“I AM”

(I found this on my late sister-in-law’s refrigerator when we were helping clear out her apartment. I like the listing of several aspects of God.)





While praying one day, A woman asked, “Who are You, Lord?”

He answered, “I AM”

“But, who is I AM?’ she asked.

And He replied. . .”I Am Love, I Am Peace,

I Am Grace, I Am Joy,

I Am the Way, Truth, And the Light. . .

I Am the Comforter,

I Am Strength, I Am Safety,

I Am Shelter, I Am Power, I Am The Creator

I am the Beginning And The End,

I Am the Most High.”



The woman, with tears in her eyes, looked toward Heaven and said, “Now I understand. But Lord, Who am I? Then God tenderly wiped the tears from her eyes and whispered, “You are mine.”

Praying for God’s Will

Not my will, but what Thou wilt. Mark 14:36(KJV)

From time to time a prayer request comes to our ears that is so serious that we fell compelled to ask the requestor how he or she wants us to pray.

Usually, the word’s we hear are,” Pray for the Lord’s Will.” But have we ever analyzed what that means?

Praying for God’s Will means we pray unselfishly. We take ourselves out of the picture. The principals in the prayer become the Lord God and the subject of the request.

As we pray for God’s Will, we pray patiently. God works on His own time table. As human beings, we want things to happen right now. People are impatient by nature.

We pray obediently, when we pray to allow His Will for our lives or for those on our prayer lists. Jan Karon’s loveable character, Father Tim Cavanaugh, spoke often of the prayer that always gets answered. The prayer “thy will be done.”

When we pray in God’s Will we pray with confidence that our supplications are heard by God.

Therefore we can pray expecting answer. However, we have to be spiritually mature enough to understand the possibility that God’s Will may not be the same as our will.

Karla’s In Heaven

And God will wipe away each tear from their eyes;

there shall be no more death ,nor sorrow, nor crying .

There shall be no more pain, for the former thing have

passed away.” Rev 21:4



Heaven is a sweeter place this week. Karla went to live there this past Sunday. She fought Cancer for about three and a half years.

She will be missed. She went to one of our charge conferences a few years ago with the stack of get well cards she had received from people at church. She was in remission at that time. As I heard the story, she spoke before those gathered and told the how much it meant to her to know that she and her husband were not alone in her battle with Cancer.

When our former church merged with another one, Karla was the head of the trustees who oversaw the task of moving. When she was in remission, she still felt able to work in that capacity.

She took a positive attitude about having Cancer. Even when she started having issues with her legs, she told us she would beat the disease.

Before she became ill this last time, she helped out when the church had a funeral dinner. She always had a pretty smile. Recently, when some of us from church went to visit and pray, she still had her warm beautiful grin.

As much as we will miss her, we know she is with God and that she received the best healing, God’s divine healing.

Thoughts

A friend’s husband underwent heart surgery this past week. Sherman is somewhere in his mid80s. As I prayed for him a few minutes ago, the thought came into my mind that this surgery could be more severe due to his age. My next thought is that, as I see it, most surgeries of this nature seem to be done on people who are older but not in their mid 80s.

My dad had that same surgery when he was 72. Our friend Mary Emma underwent this surgery the first time when she was 67,the second 16 years later. My friend Martha’s husband was in his 50s but he had suffered a massive heart attack.

It seems to me that this procedure happens either when the patient is of advanced age or has had a major medical crisis. And yet, what we hear of this surgery is that it is successful in a vast majority of time.

Is the procedure successful due to the expertise of the medical teams that perform this surgery or is it due to the prayers of God’s people.

That morning, I called the church office to ask how long Sherman’s surgery would take. I have forgotten what they told us 15 years ago. It should take three to three and a half hours.

I found out later that day that this gentleman went into surgery for a double bypass and had actually undergone five bypasses.

On Sunday, his wife was in church and gave praise to God that he was doing so well. I join her in her rejoicing about this latest health issue of theirs having such a good result.