PLEASE PRAY WITH US!!

Over the past few months, I have been writing to both be an encouragement and be encouraged.  You see, it encourages me to go back and read what God is doing and has done in my life.  

I find myself today needing to ask for encouragement from my fellow believers in the form of some fervent prayers.  I hope you are reading this before Friday, May 1st.  I need to ask all the readers of this blog to pray specifically for God to do two things for us.  Please start right now and continue through May 9th.

First, could you agree with me in prayer for a specific financial need?  I won't share details for the world to see, but if you could just petition the Lord for me in the area of finances, He will, of course, know what I am praying about.  

Secondly, our family has an opportunity coming next week to either be positive or negative testimonies for Christ.  We will be in a specific situation that will cause us to simply share our daily lives.  These folks we will be sharing with are certainly separated from the Lord.   Whether as believers living out of fellowship or unbelievers completely separated, only God knows.  Regardless, we have been given a great opportunity to show how attractive our differences are.  Please pray that God will open doors, that He will make it blatantly obvious that the door is open, and that we will walk through the doors with grace and peace.  Most importantly, pray that God will use us strategically to bring two souls to Him for His glory, honor and praise!!

Thank you in advance for your commitment to pray with us!  We need it more than mere words can express.  Of course, you can expect a report on the blessings your prayers have accomplished when we return.

Makes me wanna shout! Hallelujah, Thank You Jesus!

Today is Sunday.  The Lord's Day.  These days I find I cherish my Lord's Day more and more.  I'm not sure if it's because I'm getting older, or because I've known the Lord longer or because I'm going deeper with Him every day.  A combination of them all, I'm sure.  What a precious gift God has given us to corporately worship Him.  And how thankful I am to have been born in a country where we have the freedom to do so.  

I find myself being more and more open in my worship as time goes on.  Those of you who know me know I am a vocalist.  But true worship is so much more than music.  And freedom to express that worship is a privilege and a joy!  Worship takes place anytime we honor and bless the Lord.  For me, that includes raising my children, keeping my home, supporting and encouraging my husband, praying with a friend, studying God's Word, and, yes, music.  I've heard Beth Moore say before that if we really GOT what God has done for us, we couldn't help but express our joy!  And I wholeheartedly agree with that statement.  

Think about it dear one!  He met you right where you were.  He sent His only Son to die and suffer shame and hatred so your sins could be forgiven.  He KEEPS you by the same power that raised His Son.  He pursues you every day because He is jealous for a deep relationship with YOU.  The words to one of my very favorite songs continually play in my mind.  Notice the acts God has done for us . . .

When I think about the Lord

How He saved me

How He raised me

How he filled me with the Holy Ghost

How he healed me to the uttermost

When I think about the Lord

How He picked me up

And turned me around 

How he placed my feet

On solid ground . . .

Now read the REST of the song for the only response we can have after a work like that!

. . .  Makes me wanna shout!

Hallelujah!

Thank you Jesus!

Lord you're worthy!

Of all the glory!

And all the honor! 

And all the praise!

How can you not wanna shout?? How about leap?  Run? Dare I say, DANCE with some holy joy!  Look what He did.  Look what He's doing.  Look what He'll do.  Go ahead and shout a little, I'll wait . . .  

If the words to that song don't do it for you, why don't you spend a little time in the Psalms?  Psalm 40 is one of my personal favorites.  "He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand." (v. 2).  Or how about Psalm 34 "I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.  My soul will boast in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice.  Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together." (v. 1-3)  Exalt His name with me, saints!  He is worthy!!  If this doesn't make you wanna shout Hallelujah, thank you Jesus, you'd better check your pulse!  You might need to visit your Healer!

God Speaking

I'm on a mission to learn about God's plan for some very specific situations in my life.  I'm wondering how you discern God's voice in your life.  What tools do you use to be absolutely certain He has spoken to you about a specific situation.  I know there are many others who would love some practical life application tools to help them know that what they're hearing is indeed God's voice.  Please comment.  How do you seek His voice on specific matters?  Are you a still listener (meditating on His Word quietly)?  Do you ask for a specific Scripture for confirmation?  Do you keep a journal, then go back and read how He's spoken to you through your own thoughts?  Prayer walks?  What is your familiar way to seek God's voice?

Please leave your comment.  I'm just so thrilled to see how God speaks in the lives of fellow saints.

Lessons from my children

Wow, last week had so many things I want to share with you that I could write for days.  So I'll spare you and pick one theme that seemed to prevail in my life last week - God speaking to me through my kids.  How humbling!!

I got to witness God immediately answer a prayer by my son that directly affected our lives.  It was incredible.  I was honored to be able to point out to him that he will never have to wonder if God listens to his prayers.  He will never have to wonder if God loves him.  I told him when he starts to feel those things to remember that moment.

Then later in the week, I cried with him while he was very sad over a situation with a neighborhood playmate.  He felt like he wasn't liked anymore.  I reminded him what a cool kid he is, but more than that, I got to remind him that God had just showed him earlier in the week how much he meant to Him!! 

But God used that situation to teach mom a very important lesson that I'll never forget.  God is sad when we are sad.  He hurts when we hurt just as much as a mother hurts with her child when his feelings are hurt.  God is miraculously, gloriously showing me more and more how much he loves me and wants a deep relationship with me.  He's teaching me how he is not a God waiting for me to make mistakes, but rather, he waits for me to seek closeness with Him.  

I hope your children never have to face hurts from other children.  But the reality is that children deal with this sort of thing every day.  Just like adults.  How often are you hurt by other human adults?  Often, I'm sure.  We have a parent to run to to cry on their shoulder.  And He hurts with us, just like we hurt with our kids when they come to us.  Remember this during those times and be encouraged.  There are lessons from the Lord in every act of every day.  Our job as believers is to have our eyes and ears open enough to see and hear the lesson, then apply it!  

The "Little" Things

Again, a short one today.  I am thankful today for answered prayers.  I am thankful for my incredible children and husband.  I am thankful that God puts us in exactly the church He needs and wants us to do exactly the work He's called us to do.  

Sometimes, I just have to remind myself what God IS doing in my life rather than focus on all the areas of uncertainty and frustration.  A good friend reminded me of this on Facebook this morning.  She may not even know the part she played in my re-focus, but if you're reading, you know who you are and thank you!  God is so good . . . all the time.  He's faithful to give us encouragement just when we need it, exactly from the place it needs to come.  I am in awe at how, just when I need an answer or someone who understands, someone comes along and just blesses my socks off or a portion of Scripture virtually LEAPS off the page at me.  And then I remember, God isn't surprised by what we're facing.  He knew it before the foundation of the Earth and He planned for either a way out or grace to go through it!  

Thank you Father, for your unfailing, ever-present love for me.  You love me even more than I love my own children and my mind can't even comprehend a love that deep.  Thank you for reminding me whose I am and giving me assurance that you have a detailed, magnificent plan for the extraordinary gift you've placed on my life.  Even if I haven't realized the unique talent or gift yet!!  In the mighty name of Jesus, Amen!

He is worthy, friends.  Praise, honor and glorify Him alone!!

The Power Source

This'll be a short one today.  I have the wee one in the pack 'n play and he won't tolerate it too much longer.  I took a few precious moments of semi-silence to do some laundry and I wanted to check in here, too.  

I've picked up my journal again lately and wow, can I say God is so faithful!!  I don't know why I have such a hard time remembering to journal.  It's such a great way to see what God is doing in my life and watch prayers get answered right before my very eyes.  Since I started again last week (I think Wednesday or Thursday), I have seen at least 5 specific prayers answered.  How cool it is to see God work.  And now I have records of it, so that later, when I'm having a moment where I feel like my prayers aren't even going as high as my ceiling, I can turn back and remember and KNOW that God loves me, He's listening, and He will answer my prayer - in His time.   That's the hard part, isn't it?  In God's time.  We mere humans have difficulty turning it over to God in the first place, much less actually waiting for Him to answer.  Or worse yet, accepting His answer no matter what.  

So my challenge for you (and me) today is to "be still and know" that He is God.  The same God who raised His own son from the dead for your sins and mine is using that same power to work in and through your life.  I'll give you a minute to think about that . . . . . . Do you get it?!  The power He used to raise His son from the dead is the same power He uses to change us daily!!  Hallelujah, dear one!  That's power!  Who says He can't change your attitude, work miracles in your life, save that person you've been praying about for 15 years,  give you a baby, pay your bills, hold you when you're hurting, put you back together when you're broken or just simply LISTEN to you, then ANSWER!!  Praise His name today, believer - He's worthy!

Cursing the Fig Tree

I've been spending some time this week with Jesus in his last week on Earth.  I was struck by something.  I was reading about Him cursing the fig tree and I don't think I've ever seen that passage before.  (Matthew 21:18-22).  He went to the fig tree and was hungry, but it had no fruit, so He cursed it!  Now many Bible scholars say this didn't show a temperamental side of Jesus.  Perhaps not, but it was encouraging to me nonetheless.  You see, I tend to forget that Jesus was 100% God AND 100% man.  It's the man part I struggle with.  He faced every temptation I do (in this case, hunger) and didn't sin!!  How amazing is that?  He wanted to do the will of His Father more than anything.  So much so that He asked if the cup (of death) could pass from Him!  But the key to that request was "not my will, but yours be done" meaning the will of God the Father.  

This has me thinking in so many directions it's hard to collect my thoughts enough to write them.  How many times has something unnerved me so badly that I wanted to curse it?  How many times have I actually cursed something? Too many to count, to be sure.  Although I know the passage isn't referring to Jesus just cursing something because His want isn't met, it encourages me to know that God understands me when I feel this way.  

You see, it's very hard for me to see God as loving.  Judgemental, yes.  Sovereign, yes.  Holy, certainly.  But loving, compassionate, gentle - those things are characteristics that I'm still learning about.  But to see this human quality in Him in this scene from His last days on Earth really teaches me that He really does understand!  After all, He created me in His image.  Which means, He understands every emotion I feel.  What a relief!  I can take my emotions to Him and leave them there.  How refreshing.  

Be encouraged, girlfriends and guy-friends!

Being brave enough to jump out of the boiling water

Today I'm wondering how you stay in a place when you feel like so few people are "fighting the good fight" with you.  I am discouraged by the lack of commitment I see in today's church body.  Whether it is to view the church as a social club and be over-involved in "good" things or, to another extreme, just simply not be part of a local body of believers and have church with whatever television preacher you like best.  It's all a method to avoid the higher calling every Christian has to work the field to produce a harvest for the Kingdom of Christ.  It simply saddens me that as Christians in today's world, we can look at our surroundings and be okay with them.  

I'm sure you've heard the old analogy of the frog who's put in a boiling pot of water.  He'll jump out if the pot is already hot.  But put him in the water while it's cold and let it heat up with him in the pot, and he doesn't even notice he's dying.  That's how I see the Christian community today.  We're in the pot and we have been for some time now.  The water's boiling!!  And we don't even notice we're dying in this world.  The Christian community is at risk of becoming extinct by way of ineffectiveness at the rate we're going.  And the majority of us are so comfortable with it, we don't even recognize conviction when it tugs at our hearts. 

I, for one, want to jump out and cling to my Bible, my morals and, most importantly, my Lord.  Anyone with me?