Men’s Morning Prayer

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/ The Pastor

Father God,
I take this breath and i praise You.
My heart beats this beat and i praise You.
My eyes see this creation and i praise You.
I am alive another day and i praise You.
Each and every blessing,
Every single thing,
All that i am,
And what You saved me from,
I praise You.
Jesus my Savior,
Your Spirit sustains me,
Your grace is amazing,
Oh my God and Father, i praise You.
So please give me more breaths to breathe,
more beats to my heart,
more days to behold You,
So i can praise You
More.

Showing up

/ The Pastor

It is week 2 of men’s morning prayer and I thought I was going to go solo once again.

I got the OJ and coffee ready.
I sat down and did my Bible reading.
Reflected.
Prayed through the worship prayers for healing list.
Reflected some more.

Then…

…around 7:30am someone showed up.  He was driving by and remembered it was Tuesday so he went home quickly, dropped off the groceries he was sent to get and returned to the church.  We sat a chatted about what was going on in our lives.  He asked me if there was anything Connie and I needed help with.  I got an update on how his family was doing.

It was great visiting with him and hearing his question to me.

We then prayed together.  I had our worship prayer list still handy and so I worked through the list of the most current needs.  Being a small church and community he was well aware of what was going on with these people.  He also brought up someone I was not aware of…so we prayed for him as well.

I enjoy private times of prayer, but there is just something special about praying with others; whether it is 100 others or just one.

So we prayed…and then went our separate ways to begin our days.

Next Tuesday I will be back ~ praying ~ by myself or with others.  We’ll see 🙂

Thank you God for your presence and blessing upon the morning.  Whether I am flying solo or whether 100 people show up doesn’t matter; you are there: listening
loving
embracing
Bless the rest of this day that you may be gloried in our lives.  Amen.

edh -|—

Time with God

/ The Pastor

This morning I started something new here at Salem:
Men’s Morning Prayer
Tuesday mornings from 7 to 8am 

This past Friday God placed it on my heart to do this so I set it up.  I sent an email to my Salem and Belmont list; set up a Facebook group; put information on the Salem web page and made announcements during worship and at the annual meeting on Sunday.  I didn’t know what to expect.  After all this was pretty sudden, but I still felt it was important.

So I showed up at 6:30am this morning, made some coffee, got the juice out and began reading…and waiting.

No one showed up.

Correction…

…God showed up.

So I sat there in the church library and read the Bible, prayed, read some more, prayed some more – and stayed there until 8am.

There was a time when I would have been very frustrated.
There was a time when I would have left after maybe 30 minutes or so.
There was a time when I would have considered dropping this plan.

But this morning I had a great time with God.  I found myself dwelling in 1 John.  I read a section; stopped; meditated; prayed; re-read it and moved on.  It was great.

Do I wish some men had showed up?  Sure.
Did I waste my time this morning?  Absolutely not!

So next Tuesday I will show up again at 6:30am; make some coffee; get out the juice and wait.  And I will continue this each and every week.  If no other men show up then so be it.  At the very least I will have an hour of quiet time with God.  And one just can’t go wrong with that 🙂

edh -|—