For Maggie’s Thursday quotes – somewhere I read once – but don’t know who to credit
Make it your goal to be all God wants you to be. No one can keep you from that goal but yourself.
Seasons, Slumps, Seclusions February 29, 2008
My tendency is always seclusion. I go through a low season, a slump and I seclude. The last couple of weeks have been as stressful as anything I can remember in my entire life. I would love nothing more than to sit in the safety of my home, my bedroom. Seclude myself on all sides. Build my walls. We all go through the tough times in child rearing, financial times, marriages and jobs. Through each of these we must remember that………….
“God made promises and bound Himself to us in a blood covenant so that we would know exactly what we could expect from Him” (quoted from Live a Praying Life)
God never promised that once we became Christians that everything would be GREAT for us. The purpose of His promise is to give us confidence and peace. God’s work in my circumstance today is only setting the stage for what comes next. I can’t remember the verse to quote, but we are called upon to gather together and pray for one another, but that sometimes means we have to ask others to pray for us. Stand in the gap, intecessory prayer.
In the women’s study we are now doing, Week 2, Day 2 Prayer Journal. Jennifer Kennedy Dean is showing us new ways to pray each day. This day we are to turn our prayer into a promise. Scripture says: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you….And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezekiel 26:26-27) I love this verse. You will hear me refer to it many times over. I keep reminding myself of it. Anyway, my prayer for Week 2, Day 2 is
Thank you God for giving me a new heart and a new spirit. (This gets me out of the slump) Allow me to share this before others. (This gets me out of the house) Let me be an example to others so that they will want what I have been given from You. Fill me up. (This brings me out of the low season) Let me be a conduit from you to others here on earth and allow me to break the chains I have worn for so long. Your promise to me is that with my new heart I will follow you and keep your laws.
Have a wonderful weekend. See you at church on Sunday.
Living Stone February 24, 2008
In Sunday School we are studying “In the Dust of the Rabbi”. The video talked about Priene, Turkey today. There was a magnificent temple made for the goddess Athena there. It talked about that each stone made was numbered and put in the exact location to create this temple. But, from this video, I learned that I am a stone. I was hewn by God’s hand – shaped by God – and placed into His temple. Bro Ray told us in his message this morning that God had better purposes than locations. We now carry God with us and meet him by linking with His spirit and pray in that spirit. We pray prayers of invocation, doxology, confession, intercession and petition and benediction. We pray in truth and honesty, confess our needs, and sometimes pray out of desperation. So, combining both Bro. Ray and my Sunday School today, we know that God will not abandon us when temples, or our churches are destroyed. He put his spirit in us and meets us there for our deepest needs. I come from a quarry and God is chipping away at me and is placing me in the spot he created exactly for me. Personally – coming out of an extremely difficult week – this is a comfort to know that God is still in me and I can praise Him wherever I may be.
Sad February 20, 2008
My plans for the day were routine. Go to work. Go eat supper and church and then start the new group study. I had hoped to write to you all about the video and get your thoughts. Well, sadly, I sat down to eat supper and got a phone call from my uncle that my dad’s sister, Martha, had passed away in her recliner this afternoon. She was the healthy one. She walked 3 miles every morning. She ate the right foods! That could be any one of us tomorrow, or the next day, or the next, or tonight. Do you know my Savior? I pray that you do.
So, now you have to blog to me about the study tonight. What were your thoughts? Was the video good?
Pray for my family in the days to come. Death is always hard, but unexpected death leaves you wondering. Pray for her children. Just pray.
Prayer Chain February 18, 2008
From different people I have heard from today, the main theme seemed to be the stress of their day. If you read this blog tonight, pray for the person who wrote this blog (me) and then for the person on the next blog you are reading. Thank you – I can use it.
Purpose of Prayer February 13, 2008
Well, another day at home. This would be nice if I felt energetic. So much to do….aaw….just let me sleep a little longer.
I told you yesterday about the Live a Praying Life. Church has been cancelled for tonight, so you still have a week to sign up if you haven’t done it yet. The first day of the study Jennifer Kennedy Dean says….
“I realized that in practice, I had prayed as if I could change God. I prayed as if I could open his eyes to new possibilities, awaken love or mercy in Him, or sway Him to my point of view. If I could just say the right words, I thought, or say them in the right order, or say them often enough, or say them with the right amount of fervor – somehow I could get God to do what I thought he should do. I felt that I had to convince God. I felt that I had to prove my need or give Him a reason to answer me. I approached prayer as if God were hoarding blessings and my role was to get Him to release them. It was a draining responsibility – to be clever enough to convince God. It caused my prayer life to be anxiety-driven, always wondering if I had been effective enough to win God over.”
Can you relate to that? I think this is a fascinating study. Come join me and we can blog our thoughts.
I Could Get Used To This! February 12, 2008
I could get used to this. I stayed home from work today trying to get over the final stages of a self diagnosed flu. I thought I was better yesterday morning, so I went to work, but by mid-afternoon I knew that was a poor choice. I brought work home with me and have been piled up here in my warm, cozy bed – work a while – read a while – work a while. Like I said, I could get used to this. I have a stack of books by my bed I could get caught up on……two of the Bible Cure books by Don Colbert; two by Philip Yancey; one by Ruth Graham. What a wonderful dream. Tomorrow will be back to reality and back to work and back to stress, etc.
I am still trying to figure out this blog thing and I don’t know if I am putting this out there, so you all can let me know if I did it right or not.
Tomorrow night at church there will be a new study by Jennifer Kennedy Dean called Live a Praying Life. It really is a good study. If you have time to work this one in, I think you will grow from it. One of my favorite parts was where she talked about being obedient in prayer. What does that mean to you?
