Photo-A-Day - Day 30!

"Future" - the past 2 days I have seen sun-dogs, moon-dogs, and rainbows! All have been poignant reminders of hope from God for me. What beautiful reminders they have been!!!

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

What is Prayer?

What is prayer? A friend of mine put it this way: 

What is prayer? Talking with God. Having deep communion with him daily, being in his presence for a time, knowing that God is with you, would be all good answers to what prayer is.

 Prayer is indeed, all those things. Prayer is simply talking to God. He knows our thoughts (Psalm 139:2), so whether our prayers are out loud or in our head/heart, he hears them.

Jeremiah 29:12 (ESV)

Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.

 God promises that when we pray, he will hear us!

1 Peter 3:12 (ESV)

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,

    and his ears are open to their prayer.

But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

Jesus gave us an example on how to pray in:

Matthew 6:5-13 (ESV; italics mine)

"And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

 Wow. That's a lot to take in. Let me break it down so it's easier to understand.

First praise God! Thank him for what he's done that day or even praise him for being who he is! What ever you'd like to praise him for, go for it!

What's important? God is! You must remember that he is in control, he is important, and while we can ask him about anything, ultimately, his will will be done.

Provision for things on earth and in heaven. You can ask God to provide you with what you need. (And remember needs are different than wants!)

Protection from the evil one. Satan is prowling like a lion ready to devour (1 Peter 5:8). We need to constantly ask God for this. We can not fight this fight alone. He will be with us and he will help us if we ask him.

Wow, we've already gone over a lot about what prayer is, and things to pray for. I have a few more things to share with you before we conclude this first post.

Philippians 4:6 (ESV)

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 

Do not worry about the things going on in your life. Drop them all in God's lap (Psalms 55:22). Pray about everything and anything! Tell all your requests, your thoughts, about your day, etc, to God! And don't forget to thank him! He has blessed us more than we deserve!

So what is prayer?

Talking to God! 

We do this by:

Praising him!
Remembering who he is!
Asking for provision and protection!
Remembering that God has everything under control,  and is listening to our petitions and requests!

I pray that this is insightful and will be a blessing as we start our series on prayer!

30 Days of Love: Day 19

Philippians 4:5

Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.

Be gracious when they irritate you. Brush it off as best as you can. Regret will eat away at you if you choose to treat them poorly. So be gracious with them.

30 Days of Love: Day 6

Proverbs 21:2

A person may think their own ways are right,
    but the Lord weighs the heart.

You may think this is a strange verse to choose, but think about it. You may think that you treat people kindly, but do you also treat them kindly in your heart? Do you treat them with kindness in with your thoughts? I challenge you to reconcile with God and with them.

A Journey of Becoming a Young Woman of Faith - #15 Homemaker

Proverbs 31:10-31

The Woman Who Fears the Lord

¹⁰ An excellent wife who can find?
    She is far more precious than jewels.
¹¹ The heart of her husband trusts in her,
    and he will have no lack of gain.
¹² She does him good, and not harm,
    all the days of her life.
¹³ She seeks wool and flax,
    and works with willing hands.
¹⁴ She is like the ships of the merchant;
    she brings her food from afar.
¹⁵ She rises while it is yet night
    and provides food for her household
    and portions for her maidens.
¹⁶ She considers a field and buys it;
    with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
¹⁷ She dresses herself with strength
    and makes her arms strong.
¹⁸ She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.
    Her lamp does not go out at night.
¹⁹ She puts her hands to the distaff,
    and her hands hold the spindle.
²⁰ She opens her hand to the poor
    and reaches out her hands to the needy.
²¹ She is not afraid of snow for her household,
    for all her household are clothed in scarlet.
²² She makes bed coverings for herself;
    her clothing is fine linen and purple.
²³ Her husband is known in the gates
    when he sits among the elders of the land.
²⁴ She makes linen garments and sells them;
    she delivers sashes to the merchant.
²⁵ Strength and dignity are her clothing,
    and she laughs at the time to come.
²⁶ She opens her mouth with wisdom,
    and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
²⁷ She looks well to the ways of her household
    and does not eat the bread of idleness.
²⁸ Her children rise up and call her blessed;
    her husband also, and he praises her:
²⁹ “Many women have done excellently,
    but you surpass them all.”
³⁰ Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
    but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
³¹ Give her of the fruit of her hands,
    and let her works praise her in the gates.

I challenge you to wear strength and dignity. To open your hands to the poor and needy. To speak with wisdom and teach the kindness of the Lord. To fear the Lord. As I write this I can see trumpets in my head, as a fanfare as we have completed the devotions I have written. I challenge you girls to start your own journey of becoming a young woman of faith!

A Journey of Becoming a Young Woman of Faith - #5 Homemaking

Colossians 3:23-24

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Unless you get something out of the deal we tend to slack on our daily duties and chores. We partially work on something or make it look like we did it all. When we do that we are nothing more than lazy homemakers. Sure our house may not be sparkling clean all the time but it should be kept nice. God placed us on Earth to be stewards of his land, of his world. When we take care of the things God gave us with laziness that shows others that we are indifferent with what He has blessed us with. For example: I see a bib on the floor. I can leave it there or pick it up. The bib is a gift from God for messy babies and toddlers. Leaving it shows others that we don't care about our blessings. Picking it up shows it is considered a blessing. The bib itself becomes another blessing as now we can use it.When you pick it up it can feel like work. And it is in a way. When we pick it up we are picking it up for the Lord. I am working for the Lord. Now this may be a slightly cheesy illustration but we do need to be working for the Lord. When others see that we care enough about our things to take care of them they will see a difference because we are working for the Lord. We should be doing this all the time and someday He will reward us. It may not be today and may not be tomorrow, but someday he will reward us. We are his servants and we should be bringing Glory to Him.

I challenge you to do something productive today, whether it be laundry or dishes or cleaning. Do it with a happy heart! You are working for the Lord of all creation, you are serving your family, you will lift the spirits of your family's hearts and cheer them with your sunny smile. Go, work, smile and know that all you do is for the Lord. 

Love

We are messy. Our hearts are messy, our lives are messy, our possessions can be, too.

But none of that matters. We have God.

He's too mighty, too powerful, too marvelous, too perfect, to understand or comprehend.

We are all messy. We all have messed up hearts, messed up lives, messed up motives, messed up love.

Our love is miniscule compared to God's. His is everlasting, ours is transient.

Jeremiah 31:3
"I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you."

The Lord who made the Heavens and the earth loves us??

And he continues his faithfulness to us??

We are nothing. He is everything. And we treat him as if it was the other way around. We treat others as if it was the other way around.

Our lives are fleeting on this earth. We are born, we live, we die. All within about a century.

In Sunday school we are going on a trip through the Bible to refresh our memories of what the Bible is all about.

My teacher was pointing out that in the beginning of Genesis in chapter 5 it talks about how long the person lived and then he died. Our lives are short.

So I want to challenge all of you.

1st Corinthians 13:4-8
 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it dies not rejoice at wrong doing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

In the next few weeks I'm going to be focusing on my family, prayer, and my relationship with God. I love my family, I love praying and learning more about God but I've been doing it wrong.

Romans 12:2
Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable and perfect.

I'm "breaking away" from the worlds ideas. I want to treat God, my family and friends as if they were Kings and Queens.

If God can show us everlasting love why can't I do the same?

It will be hard. It will be tough. I will want to give up, but the world needs to see God's love overflow in our lives as Christians.

So I challenge you: what ever you need to do to accomplish this, do it! If you need to limit computer, limit movies, limit alone time, what ever you need, do it!

Philippians 2:4
Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also the interests of others.

For me, I'm going to limit my online time to 2 hours a day for the next week. Unless I'm using it for school work or research, my time limit is going to be 2 hours. I'm going to take the extra time and start being there for my sisters, becoming a young woman that God desires me to be, spreading God's love, and being a servant to my friends and family. I'm also going to spend that time delving into God's word and praying.

Matthew 5:14
In the same way let your light shine before others so that the may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in Heaven.


Join me! :~)