Carolyn Jo prays for her marriage...you can use this to pray for yours...

Holy Lord,

Thank you for your unconditional for me.  I am so undeserving, yet you pursue me daily!  Thank you for your grace and for your perfect provision.  

I am so blessed and grateful for my life and for my husband’s life.   Thank You for trusting us with each other’s hearts, blessing us with the covenant of marriage. You have given us an opportunity to love each other unconditionally and sometimes that is hard to do, but I ask Lord that you would help us to love like you love. 

Please show me how to be a joyful wife, a compassionate wife, a humble wife, and a truly forgiving wife. I pray for wisdom. I pray that you would equip both my husband and I with whatever we are lacking so that we may bless each other and be a beautiful example of how Christ loves the Church.

Help me to understand that my expectations for my husband may never be met, that he is human and capable of sin.  Give me a discerning spirit and the courage to speak truth into my husband’s life, which will encourage him.  Keep words of disappointment and regret, lies from the enemy, far from me. Lord, if { insert husband’s name } is struggling with anything, specifically { insert a struggle } please remove it from him.  

Heal my husband and give him a strong desire to seek after you.  I pray that he is the spiritual leader of our family that you have called him to be.  May your characteristics manifest in him as he grows in his relationship with you. 

God, I ask that you would protect our marriage, keeping Satan and his ways far from our family.  Holy Spirit walk with my husband today, call out his name and reveal yourself to him.  I pray that our love for each other continues to grow deeper and deeper everyday.  

Please grant us time to spend intimately with one another, and especially time and desire to pray with and over one another! I pray for restoration in our marriage!  May you be at the center of our marriage FOREVER and EVER!  Reigning in our hearts, motivating our love and guiding our actions! In Jesus Name AMEN!

A cord of 3 Strands is not easily broken.

It seems that in the lives of Christians that marry, Satan targets them to destroy that home. So here is something I use to help me pray for my marriage and for family and friends...hope it encourages you to pray for your marriage and/or friends; family.

PRAYER FOR MARRIAGES ...

Fill in the blanks with the names of those you are praying for and pray with faith and persistence!

·       Father, I pray that You will deliver _________ and ___________from self-centeredness.

·       Grant that ____________ and _____________ will have a servant's heart (Ephesians 2:3; 2 Timothy 3:2;  Matthew 20:28; Philippians 2:5-11).

·       Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray that You would bind the work of Satan from this marriage. He would love nothing more than to destroy ____________ and ______________'s marriage.

·       I ask You to stop His work in their lives and destroy his attacks against this marriage (John 8:44; Genesis3:11-13).

·       Lord, I ask You to convict and deal with any un-confessed sin in ____________ or __________'s life.

·       Enable us/them to deal with any sin that is hindering their marriage (1 John 1:9).

·       Father, please help ____________ and ____________ to speak the truth to one another in love.

·       Cause ____________ and _____________ to honestly share their feelings without being arrogant or spiteful.

·       Through love and honesty, enable_____________ and ______________ to work through their differences (Ephesians 4:25; 1 John 4:7, 11).

·       Holy Spirit, I pray that You would help ____________ and ______________ to forgive each other.

·       In the name of Jesus, I pray that we/they will put away all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander, along with every form of malice.

·       In the place of this, I pray that we/they would be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other as God for Christ's sake has forgiven them (Matthew 6:14-15; Ephesians 4:31-32).

·       Father, I pray that You would bring _____________ and ______________ into a more intimate relationship with Yourself. Cause us/them to long for You as the deer longs for water. Grant us/them a hunger in their soul for You.

·       Please help us/them to pray more earnestly, especially for each other (Psalm 42:1-2, 63:1; John 17:3; Colossians 4:2).

·       Holy Spirit, I pray that You will convict ___________ and _____________ about the problems in their marriage and look to You Lord for the answers. 

·       Please help __________ and ____________ not to be defensive and self righteous about the problems in the marriage but rather seek Your will in their lives.

·       Grant that ___________ and ___________ would humbly change as You (their counselor in heaven) deal with him or her (John 16:7)

·       Father, I ask that You would deal with any past problems in _____________ or ______________'s life that is causing trouble now.

·       Your Word declares that by Jesus’ stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53 & 1 Peter 2:24). In the name of Jesus, I ask You to be true to Your Word and heal the emotional wounds and baggage that we/they have in our/their lives (Psalm 147:3).

· Father, in the name of Jesus and by the power of Your Holy Spirit, I ask that _______________ will love ________________ as Christ loved the church. Cause _____________ to have a sacrificial and serving love toward ______________.

·       At the same time, in the name of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit, I pray that _______________ will be a loving and submissive wife. Cause __________ to support and minister to ____________ (Ephesians 5:22-33).

·       Father, I pray that You would rekindle passion and desire between ______________ and ______________.

·       I ask You to bless our/their relationship and cause them to rejoice in it. I pray that ______________ and ____________ would be satisfied and exhilarated with each other's love (Proverbs 5:15-23).

·       Lord Jesus, You have declared that what therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. You have declared the will of the Father is for marriages to be for a lifetime. You desire one man to be with one woman for life. You desire this because it is the happiest way for families to live and serve You Lord. Because this is Your heart's desire, I Pray for You, LORD, to save and strengthen _____________ and ______________'s marriage.

· Please do whatever it takes to protect and defend this marriage. O God, do not let sin, Satan, circumstances, or problems separate what You have joined together (Mark 10:2-9).

Through the name of Jesus I pray, by the power of Christ’ resurrection, Amen

IMMEDIATE NEED – IMMEDIATE ANSWER

 Carolyn ‘Jo’ Gower

My mother was the kindest, strongest Christian woman I ever knew. Yet, as a child, I never heard her pray out loud. No doubt she prayed. Her life was hard as a child, even though she didn’t know it at the time. They lived in the country, had no electricity, grew their own food, and of course walked to school.

My mother's engagement photo.

 The first day of school that year the teacher told the class everyone needed to bring a nickel for supplies. Mom knew there was no way her parents had the money and she was not about to ask them, so she first of all asked God to help her.

After getting home from school, as she played under the porch, she prayed to God for help. Suddenly she discovered a nickel in the dirt! Thanking the Lord and telling her parents about it, she knew God had heard her prayer!

 Hearing her story late in my life, I couldn’t help but wonder why she didn’t share it with us as children. (Maybe it’s because our sweet mother never liked drawing attention to herself.)

 I’ve often thought of that prayer answer, especially as we began our journey in studying the subject of prayer – like the time my husband, Hugh, and I went to a prayer workshop by Dr. Albert Lemmons in Missouri. Around that same time my brother, Keith Roberts, had already been studying the subject and also attended a prayer workshop by Dr. Albert Lemmons, held here at WFR Church. As you can imagine, our prayer lives were challenged and we’re forever grateful to Albert Lemmons (you can see his website at www.prayermatters.org) .

 From that point, God worked in our lives to teach us more about prayer; to pray more and lead others to do the same. Over the years we’ve hosted prayer workshops and prayer retreats.  Hugh and Keith have both taught prayer seminars through the years and continue to do the same today. Keith and the Calhoun Church of Christ have remained faithful in helping us to grow in prayer, even hosting an annual Prayer Workshop (see www.calhounchurch.org).

 I believe that out of our growth in prayer, we, at the White’s Ferry Road Church of Christ; World Radio; WFR Relief; WFR Missions have come to emphasize “PRAY FIRST”, then plan and continue to pray about the plans God has helped us to make.

 Even though I have many important duties at World Radio, I consider my main one to be in the area of actually praying for World Radio speakers and those that give to this ministry.

 To remind me of prayer’s role at World Radio, I display this framed quote my brother gave me:

 “How different the world would be if we prayed before we made our plans, rather than asking God to bless what we have decided to do.”

 If you have prayer requests please feel free to email me at jgower@wfr.org .

But I'm not a Mother?

May 11, 2014 "Mother's Day"...  

Here we are with our boys.  We married in 1972; love each other more today that ever before!

Thinking about Mother's Day, each year I also think of the ladies that want so badly to be a Mother and those that are mothers but have lost either their babies through miscarriage, abortion, or death by accident even after they've grown up. We all know that we, as parents, are 'suppose' to die first but that does not always happen and many suffer on this day due to sadness of such a huge loss. My prayers go up for each of you on these kind of days that can be hurtful. I was taken back a bit when I read that our LORD Jesus had no descendants - so I can see that Jesus really does understand EVERYTHING about us... whether we've never had children OR had them and lost them to death...look at this: "No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream." Here is the reading: Isaiah 53:7-9 (NLT) ....8 Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream.  But he was struck down
for the rebellion of my people  9 He had done no wron
and had never deceived anyone."
     When you read Isaiah 53 it is talking about Christ....I love to read the ending part of 52 and the entire chapter of 53 when we are taking the Lord's Supper together...What a Savior we have what a King we serve! I pray that all of our women, young and old, mothers and those that are not 'mothers' will know that Christ Jesus understands your feelings and is holding you in the palm of His hand...where we all find peace in times that are difficult. love you all!

Where has the time gone, here it is 2014 and we have our 3 year old granddaughter's first photo on here!  I have not put any of her infant photos on here, goes to show you the more children and grandchildren you have the less time you have to take care of photos.  Maybe someday I'll add some more on here but I wanted to start out with all three of them together.

 Love to pray....

A few definitions of "Prayer":

·        To pray is to love God

Prayer is talking to God. Prayer is conversing with God...a conversation with God; it is the conversational part of a love relationship with God.   

⁴ “…The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.^[a] 5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. ⁶ And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands”…. Deuteronomy 6:4-6 (NLT)

·        Prayer is the conversational part of the most important love relationship in our lives - our relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

·        Prayer is not "saying a prayer" it is about loving the one to whom we pray. It is not trying harder to pray but rather becoming true lovers of God.

(I attended a prayer conference and some the above quotes are from Dave Butts of Harvest Prayer Ministries his website address is    www.harvestprayer.com ) Other quotes are from me.

WORLD RADIO NEWS     VOLUME 51 ISSUE 1

Prayer Fellowship                                Carolyn Jo Gower

     

                        Don’t pray, I’ve had enough ... 

Joesph Shulam, World Radio Speaker, Israel, came to our office for a few days.  While visiting he shared this thought with me that God does not always have to listen to us...

   ¹⁶ “Pray no more for these people, Jeremiah. Do not weep or pray for them, and don’t beg me to help them, for I will not listen to you. Jeremiah 7:16

That may sound like an unusual statement coming from me, don’t pray, but our Heavenly Father told Jeremiah exactly that…don’t ask me anymore for these people. 

Prayer is more about talking with God, rather than a ritual. When with my grandchildren sometimes they pray right from their heart and other times it is like "rote" praying...exact same learned prayer. 

And yet in their defense, I've been in congregations where I’d hear grown men do the same thing; repeating the same prayers in a rote manner. As though they went to a "creed prayer class" and learned the correct verbiage that is acceptable at "church". Think about that, if at that same service we spoke to each other that way, people would call in the funny farm to pick us up for examination.  We would be talking 'at”, not “with” each other.

God goes on to tell Jeremiah in 7:23-26  “²³ This is what I told them: ‘Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Do everything as I say, and all will be well!’ ²⁴ “But my people would not listen to me. They kept doing whatever they wanted, following the stubborn desires of their evil hearts. They went backward instead of forward. ²⁵ From the day your ancestors left Egypt until now, I have continued to send my servants, the prophets—day in and day out. ²⁶ But my people have not listened to me or even tried to hear. They have been stubborn and sinful—even worse than their ancestors.” (NLT)

When we are not interested in listening and obeying God, there comes a time when God says okay, I've had enough of your stubborn hearts; just go ahead and do what you want to do; he turns us over to our own evil desires and there are severe consequences we will suffer. (Romans 1)

The answer to a stubborn heart is to repent as we read that David did in Psalm 51 “¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God.  Renew a loyal spirit within me. ¹¹ Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me”. (NLT)

God wants to hear from us but not when living in continual rebellion against Him, instead He wants us to face our sin, repenting so that we can enjoy the everlasting presence of God moment by moment today! So you see God does want us to pray!!

Carolyn Jo Gower            email: jgower@wfr.org