A Prayer for San Bernardino

Lord Jesus,

My heart is so saddened by the events in San Bernardino. Lives have been lost and people have been hurt. Such hatred has filled our nation. I lift up the victims and their families to you. I pray that your peace and comfort will flood them as they prepare to say good-bye. I pray for healing to the injured, physically, mentally, and emotionally. I pray that as a whole we begin to look at life differently. Our nation is so lost and far from You. The media is telling lies that our prayers aren’t good enough, that You aren’t good enough to fix this. My heart is breaking that our nation has turned its back on You. Lord Jesus, You are good and just. Our fight isn’t with this world but with the ruler of this world. The enemy has so deeply implanted himself into our hearts and our minds. He is waging a war against us! I pray as a body of believers that we rise up and take action! I pray for hearts to be changed, for eyes to opened. Lord God, let the scales fall back from our eyes and let us see what we are missing! I pray for our government and politicians. I pray that they come together united so that they may come up with a solution. I pray for the church to fall on its knees before you and become united once again. Lord Jesus, I thank You for your goodness, that You are just, that You are bigger than all of this. Jesus, I pray that you move in a Mighty way. Stir in our hearts once more!

In Your Precious and Holy Name!

Amen!

Stand Firm: The Shoes of Peace

For this is what the Lord says: “I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream; you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees. As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.”

Isaiah 66:12-13

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I fully intended to go in order with the armor of God but writing about peace is hard. When this part of the study came up a couple of weeks ago I was hard pressed to find some peace in my life. How can you write about peace when you aren’t feeling it in your own life?

Priscilla Shirer says this in The Armor of God:

“…true peace is best detected and measured against the backdrop of commotions and confusions–when instability abounds, yet you remain steadfast; when disappointment and confusion are near, yet you’re still capable of walking with Spirit-infused confidence, stability, and steadiness.”

It is safe to say that I wasn’t feeling pretty steadfast a couple of weeks ago. I had some bad mommy moment, some bad wife moments, some bad moments of worrying and doubt. But, here I am two weeks later and I am feeling more peace in my life.

Here is the game changer: Trust leads to thankfulness and gratitude activates peace

Priscilla tells us that “prayer shrouded in gratitude expresses a firm faith.” Be thankful in all of your circumstances. Plain and simple! When I read this it was like the Holy Spirit reached down and hand delivered this message to me. I am in a season of my life right now where God is demanding that I trust Him. I am worrying way too much over things that I don’t have much control over. Because I have peace with God through a relationship with Him and I have the peace of God in me I also have faith and trust in His promises. God’s got this!

I am also able to put on the shoes of peace and go and proclaim the good news! Priscilla calls the shoes of peace our “go shoes.”

They are designed to move forward and announce the good news of victory. Powerful enough to tear down, demolish, and take back…you are a publisher of peace, a messenger of the good news. Through God’s Word, you can pronounce freedom and peace over your own circumstances and even the lives of those you love. You can shout “our God reigns” until He actually does reign in your mind and heart and circumstances. Your feet have been made ready by the gospel.

-Priscilla Shirer, The Armor of God

Now go! Proclaim victory over your strongholds and your circumstances. Be thankful in all of your circumstances. Our God is bigger!

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Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT)

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

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Isaiah 26:3-4

2 Corinthians 10:4-5

Isaiah 52:7

Stand Firm Against the Master Manipulator

For the next seven weeks, I have the privilege to lead a group of ladies in Priscilla Shirer’s newest Bible study: The Armor of God. It’s quite an honor and at the same time very scary. I’ve never thought of myself as a powerful prayer or even a very eloquent one, especially when it comes to praying out loud. I stumble through it sometimes; I forget to prayer for certain things; I think how I prayed isn’t good enough or even heard by God. Isn’t that just like the enemy though? He wants us to believe that our prayers don’t count. He casts doubt into us. He makes us fearful to pray.

But, it is just like Satan to deceive us from the Truth:

James 5:16 (NIV) says: “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”

Proverbs 15:29 (NIV) tells us that God hears “the prayer of the righteous.”

Psalm 4:3 (NIV) tells us that “the Lord will hear when I call to him.”

The enemy is a master manipulator and his specialty is deception. In fact, if you look at the many names that he is called, the common characteristic between each of them is that he is a deceiver (John 8:44; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 20:10). Satan knows that he isn’t going to win, that he can’t destroy us. But, that doesn’t mean that he isn’t going to stop from trying. He wants to get us as far away from God as he can.

Satan takes our weaknesses and exploits them. We have become lazy in the fight against spiritual warfare:

That’s why he works so hard to beat you down with discouragement. Rag you into discontentment. Lie to you about who God is, causing you to doubt the Lord’s all-good intentions toward you. Hammer you with accusations that place a burden of shame and guilt on your shoulders too heavy to carry. Trick you into thinking your situations will never change, and that God doesn’t hear you or care when you call out to Him. Soon your fire of passions starts to burn low. You grow lackluster. Disinterested. Low in spiritual fiber. Your spiritual armor goes unworn and unused.

-Priscilla Shirer, The Armor of God

And now, the enemy has you right where he wants you.

Right before this study was announced, I wrote a post called Stand Firm. I wrote about how sneaky and cunning the devil is. Satan is looking for any opening that he can find. All he needs is a tiny crack. Then, like a thief in the night (John 10:10), he will slip in and try to take domain over our lives, creating a wedge between us and God. He instills guilt and worthlessness in us until we think that God is better off without us. We need to plug in to God and put on the full armor so that we can stand firm against the deceptive schemes of the devil.

Satan DOES NOT play fair! He likes to take cheap shots. We need to stop giving him the ammunition. We need a “wake-up call out of laziness” (Priscilla Shirer, The Armor of God).

Be alert.

Be aware.

Be active.

As I was finishing up my study for week one, I came across a post this morning:

Jesus didn’t come to make us safe.
He came to make us dangerous to the kingdom of darkness.

-Christine Caine

Prayer is what brings the armor of God all together and ignites it (Priscilla Shirer, The Armor of God). We are dangerous when we are on our knees before the Father in prayer. The enemy cannot stand it. Satan knows how powerful we are when we have on the full armor of God and we are praying. It is time that we use the weapons that have been given to us and fight back in Jesus’ name!

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Pray always. Pray in the Spirit. Pray about everything in every way you know how! And keeping all this in mind, pray on behalf of God’s people. Keep on praying feverishly, and be on the lookout until evil has been stayed.

-Ephesians 6:18 (VOICE)

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#ArmorOfGodStudy

Stand Firm

#thestruggleisrealyall

Walking in Victory

Foot In Mouth Syndrome

We’ve all done it. We’ve all been there. We’ve all said something really stupid and wished we could take it back the second it leaves our mouth. My Facebook newsfeed has been blowing up over the Miss America Pageant, Miss Colorado, Joy Beher and her comment she made on the daytime TV show The View, and angry nurses everywhere.

To say we are a judgmental society would be an understatement. I’m guilty many times over. But, to be judgmental and ignorant on a daytime TV show is whole other ball game. My local news station posted this article today: The View host Joy Beher: I didn’t know what I was talking about.

Doesn’t the headline say it all? How many times have we said something and the message gets misconstrued? We are all entitled to our opinion as long as that opinion has sound evidence to back it up. What good is a ignorant opinion?

The Bible tells us that we need think before we speak:

Proverbs 15:28

The heart of the godly thinks carefully before speaking; the mouth of the wicked overflows with evil words.

Proverbs 11:9

With his mouth the godless man destroys his neighbor, but through knowledge the righteous will be delivered

Colossians 4:6

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

The point is this: If we don’t know what we are talking about then we just need to keep quiet.

Or as my mama used to say: If you can’t say anything nice then don’t say anything at all.

We as women have this way of putting each other down. In the South, we like to bless each others’ hearts. When we insult one another and say “Bless your heart” the insult gets “covered up”. But, in all reality an insult is still an insult whether we try to sugar coat it or not.

When we talk with ignorance it says a lot about us. Some of us like to talk just so we can be heard, it doesn’t matter what the topic is. We want to make sure that people know that we are there. Others like to carefully think before we speak and try to keep in mind those we are speaking with so that we don’t offend them in anyway. We all speak differently. But, the common purpose in our speech should be to speak life into one another, not put each other down. Speak with love.

1 Corinthians 8:1-3

…we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.

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Lord, I pray for women as a whole. I pray that when we speak it is with grace and love. I pray that we learn to choose our words wisely. Father, show us how to love each other through our words so that we may show Christ’s love. In Your Name, Amen!

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#NursesUnite

Me with my beautiful mama, Retired RN

*Featured Image courtesy of Duo Paradigms

Keep It Simple

 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome…

1 John 5:3

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Today, I decided to pick out an oldie but goodie devotional: My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. I honestly haven’t looked at it in the last ten years. Today’s devotional just so happens to be on obedience and one that I haven’t read before since the pages aren’t marked up with notes and highlights. Obedience seems to be a theme for me lately. It really hit home when I learned that walking in obedience shows God how much we love him (1 John 5:3). So it only seems fitting to carry on.

Oswald Chambers poses this question: Arguments or Obedience?

I wrote a post titled Here I Am . In it, I discussed how radical Abraham was in his faith. His natural response wasn’t “But God…” and make up an excuse and argue the point to death, rather, he always responded with “Here I Am.”

See, “simplicity is the secret to seeing things clearly,” says Chambers. How often have you made a simple task too complicated? We fight God because we don’t see the whole picture and that is because we aren’t ready to see the whole picture.

God wants us to focus on the task at hand so that when it is completed we can see more of the picture than before.

You cannot think through spiritual confusion to make things clear; to make things clear, you must obey…If there is something in your life upon which God has put His pressure, then obey Him in that matter…Spiritual confusion can only be conquered through obedience. As soon as we obey, we have discernment. This is humiliating, because when we are confused we know that the reason lies in the state of our mind. But when our natural power of sight is devoted and submitted in obedience to the Holy Spirit, it becomes the very power by which we perceive God’s will, and our entire life is kept in simplicity.

-Oswald Chambers

Have you ever dwelled on something so much that it was all you could think about? You become confused, doubtful, fearful, burdened, and so on all because you can’t see clearly.

I’m sure the majority of us can answer “yes” to this question. 2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us to “take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.” When we do this the confusion is lost and what God is asking us to do becomes so clear. “Even the very smallest thing that we allow in our lives that is not under the control of the Holy Spirit is completely sufficient to account for spiritual confusion, and spending all of our time thinking about it will still never make it clear,” says Chambers.

When we learn to walk in obedience and listen for the voice of God then the doubt and the fear melt away. When we learn to take every thought captive we learn to listen for God’s voice over the lies of the Enemy.

Remember, keep it simple. When we do this we can see things clearly.

Heavenly Father, thank you for simplicity. Thank you for Your guidance when I make things too complicated. Help me to take every thought captive so that I may walk in obedience according to Your will. In Your Name, Amen!

*Featured Image courtesy of Keep Calm-O-Matic

Walking in Victory

We are in a war. But, this war is not against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12). It is a spiritual war. The leader of this war is Satan and he likes to use every tactic to distract us from our purpose. He puts obstacles in our way that makes it seem impossible to get over. Unless we are grounded in our faith, we let him win every time.

Every. Single. Time.

As Christ-followers, we have been anointed with the Truth (1 John 2:20). We are able to discern the lies the enemy likes to tell us. But, how many of us who are Christ-followers have believed the lie over the Truth?

We need to be grounded in the Truth.

A couple of months ago, I wrote about spiritual warfare and how we are commanded to stand firm and to pray fervently.

Prayer is a powerful weapon to use against the enemy. Guy H. King says: “No one is a firmer believer in the power of prayer than the devil; not that he practices it, but he suffers from it.” In the book of Daniel, chapters 10-12, Daniel is given a vision of a great war. He fasted and mourned for three weeks even though God answered his prayers on the first day. God allowed for the angel messenger to be detained by Satan in order to draw Daniel closer to Him. My study Bible says:

Don’t expect God’s answers to come too easily or too quickly. Prayer may be challenged by evil forces, so pray fervently and pray earnestly. Then expect God to answer at the right time. (Daniel 10:12-13)

In the end, God was victorious and Daniel’s prayers were answered. In the end, God will be victorious over evil.

How can we walk in victory?

• 2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us to “take every thought captive”.
• John tells us in 1 John 4:1 to “test the spirits”.
• Paul also tells us in Ephesians 6:12-19 to “put on the full armor of God”.

This is our survival gear. The enemy is scheming and strategizing against us. He wants to see us fail. He wants to weaken us. He likes to put us in a pit with no way out.

It is hard to see the ladder being extended when we are at the bottom of the pit looking for a way out.

We are so busy looking around us for a solution on how to get out of the mess, situation, season, etc. we are in that we don’t look up. We aren’t looking to the Father.

Father God, I pray for victory today. No weapon formed against me shall stand in the name of Jesus! I pray that I can stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Anoint me with your Holy Spirit. Lord, give me strength and perseverance. Draw me close to You. In the strong name of Jesus, Amen!

Ephesians 6:12-19

1 John 2:20

Daniel 10:12-13

2 Corinthians 10:5

1 John 4:1

Radical Faith

“Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders…Let me walk upon the waters…Where you would call me…Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander..”

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I love this song by Hillsong. It’s called Oceans if you are wondering. It is a song about radical faith. I read a blog shortly after this song debuted and the author basically posed this question: Do you really mean what you are singing?

Honestly, do you really want God to take you to place you’ve never been before; to have you step out and do something that is completely outside your comfort zone? What if He asked you to sell everything, give up your job, and move to a remote area in the Amazon jungle to serve Him. Would you do it?

I can guarantee that the vast majority of us would choose to ignore that prompting. But, this is exactly what we are being asked to do. Maybe not necessarily selling everything and moving to a third world country, but choosing to trust God where He is leading us.

Francis Chan discusses radical faith in his book Forgotten God:

When Jesus calls us to take up our cross, He is doing much more than calling us to endure the daily, circumstantial troubles of life…It is a call to radical faith. Jesus is calling us to be willing to suffer anything and forsake everything for the sake of the gospel…His call is for total surrender. He calls us to give up all that we have, to give even to the point of offering up our lives as a living sacrifice. His call means realizing that His power is made perfect in our weakness, that when we are weak we are also strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

When we learn to take up our cross daily and follow Christ (Luke 9:23), we are listening to the Spirit. He is our Guide, our Counselor, our Advocate. We are choosing the Spirit over the flesh. Maybe this is where you need to start; learning how to crucify the flesh daily and follow Jesus. It’s a starting point.

Or, maybe you need to listen for the Holy Spirit’s prompting throughout your day. Is He asking you to give money to someone in need? Is He asking you to give a homeless person a ride? Is He asking you to just trust Him? The real question is: Are you going to do it?

Last night, after a very long weekend of events at church, I found myself wide awake even though I was completely exhausted. I found the Holy Spirit leading me to send an email to my Bible study ladies because I knew that at least one of them needed to hear how much they are loved and how much of a blessing they are to me and our group of ladies. Sometimes the Holy Spirit is leading you to do a simple task. I could have rolled over and fought sleep until it came. But, I chose to get out bed.

Radical faith is a choice.

Are you at a point in your walk where you can honestly leave everything and completely follow Jesus? Can you give it all away?

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And I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine

*Featured image can be found here.

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

My heart is breaking. The Spirit is grieving. A seventh undercover Planned Parenthood video has come out. They are all devastating (I can’t bring myself to watch them; I have only read the articles) but this one seems so much more gruesome and heinous. When abortion is being discussed the baby is always mentioned as a fetus. As if not calling it a baby makes the act of abortion ok. This seventh video released shows how the baby that was “aborted” still had a beating heart, IS STILL ALIVE, and his or her face is cut into so that his or her brain can be harvested intact. I am so sick to my stomach.

We can’t be silent anymore!

We can’t stand for this!

Wake up America!

Since when was a baby’s life deemed worthless? We don’t have the right! My heart grieves for the babies lost and my heart grieves for the mothers who felt pressured, who felt like there was no other way, who felt like it was an inconvenience, who felt like they were doing the life forming in them a service by having an abortion, or who is full of regret.

Even the woman behind the name Jane Roe (Roe v. Wade), Norma McCorvey, didn’t understand all that abortion entailed and had never had an abortion herself. She eventually became pro-life and a Christ-follower.

Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, poses this question: Who chooses whose life has the most value?

These babies are fearfully and wonderfully made!

Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV) “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…”

Psalm 139:13 (NIV) For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

They were designed for a purpose. God’s purpose. I can only praise the Father because they are with Him and He is somehow using all of this for His Greater Purpose.

*Featured photo courtesy of me. Pictured are my beautiful, fearfully, and wonderfully made daughters, Audryanna (3) and Brynleigh (9 months).

Called for a Higher Purpose

Inadequate. Not worthy. We all feel it from time to time. Have you ever praised the Father for bringing you through that moment of inadequacy and unworthiness? We rarely celebrate what all God has accomplished in our lives. Most of the time it is a passing prayer of thanksgiving when something good happens. When was the last time you sat down and thought about all He has done for you lately and all that He has brought you through?

As I have been working through this Bible study, Breathe by Priscilla Shirer, I have realized that I need to create a #SabbathMargin to laziness. We often think, especially in today’s society, when we take a Sabbath that it automatically deems we are lazy. Busy is good, resting is bad. But, I need to take a rest from being lazy. I’ve been putting off writing and sharing. I’ve been putting off what God has been calling me to do: my higher purpose.

We have each been called for a higher purpose. But, we get sidetracked. You are either super pumped or down right scared out of your mind while hanging onto a small thread of faith. Then we start the comparing game when we see those around us with a calling we think is so much better than what we are called to do. One of my best friends and sisters in Christ began last year leading a women’s group and teaching on her own material and I thought “She is so awesome. I wish I could do what she does!” Truth is if you asked me to speak in front of a group of people I would probably have a panic attack.

But, the thing is her higher purpose was created for her. My higher purpose was created for me. You may think that you are inadequate to fill this position that God Himself created for you, but truth is you are fully equipped to handle the task. Jesus never promise that the road would be easy, but He did promise that it would be worth it!

…he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6).

But [the Lord] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

#SabbathMargin

Featured Image can originally be found at AVirtuousWoman.org