Joshua 1:9

"Have I not told you: be strong and stand firm? Be fearless, then, be confident, for go where you will, Yahweh your God is with you."

My prayer with this scripture:

Help me, Lord - I am weak and I am fearful - I have no confidence in what I can say or do! But - in You I can be all that You would have me to be! Thank you for your promise that wherever I go, whatever I do, YOU go with me!

And Isaiah 41:9 1/2 through verse 10 and verse 13: "You are my servant, I have chosen you, not rejected you', do not be afraid, for I am with you; stop being anxious and watchful, for I am your God. I give you strength, I bring you help, I uphold you with my victorious right hand. For I, Yahweh, your God, I am holding you by the right hand; I tell you, 'Do not be afraid, I will help you'.

I thank you, My Lord, for knowing me through and through. You know I get fearful and anxious. I am so blessed to know you. To know you are my God, and you have chosen me - not rejected me! Thank you for giving me strength to face whatever is coming, thenk you for your help. I reach up to you, and put my hand in the hand of GOD ALMIGHTY. How could I be afraid. I know you are helping me. Please, Lord, help our country. Have mercy on your people. God bless Israel and America!

Lonely? Turn to me, says the Lord

I found this pamphlet from "Life Spring", and thought I would post it here. So many of us need to hear God speaking this message to us now.

"Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.

Relieve the troubles of my heart, and bring me out of my distress.

Consider my affliction
and my trouble,
and forgive all my sins."

Psalm 25:16, 18

Even David, a king and a hero, knew loneliness and despair. In this psalm he asks God to help him in his troubles - - to comfort him. Each of us, at certain times, experiences loneliness. We wish that a friend or family member would reach out to us in a personal way. We would like to talk to and be with someone who cares about us.

Even though people aren't always there when we need them most, we can be assured that God is present with us at all times. God comes to us. God knows and hears our troubles. God is our constant companion and friend.

Prayer:

Dear Lord,

I feel very lonely today. No one calls or stops by. I feel like David - - lonely and afflicted. It helps me to know that you are there.

Thank you for being with me at all times, for hearing my troubles, and for forgiving my sins.

Amen


I picked this pamphlet up somewhere along the way - in Billings when I was the Religious Ed Director at St. Pius. The date on it is 7-02-90! copyright 1990 Augsburg Fortress. Couldn't be more perfect for right now, could it?

Praying the scriptures

I will often open my bible, and read what is there. I ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the truths and inspirations of those verses I read. A word or a phrase or a paragraph or whatever will sort of "come off the page at me", and I will stop there. I meditate a little (or a lot) and then I can usually use that as my "revelation" of what to pray for at that particular time. The bible is so full of prayers. The Psalms, the letters, Isaiah, have lots of prayers, as do so many other books of the bible. This reading from the book of Ephesians chapter 1, verses 16 and 17:

"I have never failed to remember you (insert name of person you are praying for) in my prayers and to thank God for you. May our Lord Jesus Christ give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed to bring you to a full knowledge of him."

1 corinthians 16:verses 13 and 14: (I want to pray this one for myself, but insert whatever name you want here) "Lord, Help me to be awake to all the dangers; to stay firm in faith; to be brave and strong - to have courage and truth. Help me to do everything I do or say in love".

Or the passion of Christ and after the resurrection - Luke - chapter 22 through chapter 24. Meditate on each event there, and pray as you are being prompted by the Holy Spirit to pray. Or Luke Chapter 11 - The Lord's prayer. Wonderful scriptures to pray!

Pray with a daily devotional - one that has scriptures with that day. Read those scriptures, read the devotion for the day, then your prayer can take off from there.

Then, of course, the Psalms. Find one that is speaking to you and meditate on all the words. Pray it! Psalm 5 - titled MORNING PRAYER in my Jerusalem bible - especially verses 1-3, are a great prayer to start your day. Psalm 51 - a psalm of repentance. Just a few verses that pray!

Go on your own "treasure hunt" through the verses of the bible. You will be rich and blessed, and grow close to God.

Prayer and the words of God from scripture, are so powerful! They work well together.

A great teacher!

I watched the best teaching on TBN today! Google in baylessconley.com and click on to one about heart something. Maybe I'll get a better title for you. He's a wonderful teacher. Very inspiring and fun to listen to.

Prayer for Russ

Please go to the Eve's Dropper, look into the post titled Pray for Russ, scroll down to Kay's post and then my last post to see the latest news on Russ. Read that scripture I posted there. Continue praying for him, please. God can work miracles. He can fix Russ's heart.

Thank you for your prayers!

A prayer for Karen

Please pray with me:

Lord Jesus, Karen is your beloved daughter.
Snatch her, Lord, from the grasp of your enemy.
Cover her with your precious blood and flood her with the healing waters of your love.
Let her know that a great and good God is her provider.
Send her some people to love her - send your angels to minister to her.
Give her the grace of repentance. Lord, help her to turn around and go on your path. Help her before she does further damage to herself and to those who love her.
Help her before she sinks more deeply into the path the enemy has laid before her.

You are God. You are Lord.
Thank you, Jesus, that you have the ability
to turn every attack of the enemy to great good.

Do that now, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen!

Ecclesiasticus 30:21-27

I prayed this morning for all of us. I prayed against the spirit of depression that is rearing it's ugly head these days and causing all kinds of troubles for some of us. I opened my bible and here is what I read:

"Do not abandon yourself to sorrow,
do not torment yourself with brooding.
Gladness of heart is life to you
Joy is what gives you length of days. (Our prayer group in Billings was called
"The Children of Joy and Gladness" - just
an interesting aside.)
Beguile your cares, console your heart,
Chase sorrow far away;
For sorrow has been the ruin of many,
and is of no use to anybody.

Jealousy and anger shorten your days,
and worry brings premature old age.
A genial heart makes a good trencherman,
One who benefits from his food."


I had to look up the meaning of a couple of these big words:

Beguile means to mislead, deceive, cheat.
Genial means kindly, pleasant, cordial in disposition or manner.
A trencherman is someone who sponges, a hanger-on. Someone who likes to eat, it
says in my dictionary.

So, "beguile your cares" means to mislead, deceive, cheat our cares. They cannot drag
us down.
A genial heart, or someone who is kindly, pleasant, cordial in disposition, makes a
good friend. I wonder if a "Trencherman" is someone who never lets you down,
a person you want to be around - to go out to lunch with! ???

I thought this was a good reading for today. I will follow up with ideas I find to
help bring us our of sorrow and sadness and torment into Joy and Gladness!

Do you have any ideas or ways you have found to bring you our of the doldrums?

Ecclesiasticus 32:1-3 (or Sirach)

As I was praying today for our president, our country and our world - I was drawn to this scripture from my Jeruselum bible. This is a book that is only in the Catholic Bibles. It is a favorite book for me to read, I get so much out of it. I hope you all have a Catholic Bible around just so you can read this book.

Chapter 32:1-3 says this: (I am praying for our president)


"Have they made you president?
Do not let it go to your head, or behave like everyone else in your party.
See that the people are happy, and then sit down yourself.
Having discharged your duties,
Take your place, and enjoy yourself with the others.
THEN you will receive the crown (reward)
for your competence."

Keep in mind this book of the bible is not Ecclesiast-es, but Ecclesiasti-cus, and is also the book of Sirach.


Any thoughts - anyone?

The condition of the world!

The earthquakes and tsunami's as a result of them. It is a scarey time, IF all we do is read and hear the news. Washington state is included in the tsunami warnings. Have you heard anything about that, Hanson's? I have been praying all day today. I'm praying the blood of the precious lamb of God over those I know and love, and all people in the path of this disaster! I pray for God's mercy and grace. I pray all will come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. And that we all know the "Blessed Hope" of knowing God in all HIS glory, in His Son, and through His Holy Spirit.

And now I am hearing of massive flooding, tornadoes, thunder and lightening all over the Eastern and sounthern U.S.


Read Matthew 24 through chapter 25:1-13

What are your thoughts on this?

Pray!

I just can't help myself!

I'm very interested in what is going on in our government and politics. I'm interested. I'm holding my breath, but interested nonetheless and turning to my bible.

Look what I found!: Romans 13:1 tells me: "let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God" And it goes on to make clear that I am to respect authorities and obey the law," Romans 13:2-6. I am also to "pay to all what is due them--taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, honor to whom honor is due." Romans 13-7.

Romans 13:8-10 goes on to say that all the commandments about how God's people are to treat each other "are summed up in this word, 'love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law."

Clearly I'm supposed to love the legislators -- all of them, no matter what their views. And they are to love all of us, no matter who we are or what our views are. This makes me chuckle, because I've never thought of it this way. I think we should surround the legislature -- every single member -- and all the staff and others who are there, with love and prayer.

Now, let me see: Love, from Romans 13 to Corinthians 13:1, "If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol" - - AMEN!!!

Psalm 42:1-2, Psalm 63:1-2

Read these few verses when you have a minute.

What do YOU hunger and thirst for? King David, who wrote these psalms, was in a desert place in his life. Like we are at times, too. He went in search of the living water, the living God. He wanted the Lord more than anything else. God's presence was food and water to him.

Have you ever been that thirsty for God? You know the feeling. That empty longing. That deep hunger in your heart for something more-the need to be fulfilled. And you keep looking and searching and longing and you never quite get there.

I know I tried to fill this vacuum with things I thought would work. Music, parties, dancing, Elvis, TV. Shopping, and buying things when I can. Filling the spaces in my house and closets with "things", just "stuff". I would strive for success, and try to please everyone and expect people to please me. I sought satisfaction in all my relationships, and I would drain people dry with all my needs (especially my wonderful husband, and parents, and trying to impress people who I thought were my friends). But none of these things ever really fill that empty place. That's because the empty place was designed by God to be filled with Him only! And we all have that place of longing within us! This great hunger in our hearts and our souls can only be satisfied with the presence of God!

The music, the parties, the TV programs, the shopping, the "stuff", etc., all comes to an end and the emptiness and loneliness are still there. Relationships didn't always turn out the way I thought they would, and there I was - still longing for whatever it was I thought I would gain from it! I still felt empty and lonely!

Eventually everything comes down to just me. Alone. And there is nothing I can grasp on to that is lasting -- except the presence of God. Jesus is the way to the Father. I found that wonderful presence of God in my life when I finally let my guard down and let Jesus into my heart. What a wonderful day that was! It was the beginning of my journey into the heart of God - into His very presence! That was in 1974. Every day it is a new adventure. Some days there is such a desert, such longing and thirst and hunger for God. God wants us to come after Him, to seek Him.

David looked for God. He went after Him. He searched Him out until He found Him. And then he laid his feelings and longings at His feet. Psalm 38:9. David found God because he sought Him - He searched for Him.

The way I draw near to God and seek out His presence is to worship and praise Him. I usually set aside some time every morning to be with HIM. I will often listen to teachings, some praise and worship music, read my scriptures, and just ASK HIM to soak me in His love, His presence, and I just feel Him near. I know He wants to be with me, and I want to be with HIM. The loneliness, the emptiness just are gone, and so is an hour or two of my day, when our time together is over. And then the rest of my day is filled with His presence as I go about my day.

I have not been faithful to my time with God in the mornings for a month or two, but now I'm there again. I felt the emptiness, the anxieties, the world pulling me in, the loneliness, when I wasn't keeping my time of seeking God.

Somewhere in the bible, and I can't remember where, God says "I dwell in the praises of my people", and He does. Praise and worship, song and scripture opens the gates to a more fulfilling life.

Read 1 Chronicles 28:9 in your bible. Have you been able to lay your heart bare before the Lord? Have you been able to reveal all of how you feel to Him? If not, tell Him now. If you have, tell Him again. And then write out a prayer of praise and thanksgiving for His presence in your life. Tell Him all the ways you worship and glorify Him.