Fresh words -- Traditions, BOLD prayers, quiet time, and Teenagers!

I am  enjoying this week before Christmas with my students.  What a tremendous opportunity I have been gifted with.  I am allowed to speak life into 10 and 11 year old's  around me every day.  I don't take that responsibility lightly.

We have studied  Christmas Traditions around the world and I have communicated  the traditions that are special to me.   We've cut  paper crafts, watched some tearful movies that show the spirit of Christmas,  read about  the Herdmans and how they put on a Christmas pageant and then we watched it come to life on the screen.    I was floored to realize how many of my students had never been to a Christmas Program of some type at a local church.  We created ornaments, sang Christmas Carols,  and shared stories as well as  blogged  about  their family  Traditions.

It has been a busy week.

I LOVE my job.

  In all of this, I have discovered which students don't have family traditions and a legacy of Christmas programs and such.  That  opened my eyes.  I knew this and yet, I did not know the extent to which it was reality. 


I thought about  the holiday  traditions my hubby and I did with our children.  Now, that they are adults,  and living away from us, we discussed  WHAT we can still do or new traditions to begin now with our married first born.   Today, I pondered about the  traditional way I come to God.

The Lord has asked me to UP my reading and prayer life.  HE wants more from me.  As I was preparing for our HOPE in HIM Encounter,   HE  clearly impressed  upon me that I was no longer a babe in Christ, nor a toddler...but an adult that was needed and no longer could  I just wait for HIM....but to SEEK HIM more. 

I fall in love with MY Lord even more when I know that I know -- what HE is speaking to me.

Humbled.

 Thus, I believe, he has changed my sleeping patterns and has awoken me almost every day since at about 4am -- to get my quiet time with him done first -- otherwise it usually happened throughout the day and here and there.  No judging there -- I have gone in spells where it was always first in my day, and or at a certain time.  I have even had my quiet time in my car - driving.  I believe I speak to God throughout my entire day - without ceasing. 

So, with that --

I was a seeking him for some fresh words and HE brought me to this, from Isaiah 55 in the ESV bible.

Seek the Lord while he may be found;
    call upon him while he is near;
⁷ let the wicked forsake his way,
    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.



 AS to the people I am crying out for, presently in prayer -- I have released  them all to HIM and I am not taking the back  the stress of those burdens; but,  I believe  God's hands are big enough now to hold them.   Clearly,  God's word says in the second half of verse 7;  .LET him return to the Lord -- that the LORD would have compassion....


It is clear that IF the returning does not happen -- then there are consequences.  From just context clues, I can guess...that if the Lord does not have compassion on him or her....then what is the alternative?

Death?
  Hell ... suffering?
  Would I want to be standing before the Lord and not have His pardon?

No way.

That brings me to the word OBEDIENCE.





A  church service  just recently had  the Pastor giving a word of knowledge from the Lord -- his word from the LORD was Obedience.  That Word has stuck in my thoughts and head for the past two months. 
How many of us are not obeying....
Am I obeying?  

  Oh sure...maybe I am not cheating on my taxes.....but am I cheating my Lord from my tithe?  

And...  maybe I am in church and sitting in a pew -- but am I activly serving or working with the body of Christ?  

Or perhaps, we have checked out cause we are just tired of it all.....?  And so we quit to have 'church' on the road for a bit -- what does God's word say about 'forsaking the assembly of ourselves'.  
And what about those thoughts -- am I placing HIM first or my needs and wants an desires first?  
How about our plans....are they being laid out by Our Lord or are we manipulating them and THEN seeking HIS forgiveness?  

Believe me -- I am asking myself EACH of these questions as I  think.  

⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

 I asked the Lord to forgive me again when I read and reread these verses.  

How much do I dictate to God HOW the prayer is to be answered and  then I mourn or question when something is hard and it does not seem to be 'the way' I planned it....

And yet..... God knew. 

 HE is the one that created the heavens and the earth and HIS ways are higher than my ways.  

When I get to see HIS  glory -- I have NO problem saying, "that was it...how merciful and faithful You are God".  thank you thank you --
...but when HE has me waiting,  as maybe I won't see the end of something until heaven....am I patience, kind, and loving in that waiting...?   

Are my thoughts towards the heavens showing I have great faith and confidence in my Lord?  

Forgive me Father...     

¹⁰ “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
    and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
¹¹ so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

God's promises are new every morning.  

Every morning, I expect Him to forgive me again.

Every morning, I expect Him to provide and answer prayers.  

Every morning, I come to him with praise as I sing in my car.....  

Traditions - do I just continue to live and not move forward ??  That could become a tradition and a rut in my walk with God.  

Traditions - do I just continue to walk out this life and not OBEY what HE has asked me to do?  

Am I needing a fresh word?  

And yet... every morning,  I could allow  the enemy to cause me to doubt --  I could  go backwards.  

Don't go backwards.  

Don't disobey.

What has God asked you to step it up in?

What needs to be forgiven?  

Who needs to be forgiven?  
What are you doubting?  

Have you read God's Words today?  

Lisa Bevere says in SEE IT: 

"I believe  we underestimate the power of what the enemy sees when he looks at us."

I believe I underestimate the power of what the enemy sees when he looks at me -- 
I believe that there is one reading this that has never thought about this before and is now realizing that the enemy is real!  

I needed to be reminded of the power I have in HIM -- I can do all things through Christ Jesus...!!  

I need to live in that freedom and liberty -- as time is short.  

I know God is going to win ...but I want to WIN with HIM  and when I get to heaven and I see him there on His throne, I am going to hear, "well done my good and faithful servant".  

I like hearing those 'traditional' words..."well done".  !!!  

Amen.  

 

Heavenly Father, I come to you and KNOW that I KNOW you hear my voice and my prayers as my relationship with you is healthy .... a working and viable relationship.  I praise you for the answers today and what you continue to do within my family and circle of influence.    I praise you for my NEW grand-niece and for Jaiden's two pushes!  I praise you for the covering I have under my husband and You...I praise you for -- being able to use this medium for YOUR voice...and I pray that it reaches the right one -- and that they will draw close to YOU.

I pray  for the loved ones who need you Jesus.  I pray for the loves ones who believe they have you Jesus and have NO clue that there is more.  I pray for the women that attended HOPE in HIM and that they will continue to walk in that liberty. 

 I pray for the next bunch of women for the April Encounter and the one in January.  I pray for the teenagers around me, not only in my church body but in the body/community of Okeechobee - that this generation would see and understand their identity in YOU and be affirmed in Your Word and NOT in their peers.  Lord, I cast OUT any confusion of gender...I cast OUT ANY rebellion ....Lord, that the parents would be parents and parent their children and be in their lives....Lord, I pray for the specific marriages and families that are seeking restoration, redemption and answers.  

Lord, for that special request -- that eyes would open.  Lord, that anyone reading this -- would see and understand that THEY must seek YOU and make sure the relationship with YOU is healthy ...that there is obedience...that there is no secret sin...and that there is no pridefulness....  God --keep me humble...Guide me.  

And bless my socks off Lord -- You know the secret desires of my heart -- I am holding you to them!  

IN Jesus name, Amen.