“Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; burst into song, O mountains! For the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.” Isaiah 49:13
Hey Lord…Do you see me here? I want to sing a song for you…something altogether beautiful…full of joy! Here I am hiding in your shadow, clutching the bottom of your cloak…following behind you. I wanted to be where you are…go where you are going and to see what you will see today. I just want to be with you. Spending time with you is always so peaceful…so exciting…so thought provoking…so easy. Our intimacy knows no boundaries. We are always discovering new things about each other…learning new ways to love each other. Your love for me always heals my wounds, gives power to my dreams and creates peace amidst the chaos.
It is in these tender moments that I let my heart open completely and pour out all my hopes, fears, joys and sorrows. Today as I talk to you I am remembering my dear friends…the women we love with such great ferocity and abandon.
I am remembering Ida, Jaja, Obia and Jane. They have struggled with pain and sickness for months now. They love you and call out to you to be their healer. HIV is eating away at their bodies and they seem powerless to fight it. But, you, my compassionate friend, can give them mercy and healing. You can encourage them in their deepest places. Tell them that their bodies are only temporary…their affliction will only last for a night, but your rest…your healing will last for all of eternity. Lord, my friends are crying…my friends are in pain…my friends are weak. You say that you are strong in our weaknesses, so send your great strength to them. I want to see your beauty in their lives…your strength in their weakness.
I am remembering Josephine, Susan and Betty. They have all lost someone they love recently to the grave. They are grieving and pouring out their sadness to your listening ear. Betty is weak in spirit and body and is lost in her despair over losing her granddaughter. Her heart aches and she wonders how she will go on living. Susan lost her mother last week and is nursing her gravely ill sister as well. She feels overwhelmed with grief, despair and exhaustion. Will her suffering ever see an end? Josephine lost her coworker and her friend. Her heart is left with a gaping hole where her friend’s laughter and love used to be. Lord, you long to comfort your people. Reach your arms around them and shower them with love. Lead them beside the path of grief and with your gentle healing hand turn their mourning into rejoicing. When they lose all their strength and their tears cannot be stopped give them your tender comfort and your magnificent strength.
I am remembering all the widows who are looking for school fees for their children. These women long to give their children a hope and a future…one where poverty cannot find them and where they can become all that God has created them to be. It is the deepest cry of their heart to pay the school fees of their children. Even now Ida is rejoicing that her daughter passed her exams and is now able to move to Senior 5. We rejoice with her! Oh great Jehovah, Provider…husband to the widow, open up opportunities for the children of these women to be in school. We thank you for the sponsors we have so far and pray for many more to come. We also ask that you open up scholarships and other sources of funding for these dear children. I also remember that you can do more than we can ask or imagine, so we will await your provision and praise you when it comes!
I am remembering the prayer you prayed for us when you were last here. You prayed that we would be unified and that we would love each other, so that the whole world would know that love was your deepest desire. Lord, please teach us to love each other. The widows of the Dorcas Widows Ministry want to be unified and to be great lovers of people. Where there is jealousy…root it out. Where there is disharmony…create peace. Where there is mistrust…speak your truth. Most of all, give us a deep abiding love for each other. Help us reflect your unity…your joy and more importantly you love.
Thank you for your love for us. Thank you for your provision. Thank you for your tender healing. I love you Jesus and I love following you. I just love being with you.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
A Prayer For Those We Love
“Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well: the Lord will raise him up.” James 5: 13-15
Recently, I received some prayer requests from the widows. So here I am on my knees in God’s throne room beseeching Him on their behalf. Please join me if you can…
Here I am Father…it’s me…I’ve come to see you, spend time with you and to enjoy you. There is no one else like you…You are the most powerful being in the universe and yet you are so incredibly tender. In your eyes, I am beautiful and in my eyes you one that loves me the best. You see my potential and create opportunities for my success. You forgive me when I hurt you; and when I deserve judgment, you give me mercy instead. Our relationship is so intimate, so vulnerable and yet so safe. You long to be with me as I long to be with you. So, here I am snuggled up close to you…relaxed in the safety of your love and peace. I love to bask in the glow of your love. It warms me to the core. As I lay my head against you and let our love for each other wash over me, I want to tell you what is on my heart.
I am not here today to talk about me. Today my tears are for my friends…the other women you so tenderly love. Lord, your widows are crying…
Oh, my great healer, Jane is so very sick. AIDS and TB are wreaking havoc in her body causing her great pain and suffering. She is in desperate need of your healing. All it would take is one word from your mouth, yet I bow my will for her life to yours. Lord, she has been in and out of the hospital in the last two weeks. Her body is fighting, but she is losing her strength and she is scared that this is the end. Please go to her…comfort her…if you are leading her home, take her by the hand and show her every step of the way. Give her peace amidst her suffering. Give her relief from the constant pain. You promise to be with us always…so be with her…don’t leave her.
Oh, my Great Lover, she is not the only one who is sick. Ida is also suffering as HIV weakens and destroys her body. She is confined to her bed and wondering where you are. My great love…please go to her and shower her with love…flood your love in such a great torrent around her that she drowns in your love for her. Her medicine makes her nauseous and feverish. Lord, these new medicines she is taking are not working. They are making her feel worse. Oh, God of Justice, please stand up for her. Send someone to give her the right medicine…medicine that creates health, not destroys it.
Oh, my provider, Rosemary has been evicted from her home and has nowhere to go. You and Rosemary are so close. Your love for each other is so evident her eyes. As her great provider…her husband…open up a place for her to live…put a roof over her head. Give Suzanne discernment in finding a new place for her. I give you the glory and honor for the people who have given to the Dorcas Widows Fund, as we now have money to find her a new place to live. Thank you for allowing us the stand in the gap with her. I love being your hands and feet!
Oh, my comforter, Betty is grieving the loss of her grand daughter. Sickness came like a thief in the night and stole her away. It was so sudden. First Betty lost her own child and now she has lost her grand child. Enough is enough. She is tired of grieving and of losing the ones she loves. Lord, she wonders why…why they had to die and yet she lives? She needs you to hold her while she weeps…to give her your complete comfort. Her sadness knows no end, yet you promise to turn our mourning into dancing. Through Betty’s mourning may she experience you in a powerful way…where she feels only weakness, may you surprise her with strength…where she feels only sadness, may you surprise her with joy…where she feels only loss and loneliness, may you surprise her with friends that love her!
Oh, giver of mercy, the widows are feeling so overwhelmed with all their daily responsibilities…paying school fees, getting food for their families to eat, paying house rent, getting simple supplies to live…sometimes it all seems too much to bear and they are in desperate need of your intervention. They are so tired…can you give them even some rest from this daily stress? I humbly ask you to move any heart in your care to help these women pay school fees for their children. Where someone has plenty…move them to give it to them. I want to be like you and love like you, so move me, move those I love and move those I don’t know to meet the needs of these women.
Well, my love, as you collect my tears remember who they were for. I am curled up next to you begging you to love these women and to move in a powerful way on their behalf. I know how powerful even one word from you mouth is…it can shake the very foundations of the earth. So, with that complete confidence in your ability to love and provide for these women, I leave these words in the palm of your hand. I love that I can trust you and believe wholly in your goodness and mercy.
Much love to my powerful warrior & my soul’s deepest lover,
Kari
Recently, I received some prayer requests from the widows. So here I am on my knees in God’s throne room beseeching Him on their behalf. Please join me if you can…
Here I am Father…it’s me…I’ve come to see you, spend time with you and to enjoy you. There is no one else like you…You are the most powerful being in the universe and yet you are so incredibly tender. In your eyes, I am beautiful and in my eyes you one that loves me the best. You see my potential and create opportunities for my success. You forgive me when I hurt you; and when I deserve judgment, you give me mercy instead. Our relationship is so intimate, so vulnerable and yet so safe. You long to be with me as I long to be with you. So, here I am snuggled up close to you…relaxed in the safety of your love and peace. I love to bask in the glow of your love. It warms me to the core. As I lay my head against you and let our love for each other wash over me, I want to tell you what is on my heart.
I am not here today to talk about me. Today my tears are for my friends…the other women you so tenderly love. Lord, your widows are crying…
Oh, my great healer, Jane is so very sick. AIDS and TB are wreaking havoc in her body causing her great pain and suffering. She is in desperate need of your healing. All it would take is one word from your mouth, yet I bow my will for her life to yours. Lord, she has been in and out of the hospital in the last two weeks. Her body is fighting, but she is losing her strength and she is scared that this is the end. Please go to her…comfort her…if you are leading her home, take her by the hand and show her every step of the way. Give her peace amidst her suffering. Give her relief from the constant pain. You promise to be with us always…so be with her…don’t leave her.
Oh, my Great Lover, she is not the only one who is sick. Ida is also suffering as HIV weakens and destroys her body. She is confined to her bed and wondering where you are. My great love…please go to her and shower her with love…flood your love in such a great torrent around her that she drowns in your love for her. Her medicine makes her nauseous and feverish. Lord, these new medicines she is taking are not working. They are making her feel worse. Oh, God of Justice, please stand up for her. Send someone to give her the right medicine…medicine that creates health, not destroys it.
Oh, my provider, Rosemary has been evicted from her home and has nowhere to go. You and Rosemary are so close. Your love for each other is so evident her eyes. As her great provider…her husband…open up a place for her to live…put a roof over her head. Give Suzanne discernment in finding a new place for her. I give you the glory and honor for the people who have given to the Dorcas Widows Fund, as we now have money to find her a new place to live. Thank you for allowing us the stand in the gap with her. I love being your hands and feet!
Oh, my comforter, Betty is grieving the loss of her grand daughter. Sickness came like a thief in the night and stole her away. It was so sudden. First Betty lost her own child and now she has lost her grand child. Enough is enough. She is tired of grieving and of losing the ones she loves. Lord, she wonders why…why they had to die and yet she lives? She needs you to hold her while she weeps…to give her your complete comfort. Her sadness knows no end, yet you promise to turn our mourning into dancing. Through Betty’s mourning may she experience you in a powerful way…where she feels only weakness, may you surprise her with strength…where she feels only sadness, may you surprise her with joy…where she feels only loss and loneliness, may you surprise her with friends that love her!
Oh, giver of mercy, the widows are feeling so overwhelmed with all their daily responsibilities…paying school fees, getting food for their families to eat, paying house rent, getting simple supplies to live…sometimes it all seems too much to bear and they are in desperate need of your intervention. They are so tired…can you give them even some rest from this daily stress? I humbly ask you to move any heart in your care to help these women pay school fees for their children. Where someone has plenty…move them to give it to them. I want to be like you and love like you, so move me, move those I love and move those I don’t know to meet the needs of these women.
Well, my love, as you collect my tears remember who they were for. I am curled up next to you begging you to love these women and to move in a powerful way on their behalf. I know how powerful even one word from you mouth is…it can shake the very foundations of the earth. So, with that complete confidence in your ability to love and provide for these women, I leave these words in the palm of your hand. I love that I can trust you and believe wholly in your goodness and mercy.
Much love to my powerful warrior & my soul’s deepest lover,
Kari
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