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Pray. Study. Work.

Pray. Study. Work.

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So, yesterday I let my emotions get in the way. I let someone else’s mental issues take me to a place I thought I had overcome. Then I spent all day, and half the night going over it again and again in my head. It affected my whole day…and my sleep that night. THAT made me even angrier. 

Ughhhh…the battle in our mind is a real thing.

At the beginning of the year I told you guys that my goal was to pursue peace. I knew when I said it that the enemy was going to get busy. I knew it. And I still felt blindsided. 

But let me tell you how awesome our God is. He will send people, or arrange situations to speak to our circumstances. The message at service today was on waiting, and it blessed my socks off. What my pastor said was while we wait for God to move we should pray, study the word of God, and work. 

Pray. Talk to God about everything.

Study His word so that you know Him intimately.

Work. Find the thing you are passionate about, and do it to the glory of God.

We don’t have to do anything except trust Him to handle it. Last week I talked about how God will use the dirt people throw at us to elevate us. If I stay faithful, He will handle whatever needs to be handled. I lost my focus for a moment, and my flesh took control. The thing is…God didn’t leave me like that. He gave me time and opportunity to get my focus back. 

My goal is to honor Him by not dishonoring Him.

Thank you God for loving me enough to come when I call, and for letting me know that no mistake I make will ever come between us.

Until next time…

Be blessed

We Can Never Pray Too Much!

We Can Never Pray Too Much!

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As believers we should be getting outside of our church walls to do something to make a difference in the world. 

Our world will never get better if we all lock ourselves in our homes, and shake our heads at the problem. The saying goes that if you are not part of the solution…you are part of the problem. I want to be a part of the solution. But what does that look like?

I think it looks something like this…

The children in our world deserve a chance. They should be able to experience what it feels like to run and play without the fear of being abducted or shot. Today, we hardly ever see little girls playing hopscotch or jacks, or little boys playing baseball in the neighborhood. It shouldn’t be that way. 

When I was a little girl, we ran all over the neighborhood, and we didn’t worry about coming home until the street lights came on. Our children today will never know what that kind of freedom feels like…not unless we do something about it.

One thing we can do for sure is pray. 

Pray for change. Pray for direction. Pray for strength. Pray for peace. Pray for your neighbors…and your neighborhood. Pray for those who don’t have a relationship with the Lord, Jesus Christ. Pray that God continues to show this world mercy. Pray because His grace is sufficient. Pray that love will grow more and more until there is no room for hate.

We can never pray too much. I know that may seem idealistic to some, but I believe it’s possible. The Bible says that anything is possible to those who believe (Mark 9:23). I believe. I believe in the power of prayer. And I hope you believe too. God’s word says that whatever we ask in Jesus’ name, He will do it (John 14:14). So, believe that it’s already done.

Don’t stop praying. And don’t stop believing that when the time is right…God will answer.

Until next time…

Be blessed

Pray Like God Hears

Pray Like God Hears

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I only have one message for you today, and that is…prayer is needed.

God is calling on us to step into the office of intercessor and pray for those who can’t find the words to pray for themselves. Sometimes….actually most of the time we are not going to see the things we have prayed for. That’s what having faith is all about. Faith is knowing that God will even though we don’t see it.

I think the problem for most of us is that we don’t believe that God will answer our prayers. I mean, we hope that He does, but there is that little nagging voice saying…He probably won’t do it. That voice is not of God, because over and over in the Bible it says that He will. 

John 15:7 says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

Matthew 7:7 says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Isaiah 65:24 says He doesn’t even wait for us to ask, “Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.”

There are way too many promises in the Bible of how God answers prayer to list them here today. The point is that He does. Anyone that says differently just doesn’t know our Father. 

The thing is…God will answer…He just may not answer the way we want.

God loves us so much that He sent His One and Only Son, Jesus Christ, to the cross to die a death He didn’t deserve. And because He did that….we can be assured that God does hear us, and He will respond.

He knows us, and He knows what He has placed down on the inside of each one of us, and right now He needs us to tap into that power to pray for one another like never before.

Until next time…

Be blessed

Extremely Blessed

Extremely Blessed

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Whenever we are doing something for God, we are going to meet some opposition. I thought I was used to his tactics…that I was ready for it, but he has really been stepping up his game lately. And even when you are prepared, he still finds a way to insert his presence.

I was speaking to a friend… telling her about all of the things that were going on, and right in the middle of our conversation she stopped me and prayed for me. I thank God for the power of prayer. Sometimes, we will tell people to pray for us not really knowing if they will or not. I thank God for placing me with some powerful prayer warriors. I know that even when I do not have enough sense to pray for myself…they will pray for me.

I feel extremely blessed…not because of any material things, but because God has given me more than I even imagined. He has given me joy in the midst of my sorrow, peace in times of a storm, and friends that will be my BFFs forever. No amount of money could ever buy that, and I do not take that lightly. I am so grateful.

I don’t think my friend realized that what she did shifted the atmosphere…maybe she did.  For a moment, I was so caught up in the perceived obstacles that I forgot Who was in control. The Book of Proverbs says that when we trust and acknowledge God, He directs our path. Our Father does not give vision without giving provision. 

We just have to stay focused on God, keep moving forward, and allow Him to clear a path.

Until next time…

Be blessed

Knowing who to call

Knowing who to call

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I am so fearless right now that it’s actually starting to be a little too much. This time I decided to try adding a security lock to my front door. That’s right! I tried to do it myself…sigh. We already know that something was not going to go the way I planned. 

It took me maybe a week to attempt it. Mainly because common sense was telling me not to do it. But, I wanted to prove to myself that I could. I didn’t want fear to stop me from even attempting it, right? There are maybe hundreds…no, thousands of women all over the world who not only do repairs on their own homes, they also have actually built homes themselves. So I figured one lock shouldn’t be that difficult. The thing is…someone forgot to tell the door that.

As usual, before I got started, I measured, and re-measured just to make sure. After a little work, I finally got the first bracket up. I stood back to admire my work, and I noticed that it was a little crooked. For a second I thought about fixing it, but it wasn’t that bad, so I kept going. When I went to attach the other side to the frame, the frame started to dislodge. Why??? Why would the frame come apart? I went and found some really long nails and a hammer, and that’s when common sense kicked in, and told me to call for help. I love being one of God’s daughters. He is always on standby. He knows what we need before we do. It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try new things…even hard things. It just means that when we need help, we know who to call.

As I was praying about what to do, God told me who to call. When I called the guy, he was only ten minutes away. I know that it was only God that had the right person in the right place at the right time. I love how He does that.

Until next time…

Be blessed

What I’m Praying

What I’m Praying

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Since this pandemic began, my life has been transformed in so many ways that it is hard to keep up. And unless you have been living under a rock, your life has gone through some kind of transformation too.

Lately though I find myself forgetting every now and then. I’ll go out to run some errands, and pull up in front of a store that is no longer in business or has not reopened yet. It feels unsettling a little. Uncertain…even a little fearful. At those times, I wish things would go back to pre-pandemic days when things felt more familiar. I want to go out without grabbing a mask first, and get together without having to sit six feet apart. I even want to complain about having so much to do that I can’t wait to take a vacation. In short, I want my life back. But do I really?

As I worked through those thoughts, I realized that what my life is like now is to some extent…what I had been praying for. I had been asking God to help me focus on what was really important. To allow me to do the things that I loved to do. To have the time to finish some of the projects I had been putting off, and the biggest one…to spend more time in communion with Him. So why would I want to go back to a lifestyle that always left me wanting? The answer is…I don’t. At least not all of it.I enjoy having uninterrupted time to think and to pray and to really stop and smell the roses. I enjoy Zoom calls and Facebook Live and working in my yard. 

I think it’s in our nature to want what we don’t have. I’m praying that things never go back to what they were before…I’m praying that things will be better. I pray that we take the blinders off, and really look at what is happening around us. I pray that we are more aware of the injustices in our country, and in our world. I pray that we focus on someone other than ourselves and our own comfort. I pray that we treat each other better. And I pray that if nothing else, this pandemic has awakened us all to the reality that tomorrow really is not promised.

Until next time…

Be blessed