When U Pray

Grief: deep sadness caused especially by someone’s death

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18  “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.  According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.

In the death of a loved one we often look back at our relationship with them and begin to experience a wide range of emotions. We often begin to feel guilty of words said and unsaid, promises unkept, anger that has been unforgiven and any other ways we can find to beat ourselves up.

We tend to forget that death is part of the process of living.
Ecclesiastes 3:2 – A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up [that which is] planted;

So I encourage you to remember what God said.

1 Peter 5:6-7  “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.  Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

Psalm 23:4  “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

Psalm 73:26  “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Isaiah 41:10  “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Psalm 18:28  “You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.”

Psalm 46:1-2  “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.”

Revelation 21:4  “ ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Amen

Have you ever felt hopeless, lost, confused and discouraged? Yeah it happens to us all at times. Don’t start questioning your love for Christ when this happens, We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him. These are the people God chose, because that was his plan. (Romans 8:28 ERV)
Everything serves a purpose, even your discouragement. Think about when you call your friend, spiritual sister, prayer partner and the like, they hear that your down in the dumps, they feel your discouragement. Boom, you just activated their faith and called forth the Holy Spirit in their life to minister to you. You never know if the words God sent to them for you is also ministering to them and the other people who know what your going through, they see you get lifted by the word of God and boom someone else decides to trust him. See how that goes?
Our God is an amazing God, he reigns in love and power.

I challenge you that the next time life sends rain and thunder, dance in the rain, praise him anyhow. Be lifted up by the words of Jesus, be lifted by the promises of God!

Jas 5:16…….. “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”

1Jn 5:14…….. “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”

Josh 1:9………… “Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed,
for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

I could go on and on but I think you get the picture!

My soul gave up all hope, but then I remembered the Lord. I prayed to you, and you heard my prayers in your holy Temple. (Jonah 2:7 ERV)

Ephesians 3:18-21 ERV

And I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide, how long, how high, and how deep that love is. Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with everything God has for you.   With God’s power working in us, he can do much, much more than anything we can ask or think of. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever. Amen.

There are defining times in your life that either help you get closer to God or that pushes you further away. Watching the transition between life and death has a way of being one of those moments.  When you watch the wonder of God’s glory in the body you realize he created all things to work together even in the body.  As I watch my mother in law fight for every breathe I think about the breathes we waste arguing about insignificant things.  I am reminded how many days I was mad, angry, bitter and judgemental with my own mother  who left here 11 years ago. I would give some of my breathes back to be able to hear her tell me she loves me, for her to ask me for a sprite and some lays potato chips. I would love for her to tell me she wanted a rally burger but the way this life is set up! Yeah you don’t get a second chance so take the time,  tell your mom and dad how much you love them. Hug your children, be mindful of your friends and family.
Christ died for us to have life more abundantly, but you have to accept him to get it. Tell somebody today how much God loves them, how he changed you and then pray for them sincerely. Remember that the trials they are going through are designed to help them. Support them in love, trust that God’s plan will be fulfilled in spite of what their situation looks like to you. I love you on purpose with Purpose.

There is a right time for everything, and everything on earth will happen at the right time. (‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬ ERV)

There are times you go through things in life wondering “why me”? Why am I going through this thing..every one has something different yet equally important that brings change to their life.

It seems to me that there are times in the quiet of our spirit where God whispers his direction. Some people are very good at hearing this word and acting on it. Others of us are so consumed by the noise in our lives that we don’t hear that quiet voice leading us and we keep going down that path we were directed to three years or three months ago. Now, we love to quote “What God has for me is for me!” We love to remind people of that simple truth when we don’t get something We Thought was ours, it implies that if it was from God it would be ours without having to do much at all. Well that might be true in more ways than one.
God speaks to us for direction and growth, his word tells us that there is a time in our life when will experience the fullness of living. Listen for God to direct your life but never forget that you must experience each season in your life to its fullness.

There is a time to be born and a time to die. There is a time to plant and a time to pull up plants. There is a time to kill and a time to heal. There is a time to destroy and a time to build. There is a time to cry and a time to laugh. There is a time to be sad and a time to dance with joy. There is a time to throw weapons down and a time to pick them up. There is a time to hug someone and a time to stop holding so tightly. There is a time to look for something and a time to consider it lost. There is a time to keep things and a time to throw things away. There is a time to tear cloth and a time to sew it. There is a time to be silent and a time to speak. There is a time to love and a time to hate. There is a time for war and a time for peace. (‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭3‬:‭2-8‬ ERV)

And this is WHY, things happen to you! But trust this thing:

God gave us the ability to think about his world, but we can never completely understand everything he does. And yet, he does everything at just the right time. (‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭3‬:‭11‬ ERV)

I love your word. Time and again it has been proven true. (‭Psalms‬ ‭119‬:‭140‬ ERV)

a·men
äˈmen,āˈmen/
exclamation
1.
uttered at the end of a prayer or hymn, meaning ‘so be it.’
“Amen” is a Hebrew word that stems from the word aman, which means “to be faithful, support, or confirm.” The word “amen” actually means, “so be it,” or “truly.”

Therefore, when we end our prayers with “amen,” we are re-affirming our dedication to God through Jesus Christ. We also use it to confirm a statement (i.e., when the pastor says something powerful out of the Word of God, and members of the congregation say “Amen”).

Take the steps to understand who and what you agree to. I was thinking about how often we say “Amen” to people and about what they are saying. Are you really standing in agreement with what they are saying? For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” (‭Matthew‬ ‭18‬:‭20‬ NKJV)

Are you allowing their thoughts and ideas to be bound in heaven? And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (‭Matthew‬ ‭16‬:‭19‬ NKJV)

I ask each of you to be stingy with your Amen, remember you are agreeing to this, your agreement on earth causes a reaction in Heaven because you are infused with the blood of the Lamb!

I love this. Make memories with your children. Being a parent is so pivotal to growth. This brought tears to my eyes.

The other day I was so frustrated with my prayer that I did not know what to do. I sat down to pray and no words would come, of course that made me even more frustrated. I was thinking about my problems, my cares and my concerns, and not the problem solver. I had lost track of my responsibility
for the blink of an eye. I know that concentrating on the problem feeds the negative and I needed to stop the cycle of feeding the monster. Fear, doubt, frustration, anger, envy, strife, crazy people, family problems, personal problems, other people problems, lack of self esteem, all monsters.

I sat down and asked myself, what did God say about prayer? He answered:

“Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray: 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 forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. (‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭8-13‬ NKJV)

This whole prayer speaks of Trusting Him. Left him handle this “Thing” for you, whatever it is he has said he knows what you have need of. His will be done! Hallelujah

The devil thought he had me best because my head was down, but he realized his error when I lifted my head and said “Amen”

The Lord All-Powerful says, “Try this test. Bring one-tenth of your things to me. Put them in the treasury. Bring food to my house. Test me! If you do these things, I will surely bless you. Good things will come to you like rain falling from the sky. You will have more than enough of everything. (‭Malachi‬ ‭3‬:‭10‬ ERV)

This speaks of relationship!
You are good and do what is right. I trust you to protect me. (‭Psalms‬ ‭25‬:‭21‬ ERV)
If you don’t believe that with all your heart you won’t tithe. Tithing happens when you trust that God will take care of you. The world would have you believe that as soon as you accept Jesus your life gets exponentially better, that all your problems go away and you will automatically trust In Jesus for all things. That is a fairy tale that sounds good on paper but the reality is we learn to trust God over time. As we struggle through situations we learn to trust God, but it takes time to build that relationship. Any relationship worth having is worth working for. You have to build your relationship with God by studying his word, understanding how the word applies to your life in this time. You learn to trust him by attending church and bible study and being encouraged by fellow believers. It’s important that the people in your circle encourage you and help you understand when you are confused or scared or lonely.
Most people use this scripture:
“People should not steal things from God, but you stole things from me. “You say, ‘What did we steal from you?’ “You should have given me one-tenth of your things. You should have given me special gifts. (‭Malachi‬ ‭3‬:‭8‬ ERV)
And they stop! Really God is saying learn to trust me, trust my word, test me if you like so you can see that I will do what I said I would do.
With God’s power working in us, he can do much, much more than anything we can ask or think of. (‭Ephesians‬ ‭3‬:‭20‬ ERV)

Humans have control over every kind of wild animal, bird, reptile, and fish, and they have controlled all these things. But no one can control the tongue. It is wild and evil, full of deadly poison. We use our tongues to praise our Lord and Father, but then we curse people who were created in God’s likeness. These praises and curses come from the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, this should not happen. Do good water and bad water flow from the same spring? Of course not. (‭James‬ ‭3‬:‭7-11‬ ERV)

How many times has this scripture been misquoted I wonder? I am so amazed by God and how he reveals himself to me. Just recently I posted about words and my struggle with cursing and this scripture came to mind as I asked God for forgiveness. This morning as I read it I realized, God is telling me don’t use the same mouth to worship him and then curse others for what they do. Hangs head in shame. I’m worried about a curse word and unbothered about judging people for the way they sin differently.
All have sinned and are not good enough to share God’s divine greatness. They are made right with God by his grace. This is a free gift. They are made right with God by being made free from sin through Jesus Christ. (‭Romans‬ ‭3‬:‭23-24‬ ERV)l
Your love must be real. Hate what is evil. Do only what is good. Love each other in a way that makes you feel close like brothers and sisters. And give each other more honor than you give yourself. (‭Romans‬ ‭12‬:‭9-10‬ ERV)

What I’m understanding is love each other for real. Be understanding and patient as our brothers and sisters struggle through. If you’ve gotten IT, and your perfect praise God, but all of us are not there yet, but that does not mean we don’t love God and aren’t willing to serve him. It means we are serving through our pain and sin, we are trusting that there is light even though we are still in darkness. It means we are trusting that there is hope even when we feel hopeless. So no condemnation …
So now anyone who is in Christ Jesus is not judged guilty. That is because in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit that brings life made you free. It made you free from the law that brings sin and death. The law was without power because it was made weak by our sinful selves. But God did what the law could not do: He sent his own Son to earth with the same human life that everyone else uses for sin. God sent him to be an offering to pay for sin. So God used a human life to destroy sin. He did this so that we could be right just as the law said we must be. Now we don’t live following our sinful selves. We live following the Spirit. (‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭1-4‬ ERV)

(more…)

I was praying the other day or maybe it’s more like my morning discussion with The Lord. I was concerned because I still swear, not all the time and in every sentence but hey, I do. I was telling him how it bothered me and I was asking for him to remove it. In my mind I was wondering why he hadn’t yet. His spirit came over me and reminded me that there was so much more that he had to repair, restore, renew and refresh that a few cuss words were the least of my worries. I almost cried right there at the ironing board (cause we communicate wherever). His spirit revealed that he created All Words and that society had deemed some words to be inappropriate. People are always changing what is/isn’t a curse word. God said this “You must not curse God or the leaders of your people. (‭Exodus‬ ‭22‬:‭28‬ ERV)

I’m not saying it’s appropriate to use socially unacceptable words but I am saying look past the thing you consider to be bad in a person and remember he is still working on us!

True love is God’s love for us, not our love for God. He sent his Son as the way to take away our sins. (‭1 John‬ ‭4‬:‭10‬ ERV)

“Come to me all of you who are tired from the heavy burden you have been forced to carry. I will give you rest. Accept my teaching. Learn from me. I am gentle and humble in spirit. And you will be able to get some rest. Yes, the teaching that I ask you to accept is easy. The load I give you to carry is light.” (‭Matthew‬ ‭11‬:‭28-30‬ ERV)

Are you tired of the things in your life that are not going right? Are you tired of trying to make a way and it seems like the trials never end. Are you tired of bring a single mom and having to do it all yourself with minimal to no help? Are you tired of being a single mom while married, man in the house ignoring his God given position? Are you just tired? Tired of things at work not going well? Tired if the dog/cat needing as much attention as your kids. Are you tired of health issues? Well there is hope. Jesus promised to give you rest if you are ready.

When you are truly tired of it all you can bend your knees, now your head and give it to Jesus. His word says he will and his word can’t return to him without doing it’s intended purpose. I know how frustrating life can be, I’m living it too and it’s not always easy. I keep trusting God just a little bit, you know you pray about it, then you worry about it.

I’m renewing my promise to myself, my promise to trust God in all things, my promise to read the word and let it get down in my soul to give me the courage to face each and every challenge with grace and perseverance. Hallelujah
Even though I have troubles and hard times, your commands give me joy. (‭Psalms‬ ‭119‬:‭143‬ ERV)
For we walk by faith, not by sight. (‭II Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭7‬ NKJV)
Think about what I am saying. The Lord will help you understand it all. (‭2 Timothy‬ ‭2‬:‭7‬ ERV)