This Is What Your Prayers Look Like

We pray for many things.  We pray for protection, help, strength, to grow closer to God, etc.  God hears all of our prayers and answers them.  We may not always get a yes to our requests.  We may get a no or even a not now.  Trials and tribulations are showing me that more often than not, God’s answers to our prayers may in fact be yes but they don’t manifest themselves in the way we think, want, or expect them too.  When that happens, we often go back to God and ask Him why He is allowing all of the mess to occur in our lives.  Granted, most mess can be self-inflicted but God will use self-inflicted mess to draw us closer to Him.

Laura Story wrote it best in her song Blessing (feel free to YouTube it).  Think on these words.

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we’d have faith to believe

‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It’s not our home

‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

ANSWER: Should A Man Legally Be Able To Stop A Woman From Aborting His Baby?

For answers, we go to the Word.

2 Timonthy 3:16 says All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

That being said, according to the Word, the physical manifestation of the sin began with fornication (reference 2 Samuel 12:1-15). That being said, consequences follow the sin even after repentance.  Consequences to sin are always more extensive than we would like to believe.

We would like to believe that a father has the right to stop the woman who is carrying his child from aborting the fetus (little one). However, because there is no marriage covenant in place, the father’s rights are very limited.  At best, the father can voice his desire to keep the child.  If the woman decides to abort the baby, he will have to mourn the loss.  There is no easy way out here.  Things are set in motion at conception.  There is no easy fix.  Once that pregnancy test strip has a plus sign, life is forever altered.

The Bible is very clear on fornication.  God wants to keep His sons from this heartache (Eph. 5:3, Col. 3:5).  The world would like nothing better than to see more and more men of God fall into this scenario and watch them suffer.  Don’t let it happen.

Should A Man Legally Be Able To Stop A Woman From Aborting His Baby?

This is what the world would consider a tough question.

What do you think?

Answer please!!!  A follow-up post will appear next week.

Post Holiday Blahs Part 1

A grade school teacher first introduced me to the post holiday blahs.  It was the first week of school of the new year and all of her students were tired.  She said we lived off of anticipation of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, having time off from school, getting presents, and spending time with loved ones that now that it has passed, we were running low on things to look forward too.

It being almost a week after Thanksgiving, the post holiday blahs have not hit us strongly yet.  There was Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Cyber week, and we still have Jesus’ birthday and New Year’s Day to celebrate.  However, for those of us who are still recovering from Thanksgiving, feeling a bit bummed that that time has past, here is a bit of humor to help ease the time. .

 

Forgiveness…To Be Repeated Over And Over

²¹ Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”  ²² Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”

- Matthew 18: 21-22

Why, just in this case, can’t once be enough?  Have you ever wondered that?

I had a occurrence last week that bothered me deeply.  If you would have asked how I was doing, I would have said I was fine.  I wasn’t even aware that I was bothered until today.  My thoughts had gotten so out of control.  I was telling folks off in my mind, coming up with quick quips and storing them in my mental filing cabinet in the just-in-case-I-have-to-check-this-fool file, plotting verbal revenge, and dusting off my stock piled cut-cards.  It took me five days to realize the root of the problem was unforgiveness.

My first thought was, “Lord!  I have to forgive so-and-so AGAIN!!!  I just forgave them last year!  I called and everything!  Wasn’t that enough?!?! How many times do I have to forgive this individual?”  God’s response was Matt. 18: 22.

My response was, “Ooooohhhhhhhh! REALLY?  Like for real though Lord?”  Followed by, “Lord, I am so sorry.  It didn’t even occur to me that all of this fighting I was doing in my head stemmed from unforgiveness.”  Then I forgave the individual and asked God to forgive me.

Let’s break this down.  Some people have behaviors that they are unwilling to change.  Those behaviors may cause you harm be it physically, mentally, or emotionally. Of all of the measures that may need to be taken to be removed from that harm, forgiveness must be one of them.  You MUST forgive that individual. (See Matthew 6:15, 18:35, Mark 11:26)

The first or initial forgiveness if you will, is not the end all be all action it may feel like it is when you do it. (Ex. I forgave you.  Now we’re done).  When you, for the very first time, really forgive someone for whatever harmful, hateful, mean, insert-any-negative-adjetive-here offense committed towards you, it is a HUGE step.  It is a freeing step.  It is a mature step.  It is a godly step because forgiveness is what God teaches.  HOWEVER, that first step does not mean you will not ever have to forgive that person of the very same thing again later.  Later could be hours, days, or even years from the time you forgave them initially.  That person may not ever change.  The second and subsequent forgivenesses may be just as painful as the first but IT IS STILL NECESSARY!  Why painful?  It is hard and I mean very hard to forgive someone when you and they know full well that they were the ones in the wrong and you were on the receiving end of that wrong.  Trust me.  I know.  HOWEVER, that does not mean that you don’t have to forgive them.  Forgiveness is up to the one who was wronged. Reconciliation is up to the person who committed the wrong.

Forgiveness, regardless of the number of times the offense has been committed towards you, will set you free.

Why Is Witnessing So Hard?

Have you ever stared in awe at evangelist?  (Evangelist is man-made label that generally refers to a person who is really good at witnessing to unsaved persons.)  I often stare at them in total admiration.  They are so bold with their mouth.  The will ask a person straight up if they know Jesus.  They don’t care where they are or where the conversation might turn in the process of witnessing to someone.  They are fearless!

Personally, I have no problem letting my light shine by my actions; participating or not participating, commenting versus keeping silent, etc.  It gets scary for me when I am called to witness with my mouth by boldly declaring the truth of Jesus.  It’s not that I don’t want to speak of our Lord or that I am ashamed.  I am scared that I won’t know what to say when I am faced with a question I can’t answer.

I don’t know about you but growing up, if you couldn’t come back with some quick retort then you lost the verbal fight.  That same stinking thinking comes up when I think about witnessing.  I start playing mental ping-pong about to speak or not to speak all because of fear of the unknown.

Here’s the truth.

In order to witness, the witnesser has to choose to grow in Christ.  In order to reach the lost, the follower of Christ must be wiling to dig deeper into the Word in their private time in order to have something to give to the lost. Study the truth to know the truth.  That is the best way to be equipped to spot and address untruths.

It’s not the physical act of witnessing that is hard.  It is the call to mature in Christ beyond your current point, past your comfort zone, that can be fearful.

Witness	Don’t witness
Decided to grow in Christ	Comfortable where they are
Study the Word	Sunday service is enough
Ask God for boldness and opportunites	Shies away from opportunities
Relies on God’s strength	Relies on their abliity
Fully confident in Christ	Confidence in Christ varies depending on the situation.

Let’s decide to witness shall we?

What’s My Motivation?

Hey y’all.  Can we just talk for a minute?  I have a question for you.  What makes you keep going?  What makes you get out of bed and come to church Sunday mornings?  What makes you come to Bible Study Wednesday evenings?  What makes you show up for rehearsal or your ministry meetings?  How do you do it?

What do you think about when you are getting ready to leave your house to attend a church function or another opportunity to be around God’s people?  What’s your motivation?

Personally, I can get so caught up in the mechanics of life that I find that I am not consciously aware of God’s presence in my life.  Life with God has become so normal that I am not consciously aware of my motivation.  For example, my thought process when I am preparing to leave for church on Sunday is making sure all the necessaries (brush teeth, do hair, go to the bathroom, put on deodorant and lotion) are done before I walk out the door.  I pause for a brief minute in the car before pulling off to pray and ask God to speak to me through the message and that I might be a blessing to others and then I drive like the devil to try to make it to church during praise and worship because I am already too late to try to get there on time.

So what makes us go?  What is our motivation?

Today I was reminded of 1 Corinthians 10:12 which says, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”  I don’t believe I am being too presumptuous in saying that none of us want to fall.  So, let’s help each other out shall we?  What’s our motivation?

Please post this blog on your Facebook pages, tweet and/or email it out to other sisters and brothers in Christ.  Please comment below.  Let’s help a brother/sister out.

It Rolls Downhill

Ever feel like this?  Where were you in this picture?  Personally, I can’t recall a time where I was sitting on or near the top but I can recall a few times when I’ve been on the bottom.  It’s not fun is it?

What this descriptive picture does not show is what happens in the homes of these birds.

“…he felt so powerless and out of control in one area that he wielded and inappropriate amount of power and control in another.” – Beth Moore

I can imagine a man in “the rest” category feeling overpowered at work coming home to be over-controlling toward his wife and children.  I can imagine someone in the “departments” category being not so loving toward their spouse that evening.  I can imagine a woman being overly controlling in her parenting when faced with financial decisions that leave her wanting for her own personal needs.  I can imagine a child treating his/her siblings terribly because he/she is bullied at school.

It’s called powerlessness.

When we harbor feelings of powerlessness, we are then susceptible to destructive behaviors.

Someone who has been hurt emotionally can develop certain behaviors to keep others away to help ensure that they will never ever feel powerless again.  You can insert any number of sad events or circumstances in the previous statement.  The result is the same.  What people fail to see is that the act of “it rolling downhill” doesn’t only effect those beneath you.  It affects you too.

Building a fence to keep unwanted things out also prevents wanted things from coming in.  I have a lock on the front door to keep out all those uninvited but it also keeps out people I have invited.  They only way invited guests can enter is if I unlock the front door.  In our attempt and focus to keep uninvited things out, some of us have forgotten how to unlock the front door to allow the invited guests in.  We have gotten so good at keeping people at bay that when we want people to come in, we don’t know how to let them in.

We have to let God architect our fences (locks).  Under his guidance, some fences have to be destroyed completely.  Not because the negative you are trying to keep out is the problem but the motive that was the guiding force to erecting the fence is wrong.  Remember, God looks at the heart. Your fences can look perfect and pristine but it doesn’t matter to God.  He looks at the foundation the fence is on.  Some fences need to be raised higher.  Some fences need to be secured.  Some new fences may need to be erected.  Whatever the case, rest assured, the fences are designed to keep the enemy out.  Some of our fences are keeping God out and that is the root of feeling powerless.

Let’s stop doing us and start doing God.  Let’s let God have control over the landscaping of our lives.  Let’s let Him be in charge of the maintenance of our hearts.  When we do that, even though people will still let it roll downhill on us, we don’t have to let it roll downhill from us.

Be blessed.

The Mundane

Life isn’t always rosy, fast-paced, deep, or exciting.  Sometimes, life can get just plain boring.  It can be repetitive, mundane, and make you feel listless. I feel like that right now.  My list of things to do is endless yet, my desire to do them has depleted.  I feel like doing anything would just be going through the motions and because I don’t want to go through the motions, I haven’t done anything I am supposed to do.  Have you ever felt like that?

I can’t really pinpoint an answer to how to get out of feeling this way.  I can offer you this.  Fight on.  There is a song entitle Fight On that speaks to me each and every time I hear it.  Take a listen.  The link is below.  Fight On!

“Off” “Day”

At some point in our Christian walk, we are introduced to “off” days.  I am not referring to having an abnormal day; a day were you are not on point for whatever reason.  No.  I have referring to willfully having an “off” day.  The “day” you choose or set aside to act a fool.  The “day” you choose or set aside to live like the world.  The “day” you choose or set aside to say, whether you realize it or not, “Forget you Lord!  I am doing what I want.” It’s the “day” you hit some weed, go clubbing, reach for that cigar and some Remi, or reach for the phone and make that booty call.

This “day” can start off innocently enough.  It could be a cookout at the end of the week, dinner with friends, or a local event you are attending.  You are excited about going.  In the days preceding said event, you experience a couple of hard days in your Christian walk.  Now said event is more than just an event.  It is an opportunity to let your hair down.  However, the closer you get to said event, the harder being a Christian becomes for you.  You have had enough of being peaceful, kind, loving, patient, and the rest of those fruits of the Spirit; so much so that you have decided that  said event is an “off” day for you.

“Off” = Tired of being a Christian and want to act like the world.

“Day” = Period of time we originally set out to act a fool (but it always last for more than a day).

There are no “off days” if you are really a follower of Christ.  When you feel like you want out, or want a minute to breath, or are exasperated with walking the straight and narrow, here a a few suggestions.

1. Fall on your knees and tell God all about it.  You can’t surprise Him.  He wants to hear your emotions…all of them…even the raw ones.

2. Get with some other followers of Christ.  Call a brother or a sister (a mature brother or sister) in Christ and hang out with them.  Real saints don’t mind those calls.  In fact, they look forward to them.

Decide today that you will have no more “off days”.