"It is one thing to go through a crisis grandly, but another thing to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, no one paying the remotest attention to us."
-Oswald Chambers

"If we desire to end our days in joy and comfort, let us lay the foundation of a comfortable death now betimes. To die well is not a thing of that light moment as some imagine: it is no easy matter. But to die well is a matter of every day. Let us daily do some good that may help us at the time of our death. Every day by repentance pull out the sting of some sin,that so when death comes, we may have nothing to do but to die. To die well is the action of the whole life."
-Richard Sibbes

I read these qoutes and thought of my grandmother. They describe her life so well. It takes an extremely large amount of humility and devotion to live a life so removed from one's own desires and natural tendencies in order to more fully allow Chrsit to reign.

My grand mother passed away a week ago Friday. I'm so grateful to have been able to know her so well and learn from her almost every day. She had a consuming love for the Lord, and loved others much more than herself.

"Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow." -Ps.144:4

It can be so easy to live for myself, to allow myself be driven by my mood or emotions, but every day spent on myself is a day waisted. It sounds trite or cliché but treat every day like a gift. You don't know when your life will end, and you don't know when the life of those you love will end.

Every day surrender yourself, your life to Chrsit, and always look for opprotunites to bless others.

Amazing Grace

I love the song; his voice is amazing. But I also love what he says about the song. I hope you enjoy it.
(Don't forget to pause the player on the side.)

The Lord Will Quiet You With His Love

"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." -2 Corinthians 1:3-4

I have had a few different friends lose loved ones in the past month or so, and I wish I'd been a better comforter and friend to them in that time. But we can learn from our mistakes. And we can grow in our times of trouble.

"I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation." -2 Corinthians 7:4b

"This is my comfort in my affliction, for Your word has given me life." -Psalm 119:50

"I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy, for You have considered my trouble; You have known my soul in adversities," -Psalm 31:7

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." -Psalm 23:4

"The LORD your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing." -Zephaniah 3:17

"The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all." -Psalm 34:18,19

I don't know what you are going through in this life now, but lean on the Lord through it all. He cares for you, only trust Him. Thank the Lord for any trials you may be going through and depend upon His strength. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, Christ has overcome the world! In His presence is fullness of joy.

P.S. Thank you girls, for being such sweet friends! You know who you are, you are such a blessing.

Sunday Is....

International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church

Thoughts That Stick

I've been thinking a lot about prayer recently. How much time should I set aside each day to pray? If I am praying from my list of prayer requests each morning how can I let the Spirit lead me to pray for what He wants me to pray for? Should I just trash the list? Do I need to give my complete and undivided attention to God every time I pray or is it okay to pray while cleaning the bathroom or making lunch? I couldn't seem to get these thoughts out of my head. I wanted to know how to interpret the Bible verses on prayer into my own prayer life.

While it took some praying, God gave me a most glorious glimpse of what continuous prayer in faith can do. He always does answer in the most satisfying ways. (Jeremiah 33:3) He is always faithful to answer, but often He wants us to be faithful in prayer, learn what it means to "not lose heart", before He give us what we ask.

Any way I wanted to share a portion of a book with you. It encouraged me and I hope it blesses you.

    My Creed leads me to think that prayer is efficacious [effective], and surely a day's asking God to overrule all events for good is not lost. Still there is a great feeling that when a man is praying he's doing nothing, and this feeling makes us give undue importance to work, sometimes even to the hurrying over or even to the neglect of prayer.
    Do not we rest in our day too much on the arm of flesh? Cannot the same wonders be done now as of old? Do not the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth still to show Himself strong on behalf of those who put their trust in Him? Oh that God would give me more practical faith in Him! Where is now the Lord God of Elijah? He is waiting for Elijah to call on Him -James Gilmour of Mongolia
    The more praying there is in the world the better it will be, the mightier the forces against evil everywhere. Prayer, in one phase of its operation, is a disinfectant and a preventive. It purifies the air; it destroys the contagion of evil. Prayer is not fitful, shortlived thing. It is no voice crying unheard and unheeded in the silence. It is a voice which goes into God's ear, and it lives as long as God's ear is open to holy pleas, as long as God's heart is alive to holy things.
    God shapes the world by prayer. Prayers are deathless. The lips that uttered them may be closed in death, the heart that felt them may have ceased to beat, but the prayers live before God, and God's heart is set on them and prayers outlive the lives of those who uttered them; out live a generation, outlive an age, outlive a world.
   That man is the most immortal who has done the most and the best praying. They are God's heroes, God's saints, God's servants, God's vicegerents [ambassador]. A man can pray better because of the prayers of the past; a man can live holier because of the prayers of the past, the man of many and acceptable prayers has done the truest and greatest service to the incoming generation. The prayers of God's saints strengthen the unborn generation against the desolating waves of sin and evil. Woe to the generation of sons who find their censers empty of the rich incense of prayer; whose fathers have been too busy or too unbelieving to pray, and perils inexpressible and consequences untold are their unhappy heritage. Fortunate are they whose fathers and mothers have left them a wealthy patrimony of prayer.
   The prayers of God’s saints are the capital stock in heaven by which Christ carries on His great work upon earth. The great throes and mighty convulsions on earth are the results of these prayers. Earth is changed, revolutionised, angels move on more powerful, more rapid wing, and God’s policy is shaped as the prayers are more numerous, more efficient.

   It is true that the mightiest successes that come to God’s cause are created and carried on by prayer. God’s day of power; the angelic days of activity and power are when God’s Church comes into its mightiest inheritance of mightiest faith and mightiest prayer. God’s conquering days are when the saints have given themselves to mightiest prayer. When God’s house on earth is a house of prayer, then God’s house in heaven is busy and all potent in its plans and movements, then His earthly armies are clothed with the triumphs and spoils of victory and His enemies defeated on every hand.

   God conditions the very life and prosperity of His cause on prayer. The condition was put in the very existence of God’s cause in this world. Ask of Me is the one condition God puts in the very advance and triumph of His cause.
   Men are to pray—to pray for the advance of God’s cause. Prayer puts God in full force in the world. To a prayerful man God is present in realised force; to a prayerful Church God is present in glorious power, and the Second Psalm is the Divine description of the establishment of God’s cause through Jesus Christ. All inferior dispensations have merged in the enthronement of Jesus Christ. God declares the enthronement of His Son. The nations are incensed with bitter hatred against His cause. God is described as laughing at their enfeebled hate. The Lord will laugh; The Lord will have them in derision. “Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion.” The decree has passed immutable and eternal:


I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said unto Me, Thou art My Son;
This day have I begotten Thee.
Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance,
And the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron;
Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

   Ask of Me is the condition a praying people willing and obedient. “And men shall pray for Him continually.” Under this universal and simple promise men and women of old laid themselves out for God. They prayed and God answered their prayers, and the cause of God was kept alive in the world by the flame of their praying.
   Prayer became a settled and only condition to move His Son’s Kingdom. “Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened.” The strongest one in Christ’s kingdom is he who is the best knocker. The secret of success in Christ’s Kingdom is the ability to pray. The one who can wield the power of prayer is the strong one, the holy one in Christ’s Kingdom. The most important lesson we can learn is how to pray.
   Prayer is the keynote of the most sanctified life, of the holiest ministry. He does the most for God who is the highest skilled in prayer. Jesus Christ exercised His ministry after this order.
[Purpose In Prayer, E. M. Bounds, Chapter 1]