Prayer for Healing!

Sunsets… sunrises… flowers finally coming to bloom after this long, cold, seemingly endless winter… people smiling… babies… the Oriole’s hitting homeruns…

These are all things that can be beautiful and bring joy.  

Over the next 40 days I am embarking on a prayer journey (inspired by Mark Batterson’s book, “The Circle Maker”) for my Mom’s eyesight to be restored by Mother’s Day 2014.  It has been getting worse and worse since 1988- she stopped driving around 2000 and it has continued to decline.  She has had some surgeries that have not been successful.  She has never once complained! She is a woman of strength and such a trooper.  However, her vision is now at an all-time low.  Instead of any improvement things have just continued getting worse.

Throughout the next 40 days as I pray, I want to ask you to join in and when you see something that brings a smile to your face, be reminded to:

1. Be grateful for the gift of vision or corrective equipment that enables you to see

2. Say a prayer for God to restore her vision! 

I believe that God is able to heal her vision- he created her and her eyes and He is capable of miracles.  Jesus healed many blind people during his time on earth.  Please join this army in praying “circles” around the wall of blindness and making it fall like the wall of Jericho.

Called Me Higher Song

Called Me Higher by All Sons and Daughters

The above song in my life right now :) Lyrics:

I could just sit
I could just sit and wait for all Your goodness
Hope to feel Your presence
And I could just stay
I could just stay right where I am and hope to feel You
Hope to feel something again

And I could hold on
I could hold on to who I am and never let You
Change me from the inside
And I could be safe
I could be safe here in Your arms and never leave home
Never let these walls down

But You have called me higher
You have called me deeper
And I'll go where You will lead me Lord
You have called me higher
You have called me deeper
And I'll go where You lead me Lord
Where You lead me
Where You lead me Lord

And I could hold on
I could hold on to who I am and never let You
Change me from the inside
And I could be safe
I could be safe here in Your arms and never leave home
Never let these walls down

But You have called me higher
You have called me deeper
And I'll go where You will lead me Lord
You have called me higher
You have called me deeper
And I'll go where You lead me Lord
Where You lead me

And I will be Yours, oh
I will be Yours for all my life

And I will be Yours, oh
I will be Yours for all my life

And I will be Yours, oh
I will be Yours for all my life
So let Your mercy

And I will be Yours, oh
I will be Yours for all my life
So let Your mercy light the path before me

Cause You have called me higher
You have called me deeper
And I'll go where You will lead me Lord

Where You lead me
Where You lead me Lord

Short and Sweet... unlike this winter

Went on a very cold walk today at lunch- I love winter and I would rather be cold than hot but it is about time to warm up.  I want to see flowers growing and be able to walk outside and wear my dresses  (which I have way too many of, I know).  

As so many are looking forward to warmer weather and spring, it was a reminder to me today that even when we go through the cold and hard times in our lives... when there seems to be hope it will end and it snows again- and a polar vortex blows through- there is still hope.  There will be a spring time and a time of new life and growth and it will be beautiful and even more greatly appreciated than the spring after a mild winter.  Keep weathering the cold and hard- there is hope, even if you don't know when it will come!

Happy New Year!

If you were promised everything you wanted in 2014- success in your weight loss resolution, finding your husband/wife or having a perfect year with your spouse, having perfectly behaved children, being able to eat anything and gain no weight, build all the muscle mass you could imagine, no one would get sick or die, win the lottery, get a promotion, buy a house, anything…. you name it… but God was not with you this year would you want it?

It is a hard question- especially at this time as we set resolutions and goals for how we are going to have a better year- or be a better me this year.  What is more important- things going well or God's presence, even if that means things aren't peachy?

Remember those hard moments, the ones you mess up, where you fall short and realize you can’t do it on your own.  Those are precious because you weren't meant to- when you realize you can't you become aware that you need God because no matter how much you try you can’t take on this year, this month, this week, this day, even this hour without him. We would burn out.

Exodus 33:15-17:

Then Moses said to him, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?" And the LORD said to Moses, "I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name."

Stable Heart (belated Christmas post)

I want a Stable heart. I mean everyone wants a healthy, stable heart- but I am talking Stable heart… the Stable Jesus was born in that first Christmas night.  One of my favorite Christmas songs is “No Room (The Innkeeper)” by Todd Agnew- link to lyrics: http://www.newreleasetuesday.com/lyricsdetail.php?lyrics_id=13570. It is sung from the viewpoint of the innkeeper that Christmas night, being busy and having too much going on in her/his life to have to make room for this couple.

Being busy and running around- getting gifts, going to parties, wrapping presents, baking cookies, watching movies, play practices, you name it.  There is so much going on and it seems like time just flies by in December.  This must have been how the innkeeper was feeling.  ‘There is so much to do and focus on- I can’t pay attention to this couple and their child to be.’ This is why I want a “Stable” heart and not the “Inn” heart. I don’t want to have a heart at Christmas that is so distracted and caught up in doing things that I miss Jesus when he is right in front of my face. The inn was doing great business at that time, I am sure it would have been decorated all fancy for Christmas in modern times, yet it missed out.  The stable was not clean, it had animals, it wasn’t glamorous but it was open and available for Christ to come that night.

I want a Stable heart, not caught up in the season so much that it misses Christmas, but one that is ready to receive.

Hark those Herald Angels Sing

I try and focus on a particular person or group of the Christmas story each year. This year- the group that stands out to me in the story is the Angels… specifically the Angels that appear to the Shepherds.  From the beginning God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit have been. At some point the angels came to be (Genesis 2:1)- they have been directly in the presence of God and Jesus since their existence (except those fallen angels who left with Satan).

Can you imagine the angels love for him?  Their time in heaven was spent worshipping and praising him- in his direct presence (Nehemiah 9:6, book of Revelation).  They knew who Jesus was as God’s son, in all his royalty and deity in heaven.  They knew the honor, praise, glory, and worship he deserved as the king of kings and the lord of lords. Can you imagine how excited they were for humanity to meet him? Luke 2:8-20 tells the story of the angels appearing to the shepherds in the field. (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+2:8-20)

Having seen humans and all the sin on the earth since its creation and knowing who Jesus was and what he was capable of, the angels must have been so excited and had great anticipation for him to come to earth. When they appeared to the shepherds they were singing and praising God.  Yet what was happening on earth as Jesus came was nothing like that.  It was a simple couple in a stable outside in the night. 

The difference in the response of humanity and the response of the angels as Christ came to earth is what stands out to me. On earth nothing all that crazy happened- there weren’t fireworks, there wasn’t a parade… very few people really even knew about this birth, and many who did probably shunned Mary, not believing her tale.  The angels on the other hand, had a perspective from the “heaven-side”- an inside scoop of knowing Jesus firsthand and knowing who He was. They were so excited for his coming to earth- they just wanted to share it with the shepherds and rejoice.

What did the angels think?  Were they confused by earth’s seeming lack of excitement for what they knew was the arrival of the greatest gift of all time? We received and met Jesus for the first time that night, they saw the son they already worshipped and loved come into the earth the first time.  Perspective J

The Perfect Gift

Call off the Search… that “perfect” gift hunt.  It is Christmas time and I know everyone is out there looking for “the perfect gift”.  If you get the “perfect” gift for someone every year does that mean the gifts that were perfect in prior years are no longer perfect? Or is that to say we are not using “perfect” as an end all be all, but an ongoing idea? In which case…“best for this year” would be more accurate I guess?

I digress- the point I was making is that we will never be able to give the perfect gift no matter how hard we try.  That gift was already given about 2000 years ago when God sent his son to the earth.  Christmas isn’t about giving the perfect gift- it is about receiving the perfect gift that has already been given.  It is a gift that will never rust, never be eaten by moths, and never decay… one that cannot be stolen or taken from us unless we freely choose to push it away.  A gift that goes on for eternity… there is no gift any human could ever give that can top this.  So stop trying- breathe, relax, and receive this amazing gift.