CrossPoint Community News 05/06/2022

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This morning, in advance of Mother’s Day, pray this prayer with me:
       We praise you God for the new life that you have given to so many women in our church through your son Jesus Christ. We praise you for the life you have given to those who are pregnant or who have given birth since this time last year. We praise you along with those who have adopted or who have known the joys of foster parenting or being a grandmother. We thank you for our moms who have diligently wiped our noses and our bottoms. We thank you for their tireless service in doing the laundry or making meals. We thank you for their prayers for us. We thank you for those women who have served as spiritual mothers, mentoring us and caring for our spiritual growth.
       But we know that being a mother is not always filled with joy. Lord, we mourn with those women who have experienced a miscarriage or a failed adoption. We pray that you would give strength and hope to those who have had children walk away from the family and to those who have tried so hard to conceive but haven’t been able to. We grieve with those who have lost a child through death, or who have had to give up a child in adoption, knowing that the loss does not ever go away. We ask that you would heal the brokenness and show your presence to these women who have experienced weakness, vulnerability and pain.
       We also ask for your help. Help us to forgive our mothers who have hurt us. Help us to not be insensitive through our careless words to those who are struggling with infertility or miscarriages. Help those who have lost their mother this year to grieve well and celebrate their mom, who was made in your image. We ask that you will fulfill the desires of those women in our church who long to be married and have kids but who haven’t yet.
       Thank you that you will answer these prayers we have prayed specifically regarding our mothers or those who have been mothers or those who long to be mothers. We know that you are a God who provides. Hear their heart’s cry which says, “How Long O Lord?”
       We also thank you for the revelatory role that mothers play in our lives. It is through our mothers that we have seen so much of your character. Through our mothers, we have experienced sacrificial love, constant care, patient correction, persistent instruction, obvious wisdom, and generous hospitality – all of which are echoes of the love, care, correction, instruction, wisdom, and hospitality that you show us. Thank you that our mothers, through their being and doing, point us to you.
       We thank you that you have provided for us our mothers, or older women who have cared for us and raised us.
       You alone are worthy of our worship. Amen.

May God have mercy, and please continue to pray for Ukraine. Many of the refugees from Ukraine are women and children. Here is a suggested prayer if you are at a loss for words in how to pray: 24-7 Prayer – A Prayer for the Crisis in Ukraine (ENG).pdf Thank you for kneeling on behalf of the people of Ukraine and Russia, and taking a stand (or a knee in prayer) against tyrannical despotism.