Bible Verse of the Day

 “speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord , always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Ephesians 5:19-20

Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord? What do you think this means? Why is it even important?

As I read this I think of that it means to praise God no matter what your circumstances are. I know that sometimes this is hard to do, especially when we question why God may let us reside in certain situations. It is remembering that God is the only one with a pure heart towards you, that desires for you to have a full and abundant life in Him. It is seeing the truth that He supplies what we need to sustain us through whatever it is we face and that He is there holding our hand leading through the storms and celebrations of life.

Why is it important?

Well you see this is the one thing the enemy tries to steal from us, our communion (relationship) with our Heavenly Father. He knows when he can break this he can manipulate us in almost every way, he knows that this is our source of strength and life, it is the cutting off of our spiritual oxygen.

So what do we do when life throws us hard times? We trust and try to walk in Him through it, by keeping our relationship intact. The promise God offers in this is that He will remain with and in us and will love us through anything we face.

Walk in love with Him today, it is your life blood in this world.

Faith Does

There’s something that you know God’s called you to do. You’ve been wrestling with this for a while now.

Someone he’s called you to reach out to. Somewhere you just know He wants you to go. Something He’s impressed upon you to do.

And you may be thinking, “I’ve waited this long…what’s another few days?”

Because procrastination is the enemy of doing what God wants. And procrastination often takes the form of “good” things. But don’t let even good things get in your way any longer. Don’t let distractions do what they do best…distract you. It’s just not worth it. The King has called.

Faith does.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. James 2.18

50 Ways to Keep Your Heart Alive

Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much a heart can hold. – Zelda Fitzgerald

Most poets, spiritualists, and even some medical doctors believe there is a mind-body-soul connection. Our hearts provide the source of power necessary for this connection. What’s in our hearts, the condition of our hearts and the size of our hearts determine how strong this connection can be and how long it may last.

On a functional level, we need our hearts to distribute blood throughout our bodies. On a spiritual level, we depend on our hearts to give nourishment to our souls. But, it’s an ebb and flow. Meaning, we need to give our hearts a reason a reason to stay alive or they will stop.

Becoming isolated from others, feeling discouraged and losing hope can shut down our hearts in the metaphorical sense. Left unattended for long, our minds, bodies and souls will soon begin to shut down in the physical sense as well.

During times when I feel my heart is shutting down, I rely on these ways to keep it alive:

1. Living simply and remembering there is power in less; not more.
2. Seeing love in my friend’s eyes.
3. Keeping hate from entering my heart.
4. Asking, “What do I want?” And then listening for the answer.
5. Erasing the self-limiting tapes that play in my head.
6. Expecting little and giving much.
7. Forgiving.
8. Watching my brother become a man.
9. Knowing He is not done with me yet.
10. Remembering to play like a child.
11. Feeling an ounce of resurgence after a setback.
12. Enjoying a summer night, a cold beer and a baseball game, all at the same time.
13. Going to bed knowing I didn’t take any shortcuts.
14. Receiving an unexpected kiss from my niece.
15. Savoring the first sip of coffee in the morning.
16. Remembering the depth of my faith when my soul feels raw.
17. Waiting for the good to rise out of the bad. It always does.
18. Realizing I get to choose who I share my heart with.
19. Taking one step forward as a reminder I do have the ability to keep moving.
20. Acknowledging my reality so I can change it if it’s not working.
21. Laughing when a circumstance goes from the absurd to the surreal.
22. Exercising on days when I really don’t feel like it.
23. Understanding my passion to help others is beautiful.
24. Dreaming of what’s next.
25. Appreciating the abundance in my life.
26. Learning to replace my anxiety with peace.
27. Surrendering my plan for His.
28. Falling to sleep with my dogs next to me.
29. Tasting a fresh-cut watermelon.
30. Embracing the fact my life has an expiration date.
31. Understanding it’s not failure I sometimes fear, but happiness.
32. Standing tall in the face of truth – even the uncomfortable truths about myself.
33. Remembering what’s right in my life.
34. Saying, “Yes” to things I want for myself.
35. Experiencing the confidence I possess.
36. Slowing down and doing nothing.
37. Asking for help and then feeling worthy to receive it.
38. Trusting the process three years ago.
39. Giving myself grace.
40. Allowing good things to happen.
41. Realizing I am more than enough.
42. Healing the child within.
43. Singing happily throughout the house.
44. Having a second chance to be a better sister and friend.
45. Hoping the Rangers will win one World Series in my lifetime.
46. Knowing the pain I have experienced does indeed have a purpose.
47. Beginning to love myself more.
48. Realizing life is about doing, not just being.
49. Discovering the unexpected.
50. Living from my heart everyday.

So how's your love life?

So how's your love life? Do you love God? God says we are to love Him with all our heart, mind, body, soul and strength. But not only God; we are to love others. Those who are genuinely born of God not only love the Father, but the child born of Him. Thus Jesus gave His disciples a new commandment: we are to love one another even as He loves us (John 13:34 and 35). It would be time well invested to meditate on the ways He expressed His love toward us, toward others, even toward the one who would betray Him.

And what is it that keeps us from loving like this?

John, the apostle of love, tells us in his first epistle by way of a warning: "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away . . ." (1 John 2:15 and 16).

Yet the world is so very present, isn't it? So alluring! So tangible! So appealing to our flesh, our ego, our desire to be, to attain, to "make it"! But you have to ask yourself, will it last? Is it worth what you pay in time, in energy, in relationships?

Ours is a culture of concupiscence—a culture that has infiltrated the church. We have a love of softness. We are told, "You deserve it! You earned it. You owe it to yourself to be good to yourself!" Oh Beloved, we hear it and we believe it. We have so loved softness that we have not endured hardship as a soldier of Christ. We have not disciplined ourselves for the sake of godliness.

And part of godliness is loving—as He loved—sacrificially, selflessly. Loving others not just with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. When we love His way, then we assure our heart before Him, and we have confidence in the coming day of judgment, because as He is in this world, so are we. They know we are His disciples by our love—His love unleashed in us to overflow on the world about us.

“If I have not love, I am nothing,” Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:2. Jesus said that the second greatest commandment, after loving God, is loving people. Indeed, if we “live a life of love” as God desires (Ephesians 5:2), we will naturally obey most of His other commands.

What’s a girl worth?

What’s a girl worth?

I was 13– Excited to be out late at Denny’s with my friends, talking and laughing, effervescent, carefree. He was much older, at least in his 30s, but he zeroed in on me. He leered, scruffy face so close, stinking drunk, and he loud-whispered words I’d never heard about what he wanted to do to me. He said he would make me quiver, and he did. Just not the way he meant.

I sought comfort from two women I thought would understand, but they could only see the moment through their own dark-tinted lenses. My experience wasn’t as bad as theirs had been, and they brushed it off. I was alone with fear and shame.

What’s a girl worth?

I was 15– Too young and too scared, desperate to keep my older boyfriend, reluctantly willing. He gave me a magazine as a guide, full of bodies and skin, excitement and impossibility. He wanted me to learn what to do for him. So I did. And when he used me all up, he left me to guilt and self-loathing. And I dared not seek comfort where it had not met me before.

What’s a girl worth?

I was 17– Feeling like a woman behind the wheel of my red convertible, waiting for the light to let me get to my hostess job, mature, nearly grown. He honked his horn and filled the space between his car and mine with shouts and dirty laughter: He liked how I ate my banana. I drove away stupid and small.

What’s a girl worth?

I was 31– Creating a place of laughter and heart-baring, writing good words, typing out truth. I opened up so others could too and invited conversation. He was anonymous and cowardly. He sent a message to describe how he’d defile me if he had his way. I was shaken and suspicious.

When I turned to my communities, two scoffers stood out among the supporters. Women who suggested it was my fault, expected, deserved.

What’s a girl worth?

I know the statement of my worth comes from the lips of the One who made me, but yet– but yet. When the shouts of men say You’re just a thing to f--k, when the sneers of women say Oh well– the voice of truth is hard to make out through the chatter.

And I need the strong voices of my brothers and the sweet singing of my sisters to raise loud the truth of our Father’s words, to remind me what a girl’s worth.

***

Have you ever struggled to believe what you’re worth when God and the world disagree?

Fervency in Prayer

“…The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

James 5:16

The Apostle James [as he's called in Gal 1:19] DOES NOT tell us ”the prayers” of God’s people avail much…no…he says, the “EFFECTUAL FERVENT PRAYER” of a righteous man avails much!

The words effectual fervent have been translated from one Greek word, energeo [en-erg-eh’-o], and it means to work in effectually; to be mighty in - to have energy and to be energetic! God tells us through James that if His children’s prayers are going to “avail much”, and if the prayers of the people of God will “move the Arm that moves the world”, it will have to be by the “effectual fervent” [energetic] prayers of the people of God!

Please note: We have no power to control God…

-We cannot dictate to Him nor can we command Him…

-We cannot resist Him in the execution of His purposes…

BUT: we may humbly ask Him for what we desire…

AND [it gets even better!] God graciously tells us in James 5:16 that such asking will have much effect for our own good and for the good of our fellow-men!

If there’s anything that can prevail with God, it has to be prayer…humble, fervent, and earnest petitioning!

WHERE’S THE FERVENCY IN OUR PRAYERS?

Where’s the “worked in and worked up” praying that God says will avail so much with Him? Where’s the energy, earnestness, and sincerity that’s boiling so hot in us that we MUST commune with our God? That’s the praying we need to do…that’s the praying we need to have!

HOW CAN WE GET IT?

How can we go from “prayer” to “the effectual fervent prayer”? Just 4 thoughts briefly…

1. There must be DESPARATION

When was the last time YOU were desparate for:

-The POWER of God?

-The PRESENCE of God?

-The PROMISES of God?

-The PEACE of God?

-The PERFECTION of God?

[Jesus said in Matt 5:48, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Perfect means complete, pure, holy]

When was the last time YOU had a deep-felt, desperate need for these things from God? That would also have been the last time you had effectual fervent prayer.

2. There must be CONVICTION

Many don’t have Holy-Ghost conviction on their lives. Many don’t know the conviction that prevents sleep, produces misery, and points to Calvary!

Where’s the conviction that comes when we pray for souls? It seems that nothing happens when we pray…Why? Well, it might be:

1. We’ve become cold…

2. We’ve become careless or we “care less”…

3. We’ve become corrupted by the world…

4. We’ve become comfortable in the world…

Are we – are YOU – really convinced that souls are going to Hell? When was the last time in praying for a lost soul that God broke your heart and tears ran down your face for that soul?

*CONVICTION will bring us from “prayer” to “effectual fervent prayer”!

3. There must be INTERCESSION

Why don’t we intercede on behalf of others, as we should? Could it be that:

1. We’re satisfied with things we have and of who we are?

2. We really don’t see the need to pray?

3. We really don’t have the heart to pray?

Start interceding for someone else. Start going to God on someone else’s behalf. Philippians 2:4 says, “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others“. Do you see the great need for it? Do you have the heart for it? To be a true intercessor for others will bring about effectual fervent prayer!

4. There must be COMPASSION

I read of a pastor one time that God used to plant a church in the middle of a tough, inner city. When asked how it was done, he replied, “Wet eyes, bent knees, and a broken heart.”

Jude 22, “And of some have compassion, making a difference”.

When you have compassion, it shows that:

1. You believe in Hell…

2. You believe in the coming judgment…

3. You believe in the brevity of life…

4. You have concern for the souls of men…

And therefore, COMPASSION will bring you from “prayer” to “effectual fervent prayer”!

Are you ready to pray…effectually fervently…will all humility / energy / sincerity?

Are you ready to “work out” with God what God has already “worked in” with you?

PRAY…JUST PRAY!

When everything seems hopeless

I think we all have experienced times in our lives when things just seemed hopeless. Sometimes our situations feel so out of control and we can’t believe what is happening.

We can’t believe that our parent died at such a young age.
We can’t believe that our spouse walked out on us.
We can’t believe that we have just been diagnosed with cancer.
When we come to this point in our lives, it feels like there is no way past our problems. We’re convinced that life will never be the same again. We feel like there is no hope.

When we find ourselves in this place, we have to remember that we are not the first people who have ever felt this way. Millions of people throughout the ages have felt these exact same feelings.
Jesus’ disciples felt this way the day He was crucified.

Hope had died in the hearts of Jesus’ most loyal friends and followers the day He died on the cross. They felt more powerless, more hopeless than they had ever felt in their lives.

The problem was, the disciples were only seeing part of the message. “Christ defeated” was all they knew. But then on the third day the fog of disappointment and misunderstanding lifted, and they (and the world) received the complete message: “Christ defeated death!”

Defeat was turned into victory; death was turned into life! In a matter of hours, the disciples journeyed from hopeless to hope-filled. From powerless to powerful.
This is good news for all of us in who are in desperate need of hope today!

The problem is that everything that we hope in will one day eventually disappoint us. Every circumstance, every situation, every relationship we put our hope in is eventually going to wear out, fall apart, give out and go away.

This is why I can find hope in the midst of any crisis I may face. I can have hope when it feels like there is no reason to have hope.

I can have hope because my hope is based on a powerful, in-control God who can do and will do the impossible.

My hope is based on a God who has defeated death itself!

This same hope is available to you as well.

When everything seems hopeless we need to remember:

Even though life is uncertain, God is not. While our power is limited, God is limitless. He still has the whole world in his hands.

Your world may feel chaotic and hopeless right now but remember God is still in control!

Almighty God, Your Word says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" So I give You permission to search my heart and mind so that I can face my true anxieties about losing hope in what I mistakenly have confidence in. I want to put my hope in You LORD, for those who hope in the LORD shall renew their strength. They will soar like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint - thank You Father.