Pray for them...

"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?"

~ Matthew 5: 44-47 ~

"Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. " ~ Luke 6:28-38 ~

Lately I have been really thinking about prayer, I think one reason is because I have just had so many people ask me to pray for them. I am not going to say much on prayer because I think the Scriptures above can speak for themselves, God doesn't need me to help Him explain them.

I think prayer is a weakness for most Christians, because they have to think about it. It's where satan get's his foot in the door, it's easy to tell someone you will pray for them but that usually means you might lift them up once in a whole week or less. I am one of those people, I do try to remember, but at times I get busy and forget. But God does not forget us, and prayer is our only way to communicate with Christ so don't let the demons get you to thinking that your daily prayers don't matter. We must communicate in any relationship, Christ Jesus should be the first and foremost in our lives and therefore He should have the utmost attention when it comes to communication.

 What is prayer? Prayer is talking to God, just simply that. I have been accused of talking to myself, but sometimes I am just talking out loud to God...He doesn't mind. We can pray scripture verses or even whole passages. God loves hearing us speak His words back to Him. I love to pray Psalms, I think it is because there is a Psalm for every sigh of the heart.

 I want my prayer life to be like a constant conversation with Christ, He is there, He always listens, He always cares, He always knows, and He always understands. Think of it this way..."I know that my Dad loves me, he knows that I love Him. But knowing it is not enough, in a relationship things must be said.". Therefore prayer is a necessity, it is your phone line to God. Talk to Him, and He will answer (not verbally, but through His Word).

I want to always have God's attention, just as I crave my Dad's attention and one day (hopefully soon) I will crave my husbands attention. The only way that I will have that attention is through communication and/or prayer. I also need to be in His word so that I will know what to pray and how to pray. He will teach you how to pray. Jesus is my best friend and I want Him to always be number one in my life.

Another thing that the LORD has also been teaching me about prayer, that I need to pray for my family more than I have been, especially my Dad, he is the leader of our home and therefore is at the forefront of the battle against satan. Sometimes our family seems to be the farthest from our mind when we pray. I am not sure why that is, I mean we live and breathe with them why is it that they would not be the first people that I pray for? But I think that a lot of times we see all of their faults and try to solve them on our own. So, instead of praying for them as we should, we judge them and stay angry at them for being a sinner just like ourselves. I am the worst at this, you see I am a problem solver and a perfectionist. I am constantly trying to do things on my own without any human or spiritual intervention. God has to pull me aside and say once again "Elisha, you are only making it harder on yourself, give it to me and let me fix it." of course many times I buck up, but in the end I always give in to Him (as I should). So God has really been teaching me lately that my family needs to have my utmost attention during my prayer time. I think that if we do not pray for our family that we are really letting them down and setting them up for failure.

So with the new year upon us I am praying that God will help me to remember to keep my family as top priority in my prayer. I also want to have a closer and better relationship with Him, so I want to constantly be talking with Him...about everything! How about you? Any New Years Resolutions?

Hope

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" ~Hebrews 11:1 ~

Hope ... 

...it's a hard word to describe because it seems to be self explanatory. I think most people would say it is the feeling of expecting something better to come along in the near future.

Hope, for me is so much more...My hope is in Christ Jesus My LORD, He turns my mourning into dancing(Psalm 30:11), my night to day (Psalm 37:6), my complaints to praise (Psalm 43:5), My Hope is my Rock and my Salvation, Jesus Christ (Psalm 18:4).

Hope is JESUS, He is the only way for anyone to have hope. If anything else gives you hope, it is a false hope (Jeremiah 6:14).

Look at it this way, if you were in the midst of a flood and you saw a rock that stood out amongst all the others and a few people were climbing up on it, but even more were clamouring after many lily pads that were floating in the water ...would you go after the lily pad or the rock. I mean the toads after all are sitting safely on top of the lily pads, they seem durable, and they float, right? The rock in only an unmovable object that will stand there even after the flood has subsided, there can be no hope in that, right? Oh the wonderful reasoning of our hearts and minds(Jeremiah 17:9, Psalm 14:1).

Jesus is that Rock and He cannot, no, will not be moved (Psalm 121), Satan's lily pads float by every day with many false hopes (2 Chronicles 11:14, Jeremiah 18:12)...but MY HOPE is built on nothing less than Jesus Christ my righteousness.

I hope that my life will shine with God's glory and that I will ALWAYS be ready to give an answer of the HOPE that is within me (1 Peter 3:15).

"Behold, the eye of the LORD [is] upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;" ~Ps. 33:18

"Happy [is he] that [hath] the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope [is] in the LORD his God:" ~Ps. 146:5

"Blessed [is] the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is." ~Jer. 17:7

I want to close with a song written by a scientist whose name was Keith W. Ward, I think in todays world of science he would've probably been shunned for His beliefs, because the beginning of the bible (Creation) cannot be discarded without destroying the whole foundation of Christianity (Psalm 11:3)...and that is the whole point of this song...He totally understood who His hope was.

The Solid Rock

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

Fear vs Perfect Love

A Bridegrooms love for his Bride is
only a reflection of God's Perfect love for
His Church.

Perfect Love - Agape love, a love that only God can show. Love that can never fail. A Love that defeats fear.


Fear - fear, dread, terror a) that which strikes terror ...a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.


Have you ever experienced fear? I have. The things I fear the most usually come in the form of thoughts...little lies that have a bit of truth in them or questions. The devil knows how to work, he plants a thought and lets it fester for awhile and then comes back and picks at it and on top of that pours salt in the wound.


I am going to try to make this short and sweet, I have actually been writing this over a period of about three weeks now, but I kept getting interrupted (that happens when you live in a family of five adults and one teenager).


Lately I have been struggling with a lot of fear in my life, fears of the future, fears of not choosing correctly in big decisions, fears of one day becoming the woman that I swore I never would be, fear of being a bad wife and mother, fears that my body will never be perfect and that no man would ever want me, fear after fear had overtaken me, consumed my thoughts to the point of deep depression.


A lot of it could have been dealt with had I just taken it to both of my Fathers (heavenly and earthly), but instead (as always) I tried to fix it on my own. I worked and worked at it for weeks, but instead of getting better my brother, sisters and Dad started to notice I was very snappy, I never smiled, I couldn't communicate with them and I was just all in all miserable.


My Dad asked me one day why I had not talked to him about these things, at first I was annoyed, why would I want to talk about these things in my life that scared me so bad? Why would I want one of the people that I try to please the most to know my faults and fears? But it was through him that I realized that God wants us to communicate our fears to him and our earthly authorities. It was only then that I could see the folly of these thoughts, fears, and emotions.


God does not want our lives to be ruled by fear, if He did why would He have sent His one and ONLY Son to die for us, when we could have just continued to sacrifice and live as best we could and only hope that we had done enough to appease God and get into heaven? Why would He write a love letter to each and everyone of us? Why would He love us that much? Why?


Because He is our Father, our Creator, our Bridegroom, our Last Adam, our Perfect Love, our Jehovah-Jireh, The Great I AM.


Only God can take my fears away and turn them into His strength, just like Paul's thorn in the flesh (see 2 Cor. 12:9-10). I really believe that is all I can say in my own words, but I think that the Word will have some light to shed on this...so without further ado, here is 1 John 4 to finish off this post:


"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.


You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.


  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 


And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.We love Him because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also."

Run Well

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing."

 ~ 2 Timothy 4:7-8 ~ 

Lately my mind has been on running, it is something that I haven't been able to do much of in my life because of my weight. But, this year God helped me to change that. I haven't reached my goal weight, but I have lost a significant amount and so I have been able to, for the first time, run.

I have enjoyed it emmesly, I can't tell you how much it has helped me, it let's me release a lot of feelings and energy that can't be released elsewhere. The biggest problem I am having is that I can only run in the morning, but my greatest urge to run, is at night. I haven't quite figured that one out lately...but needless to say I can't run at night. I am having that urge right now and so I decided to see if writing about it would help (so thank you readers for being an outlet for me tonight).

Some things that have happened over the past few months got me to thinking about this verse, plus the fact that "running" has been on my mind lately. I think we as Christians think of this verse as a "death" verse, something that we read at the funeral of a Christian who has literally "finished the race". But, I think we should look a little deeper.

 Have you ever noticed that runners always do small races before they go for the BIG ONE? They train themselves and work from the bottom to get to the top. Right now, each and every thing that God has you doing is a race that you need to finish and finish well. If we cannot finish these small races well, how do we expect to finish the BIG ONE well?

We are saved by grace, yes. But we must be different from the world in our actions, God gives us trials and tribulations to help us learn new things, to help us gain ground for Him. If we act like a selfish baby, by letting these opportunities to live for Him pass by how are we getting the Gospel out to the world. All they see is a hypocrite who goes to church on sunday.

Sometimes it's hard to run the race well, we want to slow down or even stop and take a rest. But when I think of 2 Cor. 12:9-10 it really helps me to put things into perspective. God is so good to us, how can we let Him down in this race of life. Run and run well my friends!

Worldly Perfection VS Identity in Christ

"Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind."

Philippians 3:13-15

Everyone is trying to find an identity these days, searching for perfection in body and mind as well as in the spiritual realm. I have been around a lot of girls and many of them are looking to find an identity in each new boyfriend they "date", or trying to find it in the mirror, only to find that the girl facing them is not the girl they wanted to be, or maybe they are looking into different religions to see which one will help them to feel the best. I am not around that many guys but I am sure that they have some of the same problems.

Many times I find myself caught up in trying to achieve this "perfection" as well. Perfection in looks, body image, spiritualism, family, and well just anything in life.

My most trying imperfection is that of being a perfectionist. I don't try to exact perfection from others, I try to exact perfection from myself...I am very hard on myself when I cannot achieve perfection in certain areas. But, I cannot attain a perfection in any sense of the word without Christ. Christ is my only perfection He is the I AM and without Him I am nothing. I give all the glory to HIM when it comes to anything that may even look close to "perfect".

God has taught me that perfection in the world's eyes (i.e. body, looks, words, state of mind, religion, family, etc.) is not what He wants. This identity that I find in Christ will never make me of any consequence to world's eyes...I will never be a model, an actress, a career woman, anything that the world would think would be the perfect job.

 According to the world's standards My body will never be perfect, but my body is the LORD's temple and I will try to be as healthy as possible. My dress will never be "fashionable" if it means being immodest. My beliefs will never be accepted by the world, but I will try to bring the gospel to everyone I meet. I cannot and will not ever achieve worldly perfection. But, God in His grace and mercy has shown me where my true identity lies, my real perfection...not in bodily perfection, not in spiritual perfection, not even family perfection.

 Wherever people are there will be imperfection unless Christ is present there and that is where my perfection lies, in Christ. He makes me perfect before God, He washes away all the blots that I put there with my sins and makes me white as snow. I can come before God perfect only because the blood of Christ has washed my sin away.

I beg of you if you are searching for perfection in this world, end it. The only thing that God requires is that you accept the gift of His son Jesus as your personal Savour, repent of your sins and ask Him to wipe them clean so that you may be white as snow before God.

Let your only identity be in Christ.

No Pain, No Gain

"Those things which are easily gained, are easily given up or thrown aside. But, those things which we gain through much pain, trial, hardship and at much expense, become over time the things we value most in life and we will fight to the death to keep them."

Have you ever heard the saying "No Pain, No Gain"? I have heard it often, but usually in association with a workout. I never really associated it with the Christian life. Why would I associate it with the Christian life? Well, many times we as Christians (especially American Christians) think that we should never have to go through any pain or suffering. But, I beg to differ.

God allows us to go through hard times, not always because of sin in our lives, but because He wants us to always lean on Him. I know that right now God is teaching me patience and to take others into consideration (instead of always thinking about how I feel) and teaching me Phillipians 4:11 as well as 1 Timothy 6:6-7.

I always have a hard time with pain because I always associate it with me being sinful, but God reveals in the whole book of Job that God allows certain things to happen to guide us straight to Him. More often than not we tend to think that we can do something on our own without God (sometimes this mentality happens upon us without realizing it) and that's when we start to fall, but there are many times we are right there in the will of God and troubles come our way and we look to God and ask "why" and He says "Because I AM, do you trust me?" and sometimes we say yes and other times we say no.

 Let me encourage you to memorize Proverbs 3:5-6 because this scripture has been my constant companion over the past couple of weeks, and it has helped me to say "yes" when I felt like saying "no". God is God and we don't need to question Him, the only motives we need to question are our own and I know many times I find that I say my motivation is God, but my actions say otherwise.

God does care about you and He tells us that His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30), so although we go through trial and tribulation and sometimes even persecution we know that God gives us the strength to make it easier and lighter along the way. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

I encourage you to stay in the scripture, pray always, and Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul and mind.

Some Lessons I Have Learned This Past Week

It's so very awesome to see God at work in your own life, many times as a person we aren't able to step out and see the "Big Picture" of what God is doing in our lives. A few weeks ago I was so content as a person in everything that was going on, I was happily building up my business (albeit slowly), loving life, enjoying my family and just being near them and getting to know each and every one a little better, happy to be single for however long God wanted me to be, etc. I was just content. Then it seemed God threw a little bump in the road and upset my whole apple cart... now I'm not saying that I am not happy with any of the above stated facts. But, everything just seemed to happen all at once and all the sudden I don't feel so confident in my contentment anymore. In fact I feel down right vulnerable right now and I hate that feeling, because I love being in control and feeling strong.

 One evening this past week, while I was really feeling that vulnerability and I was at my weakest I decided to go outside and just walk in my gardens and be with God (not that He's in my gardens, but I always feel so much closer to God when I am outside, plus He is wherever I am). I was crying out to God for some answers (and I mean literally crying) and as I sat down at the edge of my herb garden Proverbs 3:5-6 came to mind the words flowed through my head as the tears flowed freely down my cheeks "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding; But in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.". There are times in our lives when we know in our heads what we need to do, but it's getting our hearts to freely follow Christ's bidding that is so hard (Jeremiah 17:9).
  God gave me a rare opportunity to step outside of myself (not literally), to step back and see a big picture of sorts and just see some of the things He had prepared me for, to see some of  what He had been doing in my life over the past few years. I was so shocked at what I saw. I mean in reality I shouldn't be shocked to see what God has done, but for me it is a lot easier to see God work in others rather than to see what He is doing in my own life (1 Cor. 2:6-12).
 God is so good to this child who's faith often wavers and sometimes seems to come crashing down, but Jesus is always there to pick me back up, show me where I was wrong and guide me back onto the straight and narrow. I know my heavenly Father loves me and is watching over me, and right now while my thoughts are swirling around certain things in my life that I am not sure where they are headed, I know that my loving, heavenly Father will always take care of me and that He has a plan for my life and I don't need to worry (Jeremiah 29:11).

Here are some things that God has taught me this week... He has taught me to daily lean on Him (and that's hard to do for someone who likes to be able to stand on her own two feet with no one's help), He shows me that my strength is not my strength, instead my weakness (or my vulnerability) is what God uses to make me strong through Him (2 Cor. 12:9-10), that no Glory belongs to myself, but to Him and Him alone...don't look back at the past victories that God has given me lest I think they are "my" victories(1Cor. 1:26-31) and last but not least God has taught me that He (not I) brought me out of nothing to something, He made me His child and I need not worry about tomorrow (Matthew 6:33-34).

What has God been teaching you lately?