Peace With the Psalms: Week Eighteen

 

Happy Friday, Friends!  I hope your week has been lovely.  We've had a lot of much needed rain here in Central Alabama, so I'm not complaining.  Our weather reminds me of a poem by Steve Garnaas Holmes:

Weather Report 

Joy

borne on winds beyond our control,

falling like rain

throughout the night

before we were aware

Chance of flooded hearts.

This week's lesson came at a very opportune time because I've been struggling with my allergies and asthma.  Both can be scary, but I'm taking a new medication which seems to be helping.  Sometimes when I struggle, I do feel like I'm in a pit.  The Psalmists often wrote about this feeling of being in a pit with no way out.  But God protects, delivers, and saves.

Below are the first two verses of Psalm 40, and then the following graphic includes verse three from the lesson.

I waited patiently for the Lord;

    he turned to me and heard my cry.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit,

    out of the mud and mire;

he set my feet on a rock

    and gave me a firm place to stand.

~Psalm 40:1-2

 

Prayer Requests

• Carla would like for us to pray for the military build up at the door of Iran. Pray for our leaders to seek wisdom.  Continue to pray for our military, our young men and women who are at that door waiting what orders might be coming. May God protect them.
• Please pray for Kris's MIL because she has been having some heavy health issues, and Kris is currently her full time nurse.  Pray that God will help and bless Kris as she cares for her MIL.  Pray that other family members will step-up and will be discerning about what's best for her care.
• Rita's friend Pam needs our prayers because her cancer is stage four.  She is in palliative care, yet still trying to live.  UPDATE:  Pam fell in the hospital and broke her hip last Saturday, surgery was Monday. Radiation and chemo stopped for the week while pain management is the focus. She celebrated a birthday Thursday in hospital. Please continue to lift her in prayer.
• Please pray for my baby great-niece, Lundy.  
• Pray for Rita's neighbor Chris who is undergoing chemo treatment for her urethral cancer, and for her brother, Mike, who has esophageal cancer.
• Pray for Kris's son-in-law Tim.  UPDATE:  Pray that conditions will improve at work for Tim.  Tim and Jen put their home up for sale. Pray for them as they prepare for this big move. 
• Pray for Carla's friend Alice who had plastic surgery on her nose due to skin cancer.  UPDATE:  Alice did not have a good outcome with the reconstructive surgery. They will be looking at doing another.
• Carla recently had to deal with a very bitter person.  She has been very bothered by this, and she does not want this person to steal her JOY.
• Carla has an extended family member stationed in Kuwait named Haley. She is her cousin Steve's daughter.  Please pray for her safety!
• Carla's Sam has several Wisconsin Guard friends stationed in Kuwait and Iraq.  Sam had an update for us from his teammates who are currently deployed in the war zone. Please be in prayer, they have been bombed several times. Continue to pray for safety.
• Continue praying for Kitty's son Mike as he continues on his journey of no pain meds.  Mike is off of pain meds for 13weeks and is weaning off several other prescriptions.  Mike is requesting that we pray for his mental health.  
• URGENT:  Pray for Rachel who has just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
• PRAISE:  I am going to be a grandmother.  I am so excited!!!  Please be in prayer for Shanley Belle and Christopher as they prepare for parenthood, and pray for my little precious granddaughter.  I'm calling her my Little Starling! 
• Kitty would like for you to pray that her daughter sells her barndominium and can find a home closer so that she’s not driving two hours a day.
• Pray that my allergies and asthma will improve.
• Travel mercies for Trip this weekend as he's traveling for business in Nevada.

I am hoping to have a very quiet weekend; I hope to do a little gardening, drawing, and reading.  I will probably go to church on Sunday and do nothing else but watch baseball on TV.  I need to rest!

What are your weekend plans?

Until next time...

Blessings!
Ricki Jill