Ruach Breath of Life Ruach Breath of Life

Restore broken hearts

How right Job was when he said that those at ease have contempt for misfortune. Lord, we acknowledge our lack of compassion before you for those in need.

And we pray to share more of Your heart, a Restorer of broken walls. You desire that our heart should be like well-watered gardens, springs whose waters never fail, but there is stuff that You need to do in our heart, Lord, to make it possible for us to share Yours.

We remember how a hand touched Daniel and raised him up, causing him to stand, catching and strengthening him and all that came from that. We remember how You stretched out your hand and touched Jeremiah's mouth. And how you laid your right hand on John at the start of the Revelation.
Jesus, friend of sinners and Re-mender of broken hearts, we pray today for those who are lonely and sinned, and who receive but little outside support and stimulus, and few if any visit. Jesus be the Visitor.

Visit those whose relationships have broken asunder and whose hearts are raw, and whose prospects are bleak. Release the grief in their hearts, the tension in their muscles, the blockages in their hearts and minds, and draw as many as will let You do so fully under the shadow of your wing.

Lay Your hand afresh on us now, Lord. Even as Jehoshaphat brought many people back to the Lord, we're asking you to restore those who've wandered from the truth, because it's Your word that restores the soul. And we pray that we may play our part by praying for You to restore those who are far from your presence.

Your goodness and compassion never falter nor fail, so come by whatever guise You choose to adopt and bring the reality of Your goodness close to lonely souls this day.

For these weary hearts, Lord, we pray, where the slightest thing requires a great effort. Draw people with cords of kindness.

Their hearts are clashing, Lord, and out of alignment. So be a Shelter from the wind, a Refuge from the storm, a Stream of Water in the desert, and the Shade of a great Rock in a thirsty land. Oh Lord, open the eyes of those who are blind. Open the ears of those who aren't used to listening to things that actually matter most for life and eternity.

Part the veils of deception. Put to flight the fears and the reluctance that hold You at bay, so that they can be all that You would have them be, and noble plans may be embraced and noble deeds be performed.

Restore the confused to their rightful minds and the wasteful to the fear of the Lord. Let them recall moments when Your Presence has passed close by, or those times when they caught the whisper of a voice from heaven speaking truth to their inmost being.

May they pay close attention to that light that shone in a dark place, so that in your great mercy they may embrace the new birth You are offering them, and receive the living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

May the morning star rise in their hearts, we pray.

Enlarge our hearts Lord

Arise, O God, on behalf of the afflicted. In the morning hear our voice as we call to you, as we lay our requests before you and wait expectantly.
By Your great love we come into Your House, bow down in reverence towards Your holy temple, and ask You to arise and administer this mighty life -changing power right into the heart of the situations that we bring You now.

By Your great mercy Lord, most of us have not woken up this day to face direct physical threats to our homes and families. You have done so much to bring us to the place we are now in and to make all this possible. We worship and adore You and thank you Lord that you have not left us to labour or to journey on our own but have bound us to each other in the bundle of the living to share the precious life that You have given us.

Enlarge our hearts now Lord, to more nearly resemble Yours so that we can pray in the power of Your Spirit. Balance the flow in our hearts of how we divide our time, between time spent worshiping You and about our own pursuits, so that we can bring the needs of those who are really hurting to You, and share your concern for them.

We lift to You those who have not enjoyed the benefit of a good night's sleep, who are unspeakably weary, hungry and thirsty, displaced from home and families and all that makes for happiness and sound minds.

We bring you the wounded, sick and shocked, who lack the basics of life and the fundamentals of life in Christ to sustain them. Deliver them from delusions and from putting other things before you.

We pray for those who feel at the very end of their tether, who are seriously overstretched, overworked and under-resourced. Lead them, Lord, in your righteousness. Spread your canopy of protection over them. Arise, Lord, deliver them. Release grace from day to day.

Lament for the Middle East by Ruach Breath of Life

Most of us will have known times when we regret things that we have said or done, or failed to say and do, and burst out, ‘Oh, if only I had . . .!’ Such idle regrets are usually an open invitation feels of worthlessness and condemnation – although they can serve some valid purpose if they make us more watchful and attentive in the future.

As surely as those are empty regrets, there are occasions in Scripture when the Lord allows us to glimpse how deeply He regrets and mourns over the blindness and deafness of His people – not least because of all that we will are sure to suffer as a result. As He revealed to Asaph,

“If My people would only listen to Me,
if Israel would only follow My ways . . .
But my people would not listen to Me;
Israel would not submit to Me.
So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. (See Psalm 81:11-13)

Re-read the second and third chapters of Jeremiah and you are sure to hear more of the Lord’s deep heart cry, as He laments that after all He has done for the nation - and all that He was offering her – it had still turned away and refused to repent and return to Him.

Hear the grief in the Lord’s heart as He expresses through Isaiah how things could have been: “If only you had paid attention to My commands, your peace would have been like a river.’ We are so sorry, Lord, for the grief that we have caused You, and the opportunities that we have missed.

Thus too does Jesus grieve over Jerusalem, knowing well the utter disaster that its stubbornness and spiritual blindness would lead to. “If you had only known on this day what would bring you peace – but for now it is hidden from you.” (Jer. 3:7; Is. 48:18; Luke 19:42)

It grieves the Lord when we fail to listen to His voice, and to turn to Him with all our hearts. And there can be no sadder words to hear than to be on the wrong end of the Lord saying, ‘If only you had . . .”

Back in 1980, at a time when the Lord was showing us the urgency of our times and calling us to intercede seriously for the nations, He gave us a number of profound and prophetic songs to rally people to this call. Many of these were written by Huw Humphreys. This particular song was written by him, with additional words by Robert Weston.

With the help of Mike Halliday on clarinet, Jo Garcia on cello and Christiane von Albrecht on keyboard, Megan Topper shares in the words of that song words and sentiments that speak of the Lord's grief - as well as of His desire for us to heed His call, adjust our heart priorities and respond to His summons to rise up as the army of the Lord.

As He looks down over nations and individuals that are straying far from His ways, let’s commit ourselves afresh to giving Him the joy and solace of sharing whole heartedly in the things that He is seeing and feeling.

Shine Your Light into the darkness - Eliakim 2010 by Ruach Breath of Life

Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil His good purpose. (Phil. 2:12-13)

What a blessing Paul’s letters are! Through them we get to know so much about the man, and feel his heart for the people and the churches he was writing to.

How amazed he would have been then to learn how deeply the words that he dictated then from his place of confinement have touched by far the great majority of every Christian who has ever lived!

With the book of Philippians being so particularly cram full of jewels, gems and reminders to rejoice in God, and to keep seeking Him whatever we are going through outwardly, you are sure to be blessed by this message I gave at our church from the second half of chapter two of Paul's letter to the Philippians.