{"id":1139,"date":"2022-03-27T19:43:15","date_gmt":"2022-03-27T19:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/?p=1139"},"modified":"2022-03-27T19:54:27","modified_gmt":"2022-03-27T19:54:27","slug":"prayer-for-widows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/?p=1139","title":{"rendered":"Prayer for Widows"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"1139\" class=\"elementor elementor-1139\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-2d4db2a elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default wpr-particle-no wpr-jarallax-no wpr-parallax-no wpr-sticky-section-no wpr-equal-height-no\" data-id=\"2d4db2a\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-33 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-df68bdd\" data-id=\"df68bdd\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-e2fcccc elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"e2fcccc\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/97850827-7A73-4AB8-B504-8C0B304B2BF5.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-1149\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-33 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-f81e26c\" data-id=\"f81e26c\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-84ca48e elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"84ca48e\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/CC74AC7B-17A2-4FD1-8C70-F43341D96A8E.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-1147\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-33 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-41e522c\" data-id=\"41e522c\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-9c6b867 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"9c6b867\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/211D6FAA-17CD-440D-9FFC-0AFB70B491E1.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-1146\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-7105018 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default wpr-particle-no wpr-jarallax-no wpr-parallax-no wpr-sticky-section-no wpr-equal-height-no\" data-id=\"7105018\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-5ecc844\" data-id=\"5ecc844\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-502e8e9 elementor-widget elementor-widget-spacer\" data-id=\"502e8e9\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"spacer.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer-inner\"><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-1d9d38d elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default wpr-particle-no wpr-jarallax-no wpr-parallax-no wpr-sticky-section-no wpr-equal-height-no\" data-id=\"1d9d38d\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-50 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-9d02fff\" data-id=\"9d02fff\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-9a3fcf4 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"9a3fcf4\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/woman-praying.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-1023\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-50 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-f8e02ee\" data-id=\"f8e02ee\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-48f376c elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"48f376c\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Lord of lords, King of kings, great and mighty and awesome God.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>Move us with Your heart. Teach us to love and pray with Your compassion.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>Jesus you love the widows so much; Your Word says that you execute justice for them, protect them, uphold them and severely punish anyone who would cheat them.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>Forgive us when we develop blind spots for widows and thoughtlessly treat them as if they are invisible or leave them feeling irrelevant or stupid. Convict them when we sting them with our impatience. How stupid and wicked and ungrateful we are.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>This angers You and Your word calls us into account.\u00a0<\/p><ul><li>You put an entire book in the Old Testament about widows \u2013 Ruth and Naomi.<\/li><li>You sent a prophet to a gentile people to help the widow of Zarephath.<\/li><li>You showed Yourself in your fresh incarnate state to the 84-year-old widow Anna.<\/li><li>You taught us about persistence in prayer through the parable of the widow and the unjust Judge.<\/li><li>And while rich and important people were parading around in flowing robes and receiving greetings of honor and dropping gifts into the collection box (oh, Lord, how often are we doing the same thing?), Your heart was taken by a poor widow who quietly dropped in two coins, all that she had.<\/li><li>\u00a0<\/li><\/ul><p>Give us Your heart and capacity not to be swayed by appearances but to seek, honor, defend and uphold those who have sought You all their lives.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>We pray for our older, godly widows and thank you for the legacy they have left \u2013 having been faithful to their spouses, well respected for the good they have done, bringing up children well, being kind to strangers, humbly serving and helping those in trouble.<strong><sup>\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong> May we honor them, keep them company, make room for them, see that they have family to care for them. May we listen to them! They have so much wisdom, so much to share.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>And for the younger widows, our heart cries out to You. Whether You have prepared another spouse or a lifetime of singleness, we look to You to mend their broken hearts, answer their painful questions, navigate them through the unexpectedness of an altered future; help them to raise their children, to be both mother and father, to take on double duty and learn to do things they never thought they would. Thank You that You have promised to be their protector and to keep the wolf away, to send provision and help and counsel.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>And, Lord, for those abandoned by a spouse, we pause and ask a special prayer that they will find that in You they are loved, strong, beautiful, and very, very valuable. Remove their shame, lift their heads, and bring them a two-fold recompense.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>Lord, we stand on Your promise that through Jesus You will comfort all who mourn, provide for those who grieve, bestow on them a crown of beauty for ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of despair that they may one day be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of Your splendor.<\/p><p>In Jesus\u2019 name, we pray for our widows.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-cc42636 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default wpr-particle-no wpr-jarallax-no wpr-parallax-no wpr-sticky-section-no wpr-equal-height-no\" data-id=\"cc42636\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-9cbc81c\" data-id=\"9cbc81c\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-a1d9a2b elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"a1d9a2b\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"642\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/B6FF997B-C4AF-4067-AA78-59700A309321-scaled.jpeg?fit=960%2C642&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-1145\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/B6FF997B-C4AF-4067-AA78-59700A309321-scaled.jpeg?w=2560&amp;ssl=1 2560w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/B6FF997B-C4AF-4067-AA78-59700A309321-scaled.jpeg?resize=300%2C201&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/B6FF997B-C4AF-4067-AA78-59700A309321-scaled.jpeg?resize=1024%2C685&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/B6FF997B-C4AF-4067-AA78-59700A309321-scaled.jpeg?resize=768%2C514&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/B6FF997B-C4AF-4067-AA78-59700A309321-scaled.jpeg?w=1920&amp;ssl=1 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lord of lords, King of kings, great and mighty and awesome God. \u00a0 Move us with Your heart. Teach us to love and pray with Your compassion. \u00a0 Jesus you love the widows so much; Your Word says that you execute justice for them, protect them, uphold them and severely punish anyone who would cheat them. \u00a0 Forgive us when we develop blind spots for widows and thoughtlessly treat them as if they are invisible or leave them feeling irrelevant or stupid. Convict them when we sting them with our impatience. How stupid and wicked and ungrateful we are. \u00a0 This angers You and Your word calls us into account.\u00a0 You put an entire book in the Old Testament about widows \u2013 Ruth and Naomi. You sent a prophet to a gentile people to help the widow of Zarephath. You showed Yourself in your fresh incarnate state to the 84-year-old widow Anna. You taught us about persistence in prayer through the parable of the widow and the unjust Judge. And while rich and important people were parading around in flowing robes and receiving greetings of honor and dropping gifts into the collection box (oh, Lord, how often are we doing the same thing?), Your heart was taken by a poor widow who quietly dropped in two coins, all that she had. \u00a0 Give us Your heart and capacity not to be swayed by appearances but to seek, honor, defend and uphold those who have sought You all their lives. \u00a0 We pray for our older, godly widows and thank you for the legacy they have left \u2013 having been faithful to their spouses, well respected for the good they have done, bringing up children well, being kind to strangers, humbly serving and helping those in trouble.\u00a0 May we honor them, keep them company, make room for them, see that they have family to care for them. May we listen to them! They have so much wisdom, so much to share. \u00a0 And for the younger widows, our heart cries out to You. Whether You have prepared another spouse or a lifetime of singleness, we look to You to mend their broken hearts, answer their painful questions, navigate them through the unexpectedness of an altered future; help them to raise their children, to be both mother and father, to take on double duty and learn to do things they never thought they would. Thank You that You have promised to be their protector and to keep the wolf away, to send provision and help and counsel. \u00a0 And, Lord, for those abandoned by a spouse, we pause and ask a special prayer that they will find that in You they are loved, strong, beautiful, and very, very valuable. Remove their shame, lift their heads, and bring them a two-fold recompense. \u00a0 Lord, we stand on Your promise that through Jesus You will comfort all who mourn, provide for those who grieve, bestow on them a crown of beauty for ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of despair that they may one day be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of Your splendor. In Jesus\u2019 name, we pray for our widows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-six-minutes-of-prayer-for-lent-2022"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1139"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1152,"href":"https:\/\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139\/revisions\/1152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceandpeacetoyoublog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}