THE NEED FOR LOVE IN FAMILIES
Strong, positive relationships help us build trust and feel supported. Having people around us who can share both positive and difficult times can also help us manage stress when things become tough. Ideally children first learn about relationships from their own families. Families can give them a model from which they start to discover how to build relationships throughout their lives. Children who have a model of healthy relationships from their families are better able to create these relationships outside their families, with the other children and adults in their lives. When children learn the skills of building positive relationships, they can practise these skills over and over again as they meet new people. Mother Teresa famously said, “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.”. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him .. But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children (Ps 103 :13 &17) But faith, too, can flourish through generations. Timothy experienced faith in his grandmother Lois and then his mother Eunice (2 Tim 1:5) Let this be written that a future generation , that a people not yet created may praise the LORD”( Ps 102:18)
There have been many both children and adults who have not found families to be places where they have experienced real love or faith or been able to build positive relationships. They have seen unrealised goals, and experienced unforgiven hurts. and felt fear or despair. We have removed children from their Aboriginal families hoping to give them a better future and failed. We can become so concerned about the darker moments of our past we continue to focus on them, rather than showing deep appreciation of when there has been real strength. But attitudes in our society continue to undermine the way God intended marriages or families to be. Sometimes it is the way children think of changing their sexuality and preventing parents praying for them. We read that Facebook can both enhance people’s ability to connect with others, but it can also isolate children from reality, reduce their need for others and cause negative impacts on family relationships.
Let us Pray:
* That family life will once again be the foundation which nourishes our society. That there will be a focus on lasting marriages and the restoration of strong families . That our generation be the one which commends God’s works to one another and tells of His mighty acts. (Ps 145:4)
* That more and more will know God’s faithfulness continues from generation to generation and that the LORD is good, His love endures forever, His faithfulness continues through all generations(Ps 100:5)
* That both children and parents will grow to experience the love of the Lord and His righteousness and build long lasting relationships with one another.
WHEN JUSTICE SEEMS DENIED
“God, where are you”? It’s a question we ask when life seems unfair. The Bible answers “For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil (Ecclesiastes 12:14). But we want the score settled now. So we struggle, we question, and we doubt. We wrestle with such questions because they have no easy answers. However David, who’d been forgiven and restored after committing adultery and murder wrote “The Lord gives righteousness and justice to all who are treated unfairly… The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to anger and filled with unfailing love. He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. He does not punish us for all our sins. He does not deal harshly with us as we deserve. For His unfailing love towards those who fear Him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. The Lord is like a father to His children, tender and compassionate to those who fear Him. For He knows how weak we are” Psalm 103: 6-14.
Please pray:
* for those in our nation who believe they have suffered injustice that they would come into a first-hand experience of the compassion and love of Jesus.
* for those whose role is to dispense justice through our legal system that they would do so with sensitiveness and fairness.
* for those who suffer injustice that they would not become bitter at their fate but will be able to find the grace to forgive those who have hurt them, and experience healing themselves.
LIFE IN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES AFTER CASHLESS CARD GOES
The Labour government has put forward a bill to abolish the cashless debit card which has been rolled out first in Ceduna in South Australia in 2016. It was later introduced in the east Kimberley, the WA goldfields, Bundaberg and Hervey Bay, Cape York and the Northern Territory. People on the card can withdraw a maximum 20% of their Centrelink payments as cash. The rest can be used only to make purchases from businesses that are not bars, bottle shops or casinos. Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders in Laverton, one of the debit card’s main trial sites in WA’s northern goldfields, has said the card has ensured children have been fed and clothed and have attended school and they fear what will happen when the scheme officially ends, which could be as early as this month. Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth is seeking the views of communities where the cashless debit card is operating and has said she wants to know what income management they want in their towns.
Please pray:
“Be courageous, be strong. Do everything in love.” 1 Corinthians 16:13-14
* Pray for the communities in which the cashless debit card has made such a difference and has improved the lives especially of children, as they face life without the card.
* Pray for the leaders in these communities. Pray for courage and strength for them. Ask the Lord to fill them with His love for their people and give them His wisdom as they seek to deal with the significant changes ahead.
* Pray for Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth, that she may truly hear the truth about how the cashless card has helped people. Ask the Lord to give her, and the people who work with her, courage and strength to do the right thing by these communities, not just what suits woke ideology.
PRAYING FOR ISSUES IN THE NEWS
* The tragic deaths of 5 teenagers in a motor vehicle accident in a small outer Sydney community has caused untold trauma to families, friends, neighbours and school mates. The survival of the 18 year old driver with only minor injuries only adds to the difficulties that will flow from this tragedy. Please pray for all who have been affected by this accident in different ways, especially the driver who will face enormous psychological problems related to the loss of his friends and the guilt he will have to battle with for his part in the accident. Pray for healing in the lives of all affected and for God to bring something good out of the horror in the lives of those most affected by the accident as only He can do.
* Our Governmental leaders from Prime Minister down through the Premiers to local community leaders, and business executives have never been under such pressure to find answers to the economic and associated issues faced by our nation. Please pray for Godly wisdom to be generously spread around in all places and to all people with responsibility for decision making in the current crisis facing our nation and indeed all the nations of the world. Pray that as a nation, our current predicament will draw us closer together and more supportive of each other as we seek to find a way through to brighter days ahead. Pray too that it will cause many people to seek a closer relationship with Jesus as they face increasing financial pressures they cannot control.
PRAYING FOR OTHERS
This week let us pray for the Central African Republic. Pray that God will touch the hearts of the nation’s leaders and call them into a relationship with Him. Pray that He uses them to live out and share the gospel.
Source: Australian Prayer Network
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