Friday, July 9, 2010

Our Praises





“My mouth is filled with your praise,

declaring your splendor all day long.” Psalm 71:8



When we give praise to God, it is about Him, about what He has done for us. Whether the Father empowers us to action, heals us or our family members, guides us through tough times, or just gives us rest.

We ask Him to help us through circumstances, then we see His answer. It should be our immediate response to say, “ Praise the Lord” or “Thank you, Lord”

A few years ago, I realized I spent all my prayer time giving God a grocery list of requests. I felt guilty of selfishly asking God for things and not giving thanks. I decided to reserve the last page of my prayer list for praises to God. I started out by mentally searching through my day or the day before to find one thing about which I can praise Him. Presently, I now keep my prayer list on my word processor, I still reserve the last section of my prayer list for praises. One positive outcome from this exercise is I have days where I list several items. Another good outcome is I feel better after I offer praise to Him.

One thing I noticed about my praise items is they all start with “God provided” or “God showed me” or “God allowed”. A recent one was, “God allowed me to hold a baby at church.” I felt this was an important one for me to record because my fibromyalgia and a bad shoulder has made me cautious, almost fearful to hold small children..

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

More Than Conquerors





“. . . we are more than conquerors

through him who loved us.” Romans 8:37



“I just want to find a way to survive this.” I said this at the end of November 1983. I had several symptoms of depression chronic depression. My husband called me at work and asked me to ‘do us both a favor.’ He suggested I take a 30 day leave of absence from my job and try to get through this thing that bothered me.

My first response was,” Honey, I don’t have that much leave.” I wouldn’t get paid for half of the time. He said, “That’s, okay.”

I found out what I needed to do to have my request approved. I left there that day wanting to be a ‘survivor’. That term was a buzz word going around our society then.

One thing I did during the ensuing 30 days was to spend time reading my Bible. Our pastor, at that time, may have preached on this passage. I do know I read it over and over again.

I later started attending another church, where the word was always preached. At that time in my life, almost two years after my 30 day leave, I still had some of the same issues affecting my life. But, with God’s help, I wasn’t dealing with things the same way.

The scriptures came alive to me. I found comfort in passages I had only heard before. I shared with one of my new friends, a German lady, what I told someone about being ‘a survivor’ and how I could now be ‘more than a conqueror’. And all this through Jesus Christ. She rejoiced with me and told me she had learned to rely on passages like this one to get her through her days.

The experiences of life have taught me much. God allows conditions into our lives in order for us to grow in Him. As we learn more about God from His Word, we actually do grow spiritually. We gain wisdom in the way He sees our world and ourselves. As we master these lessons, we do become more than conquerors.

Monday, July 5, 2010

And The Winner Is-

The blessed winner of the basket of writing supplies is:



Jean Hall

Congratulations and blessings to you, Jean.



My son helped me out. I handed him the envelope and asked him to draw one piece of paper out for me. I had him mix the little yellow sheets good.

In addition to the items I listed in the announcement blog entry, I have added a few extra goodies.

A journal book.

A 2 year pocket/purse secretary.

A bag of ball point pens.

God Alone

  Jesus and the children at our church's prayer walk.          I will both lie down in peace and sleep;  For You alone, O LORD make ...