Preparing to be a Prayer Warrior

I was recently invited to join a Bible study group for single women, so I downloaded the book we would be studying: "Preparing to Be a Help Meet." I began reading it last night, and this is a Bible study that should be done with every young teenage woman when she begins dating! I wonder how different my life would be right now if I'd been really taught as a girl how to look for the right man and how to prepare myself to be the right woman for him.

But there is no use in my wasting time wondering what might have been. I just praise God that He forgives and helps us get back on His path when we wander in our own direction!!

While this book was definitely not written for someone at my stage in life, the introduction asked a couple simple questions that clocked me. Hard.

In the few seconds it took me to read these lines, my whole outlook on dating changed instantly. The questions that have been in my mind for so long simply disappeared. My confusion was erased and replaced with the knowledge of my responsibility toward my future husband.

"Is there a young man that you have met in passing that you thought would be a good husband?"

"Have you been praying for him by name?"

Then the writer of this Bible study said one thing that I will never forget:

"Maybe heaven waits on you."
That explains it, I thought to myself. There's a reason the weight on my heart hasn't lifted -- He's been waiting on me to pray for the right thing. To pray not just for me to find the right man, but to actually start praying for that man, that God will work in his heart and in his life. I've been praying all wrong.

Well, if heaven has been waiting on me, it can stop waiting! I got the message, loud and clear!! This prayer warrior is ready for war, so heaven need wait no more!

Is there something in your life that you've been waiting for? Well, maybe heaven is waiting on you to make the first move. Pray, and pray hard!! And don't just pray for yourself - pray for each person involved in or affected by the situation that is weighing on your heart.

Pumpkins and Fairy Tales

I spent Saturday morning rocking on my front porch wrapped in an orange and brown afghan, wishing my coffee had a shot of pumpkin spice. Ummm... tis the season for pumpkin! Pumpkin pie, pumpkin spiced latte, pumpkin cheesecake... they all sound so yummy!!

My front porch is currently my favorite place to relax. Other than the occasional tractor, all I hear are cows mooing, birds chirping, and my cat purring. I sit there on my wooden white rocker envisioning my dream home - a cabin out in the woods with a porch all the way around and a fire crackling in the outdoor stone fireplace.

I close my eyes and imagine I'm there.

My little piece of paradise.

My fairy tale.

Which then makes me think of Cinderella, and I hope desperately that this pumpkin of my life turns into a beautiful carriage one day. However, too many people overlook the pumpkin's value because they are dreaming of a fancy carriage and fairy tale ending, and I don't want to be like that - so caught up in something that may never happen that I miss out on the pleasures of every day life.

And the pleasures of my everyday life are really great! On those Saturday mornings on the dirt road listening to birds singing, everything else fades away and I feel as though God created it all just for me to enjoy. No matter what others may have that I don't, they don't have this. Henry David Thoreau wrote, "I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion." He was a pretty smart guy.

Today, I'm thankful for my little pumpkin. It may not be a fairy tale, but it sure is good.

The Snowball Effect

Have you ever looked at someone you consider successful and wondered, "How did he/she get there?"

I see authors who've sold millions of books and can sometimes feel overwhelmed with self-doubt, but those doubts are of the devil who wants me to feel overwhelmed and give up. Luckily, I know better.

Publishing my novel is an act of faith, and I'm not giving up on my calling no matter how hard it gets!!

I've always had faith tucked away for times in life when I needed it, like a warm blanket waiting for a cold day. However, learning to apply faith to my daily life has been much like the snowball effect about which I've been studying in my book marketing strategies. It starts out small and builds slowly.

And it won't build itself. I must be a driving force pushing it forward.

Have you been actively pushing your faith to build and grow stronger, or have you been content as I used to be with it simply tucked away for a cold day?

Faith isn't a blanket you pull out on a cozy night by the fireplace. It is a powerful weapon.

Use it.

Changing the way you think...

"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got."

All my life, I've heard that saying. When I decided to turn my life completely over to God, I knew that big changes would need to take place in my life. Yet, breaking old habits isn't easy. Most people have little vices, things we tell ourselves are insignificant, and we make excuses to our own hearts in attempt to justify the decisions. However, if we want big results, if we want God to use us in special ways, we must first be willing to make whatever changes are necessary to give Him a blank canvas on which He will paint a new and brighter future.

Romans 12:1-2 states, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God — this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will."

Think of the your life as a painting. When you give your life to God, He washes the canvas white as snow. But the canvas is just going to get messy again if you continue trying to paint a masterpiece on your own. You have to hand the paintbrush over to Him.

Your body is a sacrifice, and sinful human nature often urges us to give in to desires that don't honor God. "Sacrifice" is "the act of giving up something that you want to keep especially in order to get or do something else or to help someone" or "an act of killing a person or animal in a religious ceremony as an offering to please a god." To offer your body as a sacrifice, you essentially "kill" the old you to please God. To sacrifice means to lose something precious, surrendering something you want to keep.

What do you want to hang on to today that God is asking you to give up? I know what He is asking me to surrender, and it's a daily struggle for me. Some days, the struggle hits me so hard that I want to quit. Giving in to sin is much easier than being a living sacrifice.

That's when I focus on the verse 2. If I want to change what I do, I must first change the way I think in order to "be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Change comes from within. Changing your thoughts changes your actions. I know that I want the good, pleasing, and perfect plan God has for my life. When the sacrifice seems too much, I just remember His promises. Nothing I desire compares to Him and His plan for me.

I'm changing the way I think, and He is changing me.

Just Say Jesus

Today, I am happy, and I want to share with you the reason why.

It is quite simple. His name is Jesus.

I was broken, and He put my pieces back together.
I was a mess, and He washed me clean.
I had gotten off course, and He lit my path and righted my steps.
I was crying, and He dried my tears.
I hung my head, and He bore my shame.
I couldn't take another step forward, and He carried me.
I am a sinner, and He died to save me.

It is quite simple, yet so hard to comprehend how the son of the Almighty God in Heaven has done all of this for little ol' me!!

But He did. And knowing that, how could I NOT be happy?!

So today, if you are broken like I was, you may bow your head to pray and not know what to say. That's how I was. I sat on my knees, hands folded so many times when no words could form in my mind to express what I was feeling.

If you feel like that today, please know that there is only one thing you need to say. Just say Jesus. You don't have to speak another word. He hears you, and He knows your heart.

If you haven't heard the song "Just Say Jesus" by 7eventh Time Down, you should really look it up.
"Whisper it now, or shout it out!
However it comes out, He hears your cry.
Out of no where He will come.
You've got to believe it!
He will rescue you,
just call out to the Way, the Truth, the Life!"