Praying in Faith

If you pray with the intention of listening and really hearing from God, you will get your answer. The key, I've learned, is to not play around with your own desires or force your will. Instead, trust, trust, trust, and God will give you the very best answer for what He knows you need, and for what He is wanting to accomplish in your life!

Charles Spurgeon says this:

"Every prayer of the Christian, whether for temporal or spiritual blessings, will be fully answered if it meets certain biblical requirements. It must be prayed in faith and in accordance with God's will. It must rely on God's promise, be offered up in the name of Jesus Christ, and be prayed under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Delayed answers to prayer are not only trials of faith, they also give us opportunities to honor God through our steadfast confidence in Him, even when facing the apparent denial of our request."

The idea of praying under the influence of the Holy Spirit takes so much pressure off!

Mommy-ing

Many women struggle with being mothers, or in some cases, step-mothers like me!The great joys of parenting can be hindered by harsh self-doubt and a chronic lack of physical and emotional energy. In Mommy Power, Sheila Schuller Coleman helps women understand that while they really don't have the power or strength to handle the demands of motherhood alone, they don't have to. "Mommy strength," comes from asking God to lend some of His, knowing He will never fail to provide...Ahh, that is good news! God will enable anyone who asks, to become a powerful mother who loves strong, forgives strong, and models a strong faith." In this photo, I am enjoying my step-daughters on my birthday, all three are incredible gifts to me. They have taught me so much about myself. They are like three little mirrors that don't let me get away with one wrinkle! I love being a mother, and I've learned to not pay too much attention to the 'step' part of it. Not because I'm pretending that I've given birth to these gorgeous kids, but because when you truly 'mother' a child, the labels that try to define you have little or no significance.

The Fragrance of Pain

Pain is a universal issue no doubt, but when we breathe it, feel it, and view it through God's eyes, something different surfaces in the heart of the true believer. The one who earnestly follows after God's own heart soon leaves his/her heart behind and chases after the new one found in Christ. Thus the new fragrance of a healed heart is born out of reverance, obedience, trust, and a surrendered life.

Awake north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that it's fragrance may spread abroad. (Song of Songs 4:16)

 

Beautifully Broken

They don’t seem to go together at all, but there truly is something beautiful about a broken person. There is a quiet spot in their eyes that is reserved for just the right visitor. And when that visitor shows up…watch out, the red carpet is going to roll.
“Then what happens,” you say? You get a personal invitation to an Oscar-winning premier, located in the heart of a warrior that boasts Christ as the star. That’s what I like to refer to as the real stuff, the real deal. It’s the finely tuned word, spoken in the spirit of truth from the caverns of despair, that exposes the power of God and validates the cross. No charades, no pitiful attempts to make the gravest sin look like anything less than what it really is, sin. It’s the 'ashes to beauty' kind of rubble that is really difficult to excavate from an un-broken soul. You more or less have to break in, to even get a faint whiff of it in that person. You may also need a bulldozer to help you dig past the mounds of ‘cover-up’ that typically exists in the mannequin, who you would absolutely swear has it all together. In my humble opinion, what that person needs is not a window to display his/her carefully decorated outer beauty. But instead, a serious God hammer to the heart to invade its hypocrisy, suffering beyond what they think they can handle (to begin to see and trust God,) and finally the humility to accept all three intrusions, to at last decimate the well constructed enclosure that confines them to their lifeless existence.
Yes, I would concur that I am being quite harsh and judgmental even, but I beckon you to trust that my insight is justified. I have been the ’despicable me’ described in this tale that has lived to tell the story. I’m still finding slivers of glass here and there on and around me, but by a close encounter with God’s grace, I’ve made it out. Albeit, not without a huge crash and a bit of a bloody mess, but I’ve made it out. Hallelujah! So I speak of me, maybe you? But definitely with love and compassion, and a huge heart for fools like me that have fallen hard, repented, accepted wisdom’s courting and eventually received God’s amazing grace.
God is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2,) and oh what a beautiful job he does of breaking us in two to hopefully make us won.

Dear Daphne

Dear Daphne,
There you were in the middle of the road, and the worst day I'm certain you'd ever had. I saw in the sweetness of your face a deep fear, a look that said to anyone willing to take note, "please help me."
And so, I did. I helped you out of the road, I helped you to a cup of water, and finally I helped you into my car. You were terribly over-heated and out of breath and you didn't say a word, yet you said all I needed to know. You were alone, you were afraid, and you needed a friend.

Dear Daphne, we have a lot in common. I was alone, afraid and I needed a friend too. That friend met me in the middle of my scary road, on one of the worst days of my life and He changed it forever. He gave me water...the living kind, His name is Jesus. You remind me of Him every day that I try to find the perfect home for you. You are my gift, my daily reminder of MY Savior. I love you Daphne. Your Friend, Robin