Lord, Have Mercy: 5 Go-To Prayers When You Need To Pray, But Don't Know What To Say

By Alvelyn Sanders-Swafford

Are you experiencing a wilderness season, where daily, something comes lurching toward you, ready to attack? Are you attempting to go through a normal routine, but there is nothing normal about it? Nothing seems to be working out. Nothing is recognizable. The space is alien, and it seems inescapable. "Lord, Have Mercy" offers five straightforward, powerful prayers to God to help anyone going through a challenging moment in life– a wilderness season.

Alvelyn Sanders-Swafford, an ordained minister, pastor, and award-winning filmmaker and writer, shares her personal story of a five-year wilderness season. During that time, prayer was all she had to sustain her. She provides five prayers to reaffirm yourself and remind you that difficult moments may come, but you can overcome them with God's help.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Oct 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098327835

Alvelyn Sanders-Swafford

Alvelyn Sanders-Swafford is an ordained minister, writer, and filmmaker. She serves as a pastor in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church denomination. She is the writer, producer, and director of the independent, award-winning documentary, "Foot Soldiers: Class of 1964." As a writer and journalist, her work has appeared in Essence magazine and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper, among other publications. For many years, she served as a contributing reporter for Atlanta's National Public Radio (NPR) station, WABE 90.1FM. She received her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University, and graduate degrees from Clark Atlanta University and the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. She is a native of Atlanta, Georgia.

Book preview

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Classic Imagination

P.O. Box 2426

Birmingham, Alabama 35201

Lord, Have Mercy – 5 Go-To Prayers When You Need to Pray,

But Don’t Know What To Say

Copyright © 2020 by Alvelyn Sanders-Swafford. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-09832-782-8 (hardcover)

ISBN: 978-1-09832-783-5 (ebook)

Scripture quotations marked (NRSV) are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are from the King James Version of the Bible in public domain in the United States of America.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the author.

Cover design by André Hawkins.

Images of the author are courtesy of the author, Alvelyn Sanders-Swafford.

For more information about the author, please visit www.alvelyn.com.

For my mother,

who taught me to pray

Contents

Acknowledgments

The Introduction

Chapter One

Wandering, Warring, Wading in the Wilderness

Chapter Two

Winning in the Wilderness

Prayer One

Lord, please show me the way.

Long version:

Lord, please show me what you would have me to do and where you would have me to go.

Prayer Two

Lord, through the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit, please use people as instruments of Your will for my life.

Long version:

Lord, through the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit, please use people as instruments of Your will for my life – even if they are not aware of what they are doing and even if they do not know You.

Prayer Three

Lord, please give me this day, my daily bread.

Long version:

The Lord’s Prayer

Prayer Four

Lord, have mercy.

Prayer Five

Lord, thank you for your love, grace, and mercy.

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to God for the vision for this book. Thank you! I am thankful to God for God’s abundance of love, grace, and mercy in my life. I am thankful for the love of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I am thankful for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

I am thankful for my mother, Dr. Georgianne Thomas. I am especially grateful for her wonderful love, and tremendous encouragement and support. Thank you, Mom, for teaching me to pray when I was a little girl. Thank you for cheering me on as I shared my story in this book!

I am thankful for the love and support of my father and stepmother, Alvin and Angie Lewis Sanders. Thank you, Dad, for your words of counsel over the years.

I am thankful for my husband, Raymond Swafford, and his love and friendship – and for the laughter we share! Thank you, Raymond, for your loving encouragement in the writing of this book.

I extend special gratitude to friends and colleagues who read the early version of the completed manuscript, and shared their helpful thoughts and ideas, and loving words of encouragement: Shawn Evans Mitchell, Janis Kearney, and Reverend Oliver Allen, Jr. (Presiding Elder, Retired).

I am thankful for the countless family members, friends, associates, and colleagues who have shared their love and support with me. There are too many people to list. However, please know that if you ever did anything for me – shared any act of kindness or compassion – I am grateful. Thank you.

I want to humbly acknowledge some people who are lifetime supporters, and share a few names of those who were on-hand during the wilderness experience about which I write in this book: Rowene Allison, Cheri Andrews, Odessa Archibald, Dayatra Watts Arnold, Judge Marvin Arrington, Sr. (Retired), Mara Brock Akil, Dr. Rosa McCloud Baxter, Dr. Juliette Blackburn Beamon, the late Dr. Josephine Bradley, Oveda Brown, Sheila Martin Brown, Andrea Caver, Claudia Combs, Roderick Cummings, Brian and Amy Bolton Curley, Joan Daviss-Reid, the late Marcia Dell, John DeVard, Geraldine E. Dodson, Dr. Philip Dunston, Mitch Faulkner, Dr. Christy Garrison-Harrison, Jennifer Green, Audrey Hallyburton, Dr. Roslyn Harper, Pamela Hicks, Dionne Hall Huffman, Carlos Hunn, Audraine Jackson, the late Sandra East Jackson, Tonya Jackson, Paquita Young James, Anita K. Johnson, Dr. Frank Johnson, Jill Johnson, Linda Jones, Bill Keenan, Leah Keith, Azira Kendall, the late Louise Ketchen, Barbara Lumpkin, B. Wayne McMillan, Ellen Wade McQueen, Mary Starks Neal, Lance Orchid, Danita Patterson, Karen Shields Phillips, Reverend Daryl and Diana Porter, Andrea Price, Dana Webb Randall, Bunnie Jackson Ransom, Carlton Reed, Reverend David and Linda Richards, III, Harold and Shirley Richmond, Violet Travis Ricks, Cressida Rose, Yvette Sapp, Wayne Sharpe, Hattie Shipp, the late Jeanette Smith Shivers, Shirley Simmons, Taylor Slaton, Dr. Wanda Spivey, Kathryn V. Stanley, Lovett Stovall, Dolores Strawbridge, Nalaya C. Swafford, The Swafford Family, Reverend Eric V. Thomas, Dr. Alma Vinyard, Sandra Allen Walker, Lisa Johnson Whigham, Angela and Rafe Williams, the late Tony Williams, Brenda Witherspoon, Elizabeth Young, Quinton and Gabrielle Young, and Vincent and Sara Young.

I am thankful to my sorority sisters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. for your love and sisterhood, and the many ways you have supported me.

Over the course of my life, many people have played a significant role in my spiritual formation, as well as the professional and spiritual development of my ministry. I share the names of some of those persons and I thank them for being a part of my journey: Members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church include Bishop James L. Davis and Mrs. Arelis B. Davis; Bishop William P. DeVeaux (Retired) and the late Dr. Patricia Ann Morris (PAM) DeVeaux; Bishop Frank C. Cummings (Retired) and the late Mrs. Martha C. Cummings; Bishop Harry L. Seawright and Revered Sherita Moon Seawright; Reverend Dr. Jeffery Cooper, Sr. and Reverend Dr. Joanne Williams-Cooper; Reverend Dr. Earle Ifill; Reverend Dr. David B. Rhone, Jr. and Dr. Felicia Rhone; Reverend Willis Huggins, Sr. and Mrs. Hattie Huggins; Reverend Dwight E. Dillard, Sr. and Mrs. Christine Dillard; Reverend Rosie Hunter; and clergy colleagues and lay members in the 6th and 9th Episcopal Districts; From the United Methodist Church, the late Bishop Cornelius L. Henderson; plus, the late Mother Lindsey of Hunter Hills Baptist Church and Dr. Jacquelyn Ponder – both of whom poured into me when I was a child.

I am thankful for the love and support of former pastors and members of my home church, Big Bethel AME Church on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you for the many years of nurturing me, teaching me, and praying for me.

I am grateful for the love and support of members of the 9th Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and members of the congregations where I have served as the pastor: New Magnolia AME Church (Bessemer, AL), Greater St. Paul AME Church (Florence, AL), and St. James AME Church – Avondale (Birmingham, AL).

As a writer, I have benefitted greatly from a community of artists:

The Zora Neale Hurston-Richard Wright Foundation Writers Week, which was held at Virginia Commonwealth University. I am grateful for the powerful, liberating instruction of Dr. Gloria Wade Gayles. Thank you to Donna Champ Banks for your guidance during this summer session.

The Inaugural Master Class of Memoir Writing at the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University. It was an enriching experience to be in the company of other women writers telling their stories. Thank you to Morris Brown College (where I was an Instructor at the time) for financially supporting my journey to Cambridge, Massachusetts for the class.

Sistagraphy, a collective of African American women photographers based in Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you