Encouragement breathes life into us all. And since life all too often seems to be sucking the air right out of us, encouragement is a precious, even necessary, gift. Those who know Jesus Christ as Savior know encouragement. His love and promises lift us up daily. His love motivates us to encourage others. That’s one of the reasons I love being affiliated with CTA. Its mission is to glorify God by providing purposeful products that lift up and encourage the body of Christ. Honor God. Encourage others. That’s also the mission we share as Christ’s followers.
May and June offer special opportunities for us to encourage and honor moms and dads. While we lift them up on other days as well, these special days stand out. In May and June as you encourage parents with both gifts and words, I hope you’ll also encourage them through prayer. As God entrusts all children to the care of parents, so also he calls for all of us in his family, the church, to support them in their high calling. This month, I’ve provided a prayer list (below) that you may find helpful both in your personal prayers and in your church/group.
Let us encourage one another with prayers for encouragement and love!
I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers,
intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone.
1 Timothy 2:1
Let us pray for Moms and Dads, who may be . . .
. . . feeling overburdened, who need to unburden their concerns on the Lord.
. . . dealing with aging or dealing with aging parents.
. . . expecting a child or expecting other kinds of miracles.
. . . almost out of money or almost out of control.
. . . raising step-children or raising their own integrity.
. . . striving to imitate Christ or striving to become more intimate with a spouse.
. . . coping with thoughts of divorce or having difficulty coping after divorce.
. . . in physical pain or trying to keep from causing physical pain.
. . . grieving a loss or rejoicing over finding God’s promise of life eternal.
. . . feeling lost or wondering why they feel a loss of compassion.
. . . honoring their spouses and families or feeling dishonored and unappreciated.
. . . living their faith or dying due to lack of faith.
. . . traveling on business or busy traveling back to God’s ways.
. . . unable to see their children or caring for children who don’t see their parents.
. . . battling diseases or handicaps or battling the disease of sin.
. . . learning to worship in Spirit and truth or having difficulty telling the truth.
. . . enslaved by guilt or freed by God’s forgiveness.
. . . behind prison walls or living in other kinds of sin-imposed prisons.
. . . putting work before God and family or working at putting God first.
. . . addicted to substances or working at a substantive friendship.
. . . dealing with the empty-nest syndrome or suffering from empty-heart syndrome.
. . . rejoicing in their children’s accomplishments or accomplishing the joyful task of teaching their children to rejoice in all circumstances.
. . . putting their child(ren) through school or putting themselves through school.
. . . encouraging their teenagers or teenagers themselves.
. . . working daily on making their marriage work or daily seeking help in making their marriage work.
May they all find strength in knowing others are praying for them!
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Encouraged by Christ . . . encouraging others,
Tim Wesemann
Contact the author at TimWrite@aol.com
www.FoolishWords.com
You’ll find gifts of encouragement at www.CTAinc.com
The Scripture quotation is from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
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Used with permission grant #041609. © 2009 CTA, Inc. No duplication of this article is allowed without the express written consent of CTA, PO Box 1205, Fenton, MO 63026-1205. www.CTAinc.com.
