Wednesday, June 12, 2019

God Will Never Fail!

I know I'm not the only person that has ever faced disappointment.

Whether it was a relationship gone bad, a goal unmet or summer plans ruined, we all face disappointment. For some, though, the wounds of disappointment go much deeper... to divorce, death of a close friend or loved one, house foreclosure, car repossession, rejection letters, unforeseen diagnoses, you name it. We make plans and set goals for our lives but the reality is that things don't always happen the way we wanted or planned for them to.

When painful things happen in our lives, it is easy to wonder what went wrong? Where was God? How could God let this happen? And if we aren't careful, we'll make the false assumption that God has failed us.

Well, my dear friend, I felt led to remind or inform you that GOD WILL NEVER FAIL!!!

For 25 years Abraham waited for an glimmer of hope that he would be the father of many nations...

For 40 years Moses and the Israelites waited and wandered in the wilderness trying to get to the land that God promised them. There were several times when they would have rather been in slavery where they WERE than to go through the wilderness to get to where God wanted them to go. The attitude that they had because they felt failed by God was the very thing that prolonged His promise.

For 30 years, Jesus may have felt like God failed Him because He didn't start his ministry until He was 30 years old. THEN for at least 3 days, He laid in a tomb until He rose from the dead.

So whether it's been 3 days or 40 years that you have wondered if God has failed or forgotten you... please know that God has done NEITHER!!! God has not failed you. God has not forgotten you, He is simply putting all the pieces in place for His plan to unfold in your life. So wait patiently. Give God that disappointment and keep trusting, keep loving, keep believing!!! God will never fail!!!

Passion Without Pursuit

What is passion without pursuit?

It is easier to have passion for something without pursuing it. But passion without pursuit is just emotion. Love is what it does! I love a clean house... I love the smell of cleaning products and I love the way things look when everything is in it's proper place. But, love is just an emotion if I don't actually get up and clean. I love a made bed, but if I don't make the bed, that emotion towards it does me no good.

What is loving God if we don't pursue Him? We can talk about God, post about God, quote the words of God or wear the Christian t-shirts, but how do we pursue him? Have you ever been in a one sided friendship or relationship... Like an acquaintance of yours is constantly telling people that she knows you, posting pictures y'all took together, telling everyone y'all are the closest of friends... but, you don't really know her like that so it just feels phony? Or a guy is telling you that he's interested in you, wants to build with you and he's crazy about you... but, he never makes an effort to communicate or spend time with you so it just feels phony?

How often do we do that with God...? OUCH! I know I could spend more time with God and pursue Him more by reading my Bible and praying more! Everybody's process is different... but, don't have passion without pursuit! God gives us both and God deserves both.

God is always with you, acknowledge His presence -- "God, that bird is beautiful, I see your work." - The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. - Ps. 19:1

God is always in you, acknowledge His power -- "God, they're getting on my nerves, but I will not go off on them today." - My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. - 2 Cor. 12:9

Those are just a few ways we can pursue God in our every day lives... thanks for reading!

Let's talk about prayer!

Lord, I hope that the person reading this gets excited about prayer and finds the strength, courage and desire to spend more time in prayer. In Jesus' name, AMEN!

Prayer is so important in the life of every believer. When we pray, we talk to God and God talks to us! Have you heard the saying 'Much prayer = much power and no prayer = no power'? I have and I think it's true. But, I know there are a lot of people who just don't know where to start.

I think of prayer as a conversation. I talk to God in a very conversational way... he's my very best friend and I talk to him like he is! Scripture gives us some information about the model prayer... Here's what Jesus said in Matthew 6:6-13

But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray, then, in this way:
‘Our Father who is 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 also have forgiven our debtors.
‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’

I love that. That's always a great starting point... And sometimes when I don't know what to say to God, I just say the Lord's Prayer. But sometimes I want to go from there. We can talk to God and pray about His promises for our lives, our love for Him, the things that concern us, His plans for us, or whatever else we want to. Like I said earlier, He's my very best friend so I talk to Him about everything (traffic, money, marriage, work, friends, you name it!)

This week I found an AMAZING resource that I have been excited about telling the world about it. It's a book called Prayers! It is very generic. Not super fancy on the outside, but on the inside it is PACKED with different kinds of prayers. I started looking through it as soon as I got it and I fell in love. A few of the prayers that I have marked right now are 1) Prayer for Acknowledgment, Submission & Position, 2) Prayer for Your Divine Purpose, and 3) Prayer to Bind My Mind to the Will of God.

In this season, I'm praying about a lot and hoping for some things and I love having these prayers here to give me a guide or a starting point. I also love this book because I keep a prayer journal... so, I'm all about writing prayers down. There are several prayers throughout this book.

I know this could be a great help to so many people so I did some research on how I can spread the word about this Prayers book... it was put together by Christian Word Ministries and they aren't making anymore hardcopies of the book. HOWEVER, there are a few ways that you can get access to it:

You can can download a copy HERE.
You can download the Prayer ebook on your Kindle or Nook HERE; or
You can go to the Mobile Prayers website on your phone.

I am already in love. I love devotional style writings and books of prayer and I felt like getting my hands on this was just another push towards where God wants me to be. I HAD to share it with you all.

So here's what I need you to do... SHARE THIS POST!!! I want the whole world to have access to this book. I'm not getting anything for writing this, I just want to share a blessing with you!!!

Thanks for reading! I love you all!!!