 We're excited about our Advent Prayer Journey - Stir Up Your Power and Come. Each week during worship we are learning a different aspect to prayer. In an effort to share our journey, we have asked for feedback from people about their journeys. Some of the answers are raw and honest. None have been filtered or edited.
This week my experience with prayer has been...
Exciting - The lesson in the devotional have been encouraging to stay focused on the reason we celebrate this season. The fact the Thessaslonians verses we read three times even before this service.
Remembering to be happy and see the best and future in all situations.
Reflecting on Isaiah 49:1-7 - one verse each day and praying for increased awareness of what God is calling me to and for the confidence that he will strengthen me for that call.
Seaching for help in reaching deadlines...inviting Christ into our homes in the Advent season.
With tears and repentance. Discouragement as our world wants to bring more materialism into the Advent season. Praying also for hard decisions my children are making.
Praying for health of a family members, and a friend who was in hospital for a few edays. Both are well now. Also safety of all during weather conditions. Also thanking God for his many blessings.
Very different, as I was in the hospital without my Bible and usual study guides. Though I found it perhaps more personal than usual, I felt an even closer relationship with Him as my needs were more when I got the news that my nephew, 26, had died unexpectedly and brought me back to the reality that it isn't all about me, and my losses.
Surreal... I have been praying for healing for people I know and don't know. I was at Mayo over Thanksgiving and it was very humbling...I am very thankful for my health!
...teaching me patience. Sometimes my patience has run very thinn this past week. I have continually prayed in silence for this patience. I have also prayed continuously for my son who wants to be the adult in the house and to get him to understand it is his parent's rules and he needs to obey and respect his parents. this has been my challenge for a whiler and I nkow if I continue to pray it can only get better.
You have helped the cold and hungry!
I pray before I buy things to makke sure God is part of what I buy.
Praying that my family would stop fighting. And they finally did. I prayed that my brother would listen and respect my family.
Been praying in the shades of blue, in my blue journal, and in my blue chair...
Daily prayers for our grandson Logan Swedberg...
Challenge to keep me closer to Christ in the Advent season.
As we are getting ready to move, life is crazy. I caught myself praying: "Be still, be still, be still, BE STILL!" I guess I still need to practice.
God is teaching me patience -- in so many areas of my life. I have learned I need to turn everything over to God, it calms me and helps to know he has his hand guiding my life.
Praying the Rosary; reading the Bible daily; praying fore meals...
Steve, thanks for introducing me to sitting alone in the dark and reflect. Thanks! Will do again and again.
Oct. 2011
We were driving on the Interstate in Arizona where the speed limit is 75mph. Bang - flat tire - front right in this huge SUV (Cadilac). My friend and myself - ladies in our 60's. Her son (driving) in a wheelchair - got out with his chair to change the tire. The road was very busy. I put my head down to pray. I looked up and a black old van was backing up to us. Two men jumped out with a toolbox. They would not take money. They followed us to the station and waited until we filled the tire with air. They said good bye and God bless!
Every day a reflection on a verse of Amazing Grace and a Prayer for humility and forgiveness.
I know that God hears my prayers, but I feel that he isn't answering them. I prayed for the safety of family and friends and yes they're still alive and well. But specific prayers go unanswered. I give thanks for all that God has blessed me with, for the good times and the bad. But I'm still in the valley of sorrow and loneliness. Joy and hope seem to be just a fleeting dream. When I'm given some joy and hope, when I finally get to be on the mountain top, I am quickly thrown back into the valley. I feel like God sees me on the mountain top and says, "Hey, what are you doing here, you don't belong here." and quickly picks me up and throws me back into the valley and then says, "There is where you belong." My soul is full of sorrow." "Strengthen me Lord, according to your word. Fill me with joy, hope, and peace."
Praying that the pastors preach more Christ centered sermons. They seem to have fogotten what He is all about.
Using time in the car to pray is great!
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that will be given to people who are ill and home bound. The prayer shawl ministry meets from 2 – 3:30 pm at Grace on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month. 
Grace Quilters
Christian baptism is the starting point of a life lived in relationship with God through Christ. In baptism you are plugged into the source of God’s love and power—the greatest resource available to the world.