Another day; Another rose!

   

Reading John 2 and Lamentation 3:21 this morning!  Here is my prayer....

Lord Jesus, I love the story of the Wedding Feast at Cana!  It was a new beginning for You because it was your first public miracle!  I remember Jack Taylor laying it out like this:  1.  The need was great;  2.  The supply was exhausted;   3. The people did what You said to do;  4.  They found that You had saved the best to last!  This is the story of my life.  At 75, I can say I am enjoying the best that was saved for me at the last!

Upon arising this morning, I started thinking about New Beginnings and my mind turned to Lamentations 3:21 where your mercies are new every morning!  I can only cry out, THANK YOU! for this mercy which has been new every morning of my life!  I thank you for your personal word to me recently. "You will never outgrow your need for grace!"   NEVER!

Grace is when we get something we don't deserve, like when You left heaven and

came to earth to make a way for us to be in right relationship with Father

through Your sacrifice for us on the cross.  Mercy is when we don't get

something we do deserve.  I deserved to die for my sins!  But as great as my

need was and is for Your grace and mercy, and as exhausted as my own supplies

are, that's how great Your love, grace, and mercy were and are to me everyday!

LORD, help me to walk in that love today!  Make me conscious of how loved I am

by You with every step I take.  Help me to remember the lesson of the wedding

feast and to look to You each time I feel exhausted by the constant needs which

are presented every day all day long!  When I fail to be all I could be, help me

to remember Your mercies will be new again tomorrow as every day!  And help me

to share this with someone else who needs to be reminded today!

Do you need a new beginning today?  Bring your need to Jesus and give it to Him.

Let's trust Him in His ability to meet that need beyond our wildest expectations!  

Remembering the Lenten Roses blooming at the side of my house tucked up under 

the Lorapedlum bushes, I recall that they are symbols of Your promise to us that 

You can make things new today and every day even after a long hard winter.  

Lord, help us all to think on and walk in that today!  

A NEW BEGINNING 3/30/2014

The Lenten Rose 

This Lenten Rose is blooming in my back yard today!  Isn't it beautiful?  Experts in flower symbolism say it is representative of this season of the year when the dead of winter is flowering into the newness of another season - Spring, and Lent!

According to James Farmer, it is "as with the season of Lent itself - a wintry season of contemplation, spiritual focus, and petition, these symbols of new life out of the deathlike state of winter are emblems of the newness of spring, rebirth, and rejuvenation."

There is so much there in that quote!  It resonates with my spirit this morning when I feel a new season coming to my own life, physical as well as Spiritual!  I have been seeking the Lord in recent days, asking Him how He would have me to best use the rest of my days.  I think that I am hearing that writing and the enjoyment of my recently developed hobby of art is a part of His plan for my life.  As with all impressions, we will see how this walks out in my actual life!  Direction without obedience is useless, so where do I begin?

For today, I feel impressed to begin again with the current means of communicating with the world at large called THE BLOG!  So, here I go and I hope you will follow along with me. Let me ask you this question..... Have you been seeking the Lord for direction?  What are you hearing?  What are you doing about it?  I ask for your prayers for me as I pursue what I think is direction from Him and I pray for you that you will have all that you need from Him to follow Him at all costs.   As the Word of God says in 1 Samuel, "Obedience is better than sacrifice."

 2 Corinthians 5: 9 - 15  "Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him...15. for He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again."

May the blessings of the Lord God flood your life as you move in the direction of His leading!

More Answers to Prayer

This will be a very brief post.  We have a birthday in our family this week and we are big into celebrating the birthdays of our family members.  Tomorrow is Nate's birthday.  He will be 13!  We have some awesome plans which I cannot divulge because he is such a sleuth that it would not surprise me to hear he has been reading my blog to see if he can discover what they are.  He will not find the answers here.  Sorry, Nate!

We are so excited about each and every one of our family members.  We all keep tabs on each other and most of the time know something of what is going on with the others.  We have five children who each have two children as well as a couple of step children in there and several of them have had children.  In fact, I just heard that one of the young women in our family is in the hospital as we speak in labor with her first child.  I always say that the birth of a child into our family is a sign that God is not finished with us yet!  We even pray for the unborn ones that we may never see!

We also pray diligently for each other.  So there is a good bit of prayer going up tonite for the expected arrival.  We have been praying for all the months that we have known that this baby has been being knit together in his mother's womb.  We continue to pray throughout the lives of each of our loved ones.

My oldest daughter and I sought the Lord for some promises for our family several years ago.  He gave us Jeremiah 29 through 31.  One of those verses of scripture says that he will bring our children "up and out."  Over the years since we have been praying in this promise we have seen marvelous things happen.  One member was in an abusive marriage for many years.  We watched the Lord bring her up and out after many, many painful years.  We watched as He has been putting her life back together, physically, mentally, emotionally as well as Spiritually.  Today I heard that her 16 year old daughter got saved at a funeral this past week.  We serve a God who can bring eternal life out of the death of one of his saints.

Oh, yes!  We got the first week's work done on the booklet and it was introduced at a Sunday night life group last night.  Another group wants to use the material starting next Monday night.  I had amazing grace to write and get it all done on time.  It was such a gift of God to have someone request to use it and give me that motivation to prepare the study guide to go with it.  HE IS SO GREAT!  Thank you, Father!

Well, I'll be back after the birthday.  Meantime, keep praying!  I will be praying for you!  My prayer for you is that the Son will be shining into your life and the lives of your loved ones, that He will hunt them down, never letting them out of His sight for a moment and bring them "up and out".  Many blessings today and every day!  And thanks again for your prayers for me.

Here Are Some Answers to Prayer

Good morning my praying friends!  Thank you for your prayers for me.  Andrew Murray's scripture this morning is from Mark 11:23, 24.  "have faith in God.  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain. Be removed, and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he asks.  Therefore, I say to you, Whatever things you ask for when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."  Just wanted to bless you today with the fruit of your labor.  Here are some ways the Lord has answered your prayers for me this past week.

First, I would like to tell you that I could feel your prayers.  This blog has ten followers and I have no way of knowing how many of you stopped and prayed for me, but if even one person is praying for you or with you there is the sense of increased power.  I have a dear friend who battled Lymphoma a few years back.  She is a tenderhearted person and I was concerned about how she would get through it.  She did better than those of us who loved her and prayed faithfully out of that love.  She got the grace but we got the blessing of being able to see her win that battle and live to see her first grandchild born and is looking forward to watching her grow up!

The first result of the prayer for me was that it seemed like a mountain had been moved that stood in the way of connection with the Spirit of God for me be in touch with Him and to share what I learn.  I know by now it is God's will for me to write and so it was hard for me to understand why it did not come easy.  Because anything that is of God has an enemy and will be opposed from that force.  While he has power, he is not omnipotent and scripture tells us he has been defeated by Jesus at the cross and, therefore, we can overcome him too, by our prayers.  So, thank you for your believing prayers.

The second answer came in the form of my husband's support.  Now, I always have that, but somehow we both understood the importance of pushing past the obstacles and finding a way.  We cleaned out a spare room in our home and made a study where I can go and get alone with God and then share what He has given me to write about.  I wish you could see it!  I wish you could feel it!  Peaceful and quiet!   I am sitting right now in a brand new office chair at a table equipped with everything I need to do this.  The obstacle of time and space overcome!  Thank you, Jesus and Darryll!

The next thing that happened was astounding!  When I shared the request for prayer I had also sent some of the material, (the Heart to Heart booklet) I have been working on to a few editor type friends requesting their feedback.  Not only did I get that, but one of them asked permission to use it in a group right away.  MOTIVATION!  Who doesn't need that by the bucketfuls?  Well, I do!  And I got it!  Since then, we have made some really good progress with participant guidelines and the study will begin this Sunday evening.  So, please be praying for this pilot group of people who will have the opportunity to learn how to have a heart to heart talk with the Lord.

There's more!  but for today that is enough for you to know that God is answering our prayers.  I am continuing to pray for you and I would love to know how He is moving in your lives, because I know He is without a doubt.  I will keep you posted on the progress of the group as I get feedback.  My prayer today is for us to feel the warmth of the Son of God shining His light brilliantly on the answers in our life so we can rejoice in them.  As one friend of mine says, if you do not see it today, watch for it tomorrow, because it is on its way!  It may be waiting for one more prayer for it to be released!

What About Unanswered Prayers

Good morning again, my blogger friends!  It is an absolutely gorgeous morning here in the mountains of Western North Carolina!  My favorite kind of day!  The sun is shining outside and the SON is shining on the inside of my heart!  Now, I enjoy the snow as I blogged recently, and I even enjoy a good old rainy day once in awhile, but my very favorite is a beautiful sunshiny day where it is warm enough to be outside without too much in the way of jackets, hats, scarves and gloves.  Today promises to be that kind of day so I am moving quickly to be able to get out there and enjoy it.

Yesterday the blog was about praying for each other.  I am so convinced that the majority of problems we deal with could be dealt with in prayer that I could blog from now on just about prayer.  I believe that most of  you believe in prayer too, but, having been a counselor for so long, I know unanswered prayer is one that really keeps people from praying.  Sometimes prayer doesn’t seem to get an answer and the conclusions we reach range from there is something wrong with me to there may not be any God at all.  Or, at least, not one who cares about me.

There are many reasons why our prayers may not get the result we are looking for and many books have already been written about this topic so I will not attempt to wax eloquent today about it myself.  One of my favorite authors on the subject is Andrew Murray.  Right now I am using one of his books “The Best of Andrew Murray on Prayer” as my daily reading.  I would highly recommend any of his works.

Murray says one reason we give up is that we mistake delay for no when the virtue of persistence is needed in our character.  There are many other mistakes that can be made when we begin to pray, but the worst is to believe the lie from our enemy that God does not care and He does not have our best interest at heart.  Again, I could go on and on about the difficulties, but I would like today just to reiterate something I am sure I have already said somewhere along the way.

Jesus said “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”   (John 15:7)  And in another place, “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” (1John 5:14, 15)  So, here we have some of the conditions necessary for answered prayer.  One is quite clear!  if we know what God has said in His Word and pray in line with that we are standing on His promises.

Yesterday’s blog was centered around a prayer that I put together from God’s Word that we can pray for each other.  We can know it is God’s will because it is what He said He wanted for us as His children.  When we agree with Him it sets heavenly forces in motion to bring it to pass.  While we may not understand how that happens, we can believe that it is happening, no matter what we see or don’t see.

I believe that one reason we don’t see more evidence of answered prayer is because many of us give up out of discouragement.  Another favorite speaker of mine says there are really NO UNANSWERED PRAYERS but only abandoned prayers.  Today I pray that the Son of God will be shining brightly into our hearts to release the gifts of faith we need to keep praying.  Please keep praying for me; I will keep praying for you!  And that's a promise!

Praying in the Will of God

When people ask you to pray for them as I have you, do you wonder how to pray in the will of God so you know your prayer is heard and therefore answered?    Here is a prayer I wrote from the Word of God to pray for the people I love.  I share it with you only as a guideline or an example.  I would greatly appreciate knowing that someone was praying this Biblical prayer for me and I pray it now for all of you who are reading this today.

Prayer for My People                  written on February 12, 2013                                                                            

Lord, my Adonai, I bow my knees to You this morning asking that You will take us to your secret place and teach us to dwell there with You under Your shadow!  What a picture!  If we are in the shadow of something then we’re about as close as we can physically get but from that place we can go further in the Spirit!  From that position, we can trust in You, that You will be our refuge and our strength!  Such secret place dwellers will be able to remain stable and fixed even when all the world around us is in a tizzy!  We all need that desperately!  (Psalm 91:1.2)

Jesus, you said if we would abide in You and Your words would abide in us that we could ask whatever was within your will and know that you would hear us and that we would have that for which we asked.  Teach us to abide in You, to settle down and be at home in You as the True Vine and the only One to Whom we can dare to be so fully attached.  But, Lord Jesus, help us to remember that it is only from that position that we can do anything.  Make it crystal clear that anything we attempt to do from any other position, even our very best, will only be wood, hay and stubble.  Lord, we truly want gold, silver, and precious stones to present to you someday. (John 15:4,5; 1 Corinthians 3:12)

Dear Father, great and mighty Source of all, grant to us according to Your riches to be strengthened with might through faith like Paul prayed for His people and Your people!  And, Lord, we ask that You also grant that we be rooted and grounded in Your love and be able to comprehend the mighty parameters of that love which You expressed through the death of Jesus Christ and which surpasses all knowledge.  Also, Holy Spirit, we desperately need to be filled with all the fullness of Yourself and delivered from the unhealthy preoccupation we often have with ourselves and others.  We acknowledge that You are the only One Who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we can ask or think, according to the power which works in us – that same power which raised Jesus from the grave.  Only You are the source of that life-giving resurrection power that we all need so much.  (Ephesians 3:14-21) 

Now, to You be glory to all generations meaning I am praying not only for those of us who will read and pray this prayer for each other, but for all of those with whom we will share our journey.   That’s how Jesus prayed in John 17.  So, Lord, we can know that what we are asking is according to Your will, right straight out of Your Word.  So now also please give us gifts of faith to believe and receive the answer.  Truly, may your will be done and Your kingdom come on earth, right here wherever we are today, in our lives and the lives of our loved ones, as it is already being done in heaven.  AMEN! (1 John 5:14,15)  This is my prayer for my people and your people today!  Please pray this as often as you have opportunity for all of us!

Scriptures:  Psalm 91:1 ,2;  John 15:4,5; Ephesians 3:14-21; 1 John 5:14, 15; John 17

Suggestion:  print this off and stick it in your Bible or post on your bulletin board or fridge and as often as you see it just say Amen!

I pray that the Son of God will shine brightly into our world today to fill it with His presence and that we will be paying attention in a way that will allow Him to then shine through us and touch the lives and hearts of all others around us who are so desperately longing to see hope in the world again.  Above all, keep praying because He is listening for the sound of our voices!

Returning to Our First Love

 Guess what?  It is snowing again!  I could not help but think that the Lord so enjoyed my blog about the peace of the snow, He just decided to “do it again!”  That’s some real grandiosity, I know, but I have come to believe that my God really does know me that well and cares about every little thing in my life.  Scripture says He knows how many hairs are on our heads. (Matthew 10:30)

Have you ever tickled a little one and had them giggle with delight saying “Do again, Momma, do again?”  I bet every one of us has a sweet memory of that tucked somewhere in the back of our minds or hearts.

Recently, I have been asking my Lord to “do again” in my heart the work that He did in the beginning.  What I have heard is for me to “do again” the things that I did in the beginning.  That’s what Jesus told the church at Ephesus who had “left their first love”.  He instructed them to “remember” and “repent”.  (Rev. 2:4 ,5) 

I have repented of not paying the attention to the Lord that I did in the beginning of our love relationship.  Oh, it’s not that I had stopped reading my Bible, praying or otherwise going through the motions because I have continued to do those things.  But, when I “remembered” how it had been at times in the past, I know that in my busyness somehow He slipped out of first place in my life.  And by this I mean Him, relating to the Lord Himself personally!

Sometimes we do this to people that we love too.  We don’t mean to do it and it is so subtle that we almost miss it.  But we stop paying attention in that way that means so much to the recipient.  Oh, we are still around; we are still talking and doing things together, but that intense interest has waned, and at the same time the fire and passion of the love is being diminished like embers dying in an unattended fireplace.

Well, you may be saying that happens to everybody as time goes by and you would be right, but my question is does it have to be that way?  My answer is no!   Not with the humans around us and not with the Lord!  As we turn again and do the things we did at the beginning, it can be like blowing gently on those coals which are dying.  They will begin to glow again and can even burst into flame pretty quickly!

Do you have a relationship that needs some new life breathed into it?  Stop and ask yourself what you did at the beginning and do it!  I have found this to be amazing as I have chosen to spend time with the Lord Himself over all other things, just sitting and paying attention to Him telling Him how much I love Him and how I missed Him.  

This is very different than just saying we are sorry.  It is not just asking forgiveness for my inattentiveness, but actually “doing again” the acts of love I did at the beginning.  He comes to be with me and lets me know that He missed me too.  May I encourage you to breathe some life into your relationships today!  It will be one of the most rewarding things you will ever do! 

 I pray that the Son of God will be shining brightly into your heart today warming it and blowing His breath on the dying embers of any relationship that needs new life!