TALK LESS , PRAY MORE!

“Let’s pray right now!” Those words for some reason took me by surprise. I called her because I needed to vent about a situation I was facing. I needed her to hear me and of course eventually pray about it, but right at that moment I wanted to talk about it. I soon realized God had different plans. My dear friend did what I know show was led to do and that was pray. For me, I needed that as a reminder that I had been spending too much time talking about situations I was facing and not enough time praying about them.

How many times have you faced a difficult situation or found yourself in a low place and you talked about it MORE than you prayed about it? I know it may take some energy to think about it and probably even more to be honest about it. A lot of women, myself included often find it therapeutic to talk about our problems, our issues with at least one other person we feel comfortable with. Yes, we may pray about them some, but the question is do we really pray as much as we talk about them? I think that is a tactic of the enemy because when we spend a great deal of time talking about the problems or issues they seem to magnify. Not only that, but it keeps us from talking to God about them as well. What if we flipped the script? What if we made it our goal to increase our “pray about it” time and decrease our “talk about it” time? 1 Thessalonians 5:17 reminds us of our commitment to pray. It says we should “Pray without ceasing.” So if we are continually praying about it, there doesn’t leave much time for talking, right? The fact of the matter is that trials, tests and tribulations will continue to come our way, so we must “up our game” by increasing our prayer life. 

When we pray and make our requests known to God, that's when we can expect a change to take place. That change may be in our situation, but it may also be in us, our perspective. Make a decision today that if and when you open your mouth about a situation that you are facing, let it be to talk to God about it. That’s my goal and it should be yours too. Be encouraged today.

BEWARE OF SPAM!

I felt so accomplished after spending a great deal of time cleaning out my personal e-mail  account. It had gotten embarrassingly full. Some of the mail was as old as three years or even older. (I know I need an intervention, so pray for me.) It wasn’t just my inbox but my Spam folder was just as full as my inbox. I take ownership for my inbox being so full, but I don’t feel solely responsible for my Spam folder.  It’s really not my fault. No matter what I do to keep it “clean”, the spam just keeps coming. So I have realized that I must do it often to stay on top of it and make sure it doesn’t literally take over. You know what spam is don’t you? It is defined as “the unsolicited e-mail, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups; junk e-mail”. It is unsolicited, un-wanted and definitely unnecessary. So what’s its’ purpose? In most cases, the senders are often hoping to get you distracted long enough so that you will “buy-in” to their product.

The enemy often uses this same tactic with us. He wants us to “buy-in” to his [harmful] ways, his [deceptive] tactics, and his [destructive] plan. He sends unwanted thoughts and if we allow them to, it will result in causing our mind to think on things that we shouldn’t. These thoughts cause doubt, fear, unbelief, and ultimately actions that don’t line up with God’s ways. The thoughts consume us and cause us to get our focus off of God. Just as spam in our e-mail does, spam in our lives consumes our thoughts distracting us from our true purpose in life. Before you know it, we get completely off-track going in the wrong direction. 

We must make every effort to guard our thoughts. It is an on-going battle. In 2 Corinthians 10:5 we read “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, We must control our thought process by taking those thoughts captive (destroying them) that go against what God’s word says. Don’t allow it to stay in your in-box. Cast it down with God’s word! That is our greatest weapon, but we must read it and meditate on it to be able to use it. Don't let the "spam" over take you! Be encouraged today.

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Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. Philippians 4:8

HE KNOWS THE PLAN!

Jeremiah 29:11 is one of my favorite scriptures. I have read it over and over again. I have recited it, written it and posted it up in various places. To me it is encouraging and motivates me to trust God with every detail of my life. It says “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Yesterday, I was reminding myself about this verse and I got a “new” revelation. It wasn’t really profound, but it just made me grasp the meaning of this verse even more. The beginning says “For I know” God had me repeat those three words over and over again “For I know”. I must admit I felt kinda silly at first, but the more I repeated it, the more I got it. God said this is the key to this verse is those first three words. He knows the plan for our lives. I have seen so many people get stressed out, worried, anxious, and even depressed because they felt they didn’t have a plan for their life. I know many people who sincerely believed that because they didn’t know every detail of their life they were essentially failures. But that was never the way God intended it to be. Knowing the plan is not our responsibility. You see He knows the plan! Our responsibility is to trust Him. He reveals the plan little by little to us as we continually seek Him and communicate with Him. There may be times when we “feel” as if we are clueless, but fret not He knows! His plan is far better than our own because He sees the bigger picture. Don’t allow distractions to cause you to deviate from His plan. Today, declare that you will trust God and His plan for your life. You may not know His plan fully or even quite understand it, but you can be confident in this:

His plan is for your good!

His plan is to cause you to move forward!

His plan is to give you hope for your future!

His plan is NOT to harm you!

Be encouraged today!

IS THERE POWER?

I walked into the room and noticed him as he repeatedly flipped the switch. Time after time, he made numerous attempts to get it to work, but it simply would not come on. Finally, in his desperation, he asked for my assistance “Mom, can you help me?” Because I hadn’t really been there from the beginning of the whole ordeal, I made an assumption that the basics were done and I started in on trying to assess the problem as to why this thing wouldn’t work. I made a few of attempts before I realized the key to the problem. It wasn’t plugged in, so there was no power!

Looking back at it now, I laugh at myself for not checking the power source first but I guess it can happen to anyone, right? Even in life we put great time and effort into trying to “fix” things in our lives and sometimes in the lives of others, when the issue is the power source (or the lack there of). We are trying to do it in our own strength and the fact of it is, it is impossible! It is ONLY in His strength that we can accomplish the things that He has created us to accomplish, overcome trials and tests, or come out of tough situations. He never created us to go at it alone, yet we try to. We deal with symptoms of things when the real issue is not being plugged in to the power source, God. We cry out to Him as a last resort, when we are desperate, worn out, at our wits end. I am sure He is saying to each of us, “My child, why didn’t you call on me in the beginning?”

I see many believers that are drained, depressed, downright worn out on their journey. Why is that? It is because many are working in “manual mode”, doing it own their own, when we were created to work in “automatic mode”, completely and totally relying on God to do it. If this is you, it is time to shift today. Tap into God, the true power source – get into His word and communicate with Him. He is waiting...

Be encouraged today.

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Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Ephesians 6:10

FEELING INCOMPLETE?

A range of emotions overtook me as I dug through boxes of things I had tucked away. Though the emotions varied, sadness was in the majority.  Unfortunately, this trip down memory lane reminded me of one of my many character flaws. I am great at starting things. I have so much motivation and enthusiasm in the beginning; however, when it comes to it, I seriously struggle with completing what I start. I leave many things incomplete. I have many reminders of this fact: half finished crafts, remnants of business ventures I started; numerous book titles that stare at me from my shelves that I have started to read, but as of yet not finished, and the list goes on and on. They all seem to highlight the fact that I struggle with completing things. I do have an explanation for leaving so many incomplete things; it is because I get bored or side tracked easily which means I jump from one thing to the next without finishing any of them. The end result is an accumulation of quite a few almost done, nearly complete, or barely started projects.

As I continued to go through more things, I quickly became overwhelmed by it all and feelings of inadequacy started to creep up in me. It wasn’t too long before I began to slip into a funk. I thought to myself: “I leave so many things incomplete. How can I expect God to finish things in my life, if I can’t complete the things I start? He can’t use me like this!” And so the pity part began… The party was short-lived because it wasn’t too long before the Holy Spirit spoke to me. He reminded me of one fact that trumps all of my incomplete projects and that is this:

 God Always completes what He starts! 

I realized that though I myself am an incomplete work, thankfully God doesn’t get bored or simply give up on dealing with me and my issues. He won’t leave me unfinished or incomplete. 

The truth of the matter is, there may be many things in my life that I may not ever complete, BUT I am so grateful that who I am in Christ will not be in the number. There are many areas in my life I know God is working on. I am a work in progress and I trust that He will continue to mold and shape me into who He created me to be. I just have to yield myself to His process. I can rejoice in knowing that my “incomplete work” status won’t be this way always and you need to know that neither will yours. If we will allow Him to, God will continue to work on us to make us more like Him. Be encouraged today!

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Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2