needs to meet practical needs like repairs.
On hard days, help her to know when to just go do something fun and when to stay and fight it out.
Help the two of us to talk and co-parent well.
Give her physical strength to do all she needs to do and mental/emotional strength to face the intangible challenges.
Give her a tenacious spirit for praying for our kids.
Give her hope that things do turn out well for the kids even in the places they are struggling.
If you bring another man into her life, I ask that he would love our kids like You love our kids, that he would be fair and wise, that he would bless who you created them to be, and I ask that he would be part of the parenting team, not a distraction or problem.
Lord, bless Jerri to be joyful in you. Bless who she is, not just as a mom but as a person. Give her courage to be an example of faith to our kids and to become all you created her to be.
I ask these things in Jesus' name, Amen.

Yeah...I think I would like for him to pray something like that...

Husbands, Can You Help Us Out a Little Bit?

Yesterday my way groovy friend Heather Brizzi and I had an iron sharpening iron session over the phone. Specifically we were talking about husbands and marriage, spiritual warfare, and prayer. Really, it all went together. It has stuck in my head, and this morning the Lord and I talked more about wives praying for their husbands.

 

If we are harcore real, the truth is most of us pray for others based on what we want out of it. We pray for people to be blessed or become or respond or act in a way that makes us feel good or makes things easy for us. Wives do that with their husbands. I know. I've been a wife. My female friends were wives. We've prayed together.

 

But this morning, the Lord is really impressing on me--

"If you did not look at your husband in relation to yourself and your prayers had nohting to do with you, what would you pray for your husband?"

 

That has me thinking, but we'll talk about that tomorrow or Monday becaus then the next question came to mind:

 

what would your husband want you to pray for him?

 

Huh.

 

So, men, I am asking you to be hardcore real and help us ladies out. What do you want your wife to pray for when she lifts you up to the Lord?

 

If you don't feel comfortable with a public answer, please PM me. I really want to know, and I know other ladies who want to know as well because some of us really have hearts to be great wives, so would you please help us out?

 

Thanks,

Jerri

www.jerrikelley.com

Prayer for Those of You in the Hard Places

Father God,

I lift up the folks who read (and don't read) my posts on FB and my blog, and I ask you to speak to them today. If not through these words, somehow. Show them the answers to the issues they face, and, Lord, nag them if you have to, especially if they are the problem that is preventing the answer. Give them wisdom and grant them forbearance to way up under the weight of the issue until you bring it to solution. I pray that in the waiting, you would show them your character, not as a hateful God who is waiting to squish them like a bug if they step or breathe wrong, but as a God who has invested His very breath into them, because that is what you really have done. Given us your breath and given us your life so we could breathe again when we were dead in our own mess and waste. Help them to see the God I know, the God who loves deeply and desires honest relationship with mutual love and respect, with hearts to serve each other. Show them the path, not just to their answer, but the path to you because that is not something shown to us very often, and when it is, it is usually wrapped in ritual and checkmarks, not radical passion and committed love. Thank you, Lord, for every person you have brought within my writing world and personal one. Thank you that you have a plan for every single one of them, and sometimes that plan is hard to walk or impossible to understand because this world is not for sissies, but, Lord, I pray that in the hard and impossible to understand, they would understand this--you are with them.

I love you, Father. Help me love you more.

Help my lack of faith, Lord.

Amen

Jerri

www.jerrikelley.com

When People Hurt More than You have the Power to Help...You Pray

In my other post about my trip through government bureacracy the last week and especially today, I talked about the wounded souls I saw, and the question was posed, "What does God want you to do with it?" Well, put it in perspective for one.

 

I also took my truck in for some major repair work. It was supposed to go in yesterday, but it didn't because one of the owners of Christian Brothers passed into the hands of Jesus Monday, and yesterday was Annette's memorial. It was hard walking into CB's today knowing I would hear her laughter or see her smile or feel her hugs. Right now, I'm tearing up again. And it is hard knowing what her husband is facing and just how...empty a kitchen chair can be or the other side of the couch or the other seat in the car. And my heart would do anything to make that better.

 

While I was rolling through the emotions and frustrations of the day, I was also getting messages from folks neededing prayer, and I am always honored and privileged when people pour out their hearts for me to take before the Lord, and maybe today I am really tender because of Annette, but so many people are facing granite hard things, and I can do nothing pratical to fix it. Nothing.

 

All I can do is carry these hearts and lives and needs into the throne room and lay them before the Lord and ask for answers to the specific needs and ask for help for them, not just material help but emotional help so they can find peace and mental calm so they make decisions well.

 

You know, when you are left making decisions that it is shocking to make in the first place and add mental and emotional exhaustion to the mix, one of three things will happen.

1. They'll do something human to fix it, which is bad.

2. God will step in and meet them where they are, and they will know how to lean into Him.

3. They will crater. Maybe not suicide but in ways that destroy marriages, relationships, and hope.

 

I pray not just for the tangible answers but for the intangible soul stuff that needs to be able to reach out to God and hold onto God and receive answers from God. Prayer isn't just about the physical world. It is mostly about the internal world because that is where the war is won.

 

Anyway...I"m praying.

Jerri Kelley

www.jerrikelley.com