Category:

Strengthened for battle

3/17/2016

It's time to get serious. Way past serious. Serious about doing something about these weak sauce arms of mine. I am aware of the fact that the only way to strengthen my arms is with weights. But oh how I really really don't like working with weights. I would rather run for miles and miles than work with weights. I'ld rather be pricked with needles than work with weights. I'ld rather...oh never mind, you get the idea. As a little 3 year old child has said, "I just can't want to!". That's my mentality when it comes to weight training. I come up with every excuse in the book to avoid it.

So my dilemma is just how badly do I want stronger arms? Enough to push past the excuses and the "I can't want to's"? Or am I willing to settle and what will I be settling for?  As I have pondered this question, I realize that if I don't do the hard work now, I could possibly be giving up things that are still very important to me. I might not be able to pick up my grandkids who are getting heavier by the day. Nor would I be able to garden as easily, or to work the horses, lifting heavy saddles. All because I let excuses rule me, instead of determination. Not any more! Age is becoming an enemy in the strength department. I can not afford to do nothing while time marches on.

It is no coincidence that as I have begun to work on strengthening my arms, I have also been working on developing stronger, deeper, more specific, fervent prayer. There is an interesting parallel between physical strength and spiritual strength. Both take hard work and determination and both have an enemy to be fought against and overcome. The enemy of prayer is Satan. He is a master of distraction whose aim is to derail us spiritually. When his strategies are deployed, our minds fill with negativity, worry, fear and self-doubt. We become satisfied with haphazard, rote, generic prayer, something done out of duty, or only when there is a pressing need. Passionless, powerless prayers. Weak flabby arms. Put that picture in your mind, because that's what weak prayers are. Not very effective.

I'm not satisfied with that. I've got too much to pray for and too much to do to succumb to either weak prayer or weak arms. I don't know about you, but I am pretty sure there are people who need my prayers, and I will be letting them down to just accept the status quo of praying. Nope - I want the deep, specific, fervent, pray with out ceasing kind of prayers. I want prayer to be as easy and as vital to life as breathing. I want to do battle in prayer; to go to war in prayer, for this country, for my loved ones, for His kingdom.

So how does this happen? Prayer is labor intensive. How do we go from desire to depth?  How do we move from wanting a deeper more effectual prayer life to actually having one?

The same way I am trying to get stronger arms. Here are 5 principles I am using to grow stronger physically and spiritually.

1. You can't do it alone. Period. End. Of. Story.
   You've got to enlist a partner, someone to come alongside you encouraging you doing this with you. Being accountable to
     another person is a very effective tool to getting anything done.

2. You need training. You must read and get information. Become a student of what you are hoping to grow stronger in.
   Ask for advice from a trusted stronger source.

3. You have got to get in the water, so to speak. You've got to jump in with both feet. Just start. Not tomorrow...today.

4. You have to get into a groove, a routine, a habit. Plan it out. Write it down in your planner.. Put it on your to-do list- daily.

5. You have to be fully aware of how hard it will be - at first. Realize you have an enemy- Satan- who will pull every trick in his
   arsenal to derail you and defeat you.

In my desire to grow stronger in prayer, I have enlisted others, and we are currently reading scriptures on prayer and reading through a excellent book on prayer by Priscilla Shirer, "FERVENT - A woman's battle plan for serious, specific and strategic prayer."    In it she writes,

"If I were your enemy (Satan), I'ld want to devalue the most potent weapons in your arsenal."

What a true statement! When we devalue prayer, by not praying effectively, we handicap ourselves. We take our most powerful weapon, a weapon designed to help us be victorious and joyful in our Christian walk, and hang it up to gather dust. The subtitle of her book, " A battle plan for serious, specific and strategic prayer," is what our prayers should be. That's what fervent is. Fervent prayer is having prayers so saturated in faith that Satan's fiery darts can't get through. Powerful. Passionate.
Purposeful.

He trains my hands for battle, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. Psalms 18:34

What about you? What bow of bronze are you being called to bend...in prayer? Make no mistake, we are in a war, and we must train for battle. We can't afford not to. There is an enemy to defeat.

Authors note

Thanks Meg, Brit and Joan for coming alongside me to strengthen prayer muscles. Thanks Brenda for being my arm strengthening partner. And Cody- my patient eldest son- thank you for writing out the plan, and going to the gym with two grey haired women patiently teaching us how to use the equipment. You are a tough trainer. I'm still sore!

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God hears hearts

11/19/2015

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There is a little boy in Alabama who cannot speak. His name is Rory. He has Apraxia of Speech. It is a disorder in which the brain doesn't send the right signals to the nerves which control muscle movement required for normal speech development. Yet his mama and his papa believe in a God who opens hearts, minds and yes even tongues. They believe in hard work and never ever giving up. They work tirelessly with their son and a speech pathologist to reopen and re-establish neural pathways to loose the tongue to speak, all the while battling their own health issues and financial set backs the enemy hurls at them. Yet that enemy cannot defeat them. They get angry at the enemy, but they don't stay there. They choose to live in daily celebration of the Lord of life, not letting the circumstances of life rob them of their trust in the great Jehovah God. And so they labor on, undaunted, tenaciously working for their son to find his voice.

I believe God hears Rory's voice. Today. Right now. This very moment. God bends down ~ how beautiful is that~ that our great Jehovah bends down, gets really really close, leans in, and listens. He listens to Rory's voice because he hears Rory's heart.

And Rory has quite a talkative heart. He visits with God a lot. His mama has made him a special prayer board. And she prays with Rory every single day. Rory thanks God for the things he enjoys, especially those Panera Bread soufflés. He asks God to help him grow and learn to love Him more every day. He also prays for others, for those that he loves dearly, and those that need some special help. You can even see my name on that special list! Yet at the top of his list of prayers for help you will see these words : To find my Voice.

I think Rory was aptly named. For I believe one day, not only will he find his voice, but he will ROAR! And he will use that voice to glorify God, and to speak of the great things God has done, for God is giving Rory a story to tell. A story that ultimately will be told by Rory ~ in his own voice ~ to others. They will listen, their hearts will be stirred within, and they will come to know and worship the great God who bends down to listen, the all powerful Jehovah God who hears hearts.

As long as we have breath ~ our God will hear our heart. He will bend down to hear the heart that is crying out to Him, singing to Him, whispering to Him. What a blessing!

Authors note:
Thank you Monica, Scott and Rory for allowing me to be a part of your journey. I am yours in prayer ~ as long as I have breath. (Photo and graphic design credit to Monica)

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Just one more drop of water

9/12/2013

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It has been stormy in my little corner of the world. Swirls of clouds, then a bit of wind, followed by the downpour. One can look up at the sky and see blue sky in one direction, gathering clouds in another, and then the ominous dark cloud that is about to let go of it's cargo, the billions of water droplets that it is carrying. What makes a cloud suddenly release the water it is carrying? All clouds are simply collections of water droplets, or ice particles. So what determines when they let go of the water they carry?

The simple answer; just one more water droplet. In a cloud , the water droplets are tossed around, colliding with each other and coalescing to become an even bigger water droplet. Eventually, just one more droplet is added, and that becomes the tipping point, at which they have now become so heavy that gravity wins the battle and they are pulled down to earth. And the power of the water is unleashed....

All of this makes me think of our prayers.

Have you ever prayed, and prayed, and prayed for something or someone, and you just don't see anything happening? I know I have. For over 20 years, I had prayed about a particular relationship in my life. Twenty years is a long time. Long enough to make one wonder any of a number of things:

Maybe this thing I am praying about is not God's will
Maybe the answer is NO
Maybe I am supposed to live with this, as the apostle Paul did with his thorn in the flesh
and our list of 'maybes' and doubts begin to creep in

Perhaps it is the nature of the fast paced, instant gratification, instant information age in which we live, that we tend to give up too easily. After all, we want what we want, when we want it, and that is often now, right now. Patience and persistence are not words we really like, because they both require a great deal of effort, and perhaps frustration on our part.

God gives us many instructions about prayer in His word. One of them is about persistence. Jesus was asked by his disciples to teach them how to pray. He teaches them, what we call the Lord's prayer. But then he goes further in Luke 11 and tells them a story about a man who goes to a friends house at midnight, pounding on the door, asking him for food. The friend doesn't answer the door, but tells him to go away, saying in effect, it's too late, we are all in bed. Then Jesus tells us this

"I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs. And I say to you, ask, and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock, and it shall be given to you." Luke 11: 8-9

Notice he doesn't say how long to ask, or seek or knock...just to do it!

And again in Luke, Jesus tells a parable about being persistent in prayer
"And He was telling them a parable to show them at all times, they ought to pray and not lose heart". Luke 18: 1 And then Jesus tells the story of a widow who went to a judge asking for protection from her opponents. And she didn't go just once, she KEPT on going to this judge. The judge was unwilling to help her, but because of her persistence, he gave her the legal protection she was after. Luke 18: 1-8

Psalms 40: 1 says
"I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry"

We are told to pray, to be persistent and patient. Just like the ONE more water droplet added to a cloud is the tipping point, to unleash the power of the rain, we don't know if ONE more prayer is the tipping point, unleashing the power behind all our prayers. It is as if they all go into holding tank, and then finally that one more prayer is what causes the holding tank to spill forth.

As I said earlier, I had prayed for 20 years for a particular situation/relationship in my life. I had reached the point of thinking the answer was No, 'My grace is sufficient for you'. And then in the most unusual and challenging way,
God answered that prayer...20 years later. And it was beyond what I could have imagined and better than I had hoped for.

You may be thinking, but how do we know when to quit praying a particular prayer or to keep on praying it. That is hard to answer. But if you are plugged into His word on a regular basis, and have an honest, seeking heart, I believe you will know. For me, I never had a feeling within that my prayer had been answered. I
think I would have accepted NO as the answer, as I have with many other prayers, but I just never felt the NO in this particular prayer. I felt NOT YET. Often, it is the NOT YET answers that test us. The NOT YET answers test our patience and persistence.

But remember, our Savior's words "Don't lose heart". We never know, if that one more prayer...one more drop of water...is the tipping point to release His power.

Keep praying my blog world friends, keep praying!

Authors note:

If you want to know more of prayer, to become better and more persistent in prayer, you might want to download the Bible study on this web site titled, "Lord, teach us to pray". I am in the process of adding one chapter every week or two, but 8 chapters are available to download now.

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Starry starry night

8/8/2013

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Three things the stars teach me

On most clear nights, when I am outside, even for a short while, I have a habit of of looking up at the stars. Some nights it is a brief moment, other nights it is as if I am searching the night sky for something lost.

I have always loved the night sky. Both the scientist and the Christian in me get great comfort from gazing upward. Even though I studied space science, and taught it for many years, my mind just cannot wrap around the vastness of the universe, and the complexities of the stars. I never cease to be awestruck by the wonders of the the night sky; the sizes, colors, and ages of the stars, the supernovas, nebulas, the galaxies upon galaxies of stars. Fascinating to me, but that is not what really pulls me to look up most every clear night.

What started within me as curiosity, became something else. Whenever I look up at the night sky, always, without fail, I feel an inexplicable tug, like being pulled into an ocean by strong waves. Those stars pull me closer to God. I sense His presence. The glory of heaven shines through each little pin prick of light dotting the darkness. And I feel that glory when I look up. I feel wonder and amazement at our Creator. I feel small, when I gaze up at the heavens, and any issues or problems that have been ruminating within me, seem small also, and begin to float away, when I stop even for the briefest of moments and look up at the night sky. It never ever fails me, that wonderful glorious moment of solitude and feeling as if I am in the presence of the Almighty God. And in that moment, nothing matters but praising Him.

Lesson ONE: PRAISE God, and praise Him often
Praise the Lord...praise Him sun and moon, praise Him all stars of light! Psalms 148: 1-4

My husband bought me a great telescope years ago. I have used it a few times to look at the lessor objects of the night sky, the moon, planets or a comet. But I have never used it to focus on a single star, because it is the totality of the night sky that draws me, not a singular object in it. I enjoy connecting the dots of the constellations, knowing wherever I am, they are there. And if it is a clear night, totally clear, I always have to find Polaris, our North star, our compass at night. The North star has been used for millennia to navigate at night. One would think it is a huge magnificent star, but it isn't. It is a teeny tiny little insignificant star. It certainly doesn't shout out at you, "I'm here". No, you have to hunt for Polaris. Follow the two pointer stars of the bigger dipper up, and there it is, the tail star of the little dipper, small, not very bright, but ALWAYS there. Never moving, it is in the exact same spot today, tomorrow, next year, 10 years from now. Just like Jehovah God, the Great I am, the same today, yesterday and tomorrow, He is always there for me, for us, our eternal Guide, pointing us home. And like Polaris, He doesn't 'shout' at us, "Here I am". Rather He wants us to search and seek to find Him. The world shouts, He whispers. The world says busier and busier is better, He says "Be still and know that I am God". Perhaps that is what those moments are for me, when I look up at the night sky, my moments of being still, completely still within my soul, looking up, and KNOWING that He is God, my God.

Lesson Two:
Only those that seek God, will find Him and KNOW Him.
But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. Deut 4: 29

A dear dear friend of mine, who passed away too early in her life, left me her telescope. I was surprised and humbled when her family presented it to me immediately after her memorial service. She and I shared a love of God, all things nature and the stars. As you can probably tell from the picture, there is handwriting on it. . She wrote several scriptures on it, all about praising God. She wrote these things while in the midst of a 5 year battle with cancer. The third lesson came from her, from a Persian proverb she had come across in a book.

Lesson Three:
" Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars"

And underneath that she wrote,
"Remember in our trials when all seems dark, look UP to God."

I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence shall my help come from. My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Psalm 121: 1-2

So on the next clear night, look up. I hope you feel His presence as I do when I see that wondrous site, and that it instills a deeper desire to know Him and praise Him.

Authors note: By the way, August is a wonderful month to gaze at the stars. The annual Perseid meteor showers usually put on quite a show. At it's peak, you can see 100's of 'falling stars' streak across the sky. All a display of God's awesome creation!
P.S. I told you NOT to get me started on the stars!!

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Parlez vous?

7/1/2013

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"Pardon moi. J'apprend francais. Puis-je pratique la langue francaise avec vous?"
Excuse me, I am learning french. Can I practice speaking french with you?
"Mais oui! La meilleure façon d'apprendre le français est de pratiquer le parler."
Of course, the best way to learn french is to practice speaking it.

And so began my attempt to 'speak' french with a group of young French people who just happened to be sitting on the floor of the hotel lobby. My initial excitement was quickly curbed. I was in over my head. They were all rather excited that an American wanted to speak French with them. And when French get excited (or any nationality I suppose), they tend to speak rather quickly. I was quite lost. I lasted about 10 minutes.

I have been trying to re-learn french for about a month now, in preparation to go to Dominica for a mission trip. Though I was told everyone in Dominica speaks English, I still wanted to brush up. A friend from church has been helping me. She has taught French at the college level so I felt lucky to have her spend the time teaching me. I also downloaded a conversational french app for my phone. But, my conversational skills were not coming along as I had hoped. I can read French fairly well, and understand someone speaking French somewhat (if they speak in the equivalent of a slow southern drawl-something the French do not do!) But to just start rattling off a conversation in French...nope...I am woefully inadequate. The young French girl in the hotel lobby was right. The best way to learn French (or any language) is simply to practice speaking it.

"The best way to learn any language is to simply practice speaking it".

When I mulled that sentence over in my mind, I thought not just of learning French but of learning the language of faith, the language by which we communicate with God, which we call prayer. I do not know where the phrase 'The language of faith' originated, but I used it when I wrote a Bible study titled, 'Lord, Teach us to Pray, an in depth study on the Lord's prayer".

When I first became a Christian, I had much difficulty with prayer. Whether it was because I wasn't raised in a home where prayer was frequent, or that while growing up I attended churches where prayers seemed rote or memorized or scripted for a particular occasion, I just didn't have a model to follow, and consequently I felt awkward in prayer. I also was the ultimate multi tasker, and had a hard time shutting my brain down to just one thing, that being talking to God. My mind wandered and I was so easily distracted. A friend suggested writing down my prayers, and that helped. But I had never been the type to keep a diary or a journal, so writing down my prayers was often hit and miss.

So how did I go from that poor beginning to writing a Bible study on prayer? Like the young French girl said, to learn a language you must practice. So I did, at least I kept trying. I was too stubborn to give up when my prayer life seemed to languish. I just did not want shallow prayers. It was from rough patches in my life, and having fears or concerns for those I love, that I really learned to pour my heart out in prayer. There have been times in my life that I felt prayer was just as needed to me as air to breathe. Through times like that, and the dogged determination to pray, the 'pray without ceasing' kind of prayers, I began to be able to pray without my mind wandering. I learned the value of quiet moments, turning off the sounds, the music, all the noise, and just talking with God. (Something we do not do enough of in this 'hooked on devices' society!) So my quiet moments came in the car, in the shower, while cooking, on long walks or runs, where ever and whenever. I asked God to help me focus my wandering, multi tasking mind, and I did my part by turning of the external noise. And He answered that prayer. God helped me learn to communicate much more deeply with Him.

While I do feel much more fluent in prayer than I did before, I know I have barely scratched the surface. I am also keenly aware that it is dependent on me to continue to exercise that spiritual discipline or my prayers can become shallow and my mind will again wander aimlessly. I am reminded that at one time in my life, I was almost fluent in French and now I am not. I have learned that this language of faith, prayer, must be practiced often. I have learned the more you use it, the more natural it becomes. I have also learned it is a conversation. It is not just you talk and He listens. It is also He talks (through His word) and you listen. What a treasure we have, what a gift we have been given, to be able to converse with our Creator!

If you desire to have a deeper prayer life, if you wish to grow in prayer, just ask Him.

And it came about that while He was praying in a certain place, after He had
finished, one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord teach us how to pray, just as John also taught His disciples". Luke 11: 1 (Emphasis mine)

So, how are you doing in prayer? Parlez-vous le langage de la foi? If you want to practice, and learn more about prayer, a Bible study is available, free at this web site. Click on the Bible study page, then click on the Lord teach us to pray Bible study. A new chapter will be uploaded weekly. Please contact me with any questions or if you just want to start a conversation. I would love to hear from you, and grow right along with you.

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The moment I woke up...

6/17/2013

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You know the song, the catchy, classy Aretha Franklin song,

The moment I woke up,
before I put on my make up,
I said a little prayer for you.
While combing my hair now,
while wondering what dress to wear now.
I said a little prayer for you.

Forever, forever, you'll stay in my heart
And I will love you
Forever, forever, we never will part
Oh, how I'll love you
Together, together, that's how it must be
To live without you
Would only be heartbreak for me.

What a great song.

But it got me wondering...

What if we sang it, not in reference to another human, but to our Creator, Our Father in Heaven? What if, when we woke up, our first waking thought was a prayer for Him, to thank Him, to praise Him? And what if several times throughout the day, we thought of Him, and again prayed for HIm, again thanking and praising Him? And what if we really meant the words,

to live without You, would only be heartbreak for me?

Would that change anything in our lives? Would it change us? Would it help us look at our lives and ourselves differently? Would we be a happier, more at peace, more victorious Christian?

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Welcome! I pray the words I write will encourage reflection within and deeper study of the Word of God, which is able to build us up, equipping us to be victorious as we journey through this earthly life.
May we all earnestly seek the things above, not the things of this world.

Strengthened for battle

God hears hearts

Just one more drop of water

Starry starry night

Three things the stars teach me

Parlez vous?

The moment I woke up...

Posted by
Singing like a robin
daughter of the King
forgiven
joyful
soul strengthener

Categories

Welcome! I pray the words I write will encourage reflection within and deeper study of the Word of God, which is able to build us up, equipping us to be victorious as we journey through this earthly life. May we all earnestly seek the things above, not the things of this world.

Strengthened for battle

God hears hearts

Just one more drop of water

Starry starry night

Three things the stars teach me

Parlez vous?

The moment I woke up...

Posted bySinging like a robindaughter of the Kingforgivenjoyfulsoul strengthener

Categories

Welcome! I pray the words I write will encourage reflection within and deeper study of the Word of God, which is able to build us up, equipping us to be victorious as we journey through this earthly life.
May we all earnestly seek the things above, not the things of this world.

Posted by
Singing like a robin
daughter of the King
forgiven
joyful
soul strengthener