MORNING PRAYER

MORNING PRAYER: Lord please use me in a mighty way today. Let something I say or do be someone’s answered prayer. Coat my tongue with gentleness and kindness. Replace a cold and indifferent heart with love and compassion. Let my hugs convey warmth and care. Remove any hint of harshness or reproach from my tongue. Kill the spirit of criticism and renew a right spirit within me. Let my thoughts be pure. Where there is bitterness replace it with love, forgiveness and acceptance. Break down walls within and without created by doubt, fear and lack of trust. Surround me with an atmosphere of peace and tranquility. Replace turmoil and anxiety with great peace and calm. Season my words and make them pleasing and flavorful. Help me to be sensitive to the needs of those in my sphere of influence. Let me become a flowing brook instead of a stagnant pool. Chase away shadows of despair and hopelessness and flood my being with light and music. Let me become to the inconsolable a comfortable bench, a shady tree and a rippling brook.Strengthen me inwardly so that I can easily bear the weight from the burdens of friends and loved ones. Instead of crushing me, let the cares and vicissitudes of life sweeten my disposition and humble me to trust you and to depend on you completely.As I hand over the baton transferring some of my daily duties and responsibilities help me to do so with smoothness and efficiency so that I cause no one to falter, fumble or fall. Where there is lack, fill my life and my spirit with abundance. Remove all drought and bring back vigor, youthfulness and zeal. Let copious showers of blessings fall on me and let the heavy droplets permeate the lives of those around me. Help me to intercede for others today, and guide me so that my prayers will rightly correspond to their needs.Continue to transform my character so that I become more like you. All this I ask in Jesus name-Amen! (By Leila Rose-Gordon on 12-18-15, all rights reserved).

Is there hope for the depressed Christian?

So many people are getting depressed these days, it seems. The state of the economy, the rate of unemployment, the scarcity of natural resources, the lack of food, clothing and shelter for many, dashed hopes, broken dreams, frightening encounters...the cause of depression is many and varied. Yet many Christians are afraid to admit they feel depressed at times. They feel they dare not breathe a word of this to family and friends, less they be deemed an outcast, or somehow unworthy or unfit for their calling. So when I read these words of comfort penned by Charles Swindoll, they resonated with me so I am sharing them with you. It is my sincere hope that God will keep you safe until the storm passes by [Leila Rose-Gordon].

November 28, 2011
Words of Comfort
by Charles R. Swindoll
Read Job 3:1–26
In the early l960s when a Christian suffered from a depression that resulted in Job's kind of thinking and candid admission, you never said so publicly. You swallowed your sorrow. The first book I read on this subject, covering emotional turmoil and mental illness among Christians, was considered heresy by most of my evangelical friends.
The pervasive opinion then was simple: Christians didn't have breakdowns. Furthermore, you certainly didn't stay depressed! You know what term was used to describe those who struggled with deep depression in the early and mid-sixties? "Nervous." "He's got a nervous problem." Or simply, "She's nervous." And if you ever, God help you, had to be hospitalized due to your "nervous" disorder, there just wasn't a Christian word for it. I repeat, you didn't tell a soul. Shame upon shame that you didn't trust the Lord through your struggle and find Him faithful to help you "get over" your depression.
I remember being told by a seminary prof, who talked to us about assisting families with funerals, that if you did funerals for those who had committed suicide and the deceased was a Christian, we were never to mention that fact. Frankly, it didn't sound right then, and it doesn't sound right today. Shame-based counsel never sounds right because it isn't right! And I didn't know enough to know that Job 3 was in the book back then. Had I known, I would have said, "Hey, what about Job?"
I want to write to you who are reading these lines who may be in the pit, struggling to find your way back. It's possible that things have gotten so dark that you need a competent Christian psychologist (or psychiatrist) to help you find your way. The most intelligent thing you can do is locate one and go. In fact, go as long as you need to go. Make sure that the counselor really does know the Lord Jesus and is truly competent, able to provide the direction you need so you can work your way through your maze of misery. And, I would add, "God bless you for every hour you spend finding your way out of the hole that you have been in. There is hope. Our faithful God will see you through."

Excerpted from Charles R. Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives(Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

A song of hope after 9/11

Where were you on that fateful day? We will never forget-we should not forget-as this day reminds us of the utter depravity of man, and at the same time, man at his best in the love, courage, and faithfulness also displayed on that day and many days hence. Many of us have also had our private moments of utter despair. Through it all, remember there is one who cares, who paid it all on Calvary's cross so we could have back everything that we lost. Peace to one and all! This song by Ben says it all: Leila Rose-Gordon 9-20-11