Tag: prayer

Yelly Writes

Lessons of faith

Yelly

“I realized that the deepest spiritual lessons are not learned by His letting us have our way in the end, but by His making us wait, bearing with us in love and patience until we are able to honestly to pray what He taught His disciples to pray: Thy will be done.” ― Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ’s Control

 

I’ve not very been very vocal about my faith or my spirituality.  Maybe because in this very secular world I didn’t want to tread on people’s toes or sensitivities.  I know that we are all allowed to say what we feel, what we think and our faith is one of the most important testaments we can make.  However, that being said, I think I’ve allowed myself to be more PC than I thought I would ever be.  Because of that, allowed myself to not talk about how my faith gets me through each day.  I’m reminded of Psalty the Singing Songbook from the Kids’ Praise series of music albums I used to listen to when I was little.  I can still hear Psalty saying “God wouldn’t want you to hide your light under a bushel!”  And that’s exactly what I allowed myself to do.

I am truly a church kid.  I grew up getting up early on a Sunday morning, getting dressed in my Sunday best and going to church and Sunday school.  I sang in the children’s choir and Christmas was always busy with children’s choir rehearsals.  My summers were spent attending daily vacation church school, attending summer church camps and other church-based activities.  It didn’t stop there.  As I got older, i graduated to joining the chancel choir, acting as bible study leader, children’s choir conductor and summer camp cell group leader.  If I were still in the Philippines, I would probably still be in church most weekends, happily involved in the various things church-related.  Most of my oldest and most enduring friendships are with people I grew up with, in church.  I am quite thankful that I grew up in church because I know that this has founded my faith and it is my faith that carries me through the dark days.

It is because I grew up in church that I learned to take solace in prayer and meditation.  I find that the quiet times that I spend alone with my thoughts, tears, prayers and meditations ground me and steady me.  It allows me to surrender everything to the higher power taking care of us.  It is also because of that faith that the word surrender doesn’t feature negatively in my vocabulary.  Surrender is sometimes the bravest thing to do.

Quite recently, I started listening to Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul Conversations podcast.  She had a conversation with Rev Ed Bacon about spirituality.  It was such an ecumenical discussion about faith that it gave me a lightbulb moment.  I had to look back on conversations about faith that I had with the friends I have here.  I found that I had discussions about faith and prayer with friends who were Christian, Muslim, and others who didn’t necessarily ascribe to a particular religious doctrine.  Spirituality and faith is universal.  So talking about it is universal.  It is funny that it’s taken me so long to realise this!

And today, as with all the most difficult days, my mantra is “In His perfect time, according to His perfect will.”

Yelly Writes

Prayer for concentration at work

Yelly

I have always wanted to write more about my faith and my feelings.  Because if you can’t be yourself and say what you want on your blog, where else can you (provided that what you post isn’t illegal or offensive to other people’s civil liberties – I’d like to say it’s exercising responsible freedom of speech!) be?

I saw a comment on one of my old blogs, talking about how a prayer that I posted about concentration at work helped them (they were looking for a prayer for concentration and apparently my prayer was easily modified for purpose).

I thought I’d share it with y’all because I know that it was something I came across as well and that I modified according to what I needed.  I’m hoping that it helps someone who comes across this blog post too!  In this world of instants, there are so many distractions.  Sometimes it helps to just close one’s eyes and focus and draw into oneself and centre oneself by praying.

I hope this helps!

Dear Father,

I draw near You to seek Your help.  I have the assurance that You love me so very much. Lord, the Scripture says that You love the prosperity of Your children.  You know the importance of being able to concentrate at work.  Father, bless me with Your guidance and let me work on my things to do list properly.  Lord, I confess that I get distracted easily; I have more interest in less important things instead of what is urgent in my in-tray.

Please forgive me and gird me with You grace (I love the word gird Lord, because it makes me feel like I am going to battle, and oh I do love a battle!  See Lord, I am digressing, yet again!) and strength so that I concentrate in my work.  Without Your help I cannot achieve any success Lord!

Please help me to overcome all my weaknesses and strengthen my mind. Take full control of my wandering thoughts and give me Your wisdom and knowledge. Let me shine at work, Heavenly Father and let me be a blessing to to everyone. I lift all this up in Jesus’ name.  

Amen.

Yelly Writes

An Irish Prayer

Yelly

I have been exercising my prayer muscles more lately and I thought sharing what I’ve always thought was an Irish prayer would be apt, seeing that it was St Patrick’s Day yesterday:

May God give you…
For every storm, a rainbow,
For every tear, a smile,
For every care, a promise,
And a blessing in each trial.
For every problem life sends,
A faithful friend to share,
For every sigh, a sweet song,
And an answer for each prayer.

May this brighten your day and give you hope as you read it.

Yelly Writes

Prayer request

Yelly

I very rarely, if at all, post updates about anyone else’s health, except mine. Mainly because I always feel like that disclosure is not mine to make. BUT please could I ask you all to include my father in your prayers.

My Abba was brought to the hospital in the early hours of Thursday, Manila time.  It was still Wednesday in England and I was walking to the station to take the train home.  I called my mum and she said they decided to bring my Abba to the hospital because he couldn’t breathe.  After that conversation, it was decided that it was necessary to move my Abba into the ICU to treat the pleural effusion which meant he had fluid in his lungs.  Apparently, they managed to remove 1.5 litres of water from his lungs.  Because I bake, I have a visual idea of how much liquid that is and I am thankful that it is no longer in my Abba’s system.

Since then we have been told that my dad was suffering from atherosclerosis (to us non-medical folk it means the hardening of the arteries) and that he can  overcome this and get better.  The worse case scenario, of course, is that his heart can just decide to stop working.   I understand that this is a possibility but right now, I think everyone can understand that I’d rather not think about that possibility right now.

This morning, I called my mum hoping to get a chance to chat to my Abba.  In the course of our conversation, my mum told me that my dad has endothelial dysfunction which from how I understand it is part and parcel of his atherosclerosis.  I need to read up on this so I can understand it fully.  It helps me deal with things if I can understand it.  I’m not a doctor, but it’s always easier to deal with things emotionally if you know what you’re up agianst.

I have been crying a lot since Wednesday evening.  Partly because I worry about my Abba, partly because I feel completely helpless because I am thousands of miles away.  I have repeatedly asked my mum if I need to go home and she said it may be better for me to stay put, to stay where I am for the .  It may sound harsh, but apart from waiting, there would be nothing for me to really do.  I know that my father is in the best place he can be.  He has the best doctors and nurses helping him, and it is true that there is nothing I can really do but to wait.

Even though I have had news that has caused me to cry this morning, I still thank the Lord for each new morning because each morning is another opportunity to be blessed. I am thankful because my Abba is out of the ICU. The road to recovery may be long or short, depending on how Abba responds to treatment, but I understand that it will not be straightforward. I can only keep praying and I can only keep trusting in Him. I know that everything the needs to happen will happen in God’s perfect time. This is a mountain that needs to be climbed one step at a time but I know that each step that we take, we take it with God by our side. Because He promised that He would never leave us, that He would never forsake us.

I rarely write about my faith in God, and it is a constant disappointment that I don’t.  Because right now it is my faith that sustains me in this very difficult time.  Because I am so far away from everyone, I feel very helpless.  Everytime I start to cry, I just ask the Lord to get my father through this, to get my mum through this, to give us comfort so that we, as a family, get through this.  I think if I didn’t have my faith to cling to, I’d fall apart, quite easily.  My father is my rock and my anchor, and now that he is ill and it is, realistically, touch and go, I feel like I am this close to being cast adrift.  But my faith grounds me.  I know that everything that happens is part of God’s masterplan.  I hold on to God’s promise that He holds us in the palm of His hand and that everything works together for good for those who love God (Romans 8:28).prayer

 

Yelly Writes

Starting my day right

Yelly

Breakfast will always start one’s day right.  I remember when I was growing up, Mama would never let us leave the house until we had a hot breakfast; we simply had to eat.  I’m afraid to say that I haven’t kept up the practice.  I get ready for work and rush out the door.  In the process, I think I may have screwed up my eating habits!

I am a Christian by faith and a Protestant Methodist by denomination.  I am proud to say I grew up in church, and I am thankful that I did.  Living away from everyone I love can be difficult, to say the least.  When you are, essentially, alone, there is very little to cling to: and for me it was my God and my faith in the God that sustains me.  I am thankful to be blessed with a faith that strengthens me and I am blessed because my faith in my God has sustained me during the toughest times of my life.  It has been challenging living away from everything familiar but that in itself has strengthened my faith.

I walk past the Chelmsford cathedral everyday as I walk to work and everyday I whisper a prayer for God to bless my day, for God to take control of my day, for God to help me achieve what I need to achieve, and my most fervent desire, for me to be a blessing to others.  Somehow those words quickly whispered set my day off perfectly.  Because I lift my day up to the Lord, whatever good, whatever bad, my day is the Lord’s.

I am reminded of a prayer I used to read and reread.  It was a prayer I posted in my old blog.  It was a prayer for concentration at work because the work environment then wasn’t conducive to concentration (there was a lot of swearing going around and being in an environment where profanity and bad language is about is never conducive to real positivity, I think!).  It was based on a prayer I also read online and a prayer that I adapted so that it fit my thoughts.  It’s helped me.  I thought I’d post it here again, because it might help someone else.

Dear Father,

I draw near You to seek Your help.  I have the assurance that You love me so very much. Lord, the Scripture says that You love the prosperity of Your children.  You know the importance of being able to concentrate at work.  Father, bless me with Your guidance and let me work on my things to do list properly.  Lord, I confess that I get distracted easily; I have more interest in less important things instead of what is urgent in my in-tray.

Please forgive me and gird me with You grace (I love the word gird Lord, because it makes me feel like I am going to battle, and oh I do love a battle!  See Lord, I am digressing, yet again!) and strength so that I concentrate in my work.  Without Your help I cannot achieve any success Lord!

Please help me to overcome all my weaknesses and strengthen my mind. Take full control of my wandering thoughts and give me Your wisdom and knowledge. Let me shine at work, Heavenly Father and let me be a blessing to to everyone. I lift all this up in Jesus’ name.

Amen.

prayer