September Already!!? MN Christian Prayer Request Thread Take 6!!

[CaptainDippy]

Hello one and all!

September already!!? (Well nearly ....) Good grief!? Where does the time go????

Here's a brief summary of August's Prayer Requests.........

katzg - Desperately looking for a new job, has been having interviews - so hopefully something will come up soon please God!!? Contract for current job has been extended to Oct 31st. PiccadillyCircus - Has a difficult decision to make - would like prayer for strength to make the right decision.

MaryBS - On-going prayers as she has commenced her Reader training. Prayers for motivation in her studies etc Prayers for her relationship with her mother. Her 1st sermon is on Oct 1st. Prayer requests for a 15 year old boy who died of a suspected asthma-attack on youth pilgrimage this summer and for non-Christian lady she knows who has been to see a Specialist about a lump in her breast (do we have any more on that Mary??) On-going prayers for DH's nephew who is having a very rough time with his parents who adopted him and are not sure whether they would like to keep him or not etc. Finally, praise and prayers for bro and SIL who have been approved for the adoption of two little girls!! Praying the adoption goes smoothly and that God blesses them as parants and as a family.

Catj - DD4 has been very poorly, last we heard she was on the ward and still fighting (11th Aug). God Bless you little one!

Xavielli - Got engaged!! Prayers as she starts to make marraige preparations for next July. Has been feeling very down receently - needs lots of [hugs] and prayers. Lots and lots going on in her life - stresses with young children and untidy house, DP's bro staying and slight computer game addiction which is being dealt with atm. Also prayers for friend's mum who has cancer which has spread.

Nanou1 - Prayers for cousin's children who are coping with their parents' divorce. Prayers for her swollen tummy, which has bee causing her a lot of discomfort. Lots of prayers for DH who is trying to find a new job. He had a job interview yesterday (30th Aug), which he thought went well - pray he gets a 2nd interview. Sorting out the house after burglary while they were away on holiday.

NASWM - Has been really struggling recently - very low. Lots of [hugs] and prayers her way.

longwaytogo - Prayers for her nan who has a wound on her arm which is not healing. Praying lots for the "ghosts of the past" to be completely over-come by God's love and care for her and her special family!!

Podmog - Has 20 week scan today (31st Aug) - worried about it - prayers it goes really well and all is fine with LO. Also prayers for doctors / nurses / midwifves etc reaction to current NHS "over-weight" issues! On-going prayers for difficult situation at church involving one couple. Praise God that DS is sleeping better - praying that Podmog gets lots and lots of nice sleep too!

Twiga - DH's Uncle died - Prayers for family and friends and they deal with grief - Praise for the good life he had! Praise God for fantastic Holiday Club Twiga has been involved with - prayers for those children as they go off back to "normalilty" - praying that they stuff they have learned will stick with them all their days!! Praying for her driving lessons and for her DH who is studying for exams. Prayers for friend who lost a baby at 16 weeks and would be due around now. Pray that Twiga would know best how to support her.

Yorkiegirl - Her DH Nigel died while on holiday with them this Aug. Prayers that they would be so strong as a family and that God would be so very close to them at this time. Praying so much for them all as they cope. [hugs] and love. xxxx

MarsLady - Prayers for mouse problem in her house! Prayers for her as she completes her Doula training and tackles her OU essays - praying she'll remain as unstressed as poss and sail through!! Prayers for finances as a family as studies come to an end etc. Praise that her friend Dave is going from strength to strength (has been back at work a little!) Prayers for friend (Simon) who has been in a medically induced coma - they were due to try and wake him up soon - prayers it went ok and the damage is not too much. (How is he???) Also prayers for "J" whose DH has just told her their marriage is over, they have a 2.6 yr old.

weirdbird - WELCOME!! Lots and lots of prayers needed for weirdbird's little unborn babe. She has been having contractions and is so scared little one is going to come before he/she is ready. She is nearly 24 weeks, which is the point at which they can intervene (Praise God!!) Pray that LO stays in long enough to be ok!!

NotQuiteSoTiredMum - Popped in! DS2's excema is much better - Praise God! Doing ok in her household!

moretenaanyone - Prayers for friend who has died. He was in his 30's and he leaves behind a widow in her 20's.

tjacksonpfc - Her DP died of bowel cancer earlier this year and she is missing him so much. She has two very young daughters and is struggling. Strength and love to them all. xxxx

AngelJay - WELCOME!!!

Sleepysooz - WELCOME!! Prayers as she puts her twins in the same bedroom to sleep on their own for the first time! Eeeek!

Tawny75 - Prayers as she goes for an appointment with her consultant about her eyes this morning (31st) Please let us know how it went and what he/she said!

SaggarMakersBottomKnocker - Prayers for friend of her DD who has died following an incident with an air rifle.

Sharpe2626 - Prayers for her sister and BIL as they deal with the still birth of their little girl a couple of weeks ago. xxxx

IdristheDragon - Prayers for friend's wife's dad. He has bowel cancer and has recently had an operation (25th Aug) Any more on this Idris??

PandaG - Prayers for a horrid stye she has on her eye! [hugs]

SoLucky - Lots and lots of prayers as she makes the terible decision about what to do about the twins she is carrying. One twin is fine and healthy, but the other has suspected Edward's Syndrome. So much strength and love to that family. xxxx

nailpolish - Prayers for as she is coming out of the otherside of a very difficult decision and situation.

footprint - Still feeling very low, anxious and depressed. Strength and Love to you honey!! xxxx

CaptainDippy - Praise God!! for her pregnancy (due end of April next year) and that things are actually happening with regards to buying her own house!! God is good!! Praying that the ideal house would come along and that the sale would progress quickly and smoothly!! (Is this asking too much!!!!!?) Prayers as she approaches driving test date. Prayers for relationship with PIL, especially MIL who is driving her completely mad atm!!!!! That's all for now!!

Lots of Love, [hugs] and Prayers to all - so good to "know" you guys - you are all stars!! xxxx

Hello all

Sleepysooz - praying that you will find more of God as you look for Him. FWIW, I find praying quietly on my own hard, I'm much better with other people, or bouncing around with a CD on loud.

N3, I so know how being a Christian isn't all wonderful, it certainly wasn't through my depression. Praying that you would feel more joy, and that you would feel God close to you as you struggle. Hugs honey. (if any of that sounded patronising I am sorry, it wasn't meant to )

Mary, your story is inspirational. How did the practice sermon go?

CD, still praying for your family

MTA praying for your relationship with your boss.

Harrisey - all the best for Monday, praying that you get those few extra marks from somewhere. How exciting to be starting at theological college.

Glad the welly walk went well

love to you all

Hi Panda...

OMGosh, being in that pulpit and delivering it is SO SO different from what I imagined. M. kept stopping me, and I kept starting again, until I was delivering at what felt like a snail's pace, before he told me I had 'got it'. Please pray that the Spirit guides me on Sunday, because I have too much to remember to be able to cope all on my own! Woohoo! I've got my own key to the church now! I'll be able to let myself in tomorrow for more practice, until I feel happy, then M. can have another listen.

I'm glad you thought my story was inspirational. I guess the point I was trying to make, if someone 'like me' can come through the other side, there's hope for everyone!

NQSTM - praying for that poor boy. I've not seen the story. Is it through the Anthony Nolan trust?

N3 - just wanted to say that you shouldn't feel like you've 'lost it all'. You're just not yet where you should be again. As I said, I can see Jesus in you, you just need to feel Him for yourself. Once that happens, things will turn out right. As someone who didn't even know what that meant until 6 months ago, I didn't know what I was missing - unfortunately you do, but I hope and pray you will know how to find it again.

Remembering all of you in my prayers...

God Bless

Mary

Someone who works for the same firm as DH (DH barely knew him) has killed himself by throwing himself off a road bridge. He had family problems. May God have mercy on him and help his family to come to terms with what has happened. How awful. He was in his 50s.

Mary about dh's work colleague. Poor guy must have been very unwell.

Thanks for your comments, I was interested in what you said about not feeling close to God for a day, I've had periods in my life that have stretched on for months when I've felt like that. It does amke you appreciate the close times. Thank you for saying you see Jesus in me, I am feeling him again just in the past few days, it's like it's all slowly coming back (before I've felt him again very suddenly, like a light switch being flicked.) I think you are a very holy person, there is something shining about what you write. Wish I could be there to hear you preach - maybe one day when the chidlren are bigger I'll come!

Panda, thank you, it is very hard sometimes. We've had such alot going on and my faith brought little consolation. I've a horrid notion that I'm a fair weather Christian - that I lose all trust in God once things go wrong. I really had to work on trusting God in the first place and since having the children that's gone totally. None of what you said sounds patronising and it is nice to know that someone has felt similarly.

CD, thank you.

NSTM, praying for that little boy.

N3 - agree with your feelings about marybs sounding a beautiful holy person, yes would be lovely to hear her preach one day!

Thank you to you all for your support in my struggle to feel closer to god, I'm a bit like you were marybs, going to church is a bit overwhelming and can make me cry, I'm so close to being there with god, just can't quite reach him yet, perhaps its not my time yet, I'd love it to be as simple as asking for forgiveness and gods route and place in life for me, might be I'm looking for something that isn't realistic enough for him, I only want to feel warmth, kindness and patience so I can spread it to people around me, to me thats not selfish, that damn serpent! or I'm obviously not trying hard enough! [grr]

sleepysooz, I once read a story about a rabbit who sat by a pond, looking at the reflection of the moon. He thought it was so beautiful, and he kept trying to put his paw into the pond to get it, but every time he did the 'moon' broke up. He didn't realise the moon was above him. I feel like that rabbit sometimes, every time I try to reach for the moon my hand goes straight through and it all goes to pieces, it's not really there but somewhere I haven't even looked.

that was lovely n3, but where is he then? (told you I'm impatient, but I've been looking for 45 years)

Please, I'm not holy, I'm lucky. What you see shining isn't me its the Lord.

"Her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little."

It wasn't easy to ask for forgiveness - it took me 15 years to ask for forgiveness, because I was so afraid of what the price for forgiveness would be. If I'd stayed in the Catholic church, then in theory, that price would have been giving up my husband, as "I had another still living". It took me a long time to find out that that wasn't what God wanted from me at all.

I wouldn't want to hear me preach at the moment. The written word sounds good - I can't deliver it... . Please pray the Spirit is with me on Sunday, because I'm like a jelly at the moment!

N3 - the analogy with the rabbit is good, but what it shows is you are just reaching in the wrong place. You're far more intelligent than the rabbit, who didn't know where to look.

Ultimately you may have to stop looking, ask and let God find you. See what He gives you, rather than ask for things. It isn't a question of trying harder, maybe trying less? I don't know.

Please, have faith in God and have faith in yourselves. Please, don't give me virtues I don't have.

thanks marybs, and good luck for sunday, likewise I am doing a karate grading on sunday and I'm also like jelly, (think I'll be strawberry, to match my face)

Sorry I love rabbits, it was still lovely, and fully understood the message!

I still all of you! please help me pray in finding god or ask him to find me!

Update: Please continue to pray for Simon and family. It's increasingly looking like when not if! His wife is a wreck.

Marsy, will do... thats really sad. I'm so sorry to hear that. My prayers for him and his wife

Sooz - praying that you get to know God. So whats a Karate grading - is that where you go up a grade, or are you grading others?

I've been in and out of the church today, practising. Got a standing ovation the first time (OK the church was empty, apart from me, but I was standing ).. I've discovered that the rail on the way up is wobbly...

Hey guys, Still praying hard for all of you.

Can I ask for a prayer for Xavier? He has just hit 21months and has only just started getting teething pains, so we have been so blessed to get this far without any!! That said, his 4 back teeth are all coming through at the same time right now. I had my first disrupted nights sleep with him since he was 8 weeks old. I have been really short with him today where I should have been overly loving.

Sorry, such a minor thing.

Love to all xxxx

Marslady, praying.

Mary, surely someone who is holy is someone in whom we can see the presence of the Lord? Hence you are holy. (Of course, if you agreed with me then I'd change my mind! )

Interesting about repentence, I won't pry but wonder if you mean for something specific or in general for being who you are? I find repentence very difficult, in the sense that I am full of shame when I think of how I behave but do not believe God requires of me anything other than to want to be near to him/her. I think sin is being estranged from God; this is what makes me selfish, or cruel, or proud. I find it really hard when I hear preachers going on about what miserable, unworthy sinners we are, because we are made in God's image. As a mother, I try to teach my children they way to go because they are innocent, and vulnerable, and because I love them, not because they are rotten to the core and need to be shown what's what. Surely God sees us the same way?

Sorry, also meant to add, I'd like prayers for me and dh again, esp. that dh will know the right thing to do.

marybs, you made me laugh, thank you for that after a rubbish day. I can just picture you, standing clapping yourself, well obviously god thought you worthy of your own clap!

DS1 has been sick today so don't know if we can do karate grading tomorrow, yes we are actually doing the grading, DS going to achieve brown belt and myself purple/white, (if DS better) please help me pray he gets a good nights sleep and find strength to be well enough for tomorrow, DS will be soooo dissapointed if he can't grade tomorrow, bless him

Good luck for the morning marybs

oh and watch for that wobbly rail

Nearlythree - I mean for a number of specific things, that have gone wrong in my life, starting with my first marriage, the reasons for marrying, that I ignored what I now believe to be God's wishes, a number of other specific things (easier things to repent of). My biggest problem was my first marriage though, and my subsequent remarriage without considering what was necessarily right with God when I went ahead with both. My first marriage was a big mistake, and I went ahead with it for the wrong reasons.

I don't believe I am bad, far from it. I am human, I make mistakes, too many of them. If I didn't make mistakes, then maybe I would be holy, that's not for me to judge - I can't judge what isn't there! As you say, what is holy? I don't do the miserable unworthy sinner bit, unless I am talking about myself - I feel qualified to judge myself because I know what's inside as well as what others see.

I am completely in agreement with you re: children - they are the innocents, it is our duty to protect them but teach them at the same time. As I say in my sermon (aargh, what did I have to think of THAT for!) we should be stepping stones, not stumbling blocks. I have no time for preachers that condemn, criticise, humiliate (aargh, back to my sermon again - that's part of my definition of a 'stumbling block'! ), Preachers should build, not knock people down.

I feel God is working in me, but I'm not there yet. Still learning. That is what God is requiring me of the moment, to study, to become what he wants me to become. That means not getting in arguments that drain my energies, but to concentrate on Him, serving Him.

I like 'talking' to you, it focusses me!

Praying, as always, for you and your DH.

God bless

Mary

The trouble with typing long posts, is that others sneak in while I'm busy thinking!

Xavielli - praying for you and for little Xavier, that you and he get some peace.

Sooz - glad I gave you a laugh. I'm sitting here smiling. Obviously, I didn't really applaud myself, its just typical though, I give my 'best' performance when no one is there to see me make a fool of myself. Subsequent practices, with the Vicar present, didn't go nearly so well. Mind you, he did put me off (deliberately, methinks!). And I completely REFUSED to repeat the last part of the sermon, whilst eating a kitkat, which is what he requested! .

Thanks for your good wishes for tomorrow - I need them! I need to trust in the Lord and let Him lead me, because that is the only way I feel I can get through it. I hope and pray your day goes well tomorrow.

Thank you, Mary, for being so frank. I like what you say about arguing, you will have seen I do a lot of that here! It keeps my mind active and I like to think about what I believe, but you are right, it becomes faith in my head, not in my heart.

When I've gone through long periods of feeling the absence of God, I used to think that I'd done something wrong so God wasn't 'talking' to me as punishment. Then I read a book called 'Streams in Dry Land' and I realised that I was giving God my mother's characteristics - that was exactly what she would do when I was a teenager - the record being 6 mo of never speaking to me - I was 14.

Thank you for your prayers for dh and I. Ds has a Kate Rusby CD as his lullaby music and there's a line in one of her songs that is, 'I'm endlessly knowing that you'll never know words that I want you to say.' We've been together 20 yrs this year and I never, ever thought we'd end up in trouble like this.

Praying for you for tomorrow, it sounds like your sermon will be a real treat.

Xavielli and sleepy, praying for your dss, hope they get better nights and that they have lovely days tomorrow.

Sneak now am I

I'm playing my CD again for inspiration and I keep backtracking to this 'O Lord, Your Tenderness' and apparently he's going to melt my bitterness and change all my ugliness perhaps tomorrow! its almost getting to wishing everyday now, I'm ready, I'm ready to recieve your love, bring it on, I'm getting desparate!

thanks nearly3

What CD do you have, Sleepy? I could do with some faith music to listen to.

Hi there!

Popping in on my way to bed - Internet has been down for a couple of days. Did you miss me????

NQSTM - Thank you for bringing Keighton Knightly to our attention - praying he finds a match asap, poor wee thing. xx

Marsy, praying hard for Simon, so , do not know what to say .....

Xavielli - Poor wee X - praying for him and his teething pains - ouch, ouch, ouch - pray he settles at night again soon. Not insignificant at all honey!! xx

MaryBS - My lovely honey bunch!! Praying the Lord rocks the church with your sermon tomorrow - Do not be afraid, He is your Strength, your Hope, your Salvation. xxxx So about your DH's work collegue - praying for his family. xxxx

Praying for your poorly DS SleepySooz - my DD1 is v.poorly atm - has been clingy and tired and droopy and hot and generally crappy all day. Fell asleep on her trampoline at 6pm Poor little love. Still not great in DippyLand, but getting there - thank you for your prayers, they are apprecaited!!

DH wanta me to come to bed, so I am going to go - Love, [[hugs]] and prayers to all. xxxx

Morning all!

DD's and DH still asleep - everyone in our house v.run-down - sleeping til this time is unheard of, bless them!

MaryBS - hope it all goes super well today honey - thinking of you and praying for you - Just trust in God and He will do the rest!! [hugs] Do nip by later and tell us how it went - sorry I didn't get back to you about the draft you emailed - pooter has beeen down and have been ill and all over the place - It was much better, love the extra stuff you added about "salt".

OMGosh - just realised it is Oct already - will get onto a new thread tonight!! Blimey - that went quickly!!!!

Prayers and [hugs] to all. xxxx