she prays on Friday Archives - Page 2 of 7 - Cheri Strange, She Yearns, Christian Speaker & Author

Praying for the Wounded

2 December 2022

Cheri Strange

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Categories: Prayer

Praying for the Wounded

The holidays can usher in emotions beyond the festive joy and excitement familiar to most. Seasons draped in Christmas cheer are not always shared when life has brought pain or loss. Maybe, like me, you have friends and family members who are missing someone for the first time due to tragedy, sickness, or failed relationships. The stale stench of difficulties galore can snuff out any celebratory aroma. For those of us finding the entry of December unwelcome, let us rely on the only One who can heal our hurts and mend our hearts. Today my prayer goes out to the wounded.

Our God declares Himself to be able and willing to heal as if it’s part of His character and nature to do so.

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Psalm 147:3

He binds up their wounds.

Scholars note that message here pertains to “those who are afflicted with griefs and troubles. The reference is to mental sorrows; to a troubled spirit; to a heart made sad in any way. God has provided healing for such; on such he bestows peace.”

Chances are, you know what it’s like to be wounded mentally. Maybe you house a troubled spirit, or face a day with a heart made sad. And that’s okay. It’s okay as long as you and I go to the Healer who, in His time and in His way—assures us He heals. And when you do not possess the strength to do so, allow another to go on your behalf. I am more than willing, my heavy-hearted friend, to petition God on your behalf.

A Prayer for the Wounded

Lord Jesus,

In the midst of this season of joy, remember the one who is hurting. According to Your Word, be near the broken-hearted, healing her of the pain or loss and bind up in your loving arms that which grieves her. Give her Your healing power today and each day as she walks through this season – sensing your presence and peace like she has never before. Remind her of your love and care for her, as an individual You see and know intimately. I ask that you act on her behalf, doing what only You can do for the broken. And in Your timing, make her heavy heart rejoice once again.

In the Name of Jesus,

Amen

Did You Know?

For the one who feels invisible, largely passed over, and insignificant – Cheri has created a resource for you. Grab your copy of Can You See Me, Now? Good news for the lonely, left out, and less than and join the Strange Readers Café. We will be going through the book together beginning Oct. 3 until December 16 – just in time for Christmas.

Buy the Book

Join the Group

Don’t forget to check out the latest FREE reading plan available from YouVersion!

Have you received my FREE gift to you? Get 3 resources to help you experience more of God in your everyday life. It’s filled with practical helps for living out what really matters.

DOWNLOAD NOW

WAIT! THERE’S MORE.

If you would like to become a part of the private FB group, She Prays, we would love to have you. Click the image to join.

You can meet Cheri on the She Yearns blog for more truth-saturated, Gospel-centered encouragement like this:

Thankful for You

23 November 2022

Cheri Strange

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Categories: Prayer

I could not enter this season of gratitude without acknowledging just how thankful I am for you. Each week the aim of She Prays is to encourage you, the reader, the She Yearns Community member, the woman who stops by out of curiosity, or anyone needing to be lifted up to the Lord. It is my joy and privilege to do so. Thank you for allowing me this privilege.

But today I want to do something different. On this occasion I want you to be lifted up out of my own personal gratitude. Words are not sufficient for expressing how much I appreciate the women of She Prays and those who walk out life alongside me on this cyber road. For you I am ever grateful.

Life can bring challenges too great to carry alone. With those challenges surges of loneliness and feelings of inadequacy can emerge. What comfort we have in knowing we are together in common goals and good– even though most of us are physically apart.

As you experience the joys and festivities Thanksgiving often brings, remember the charge Paul gives the church at Colossae.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Colossians 3:15

Research demonstrates the benefits of personal gratitude. From experiencing physical benefits to mental shifts, to improvements in your overall satisfaction with life, being thankful can forge a healthier path forward. It seems Paul is not simply giving a dogmatic directive because he can, but inviting us to experience life in a capacity he doesn’t want us to miss.

For you, I am truly grateful.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving Over You

Lord,

How grateful I am for my friend. Her presence here brings joy to my heart and lifts my thoughts. Thank you for bringing her here. Give her a heart that wants to know You better. Grant her safety when she travels. Hear her when she prays and help her believe you are for her good. Provide all that she needs to experience Your presence more tomorrow than she did today. Help her to be a light and encouragement as she interacts with the difficult people in her life. Give her wisdom in which way to go and what to do. Bless the work of her hands. Tender her heart toward what breaks Yours. And lead her in becoming more like Jesus day by day. Help her feel her value and know she is loved and appreciated. Thank you, again, for bringing her my way. What an encouragement her presence officers. I thank You for the gift of this precious one.

In the Name of Jesus,

Amen

Did You Know?

For the one who feels invisible, largely passed over, and insignificant – Cheri has created a resource for you. Grab your copy of Can You See Me, Now? Good news for the lonely, left out, and less than and join the Strange Readers Café. We will be going through the book together beginning Oct. 3 until December 16 – just in time for Christmas.

Buy the Book

Join the Group

Don’t forget to check out the latest FREE reading plan available from YouVersion!

Have you received my FREE gift to you? Get 3 resources to help you experience more of God in your everyday life. It’s filled with practical helps for living out what really matters.

DOWNLOAD NOW

WAIT! THERE’S MORE.

If you would like to become a part of the private FB group, She Prays, we would love to have you. Click the image to join.

You can meet Cheri on the She Yearns blog for more truth-saturated, Gospel-centered encouragement like this:

What Has God Done for Me?

18 November 2022

Cheri Strange

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Categories: Prayer

November, especially the days and weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, is the time when many reflect more on that for which we are grateful. Pinterest oozes with ideas for family activities, transforming any environment into a picturesque event, and tantalizing recipes captured in perfection. For the believer in Christ, this is the ideal time to ponder what God has done for you.

Finding Scripture that calls us to be thankful or even what words to express our gratitude is easily located. Just open the Psalms and within a few pages, it will surface. But the call to reflect on what God has done for you is not limited to the Psalms. In fact, even a casual reader of the Bible will find it appearing across the entire book. The one that comes into focus for me this particular season is from the prophet Samuel.

Above all, fear the LORD, and worship him faithfully with all your heart; consider the great things he has done for you. 1 Samuel 12:24

We find this verse at the tail end of a discourse from Samuel (the last of God’s prophets) to the Israelites. The people wanted to become like all the other kingdoms and asked for a king to be set above them. You might recall how the request angered Samuel. But God reminded him that the rejection was not of Samuel and his leadership but of God. They didn’t want to rely on what they could not see for life. It’s a sinful request, but God instructs Samuel to grant it. Before doing so, he helps them see their error and calls them to remain committed and close to their God.

What if I really Mess Up?

These people really messed up. But their blunder did not result in rejection. Instead, God beckons them to Himself through His spokesperson, Samuel. Chances are, like me, you have made a few blunders of your own. Instead of hiding or covering it up or taking a different option moving forward, God calls out to you and to me through this same Word.

As you experience these days of November, remember who is Lord of your life. It doesn’t matter if you have failed Him. He still wants you near. All of you – all of those aspects of you that tempt you to turn away to what will not satisfy – He wants you.

The best way I have found to keep myself near is to take this good advice from Samuel.

Consider the great things God has done for you.

What has God done for you in the present and in the past? Answering this question should draw us to pray prayers of gratitude and praise for what only He can do. I hope you will do just that.

Today I want to pray over you to this effect.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving for What God has Done for You

Dear Jesus,

In what other way can we come before you except in humble gratitude? You are the God who performs miracles. Indeed, what God is so great as our God?

Today I ask that you reveal Yourself to my friend. Make your ways of provision known. Spark her memories of Your activity in her life up until this juncture. Help her to know of your care for her and of her each passing moment. As promised, there is never a time or place You are not with her. Remind her of what You have done and of your presence in her going out and coming in. Then show her what you are doing now. The people in the days of Samuel needed a miraculous sign to help them see their sin and become sensitive, once again, to your voice and lordship over their lives. If this sweet sister needs the same, I ask that You give it. Give her a heart overflowing with gratitude until You return.

In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

Did You Know?

For the one who feels invisible, largely passed over, and insignificant – Cheri has created a resource for you. Grab your copy of Can You See Me, Now? Good news for the lonely, left out, and less than and join the Strange Readers Café. We will be going through the book together beginning Oct. 3 until December 16 – just in time for Christmas.

Buy the Book

Join the Group

Don’t forget to check out the latest FREE reading plan available from YouVersion!

Have you received my FREE gift to you? Get 3 resources to help you experience more of God in your everyday life. It’s filled with practical helps for living out what really matters.

DOWNLOAD NOW

WAIT! THERE’S MORE.

If you would like to become a part of the private FB group, She Prays, we would love to have you. Click the image to join.

You can meet Cheri on the She Yearns blog for more truth-saturated, Gospel-centered encouragement like this:

Knowing God’s Will

11 November 2022

Cheri Strange

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Categories: Prayer

Knowing God’s will for your life can seem elusive. At times it feels as if there is some magical formula or secret code hidden from the woman who wants to know what to do or how to do it. But it’s not really like that in reality. The Word of God is instructive, guiding the reader to understand and make spiritual progress in the will of God for her life.

Sometimes Knowing God’s Will is a Straight-Up Answer

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8

For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:40

It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 1 Thessalonians 4:3

give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. 2 Peter 2:15

This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy 2:3-4

This is just a sampling of what the Bible says using the words will of God. There are many other passages that assume it by giving a directive or using other similar language. The point is that God’s will for our lives is not as distant or cagey as it seems.

Problems Discerning and Knowing God’s will

One problem is that we, as a population, are not familiar enough with the Word of God to know this reality. The latest statistics (from the Barna Group) tell us about one out of every six adults reads the Bible most days. That leaves a lot of people who read a few times per year. One certainly can’t expect to know God’s will without being in God’s Word. Unless you and I are deep in the Old Testament, and thoroughly in the New, will miss what He clearly intends us to know and embrace for our lives.

Another issue often rises to the surface. There exists a duel between our desires for what we want God’s will to be in our lives and God’s actual will. It’s as if we approach Him as someone we can manipulate into doing what we want. Maybe it’s a good thing. It may even be a godly endeavor. But neither of these qualifiers enables us to bend the will of God to our own. He remains sovereign even over the details of our lives.

Thank goodness.

The Gift for Knowing God’s will from Paul

One approach you and I can take in knowing God’s will for our lives comes from Paul. In his letter to the church at Colossi, he wrote to them about what he was praying over them and why.

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Colossians 1:9-12

When I read that the Apostle Paul was praying for those with whom he ministered, I believe it is there for a reason. And that reason is you and me and every other reader before us and hereafter. God saw fit to place these specific prayers in the Bible so that we might benefit. I am not wise enough or Christlike enough to know how to pray for myself or others. What a gift to preserve these specific needs for us as well as the purpose in relying on God to meet them.

No matter what the specifics are in your quandaries about the purpose and direction for your life, we share this same desired end: to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy. Therefore, we, too, should ask to be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Today, this is the very thing I aim to do, my friend, over you.

A Prayer for Knowing God’s Will

Lord,

Thank you for Your Word. I pray that my friend reads it, desires it, and learns from it more tomorrow than she did today. Open her mind and heart to what You might say to her. And tender her to Your desires for her life, over her own. Fill her with the knowledge of Your will for her in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Show her how much You care for her. Then draw her to Yourself more and more as You reveal who You are to her and what Your purposes are for her life.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Did You Know?

For the one who feels invisible, largely passed over, and insignificant – Cheri has created a resource for you. Grab your copy of Can You See Me, Now? Good news for the lonely, left out, and less than and join the Strange Readers Café. We will be going through the book together beginning Oct. 3 until December 16 – just in time for Christmas.

Buy the Book

Join the Group

Don’t forget to check out the latest FREE reading plan available from YouVersion!

Have you received my FREE gift to you? Get 3 resources to help you experience more of God in your everyday life. It’s filled with practical helps for living out what really matters.

DOWNLOAD NOW

WAIT! THERE’S MORE.

If you would like to become a part of the private FB group, She Prays, we would love to have you. Click the image to join.

Did you know Cheri has over TWENTY different reading plans for you to choose from? Just click on the images below to check them out:

You can meet Cheri on the She Yearns blog for more truth-saturated, Gospel-centered encouragement like this:

A Prayer for the Wise

7 November 2022

Cheri Strange

No comments

Categories: Prayer

A Prayer of the Wise

Do you have a favorite Psalm? Is there one that speaks to you more than another? If I had to make a short list, Psalm 107 would be on it. I love all 43 verses, but the final verse encompasses the theme of the Psalm, which is a reminder to the wise.

Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the LORD. Psalm 107:43

Do you have a history with God? Can you think back to a time in your life when you made the decision to follow Jesus, asking Him to forgive your sin? It’s that moment a person becomes a Christian or believer in Christ, beginning a relationship that will last through eternity.

Maybe the time was a drastic shift for you. It’s possible you were young and there is not much memory of the specifics. One thing is sure, there comes a point when every believer in Christ realized they needed rescuing from what they could not save themselves from.

This set of verses is a call for the reader to be thankful for God reaching for her, to remember what He has done, and to consider these things.

Most of us will have different stories or testimonies for how God made the need known and provided the remedy. And this is the reason I love Psalm 107. It’s basically a combination of different ways God rescues and redeems all sorts of people from trouble. The writer takes the time to go through this litany because he deems it wise.

Wise reflections

Some wandered in desert wastes finding no way to a city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty their soil fainted within. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble… Psalm 107:4-6

Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons, for they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High. So He bowed their hearts down with hard labor; they fell down, with none to help. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble… Psalm 107:10-13

Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction; the loathed any kind of food and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble… Psalm 107:17-19

Some went down to the sea in ships doing business on the great waters; they saw the deeds of the LORD, his wondrous works in the deep. For He commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths; their courage melted away in their evil plight; they reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits end. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble… Psalm 107:23-28

What do all of these scenarios have in common? Trouble. That’s what. Not one situation leaves a person any recourse for saving themselves. We all need a Savior. And the Psalmist calls it wisdom to remember our need, to thank God for it, and consider what has been accomplished.

A Prayer of the Wise

Today is a perfect day to do just that. It is my joy to and privilege to pray over you right here and now.

Lord,

I thank you for seeking out my friend. You reached toward her in her need, in her desperation, in her trouble. Thank you for reaching toward her, but I also thank you for rescuing her. Heaven only knows what could have happened to her without your pursuit and remedy. For redeeming her and giving her new life evermore, I thank you. Give her a heart of wisdom that regularly remembers from where you have brought her. And give this precious soul a mind that ponders such sacrifice, love, and care done on her behalf. Bless her. Lead her. And always pursue her.

In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

For the one who feels invisible, largely passed over, and insignificant – I have created a resource for you. Grab your copy of Can You See Me, Now? Good news for the lonely, left out, and less than and join the Strange Readers Café. We will be going through the book together beginning Oct. 3 until December 16 – just in time for Christmas.

Buy the Book

Join the Group

Don’t forget to check out the latest FREE reading plan available from YouVersion!

Have you received my FREE gift to you? Get 3 resources to help you experience more of God in your everyday life. It’s filled with practical helps for living out what really matters.

DOWNLOAD NOW

WAIT! THERE’S MORE.

If you would like to become a part of the private FB group, She Prays, we would love to have you. Click the image to join.

Did you know Cheri has over TWENTY different reading plans for you to choose from? Just click on the images below to check them out:

You can meet Cheri on the She Yearns blog for more truth-saturated, Gospel-centered encouragement like this: