Weekly Reflections
Current Reflection
Archived Reflections

Today, Sunday August 25th, we have 120 people from all over the world and from many Christian denominations joining together in prayer. Our reflection for the week is on feelings of rejection. (The reflections are taken from the writings of Rob and Debbie Gass and used with the kind permission of United Christian Broadcasters (UCB) from their FREE daily devotional - The Word for Today. They allow the publication of 52 of their passages per year and I find their messages apt and thought provoking for the times we live in. The Word for Today)

Also included in the weekly mailings are the prayer intentions of all those who have asked us to pray for them during the week. They can be found at the bottom. As we pray for each other perhaps we can visualise ourselves bringing each to rest at the foot of Jesus and see Him reaching out His loving hand comforting and healing broken and sick bodies and minds, pouring peace into troubled hearts and spirits and over broken relationships and removing all fears, pain and suffering from each one. Thank You Jesus because we know You hear every prayer and never refuse to answer.

http://www.moytura.com/prayer/prayerbook.html
http://www.moytura.com/prayer/weekly-intentions.html

We should continue to say the short prayer to the Holy Spirit morning, noon and night to enlighten and guide us through the week and the lovely little prayer to the Lord giving Him our whole selves every day.

This week we pick up again on the theme of healing and start where life begins - in the womb. Please bear in mind that these are my own personal views but perhaps something to make us sit back and think. It's a bit of a long one tonight and I hope you make it to the end coz there's a bunch of people needs our prayers this week and their list is at the very bottom!

God Bless you all and thanks a million for being part of the Circle of Prayer - the Prayer Warriors, as one of the group calls us!

Mary Mullins in Galway, Ireland

****************************************************************

"O Holy Spirit, beloved of my soul, I adore You. Enlighten me, guide me, strengthen me, console me, tell me what I should do. Give me Your orders. I promise to submit myself to all that You desire of me and to accept all that You permit to happen to me. Let me only know Your will. Amen"

"Dear Lord, I give you may hands to do Your work; I give You my feet to go Your way; I give You my eyes to see as You see; I give You my tongue to speak Your words; I give You my mind that You may think in me; I give You my spirit that You may pray in me. Above all, I give You my heart that You may love in me - love the Father and love all humankind. I give You my whole self, Lord, that You may grow in me, so that it is You who lives, works and prays in me. Amen."

****************************************************************

Our First Nine Months of Life

A contented mother generally produces a contented baby. We know that an addicted mother produces an addicted baby. And research is showing that a fearful or unhappy mother produces a fractious and weepy child. Unwanted pregnancies bring with them all sorts of emotions - fears, revulsion, rejection and often injuries by intent. I am convinced that the emotions of the mother pass to the child, both negative and positive. The mother may be happy with the news of her pregnancy but the father may not and his feelings impede on the mother causing her to be fearful of losing him or how he will react to their new family member. The mother may feel that a new baby will interupt her career plans or spoil her body image, may cause financial hardship or maybe her advancing age might affect the new child.

For many mothers pregnancy was a conveyor belt with a new baby almost every year. Were all these mothers saints welcoming each new life within? If truth be told many felt they just couldn't cope, or feared an inability to provide for yet another 'mouth to feed'. Many women wished miscarriages on their new inner life or deliberately did things to themselves to induce a spontaneous abortion (miscarriage).

Dr. Kenneth McAll, a Scottish Psychologist and author of 'Healing the Family Tree', writes of the effect these negative emotions have on the new arrival and even on the siblings born afterwards. Where a miscarriage or induced abortion occured a mother can carry feelings of guilt for the rest of her life thus affecting any other children born subsequent to the loss of that child.

The mother may be pregnant as a result of rape, incest, unloved use and abuse, drunkeness or drug induced incompetance, loneliness and insecurities, a need to be shown love where none is forthcoming within the family unit - a million and one reasons. BUT not one of these reasons justifies hurting the little one who did not ask to be born and who is a beautiful creation of God in His own image.

A report in one of the papers just this week states that Embryologists in the UK have discovered that on conception, when the sperm first fertilizes the ovum, and that when the first division of that tiny cell takes place, the genetic map of that new life is already formed. The blueprint for the child is in place within just hours of conception. The UK team, from the Wellcome Trust/ Cancer Research, found that on fertilization a bias towards certain roles of each cell begins and the foundation stones (the new cells) of the formation of the new life is already in place. Their own study is backed up by the work of another scientist from Oxford whose similar research was published five years earlier but ridiculed by peers at the time.

Kinda knocks the pro-choice argument of 'featureless bundles of cells' in the first trimester on its rear end eh? What will this mean to scientific research on the young embryo? Not much I suspect as science continues to goes beyond the boundaries and the natural order of things.

The womb has always been a dangerous place to 'live' but since the infamous Roe versus Wade case in Texas on January 22, 1973 the womb right now has to be the most dangerous place on earth for a child. Over a short period of just over 29 years more children have been killed in the womb than in every world war since time began, every death from starvation, plague, AIDS, epidemics, earthquakes, flooding, road traffic accidents all over the earth, etc. etc. And the figures rise by the minute!

Abortion leaves emotional scars for both the mother and the father as well as any subsequent children, make no mistake about that. So, our reflection this week is to ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten us to those times within the womb when we may have been rejected or hurt. Ask the Lord to heal us of those rejections and hurts and offer a prayer of forgiveness for our parents if they caused those fears and rejections because of our pregnancy.

We should pray for healing of ourselves if we in any way experienced any of these feelings as the parent of the unborn child, and ask for forgiveness from our children affected by these emotions while they were in utero, or any subsequent children carrying the emotional scars from our own feelings of guilt or anger, rejection or revulsion.

We should reflect on the millions of children being murdered within their own 'safe haven' every hour all over the world. Perhaps even 'adopt one' on a daily basis, name the child and visualise him or her as the beautiful creation God intended, for that is indeed what it is now.

We should pray for all mothers who have endured abortion, for their peace of mind and own healing. And especially for all mothers considering an abortion this very minute. Perhaps too, we could 'adopt a mother' daily and pray each one through the pregnancy rather than through the abortion clinic doors.

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah 1:5 (Some translations read "Before I formed you in the womb I chose you...."

Feeling Rejected?

" ...on the day you were born you were despised. then I passed by and saw you... " Ezekiel 16 : 5 (NIV)

When you've been abused you not only carry with you the memories, but also anger over the fact that nobody stepped in to help you. Listen: 'No one looked on you with pity...you were thrown out into the open field...' (Ezek 16:5 NIV).

Private rejection is bad enough, but when it happens in public, you feel vulnerable and worthless. You think to yourself, 'If they don't think I'm worth anything, then maybe I'm not.' Wrong! Never allow somebody else's opinion of you to determine how you see yourself! That's too much power to give to anybody. If others don't value your worth, that's their problem - unless you make it yours! When people reject you, it's because they don't have the ability to see inside you, or hear the meaning behind your words, or feel the quality of your touch.

They've bought into a lie; make sure you don't buy into it also! Until you learn to care for yourself, you won't be able to care properly for anybody else. You can only give to others out of the well of your own self-esteem. Most physical abusers don't hate their families, they hate themselves. It just overflows to those nearest. Paul says, 'He who loves his wife loves himself' (Eph 5:28 NIV). But what if he doesn't love himself? 'What's the answer?' you ask. Listen: 'Then I passed by and saw you...' (Ezek 16:6 NIV). God sees you, He loves you, and He has a wonderful plan for your life.

When you can accept that, your healing has begun.

Short Prayer for Today

"Lord Jesus, in my rejections I cry out to You. My heart is heavy, I live in fear. Dear Jesus, help me to see myself as You see me - a beautiful creation in Your image. Give me the strength and courage to ignore my abusers and to value myself as You value me. Help me to learn to first like myself then love myself a little more each day. Help me to realise that I am Your lovely child and that You have a grand plan all laid out for me. I place my broken heart in Your loving care."