Nourish Your Heart

(My grandmother, Anna Daisy Siemens, wrote poetry and prose. This devotion was written and published for Devotions for the Deaf in 1994)

James 5:16 – Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

David writes, “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry.” (Psalm 34:15). God does hear the prayers of his children. He heard Israel when they banded together for prayer in spite of their many sins. God repeatedly proved his love to them through answered prayers. The Bible provides may examples of how God hears our prayers.

The Pharisees threatened Peter and John with arrest and they they released them, they met with the church for prayer. The building shook with Spirit-Power after their prayers. No wonder they were bold to speak God’s Word.

If we pray together, our building may not shake, but we can discover the moving experience of prayer fellowship. It’s like window-peeking into each others soul as we grow in spirit. Prayer changes things!

Prayer: Lord, help me to remember to pray with others. Make my requests be filled with prayer. Help me to turn to you on every occasion.

God will make me ready God is preparing me every day. God is making me strong. He makes me immovable. He makes me solid.

Jeremiah 1:18 “Stand at attention while I prepare you for your work. I’m making you as impregnable as a castle, Immovable as a steel post, solid as a concrete block wall.”

God is preparing me for my mission. I am starting today. He is making me strong. He gives me strength every day. Each day he shows me how to go on. He shows me my path, one step at a time. I lean on him for peace in my heart. My soul reaches for his joy. I bask in the love he showers on me. And I live each day for him.

Help me this day to reach out to you for every breath, every decision, every word I speak, each word I type. Help me to glorify you. Give me peace this day. Be the strength of my life.

The Full Original Copy of the Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, Taking, as Jesus did, This sinful world as it is, Not as I would have it, Trusting that You will make all things right, If I surrender to Your will, So that I may be reasonably happy in this life, And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.