When Words Fail

Debby Bellingham

Description

When your soul can’t find the words to pray, this book will give your heart a voice. Authentic, earnest and sometimes ugly heart-felt prayers.
Do you ever find yourself longing to pray, but you can’t find the words to express what is stirring in your heart? Do you ever feel flat spiritually, like you and God are an old married couple who have no new stories to share with one another? This book’s for you!

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Christian Living
• Philosophie et théologie
• Prayer
• Psalms

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 22 novembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664280229
• Langue: English

Extrait

Also by Debby Bellingham:
The Mentored Life - learning to live and love like Jesus (Bible Study)
The Mentored Life - learning to live and love like Jesus (Devotional)
The Long Shadow - a Lenten Journey in the Shadow of the C ross
With Dick Wiedehfeft:
Guidebook for Personal Devot ions
When Words Fail
Prayers for prayers who can’t find the words to pray
 
 
 
 
DEBBY BELLINGHAM
 
 
 
 

 
 
Copyright © 2022 Debby Bellingham.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
For more information about Debby Bellingham’s classes, retreats and writings contact her at www.debbybellingham.com .
 
This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.
 
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Unless otherwise noted, scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
 
Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6642-8023-6 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-8022-9 (e)
 
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 10/27/2022
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
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Suggested prayers for various topics
About the Author
This book is dedicated to the breath of God and those through whom God’s breath reaches me:
my husband, Jack, and my love hive (you know who you are).
God is as near as your breath. To pray, just inhale. D.B.
Acknowledgments
I would not be who I am without the love and support of my husband, Jack. He contains my whole person: body, soul, mind, and spirit and provides space for me to become who God created me to be. I love him forever.
Thank you to Ashley Fraser, Noelle L’Etoile, Georgia Price, and Esther Sprague—a team who out of love for God and me called many strategic, prayer, and encouragement meetings. They kept me on target and used their wisdom and gifts to make this book a reality.
My deep gratitude rests with the 48 readers who vetted my 1200+ prayers and culled the number down to 365. I asked them to read the prayers with their hearts, to ask the Holy Spirit to indicate which prayers were useful for the purposes of God. Their hard and faithful work is what I offer to you now.
Amy Mays
Andrea McGovern
Andrei Goga
Ashley Frazer
Aubrey Philbrick
Becki Low
Cher Coniglio
Cindy Steele
Deborah Suess
Denise Follina
Esther Sprague
Gay Jeffery
Georgene Usher
Georgia Price
Heidi Haring
Jack Bellingham
Janie Merkle
Jen Glenn
Joyce Dreier
Joyce Gartrell
Joyce Young
Julia Cho
Kate McNabb
Kate Peper
Kim Cruz
Kristi Kincheloe
Kristin Jones
Lisa Litsey
LIz Coniglio
Marcy Wigeri van Edema
Maria Maldonado
Marlene Hekkert
Martha Jacobson
Mary Anne McKenna
Melissa Markus
Noelle L’Etoile
Nora Bertacchi
Pat Houk
Robert Glenn
Sharon Demko
Sharon Vigilante
Sheila Dunning
Sherilyn Stolz
Tamaki Layman
Tassy Menudier
Tom Giles
Virginia Kirkland
Wendy Wallin
I’m always grateful to the people who subscribe to my (almost) daily prayer. They regularly visit my heart’s prayer. Their support of my life’s needs and their words of encouragement bless me immensely.
And believe it or not, I’d like to thank the occurrence of cancer for spurring me on to great love and good works. When I was first diagnosed with it in 2001, my spiritual director at that time told me cancer would become one of my best spiritual guides. She was right. Shortly after this diagnosis, I had a powerful time of prayer. Here is the gist of the prayer time:
I was scheduled to leave for a personal prayer retreat several days after I received the diagnosis. I trusted that God knew the timing of the diagnosis and the retreat, so I went ahead with my plans. During the first day of my time away, the Lord gave me a wonderful prayer experience. Often, I use my imagination when I pray, putting myself in the scene I’m reading, letting myself become one of the people with whom Jesus interacts. This is a very powerful and evocative means of praying. On this day, I was praying with the events of the last supper from Mar k 14.
When the disciples and I got to the upper room, Jesus was there waiting for us. He opened the door to us and invited me alone to join him, leaving the other disciples outside the door. He and I were having a wonderful, intimate meal together, really enjoying each other’s company. I’m sure you know the feeling, the pleasure you have when you’re sharing dinner with someone you really care about, the atmosphere of closeness and fun, the warmth of the conversation. This was what I was feeling as Jesus and I sat across the table from one ano ther.
In the midst of our meal, Jesus said to me, “Debby, there is a betrayer in our m idst.”
“Yes, Lord, I know. It is this cancer that is grow