Monday Prayer and Commentary: Facing the Unknowns

Many of us are facing unknowns.
With me--
it's  finding the next house
 to be made into a home;
selling or renting this tiny house.
Will the Cinci house quickly sell?
What will it be like to
once again
live
with
my husband
every day
seven days a week?

Will both job offers to my husband
pan out?
If so,
which one will he choose?

How will this body
hold up
in the Texas heat
for six days?
Humidity and Fibromyalgia
are not friends.
How will my visit
with my daughter and family
go?

For one:
it's obeying God
and
stepping out
on a branch
by starting
a book discussion blog-
a faith based one.
Will the branch
hold her?
How
will others
respond?
How
will she
respond?

With another:
it's an illness
threatening to flare up.
that dread--
that clutching fear
that once again
the fight resumes
against
the lousy reality
of a chronic illness.

For another:
it's being with
an 'opinionated' mother
for several weeks
while siblings
take a break,
and one of them
faces a traumatic situation.

For another:
it's the aftermath
of one distracted moment
behind
the wheel of a car
and the consequence--
a young girl's death.

For a family:
it's mourning a young girl
who
no longer
fills their home
and their lives
with her voice.
Grief
leads into
possibly
the worse unknown.

For yet another:
it's dealing
with
the results
of a long ago
accident
and
living life
to
its fullest
within
the constraints
of her body.

For others:
it's the uncertainty
this economy
has brought
to their lives.
Precious home and land have been sold.
A couple made the summer home
their only home
and sold the main one.
(Don't assume the summer one
is luxurious;
often
they are
not.)

Some are jobless
and
simple pleasures
that were routine
are now
too costly.
The change in lifestyle
represents
the uncertainty
of the ability
to pay the basic bills.

I'm loosely surmising
from snippets
revealed
in blogs.
Strange
how this blog world
has connected
many of us.
Now many of us
belong
to a group
who
prays
for each of these
situations
and
needs.

What we should
 not do
is fear.
That IS the CHALLENGE.


Lord, Free Me from Ungodly Fear

Lord, You are my light and my salvation.

You are the strength of my life.

Of whom, then, shall I be afraid? (Psalm 27:1)

I will be strong and of good courage,

 for I know You are with me

wherever I go. (Joshua 1:9)

Free me from all ungodly fear,

for I know fear is never of You.

I pray You would guard my heart and mind from the spirit of fear.

If I experience feelings of fear,

I pray You would replace them with Your perfect love.

If I have gotten my mind off of you and on my circumstances,

help me to reverse that process so that my mind is off my circumstances

and on You.

Amen.

God has not given us a spirit of fear,

 but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

II Timothy 1: 7

A Book of Prayer: 365 Prayers for Victorious Living

Stormie Omartian