Prayer Guide: Day 14

“You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” Psalm 16:11

In March 2020, when Covid-19 was declared a Global Pandemic and basically shut the world down, it caused a lot of different hardships for many people. For me personally, my job changed drastically with many challenges, and working from home was especially hard for me since I am an extremely extroverted person. After a few months of this, depression and anxiety over the future crept into my life. I made a few changes and tried to auto-correct, which helped a little, but I still lacked joy and satisfaction. I decided to do a Bible study focused on contentment and began writing in a journal one thing I was grateful for and one scripture each day that focused on praising God.

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. God is our refuge and strength. O come let us sing to the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever. These were just a few of the verses written in my journal. As I look back at page after page of my praises to the Lord and my prayers, I see that little by little, I was writing less about my troubles and more about thanking God and praising Him for His love, His provision, and my joy. Praising the Lord helped to re-align my heart with His. It helped me focus on what I was most thankful for and turned my discontentment into satisfaction.

Jesus alone can satisfy. Period. We often try to satisfy ourselves with money, jobs, people, or things. We think, “If I could only get that promotion, I would be satisfied.” Or “If I had more money, I would be happy.” All of these things can leave us feeling empty or wanting more. They also don’t last. If we put all of our hope into our job or friends, what happens when we lose those things? We fall apart. These things aren’t meant to be our source of satisfaction and can never truly satisfy us because God designed us only to be fulfilled with His love. God doesn’t promise to give us friends, good jobs, or money, but He does promise that He will never leave us or forsake us. He is our one constant that can never be taken away and He promises to satisfy us with His eternal love.

Personal Prayer Focus

As you pray today, be intentional about focusing on the goodness of God. The eternal blessings He has bestowed on us. If your mind seems filled with worries and anxiety, replace those thoughts with the promises of God and ask the Lord to help you view your problems through an eternal perspective. God doesn’t ask us to minimize hard issues in our lives, but He does call us to trust Him, giving our burdens to Him. Bring everything to Him in prayer and petition. He loves you, and He alone has the power to work all things out for your good.

West Ridge Prayer Focus

At West Ridge Church, we have a big mission and that requires a big family. There are so many people that you may not see on a stage or screen who play integral roles in leading people to become fully devoted followers of Jesus. Let’s take a moment now to thank God and pray for them. Please lift our Facilities & Operations Team (Dustin Allen, Candace Edwards, Sherry Horne, and their hard-working crew), our Finance Team (Lorie Conley, Kristina Allmon, Senga Veale), Our Administration Team (Tara Sargent, Cathi Woodard, Judy Bloye-Hitchock and Jill Rench) as well as our IT Team (Brad Oby and Noah Hoffman) up in prayer as they continue to faithfully serve our church with excellence.