Prayer For Serenity
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;
trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will; so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.
The Serenity Prayer, Reinhold Niebuhr
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
Please pray for the peace of God to be the experience for two families we are ministering to presently.
Both families have suffered sudden loss of loved ones.
A family whose 23yr old daughter was killed in a fatal car accident last Sunday evening, and also another family mourning the tragic death of a 25yr old father of 2 who died in very sad circumstances on the same day.
We as a church community have been of assistance to both families through various support ministries and I am involved in the process of Pastoral care for both also.
They were not part of our worshipping community but certainly knew of our love and concern for them and that we serve them from a place of God's love.
Please pray for both families and for the heartbroken loved ones who mourn their deaths. Especially the very young children.
Please pray for me and those attending to their many need presently.
Please pray for the comfort of God to dwell in all their lives.
Thanks,
Pastor Ian Reid
Francis of Assisi born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, his father loved French culture and so nicknamed him Francis—literally, Frenchy.
While praying toward a painted crucifix, the young man heard the voice of God:
“Francis, go and repair My house, which, as you see, is completely destroyed.”
In addition to becoming the inventor of the Nativity scene, Francis founded three religious orders and is the patron saint of ecology.
Francis was a reluctant leader, if there ever was one. In fact, he wasn’t much of a leader at all.
When one of his first companions, Masseo, heard that Francis was becoming world famous, he asked Francis, “Why you? Why is all the world following after you?”
His famous prayer:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light,
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, not so much to be understood as to understand, not so much to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in dying that we awake to eternal life.
“O God my Creator and Redeemer,
I may not go forth today except You accompany me with Your blessing.
Let not the vigour and freshness of the morning, or the glow of good health, or the present prosperity of my undertakings, deceive me into a false reliance upon my own strength.
All these good gifts have come to me from You.
They were Yours to give and they are Yours also to curtail.
They are not mine to keep;
I do but hold them in trust; and only in continued dependence upon You, the Giver, can they be worthily enjoyed.
[ A prayer composed by John Baillie]
John 16:22. "So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you."
Calling on all to prayerfully a support a family suffering loss after the unexpected death of a young woman 23 years old on this past weekend.
This family have been part of our extended support the Community of Givers program in recent months and I would value your prayerful support as I minister and walk through this very sad and painful time.
Thank you
Blessings, Ian
The following is an extract from an email received by our Pastor on Monday.
It is passed it on , with permission , to us all as a point of deep praise and encouragement to us all.
Pastor Ian,
We wanted to thank you and your church for providing the great online worship services via YouTube.
We find the content really helpful to us
We live in country NSW and we were browsing for a church service to attend and came across yours.
It has been so exciting to engage with the Alpha Course as part of the service and wanted you to know that we have taken a really big step of placing our faith in Jesus Christ.
We were both raised in "the church" but neither really understood how to become a Christian.
Both of us had drifted away from all things church in recent years and this opportunity to hear again the clear call of Jesus was just at the right time.
What an impact it had on us.
Hopefully, after restrictions lift , we can find a great church to connect with.
Please keep up the great work and our deepest gratitude to you and to your church.
Regards, S & D
Prayer for hope in grief
Sadly, a young couple I have pastoral care of are enduring the sadness of the loss of a child through late term miscarriage today.
We have assisted them through our COG ministries over the past year.
Please pray for the couple and for their 3year old son, as they are struggling with some very raw and deep pain.
They wanted to post the prayer below and I have assured them of our prayers as a church community.
God, I feel so weak and tired because of my pregnancy loss grief.
Please give me the strength to keep engaging with the emotions, with life and with the pain towards the healing of my heart.
Please give me the strength to say yes to the things I need to do, and no to the things I don’t.
Help me to rest enough and to look to you for supernatural strength. God, please be my strength because I don’t have any left. Amen
Persevering Through God’s Strength Prayer
Almighty Father,
In You our God we find the support we need to carry on in life.
We gather the strength we need to endure the hardships life brings.
Our own physical capabilities and our motivational drives may fail us many times, but You faithfully rescue us.
You are the Source of the strength we most need.
Rid my heart of fear, knowing You are always with me.
Clear my mind of troubling thoughts, knowing You are my Almighty God, the Foundational Rock, and Strength of my heart.
Amen.
Heavenly Father,
We thank and praise you for your good gift of creation. For your rivers, mountains, soils, skies and seas that sustain life, bring joy and heal. We marvel at the diversity and wondrous complexity of life you have called by name. The beauty of relationship between all you have made, designed to live and flourish together.
We thank you Father God for calling us into relationship with you, commissioned to care for your good creation. To nurture, protect and join with all creation in singing your praise.
We ask your forgiveness Lord for our failure to love your creation as you do. For our complicit actions and complacent hearts that have chosen profit over protection. For our desire for comfort over concern and compassion for others. For our refusal to heed the warnings given to us over and over again. For our failure to acknowledge our total dependence on you Lord. In a warming world, witness to floods, droughts, heat waves and fires we cry out Father God.
We seek your holy wisdom of a Jubilee for the Earth. For rest and renewal of the relationship between us and all your creation. For your land to be healed, balance returned and the precious diversity of your creation sustained. Lord, we ask you for courage to take up our cross and follow you.
We pray that we would not be overcome by a spirit of despair. That we would not grow weary or feel overwhelmed by the work ahead. Instead Father God we ask you to awaken your church with a spirit of hope, a spirit of courage and a spirit of love.
We pray you would embolden us to speak out for justice for our vulnerable neighbours, our children, future generations and all your creation.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-12)