Month: February 2016

NCFI Cares: O is for Others

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O for Others reminds us to pray for our colleagues, managers, and students regularly.  We can create a list and commit to pray for them daily or weekly. In the previous devotion, W is for Word, we discussed filling our prayers with scripture, so let’s continue with using the word with Colossians 3:12-17 (italics is the scripture):

We pray for our brothers and sisters in nursing, the elect of God, who are holy and dearly loved. We ask the Lord to clothe them with a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. For those who work in units with conflict, anger or unkindness, that they would bear with one another and forgive one another, remembering, the Lord has forgiven each of us, so we must also forgive others. Lord, we ask for your help in keeping in mind love, which is the perfect bond and the peace of Christ. We pray for the word of Christ to dwell in each of them richly, teaching and exhorting one another with all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, all with grace in their hearts. So that, whatever they do in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus. We give thanks you, God the Father through Christ Jesus.

As we live out our calling in nursing to care for our patients and families, let’s not forget our colleagues who have not come to know the mercy of God through Christ. As we honor God with our words and deeds and our love pours out, we pray for their eyes to see and their ears to hear the gospel of Christ (Matthew 13:10-14/Isaiah 6:9-10).

 

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NCFI Cares: W is for Word

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W is for Word reminds us to fill our prayers with scripture. Even though the Bible contains many prayers, like “Our Father” in Matthew 6 and the “Lord is my Shepherd” from Psalm 23, there are great prayers in the Epistles. Paul’s prayer to the church is Colossae found in Colossians 1:9-12 is one, as is Ephesians 1:17-20.

We can also use specific verses and teachings to fill our prayers with truth and God’s will.  Many of us are familiar with New Testament passages, so here are a few from the Old Testament. Guidance: Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the way, walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21). Faithfulness: “So realize that the Lord your God is the true God, the faithful God who keeps covenant faithfully with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations” (Deuteronomy 7:9).

We can also use scripture to praise and worship God! “The Lord is my strength and my song he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him.” (Exodus 15:2). The richness of God’s word fills both our work and our conversations with God.

EM Bound motivates our prayer to take on a new meaning with God’s word with the following bold teaching:

Unless the living forces of prayer are supplied by God’s Word, even earnest prayer, though it may even be strong and noisy in its urgency, is, in reality, flabby, lifeless, and empty. The absence of living force in praying can be traced to the absence of a constant supply of God’s word to repair the waste and renew the life. Those who would learn to pray well must first study God’s Word, and store it in their memory and thoughts. (The Necessity of Prayer, p. 79)cf2e1-ncficares_3bloglogo