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The Christian Prayer Thread Prays Again...

985 replies

Tuo · 31/01/2015 22:31

Welcome to our new prayer thread as winter turns (not quickly enough for some of us...) to spring 2015. This is a safe and supportive place of prayer, where regulars, occasional visitors and lurkers, committed Christians and those just dipping a toe into the water are all equally welcome. Come and leave a prayer, tell us what's going on in your life, bring your worries, hopes, fears and joys to God, and know that you will be prayed for.

We pray, in particular, for...

... ALittleFaith, especially for her dad, who has been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, praying that his medication continues to keep him as well as possible for as long as possible;

... amberlight, for her work raising awareness of the ways in which we can work to make life easier for our autistic friends, and for her to know love and acceptance wherever she goes;

... Anjelica27, as she tries to find ways to support her DS who has been self-harming;

... BlackEyedSusan, for all the many things which she has to juggle in her life as a single parent; in particular, for her DS to get adequate support so that he is less stressed at school; also for her DD and for her mum, and for Operation Flat Tidy;

... BlueTinkerbell, for a problem-free pregnancy with DC4 and a happy outcome;

... CaulkheadUpNorth, who is struggling with MH problems which are affecting her faith, and by extension her job in a church environment; prayer for her access the support she needs, inside and outside the workplace, and for her to find her way back to God, in her own time, if need be;

... ChocolateTeacake, for work and financial worries; and for her health;

... DontstepontheMomeRaths , for her busy life as a single mum, and for the wonderful work she does through her church supporting people going through separation and divorce;

... DutchOma, thanking God for the wonderful support that she provides for so many on here; praying for her relationship with her DD; and continuing to think of her in her life without her beloved Bob;

... FaithLoveandGrace, for her mental health as she undergoes painful, but hopefully helpful, counselling; for her relationship with her DSS; and for her work on her PhD;

... howtoapproachthis, for her health, following her diagnosis with CFS and for her to find support for herself and her DD;

... innerstrength100, for strength, hope and joy in her life as she rebuilds her life following the unexpected break-up of her relationship;

... Kaykat, continuing to pray for her as she goes through the stressful and painful process of divorce; praying, in particular, that she is able to find continue to support her DS through this process; and praying that her ex is able to see how damaging his current behaviour is for his DS so that, in this at least, he is able to change his ways;

... MadHairDay, for her ongoing health issues and for the strength to deal with them;

... MaryBS, in the discernment and selection process for ordination to the priesthood;

... ninetynineonehundred, for her relationship with her DH from whom she is separated but with whom she is still living , praying for healing, trust, love and forgivement for them both;

... Pipbin, following the loss of a desperately-wanted pregnancy, praying for strength, for hope, and for lots of support;

... PositiveAttitude, for her studies, her work situation, and her role within her church; for her and her DH as they consider where their engagement with their faith will take them next; for her mum, who has dementia and her dad who has finally accepted he needs help, but finds it hard to accept it; for her DD1, who has been depressed; and for the whole family;

... RoomForALittleOne, for her health in her new pregnancy;

... QuestionofFaith, thanking God that her DH has found a new job, and praying that this will be the turning-point that he needs to overcome his depression and for them to find ways to rebuild their lives;

... and me, Tuo, for my DD2 who has been self-harming, but seems much happier at the moment - please pray for that to continue.

We pray also for all regular and occasional visitors including: Badvoc, BlessedAssurance, CharlotteCollins, cloutiedumpling, DeladionInch, EilisCitron, Gingercurl, JugglingFromHereToThere, ktef, LollipopViolet, MrsPixieMoo, niminypiminy, PandaG, SEStheBrave, thegreenheartofmanyroundabouts, weegiemum, Zing and for anyone I've forgotten to name-check (don't take it personally, please!). We pray for our muslim sisters over in the tea-room, at a time when many feel afraid in a world which seems suspicious of their faith, praying for peace and understanding between all faiths. And we pray for those who read and pray but don't post, for those who need our prayers but are afraid or too uncertain to post them, and for all those known to us in our own lives who need God's love.

Keep Your people, Lord,
in the arms of Your embrace.
Shelter them under Your wings.
Be their light in darkness.
Be their hope in distress.
Be their calm in anxiety.
Be strength in their weakness.
Be their comfort in pain.
Be their song in the night. Amen

OP posts:
Dutchoma · 15/02/2015 15:03

Not selfish at all, very sensible to come to a safe place where you can be honest about how you feel. I pray for you that you will be able to understand 'how high and deep and broad and wide (paraphrase) is the love of God for you'. Try and think about that for a minute, so deep you can't get under it, so wide you can't over it, everywhere you go you are met by God's love, accepted, not judgment. Don't run, just sit there for a bit and feel the sunshine of God's love on your face.

PunkrockerGirl · 15/02/2015 15:17

I'm praying for my lovely brother who's facing massive surgery for cancer. We lost both our parents to this awful disease and I can't bear to lose him too Sad

Anjelica27 · 15/02/2015 15:27

Hello Faith, sendings you love and prayers that this afternoon is successful, will be thinking of you xx
Praying for you and your dear brother Punkrockergirl.

innerstrength100 · 15/02/2015 18:27

Your new plan sounds like a good one Anjelica. Hang on in there. Stay strong and give yourself some treats and time out to refresh when you can.

innerstrength100 · 15/02/2015 18:30

Faith, how did it go?

Punkrocker, praying for you and your dear brother.

QofF · 15/02/2015 18:41

Anjelica sounds like a good idea to carry those words round with you. So hard not to try and fix someone who is hurting but apart from loving him and being there for him there is nothing much more you can physically do until he comes to the point he is ready. Doesn't make it easier to watch him suffer but hopefully you can stop feeling as if there must be something more you can do so you can focus on loving him and looking after yourself.
Faith I hope today went well. How are you?
Howto even if you are not around for you are being prayed for. I agree with Tuo, it sounds like your friend is trying to reach out to you but doesn't know how to. What is the latest with ex?
punkrocker am praying for you and your db. When is he having his operation?

PunkrockerGirl · 15/02/2015 20:57

We haven't got a date yet, QofF. The surgeon said it would be within the next 2-3 weeks.
Thank you all for your prayers. It means such a lot.

BlackeyedSusan · 15/02/2015 21:00

hoping that the surgery goes well, punk.

right. I have three carrier bags full of ex's stuff by the front door. place your bets, and pray hard, ladies and gentlemen on how many actually go out of the front door.

FaithLoveandGrace · 15/02/2015 21:18

Praying for you and your brother Punk. Praying also for Anjelica and your son, for Bes and getting rid of the bags to ex and for anyone else I've missed. Thanking God for this thread, for enabling us to share with one another the troubles we are having but also the positives too. Praying that God's blessing be upon all on this thread.

Thank you all for your prayers for this afternoon. Counselling went pretty well though there is still one key issue I'm managing to avoid time after time. Hopefully I can manage to get the words out next time. Had a bit of a lightbulb moment in the session where I realised I just don't have the drive or desire to do this PhD. I don't know if it's just a situational thing (i.e. this month is normally tough for me) or if I genuinely don't want to be there. Would appreciate prayers as I try to discern what this really means.

FaithLoveandGrace · 15/02/2015 21:18

Praying for you and your brother Punk. Praying also for Anjelica and your son, for Bes and getting rid of the bags to ex and for anyone else I've missed. Thanking God for this thread, for enabling us to share with one another the troubles we are having but also the positives too. Praying that God's blessing be upon all on this thread.

Thank you all for your prayers for this afternoon. Counselling went pretty well though there is still one key issue I'm managing to avoid time after time. Hopefully I can manage to get the words out next time. Had a bit of a lightbulb moment in the session where I realised I just don't have the drive or desire to do this PhD. I don't know if it's just a situational thing (i.e. this month is normally tough for me) or if I genuinely don't want to be there. Would appreciate prayers as I try to discern what this really means.

FaithLoveandGrace · 15/02/2015 21:28

Oops sorry for the double post! My laptop froze and I thought it hadn't posted

Dutchoma · 15/02/2015 21:39

Praying for you and your db Punk. Let us know when you know a date for the operation and we will renew our prayers.
Glad the counselling went well FLaG. Can you make a note of the issue you are avoiding and pass the piece of paper over to the counsellor? Praying that you will find some guidance on doing the PhD. How much longer would you to do it for and how long have you already done? If it's just the last little bits it might be worth persevering. If on the other hand you are just beginning to get to grips with it and find you don't like it much now you've got into it, it might be better to cut your losses and give up.

BlackeyedSusan · 15/02/2015 21:45

they have gone! (they have gone)

Dutchoma · 15/02/2015 22:06

Congratulations BES. Three more bags next weekend, or maybe even four. You must be able to find some more of his crap rubbish

Tuo · 15/02/2015 23:39

Hello all. I am thanking God for prayers answered this weekend - just small small things, not even worth posting about, but I feel so much better.

Faith - there are lots of potential ways forward with the PhD, but without knowing the details it's hard to know what's right for you: as Oma says, a lot depends on where you are with it already. But bear in mind that you could suspend for a time with a view to coming back to it when you're in a better place; or, if you've done a fair bit of work on it but really can't face seeing it through, you could think about pulling together what you've done into an MPhil and accepting that instead of the PhD so that the work isn't wasted. But also bear in mind that you're not feeling good about yourself at the moment. Is there a part of you that wants to 'fail' at the PhD in order to 'prove' that you were never good enough to do one anyway...? [Ask me how I know this feeling??? Blush ] That may not reflect how you feel at all, but that's why I'd suggest thinking about a temporary suspension, so that you can separate how you feel in general, in terms of your mental health, from the PhD. How's your relationship with your supervisor? Does s/he know about the MH issues? Praying that you feel calm enough to make sensible decisions on this (don't do anything irreversible while you're not feeling calm), and that you are able to find ways to deal with your distress at the moment which don't involve hurting yourself.

Anjelica - that sounds like a very sensible way forward, for you and for your DS. Wise words, as ever, from Oma too. Rest assured that we will keep praying for you and for him here.

PunkrockerGirl - you are very welcome here. Praying for your brother. Do come back and keep us posted.

Praying also for MHD, hoping that she's feeling better this weekend.

This verse is one of the Northumbria Community readings for today (I've just changed one word to make it fit us on this thread better...). I hope it brings some hope and positivity to those in difficulties tonight:

Finally, sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. (Philippians 4:8)

OP posts:
PunkrockerGirl · 16/02/2015 07:12

Thank you for the welcome and prayers, Tuo

FaithLoveandGrace · 16/02/2015 09:21

Well done bes on getting rid of your ex's things.

Re phd, I only started in October and this year is technically the MRes year so as long as I didn't pullout until September, I'd still get something. I'd absolutely not pull out until at least that point. My supervisor isn't aware of my MH issues, I really don't feel able to talk to him about it tbh. He expects 70 hr working weeks and everything to be done at lightning pace - which I'm starting to realise is pretty common in the world of academia. I don't want that for my life. Tuo can I message you please? I don't want to share too much on a public forum.

Lovely passage from the Northumbria Community.

FaithLoveandGrace · 16/02/2015 10:04

Do you think it's possible for ones calling to change? My counsellor mentioned it yesterday and I'm unsure. She said maybe the phd was the right route to start off on, it was my calling at first, but now my calling has changed. I don't know, I sort of think either God wasn't calling me to do the PhD in the first place and I'm only just realising that, or He was and I'm just having a rough few weeks :S

niminypiminy · 16/02/2015 10:30

Faith, certainly your calling can change - mine has. One thing I have done in the past when I have a big decision to make that calls for discernment, is to spend some time living as if each decision is the right one. So you spend some time living as if Path A were the one you are going to take, and noticing, how does it feel - hopeful, energised, sad, struggling. Then you spend the same amount of time (it can be a few days or a couple of weeks, it's up to you) living as if Path B were the one you were going to take, and again noting how you are feeling about it. It's a good idea, if you can, to write down how you are feeling. It's a good idea to set the whole process in the context of prayer, you could say that you are setting the decision before God, and asking him to help you discern what his calling is. When I did this I found it very helpful -- I knew that one path was right for me, but I also found that if I truly lived the other path that it would also become right.

Dutchoma · 16/02/2015 11:43

Niminy says: "if I truly lived the (other) path, that would also become right." I think that is very true. If we choose a path truly believing, after prayer and due discernment, that a path was the one God wanted us to take, then God would support us in that path. Maybe think back to October when you made the decision. I don't think the calling changes, that would be saying that God changes His mind after He has called us, but I do think that we can grow in understanding of what God's will is for us and that may change us.

Tuo · 16/02/2015 11:50

By all means message me Faith.

OP posts:
BlackeyedSusan · 16/02/2015 12:50

I am packing, and tidying. so far not too grumpy. as usual there is far too much to do

BlackeyedSusan · 16/02/2015 14:55

and just had a humdinger of a panic attack. recovering a bit now.

niminypiminy · 16/02/2015 15:12

Oh God. DS1 just had another rage, lasting two hours. Calling me b-ch and ct, breaking things, taking money out of my purse, hitting me. I've phoned the doctors to talk about a referral to CAMHS, they're ringing back tomorrow. I have literally no idea how we are going to get through the next few days.

madhairday · 16/02/2015 15:18

Oh BES that's nasty, praying you feel calm and peaceful now.

Welcome to Punk and praying for you and your brother in this really difficult time. Flowers

Hello Blue :) Glad pg going well and how exciting about the great GK - yes you must invite Nickel (invite her, just don't tell her GK will be there mwahahaha)

Prayers for you all on this thread and thanks so much for all your prayers upholding me. Still incredibly weak but the abs are doing their work now. Will be a while before I'm 'better' with this one. But still feel peaceful, surrounded by prayer and God's love :)