Let all that I am praise the Lord;
with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
Let all that I am praise the Lord;
may I never forget the good things he does for me.
He forgives all my sins
and heals all my diseases.
He redeems me from death
and crowns me with love and tender mercies.
He fills my life with good things.
My youth is renewed like the eagle’s! (Psalm 103:1-5 NLT)
Tonight begins the women’s conference at church. Today is for finishing final things. Some years most of the work is done long before the day of the conference, but the calendar, certain bottlenecks in the planning, the weather, and illness have not made that this year’s reality. It will all come together somehow, and the women who arrive tonight will be blessed.
I was thinking about some of the women I know of who will be there. After a long absence from church in the Covid Chaos years, a sweet but quiet woman and her preteen daughter have been attending again, and are getting reconnected to a church who has grown tremendously since 2019. Two women I know who will be attending are wives of pastors, and have experienced a great deal of “church hurt” in toxic churches they served. One woman married a man from our congregation on January 1 and moved here from out-of-state so recently that she barely knows anyone. Another woman is coming for the first time, after years of caring for two adopted children with complications of fetal alcohol syndrome.
There will be women who are exhausted by child-rearing, women who are seeking God’s purpose and path for their lives, women who are yearning for a husband or children, and women who are deeply hurt and/or grieving. There will be women whose deep connection to God and years in the refiner’s fire have given them the strength and depth of faith and character to minister to others. There will be women who are so new to the faith that they are soaking it all in with enthusiasm and joy, “drinking at the fire hydrant,” so to speak. There will be teen girls who are rubbing spiritual elbows with mature women who are still seeking, worshipping, and serving the Lord. There will be women whose lives feel so dry and weary, they are almost brittle. And there will be women for whom the joy of the Lord is their strength All the Things of life.
And there will be God.
God ministering to hearts. God healing the broken. God calling to sinners. God pouring out refreshment and renewal. God doing all the things that only God can do. We are just carriers of his Spirit, and conduits of his Glory.
Please join me in praying for this conference.
Renewing God,
You sit enthroned on the earth, ruling with a mighty arm. There is no one who can be compared to you. Sovereign Lord, you come with power, seeking Children you can love and bless. We cannot fathom the Spirit of the Lord, or instruct you, but we can respond to your goodness and your beauty. Today we come to your Throne of Glory asking for your Spirit to be poured out upon al those who are involved in this women’s conference. We have prepared the way for the Lord, and now we ask you to raise up the valleys, lower the mountains, and cause your Word and Spirit to go forth in powerful and life-impacting ways.
We pray for supernatural strength and anointing to be upon those who have planned and prepared for the conference. We pray for supernatural energy and anointing upon all those who will speak, pray with, serve, and otherwise minister to the women attending. We pray for clear roads, smooth transportation, complete health in the volunteers and ladies and their families, and no other inhibitors to attendance. We pray for your comfort to be poured out on those who grieve, your healing to be poured out on the broken, your peace to be upon those in transitions, your salvation to be poured out on the lost, and your renewal and refreshment to be poured out on those whose spiritual tanks need filling again.
Tend this flock like a shepherd, gather these lambs in your arms. Carry them close to your heart and do what only you can do in this conference. May those who hope in you, Lord, be renewed to soar on wings like eagles, run and not grow weary, walk and not faint. May your Glory be revealed and may attendees and volunteers alike know that you have spoken into their lives. We ask this in the powerful name of Jesus Christ our Savior, AMEN.
Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
3 A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
6 A voice says, “Cry out.”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All people are like grass,
and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
7 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God endures forever.”
9 You who bring good news to Zion,
go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news to Jerusalem,
lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
say to the towns of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
10 See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,
and he rules with a mighty arm.
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.
11 He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,
or weighed the mountains on the scales
and the hills in a balance?
13 Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord,
or instruct the Lord as his counselor?
14 Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him,
and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge,
or showed him the path of understanding?
18 With whom, then, will you compare God?
To what image will you liken him?
21 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
25 “To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40 NIV)