40 Days of Pray for your Future Husband... Day 30 (Friendships)

40 Days of Pray for your Future Husband... Day 30

Friendships

Our friends sometimes have the biggest impact on our lives.  Pray that the Lord would give your future husband Godly friends who would love, encourage, and help him grow in his walk with the Lord.

Dear Heavenly Father-

Today I come before you and I pray for the people in  my future husbands life.  Lord we all need healthy friendships and Godly people in our lives to do life with.  Lord you are able to nurture friendships in his life the way no one else can.  Lord give him men in his life like Paul who will teach and disciple, mentor, and guide him.  Give him men in his life like Timothy who he can pour into, Lord who he can teach and guide and mentor.  Lord give him people in his life like Barnabus who will be an encourager of his heart and will pray for and love on Him daily.   Lord I pray that you will use these men to mold and shape his life.  Lord I pray that these friendships would be deep and meaningful but also would be fun.  Lord I pray that you would keep people out of his life who want to cause him harm and not help lead him closer to you.  Father show him through his earthly friendships even more clearly what a relationship and a friendship with you looks like.

In Jesus Name

Amen

40 Days of Prayer For Your Future Husband (Obedience)

40 Days of Prayer For Your Future Husband

Obedience

The Lord's greatest desire for our lives is that we walk in obedience to Him.  Your future husband has a will of his own just like we all do.  He has desires and plans for himself, but even though these things may be good, God desires and even commands for us to be obedient.  Obedience is not always easy and often times its not fun, but it is always right!!! Pray today for your future husband to have an obedient heart. To love the Lord and obey him no matter what the cost.

Heavenly Father, 

Today I pray for my future husband because I know that it is not always easy to surrender our will to you, sometimes Lord I know it is one of the most difficult things we will ever have to do.  but Lord I know it is what you desire of us and I know you promise to bless us as your children when we surrender our will, our dreams, and the desires we have for our own lives.  Lord today I pray that you would surround my future husband with your love.  I pray that he would be studying your word and would be intune with your heart. Father I pray that he would know what you are calling him to be obedient to.  Father I pray that he would also be obedient to your voice and your commands.  Father i pray that he would dwell on your word and meditate on your promises. I pray that he would remain in prayer.  I pray that he would cling to you not only in the times when things are difficult and he needs you most, but all the time.  Father I pray that he would keep your commandments, and that you would bless him for surrendering what he wants for his life for your will.  Father I praise you for your unfailing love and divine favor on his life./  

In Jesus name,

Amen

40 Days of Prayer for your Future Husband... Day 28 (To Stay on the Right Path)

40 Days of Prayer for your Future Husband... Day 28

To Stay on the Right Path

We all know how easy it is to get off the path that the Lord has set before us.  Typically it comes with wanting our way over what we know the Lord knows is best.  Praying for your future husband, that he will stay on the path the Lord has intended for him, is important for him but also helps align your heart to his and to grow you to help your husband one day discern the path the Lord has for him. 

Dear Heavenly Father- 

Today I pray for my future husband that he would keep his eyes focused on you.  Lord there are so many things that can distract us from and destroy  the path you have set before us.  These sinful desires or wanting what we think is best, not only disconnect us from you but they also remove us from a place where you can bless our lives as abundantly because we are not in your will.  Father today I pray that you would walk with my future husband daily.  Keep him close yo you.  Fill him with your unfailing love and peace. Teach him the paths of righteousness and lead him down the narrow road, the road traveled by only a few.  This road will not be easy Lord, and the journey will be difficult and one he will have to commit fully to you on Lord, so give him strength.  I pray that he stays on the right path, the one you have called him to walk.  Let him know that you love him forever and even when he fails you, and no matter what life hands him.  You are great God, and I thank you in advance for blessing me with the man that one day you will bring into my life as my husband.

In Jesus Name,
Amen 

40 days of prayer for your future husband.... Day 27... (Advisablility)

40 Days of Prayer for your Future Husband.... Day 27

Advisability

As humans we don't always like to take direction from the Lord, from his word, and from Godly people in our lives.  It takes humility for us to admit we don't know everything.  As women we struggle with this, but men do as well, and Men were created to be leaders and to take on more responsibility to care and provide for the women and children in their lives.  This is a prayer to pray for the man God will one day bring into your life that he would be open to allowing God to use his word, his spirit and other believers to lead, guide and direct the paths of your future husband.

Dear Heavenly Father-  

Today I pray that you would help my future husband to look to you in all the matters of his life.  Father I especially pray that when situations get difficult or stressful that you would help him to maintain his character rooted in the fruits of the spirit so that he can be seen as a light for you.  Father I pray that you would help him to be discerning in making decisions and that you would keep his heart in line with the Holy Spirit.  Father I pray that the Holy spirit would guide him and that you would keep every step he takes lined up with the will you have for his life.   I pray that he would first of all  use the reasoning you have given him to make decisions grounded in your word.  Lord help him to study daily so that your word and your ways are fresh on his heart.  Father I pray that he would seek Godly counsel and have men in his life who would hold him accountable to make decisions that are in line with your will and your word, but father I pray more than anything that you would help him to follow your lead.  Lord I thank you for choosing and creating this specific man out there to love only me.  Father I thank you, that even now you are growing him daily to be more like your son, and to be the Godly husband and Father that you have called him to be one day.

In Jesus Name I Pray-

Amen

I am accepted... I am a member of Christ's body!

Mothers and babies have a very special bond at birth.  Babies bond with their fathers too but from the first moments of life that relationship and bond have already been formed between a baby and its mother.   Why?  The baby was a part of the mothers body for 9 months before being born.  The baby grew with the mother, the mother supplied for the baby, the baby depended on the mother, and the baby would even suffer stress with the mother, if the mother was under major distress, but that bond can not be broken because of the time spent together.


When we surrender our lives to the Lord we are made to be a part of the body of Christ, just like in the verse a couple of days ago we become one with Christ, but we also become part of the "body of Christ" (other believers).  The Church as  a whole ( all believers) functions as a body.  Each person has their job and things that they are responsible for.  Christ is the head of the church.  He serves as the head of the body as well.  It is his ways and his thoughts and his words, that the body carries out.  Just as a baby grows in a bond with the mother by being dependent on her, we should grow in a relationship with the Lord by depending on him for our needs.


Each person in the body of Christ has a part.  Someone that only has one hand struggles with daily tasks, as does someone who only has one eye or foot.  Each believer has their own special function, just as if you were to replace an amputated hand with a donor foot, it wouldn't work. The part that was lost served a specific function and could not be replaced.  We need to learn what our purpose is and serve the Lord with that purpose.  How do your hands learn to work as  a baby?   By your brain.  We should be open to teaching from Christ as to what our purpose is as well.


The Lord has created us, just as a baby is created within  a mother.  Christ wants to protect us and provide for us and have a relationship with us.  He wants to be the one who teaches us what our purpose is and helps us to learn how to function as a member of his body, but we first have to accept the gift that he is offering.  A hand that is not connected to the brain by nerves will not function.  It will never grow or become strong.  If we are not connected with the Lord we will never function the way we were meant to and we will eventually die.  The difference between the connection between a hand and a brain and the connection between us and Christ is that we have the choice to be connected to him.   It is our choice to connect ourselves in a relationship with Christ, and our responsibility to stay connected with him to grow each day and become stronger as a Christian.  With this relationship Jesus will provide for us, protect us, and give us a home in Heaven.


Do you know if you are a member of the body of Christ?  Do you know what your function is?  My prayer for you today is that you would not go another moment in life without being sure that you are lead by Christ and that you are apart of his body, and then ask him to show you what your function is as a part of the body.  Allow him to care for you and protect you as a mother does her unborn Child, allow him to nourish you both physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

I am accepted... I have been bought with a price and I belong to God.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ~ Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you who you have received from God? You are not your own you were bought at a price.

The idea of belonging to someone else brings up many hot and tempered feelings.  The movement of independence and doing things on our own have become so ingrained in the way that we live our lives that when someone says we have been purchased or bought or we belong to someone else it automatically brings bad ideas and strong feelings.  The idea of belonging to someone brings thoughts of slavery, and servitude and persecution, but the way you look at the idea of belonging to someone really depends on the master.

The words "bought at a price" refers to slaves being bought at an auction.  Jesus was the high bidder.  He was willing to give what ever it would take to buy our soul.  He bought us so that he could take our penalty we had to pay for our sins.  The idea of being owned by a master is not one people really tend to like, but it all depends on the way you are treated by the master.  During the days of slavery in the south, indentured servitude when America first began and other times and places where people had servants around the world, there were good masters and there were bad masters.  Slavery took such a bad name because of the bad masters.  But there were masters who bought their "slaves" to save them from a worse fate.  Indentured servants way to the new world were paid in return for work, and many times this was an apprentice program where the master would provide for the travel expenses, shelter, food and other necessities and teach them a trade that in seven years when their debt had been repaid they could make themselves apart of society.

Jesus is not an angry master!  He is a master full of love and mercy.  He gives us what we need, He gives us boundaries when we need them to protect us, and he teaches us lessons when we need to learn something even if it means punishing us so we will learn our lesson.  God is fair and just and he bought us and paid a very horrible price for us, even if we do not want him to be our master.  Jesus still paid the penalty even if I choose never to choose him.

Paul calls himself a servant to the Lord throughout the New  Testament.  He understood that he had been bought by the Lord and that he had to devote his life to the calling the Lord had placed on his life, but he did it willingly and graciously, and he was rewarded for it.  His life was not easy.  Even when he was thrown in jail he still called himself a servant of the Lord because he knew that the Lord would protect him and guide him and would not let him suffer undue harm.

We need to begin to see ourselves as someone who has a master.  Someone who we rely on to take care of our needs and to love us but also to give us boundaries and teach us right from wrong.  If we could do that ... our lives would be amazingly different because the Lord would be the #1 center point of our lives.

40 Days of Prayer for your future husband... Day 26 ( Priorities)

40 Days of Prayer for your future husband... Day 26

 Priorities

The Lord allows us to have free will which also includes setting the priorities of our lives.  The Lord gives us direction and guidance and shows us through his word where our priorities should be set but ultimately our priorities are our own decision to make.  It is important to pray for your future husband and his priorities, and that they would be in line with the Lord's will and be glorifying to him.  Pray that the Lord would help your future husband remove his selfish desires from the equation and line his priorities up the way the Lord would see fit.

Heavenly Father-

Father I come before you and I pray that you would be honored by the fact that I want to love the man you will one day bring into my life and pray for him even now.  Father I pray that you would honor my prayers today and help my future husband learn to manage his time and responsibilities.  Father I pray that you would teach him these things even in his single days so that when you bring us together and we marry that he would have his priorities in line with you when he becomes the head of our household.   I pray that you would be growing him even now so that he would know how to commit his time accordingly.  I pray that in everything He would focus on you, and seek your kingdom and righteousness as you give him all he needs.  Lord I thank you for the blessings you have bestowed on me now and I know you will bring into my life in the future.  Father I thank you that I know that you will teach my future husband to make you the number one priority in his life and me the number 2 priority.  Father I thank you for making him aware of your plan for a Christian home and for preparing him to lead me in our marriage.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

 

I am accepted...... I have been Justified

Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.   Romans 5:1

Sometimes in life, things don't always go the way you had planned.  People change, situations change, motivations change.  Sometimes things that start our harmless become something you would have never imagined.  We can live our lives thinking we are living for the Lord, and be walking in the totally opposite direction.  It's only when the Lord reaches down and opens our eyes that we can see where we are.  He opens our eyes to our need for salvation and our incapability to do it on our own.  Only when we realize we cant do it alone and surrender to him can we truly find peace in our lives and peace with God.

When I was a junior in college when asked I would have told everyone that I was a believer in Jesus Christ.  I would have told you that God was my number one priority and that I had been saved and was living the life of someone who had been set apart by being a Christian.  Many people believed me.  I even believed myself.  I was a good person.  I went to a Christian group several times a week.  I was apart of a small discipleship group where we were studying the bible deeply.  I had grown up in church and knew all the right answers, and had even said that I joined my sorority so that I could reach out to girls that didn't know the Lord. But it was all a lie.

I grew up in church, and had always known that I should be a Christian.  I remember several long conversations with family and friends about God and about how I should make a profession that Jesus was my savior.  I knew in my heart that it was the thing to do, but I was so ashamed.  I thought I would look like a hypocrite when I walked to the front of the church and announced that I wanted to be a Christian, because so many people thought I was.  I remember nights of hiding the fact that I was reading my bible from my parents because i was afraid they would make me go to the front of the church and i was scared.  I spent pretty much every night growing up praying the prayer of salvation and every Sunday gripping the pew in front of me during the invitation because i was ignoring the Holy Spirit Calling me.

When I was a senior in high school, I wanted to go to a small Baptist College and knew there was a scholarship if I was a member of a Baptist Church.  I finally went down during the invitation, told the pastor that I had been a Christian for a long time but had never been baptized.  Even after I was baptized I still continued to pray to God to save me every night because I had no assurance of my salvation.  My College plans changed and I ended up at WCU.  My entire first semester I didn't go to church, and I didn't have hardly anything to do with God.  With every Sunday there was an excuse.  What it boiled down to was that I had no desire to be around Christians, and no desire to worship the Lord. (#1 sign that something was wrong in my life)

For three years my life was built around having a good time.  I retained my good - girl image and most people called me a Christian, but I had no peace.  I was apart of a Christian organization and had started going back to church.  People would give their testimonies on Tuesday nights for our meetings and I was never asked to give mine.  My feelings were hurt and when leaders would question my testimony, I got very defensive.

My Junior year I met a guy, and long story short by the end of the first semester, I had dropped out of all of my classes, quit my job, and moved to this guys home town (With two weeks to go in the semester).  My life fell apart.  I had no one to turn to.  I tried reaching out to God several months into living in this situation, but my life was so full of sin I couldn't hear God or feel him which frustrated me even more.  The situation got worse and worse.  The guy was not good for me to say the least.  I was being cheated on, and I had no one to walk me through it.

Six months later after breaking up with this guy, and a binge spree of dating, that was not biblical I ended up back at Western.  I reconnected with some friends from my Christian organization and I remember one night looking at my friend April and telling her that I didn't want to play pretend anymore.  I was so tired of pretending to be a Christian, so tired of walking each day alone.  And it was that night by my bedside that I gave my life to the Lord.  The patterns in my life did not change overnight, but my desire to change did, and little by little I began to grow and realize that I was called to a much more righteous life.  I was called to a life that was not full of sin, and that I should strive to live like Jesus did.

At that point there was a change.  I realized that Jesus had paid the penalty for my sins.  He had taken all the bad thing I had ever done, all my wrong attitudes, all my bad motives and he had paid the price for them on Calvary before I was even born.  In that moment of surrendering my life to the Lord I was justified.( I was made right in the eyes of GOd.)  My faith that because of what Jesus had done and not who I was had sealed my fate, gave me a peace that I cant explain.  I no longer worried what would happen if Jesus came back.  My out look on things changed.  I had always said that I didn't want Jesus to come back before i could have children and  get married, but at that point I realized the quicker he came the better things would be.  I wanted children but this world is getting worse and worse and it would be better for him to come than for me to bring children into the world.  At that point I realized that my desires had changed.  I saw Jesus's return as a joyous moment, not a moment to fear.

I had peace.  The three or four years I had spent at Western before this defining moment and the year I spent getting myself back to Cullowhee after leaving was a time of absolute turmoil.  I had NO peace with anyone, especially not God, but when I turned my life to him, my actions changed, my desires changed, my motives changed, and I had perfect peace in my identity as a believer in Jesus Christ because I knew that God had forgiven me and that Jesus would stand in my place and allow me an opportunity to start over

My prayer for you is that if you have this peace, that you share it with others.  I wouldn't be able to share mine today if someone hadn't first shared it with me.  If you don't have this peace that comes from surrendering your life to Jesus, my prayer is that the Holy Spirit would draw you to a place where you realize you cant do it on your own and you realize your need for a savior to save you from the sin that is keeping you apart from the Lord.

I was given a second chance, but we never know when our chances run out, please don't close another day without having the peace that you find when you are justified by Faith in Jesus.

40 days of Prayer for your future husband ... Day 25 ( Communication)

40 days of Prayer for your future husband ... Day 25

Communication

The tongue is the part of our body that can be the biggest blessing and the biggest curse to others.  Marriage hinges on communication.  Love is not enough.  Love is a decision, and you must decide to communicate. Sometimes verbal communication is harder for men than it is for women. Lets be honest ladies, some of us can also be ticking time bombs at times emotionally.  Having a foundation of friendship and effective communication will strengthen a marriage greatly.  Take today to pray that the Lord teaches your husband to communicate more efficiently ( Hint Hint... today would be a great day to pray the same thing for yourself).

Heavenly Father-

Today I ask that you make both myself and my future husband aware of how powerful the tongue can be.   Lord help us to see how it can be used to build up and  edify those around us, to glorify you and worship your Holy name, but also to tear down the people we love the most.  Show us how the tongues response comes out of either an overflow of your love or a influx of pride and selfishness in our lives.  Lord I ask that you help my future husband to learn how to control his tongue.  I know Lord there will be times that I will make him angry or frustrated, and Lord I pray that you would move in his heart today and help him to learn to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.  Father I pray that you would show him what enormous damage it can do when he speaks out of anger or just without thinking.  I pray that he would use his words for the edification of others and the up building of your kingdom.   I pray that he thinks before he says something and considers the impact it will have on others as well as their feelings. I pray that he chooses to speak life and not death.  Father I pray that you would teach us even today how to speak to each other in a way that will be best understood by the other.  Father communication is not just verbal, Lord I pray that you would help develop the areas of verbal and non verbal communication that the other needs most.   Father I pray that you would teach both of us to put our pride and selfish desires aside in an argument and help us to resolve things in a way that would glorify you. Father I thank you for all you are doing to prepare him to be a mighty man of God.

I pray all these things in Jesus Name-

Amen

I am accepted.... I am united with the Lord, and I am one with Him in spirit.

1 Corinthians 6:17 ~ But He who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.



The idea of being one with God is a hard one to understand.  Its hard enough to understand being one with your spouse.  The Lord says when you are married that when people are married that two shall become one so they are no longer two people but one ( Mark 10:8)... This means that your ways become their ways and their ways become your ways.  You work together as one not pulling apart as two.

I think of the wedding sand that some people do at their wedding.  The Bride and the groom each have a different color sand and as they pour their sand together it comes together in a very beautiful way.  The bride and the groom are still totally visible by their own color, their personalities are still visible in their relationship, but there is no way that you could separate the two colors out again.  Once they have been put together they can never be perfectly separated because they are one.

Since Marriage is an analogy for the way that Christ loves the church its interesting to know that in this passage of scripture that Paul was not talking about marriage.  He was talking about Sexual Immorality and not becoming one with someone who is unworthy of us.  Paul asks would you unite yourself with a prostitute?  He did mean this on a literal level but also if we are to be united with the Lord would sin not be like uniting ourselves with a prostitute, because it says he who unites himself with a prostitute becomes one with her, for it is said that two become one flesh.   Do we want to be united with a "prostitute"? When we could be united with our perfect groom?

Paul reminded the people in Corinth that those who unite themselves with the Lord are one with him in spirit.  It works the same way as uniting yourself with someone in marriage, except you should strive to be more like him.  Your ways should become his ways, your body should belong to him, your mind should think of things that are glorifying to him.

Some people feel that being "one with the Lord" is constricting, just like they think the vows of marriage are constricting.  But boundaries are necessary.  The Lord loves his children and protects them, becoming one with him does mean changes in our lives and moving away from sin, but it also means the sweetest relationship and love that you could ever imagine.  You will hear from God in different ways, you will know that he is speaking to you when you are one with him.  The closer your life comes to him the more you will understand his will and his ways.

When we are one with the Lord who can be against us.  Trials will come but we will never be alone.  We need to see our relationship with the Lord the way that we see a marriage, and its difficult to do that because of the way that marriages today are falling apart, but the perfect marriage, where the wife is the helpmate, and her husband respects and values her and her opinion.  If we would see ourselves in that light in relationship to the Lord our lives would be miraculously different.

My prayer for you today is that you would see yourself in a light where you realize how being one with God could change your life forever.  How walking with him would bring you closer to him, would change your wants and your desires.  And for believers who are one in spirit with the Lord I pray that you would daily learn to Love your "Groom" more, allow him to protect you and walk with you through life's struggles.

40 days of prayer for your future husband ... Day 24 (Parenthood)

40 Days of Prayer for your Future Husband ... Day 24

 Prayer for Parenthood

This is the man that if God chooses to bless you with children will be your partner in parenthood for life.  God says in the 1st chapter of Genesis to be fruitful and multiply to the animals this command is given to Noah in chapters 8 and 9 of Genesis.  Gods plan is for his children to bear children and to raise them up in his ways.  Children are a gift from God and a great responsibility.  Take today to pray that the Lord would be preparing your future husband to one day be a Godly Father if it is in the Lord's will.

Heavenly Father-

Today Lord, I come before you and I pray that you would be preparing the man who I will one day share my life with to be a Godly father to our future children.  I pray that if you see fit that one day you will bless us with the responsibility of raising up children in your ways.  I pray that  you would help my future husband to know you more and to be more like you as he learns how to be a Dad.  Father I pray that both of us together would set a good example for our children, and that you would teach him how to be the head of the household.  Father I pray that you would lead and guide him as he sures up his convictions on how a family is to be raised.  Father I pray that you would help him to see the importance of study of your word now so that it will be a foundation in our future home and as we raise our children.  Father I pray that through my future husband and I that our children would come to know you and to live to honor and glorify you.  Lord I pray that you would help him to learn to be patient and loving and kind.  Father I pray that you would help him to learn how to teach.  Father I pray that you would be teaching him today how to be involved in and how to pray for the lives of his children.  Father I pray that even now you would put a burden on his heart to pray for the hearts and lives of his future children and the impact they will have on the world for you.

In Jesus Name-

Amen 

40 Days of Prayer for your Future Husband ... Day 23 ( Learning to Pursue)

40 Days of Prayer for your Future Husband ... Day 23

Learning to Pursue


From childhood as women, most of us have longed for love and romance.   That desire comes from being pursued by our Heavenly Father.  He wants to be in a love relationship with us.  He wants us to know Him.  God can love us completely because he created us and because he knows us completely.  A man will never be able to love us completely or to fill our insecurities and need for love the way the Lord doe, but the Lord created man in his image and they are created to pursue women in the same way.   Pray for your future husband that the Lord would teach him how to pursue you, as well as how to love you as a compliment to the love that the Lord has already filled you with.


Heavenly Father-


Lord today I pray that you would teach my future husband how to pursue me.  Lord I pray that you would teach him how to be a Godly man, and how to be the leader of a relationship and our future home.  Lord I pray that you would teach him patience and communication, and how to cherish and protect me as your daughter.  Father I pray that you would teach him the way to love a woman and how it is different from the way that a man needs to be loved. Father I pray that you would give him confidence to initiate a relationship but also Lord that you would give him the strength and the courage to be strong when it comes to keeping the relationship pure.   Father I pray that you would help him to get to know me and that he would never quit wanting to learn more and know more about me so that his love would be ever evolving.   Lord I pray that he would be intentional with our relationship and with my heart.  Father I pray that he would pursue a relationship only if he sees the potential of marriage in the future and that the time would not be wasted on fulfilling selfish desires.
Father I pray that you would lead and guide my future husband as he leads and guides me in our relationship whenever your timing is right, because that is the way your plan was designed.  Lord you are the author of the greatest love stories and Lord I pray that you would help us to stay in line with your will and the story you have written just for us.


In Jesus Name-
Amen

I am accepted~ As a disciple I am a friend of God

John 15:15 ~ I no longer call you servants, because a master doesn't confide in his servants. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.

Having a friend is something I cherish beyond words.  A true friend is beyond any worth to me.  Someone who can lift your spirits,  make you laugh, and commiserate with you in times of trouble:  That's a true friend.  People who are your friends have your best interest at heart, they walk with you down the long and hard roads.  They celebrate with you in the joyous times of your life.

I don't have to worry about who I am when I am with my friends.  I can be myself.  I don't have to put on a show.  My true friends know me inside and out.  They know when I'm upset and when I'm trying to hide the fact that I don't want to talk about being upset.  They know what questions to ask and what things to say and do to make me feel better.

Many people see God as just an umbrella of love and protection.  The umbrella covers us yet there is no real connection.  If I am carrying an umbrella and the wind starts to blow I'm still going to get soaked by a pouring rainstorm.  There's not much I can do.  Having a relationship with Jesus is like having a waterproof rain suit.  You can walk out into the biggest storm, and you will be protected from the rain.  Its not like being in a bubble where God doesn't even allow you to get wet, because the outside of your rain suit will be soaked from the storm, but inside you will be completely safe and dry.

Jesus prepared our way for friendship with God.  In the verse from John Jesus is telling his disciples, those who had walked closely by him, and learned from him daily that he called them friend.  Jesus explains that because he had told them everything that the Father had told him that their relationship had changed.  Jesus trusted them because they had proven themselves to be faithful learners.  The disciples trusted Jesus because he had not left them and had continued to teach them.

There has to however be a healthy fear of God. Being a friend of God does not make you equal with him.   If you are not a believer in Jesus Christ, God is not your friend.  Too many people miss this.  God loves all of us.  But when people do not chose his son, not only is he still angry with the sins that we have committed, but we are also spitting in his face by not receiving the most precious gift he could give.  We can not be friends with God without the blood that Jesus shed for us on the cross, and without getting to know his son in a personal relationship.  Jesus loved the masses of people he preached to, or he wouldn't have shared with them the gift of salvation, but he didn't call them friends.  Jesus saved that title for only a select few.  A select few that walked with him and learned from him and daily lived their lives as he had called them to.

As believers we have to realize that a friendship with God is only possible if we put forth the effort.  If we truly love the Lord, are grateful for our salvation, and have a healthy fear of him, we will want to spend time learning from him, praising him, praying to him. and sitting quietly listening to him.  I don't know of any person on earth I would say you was my friend if they only had talked to me once in my life.  Is that how our relationships with the Lord are, or are they sweet personal friendships.

We are accepted by God and we are his friend if we are true believers in Jesus Christ.  My prayer is that you know for a fact that, you know you have this kind of friendship with the Only one who can make an eternal difference in your life.  Once you are sure of that relationship I pray that you would learn from him , and seek him for help with your struggles in life, and most of all LISTEN. :)

40 Days of Prayer for your Future Husband ... Day 22 ( Prayer against discouragement)

40 Days of Prayer for your Future Husband ... Day 22

Prayer Against Discouragement

We all face times when life gets difficult and it is easy to get discouraged.  Discouragement will always come, but we have a choice to refrain from allowing discouragement to turn into depression.  Praying for your future husband, and asking the Lord to guard his heart from discouragement, and to lift him up is crucial.  Praying for him will allow you to encourage him daily when he walks into your life to help him walk through the things that can and will discourage him.  Once discouragement hits we must continue to pour truth into his life to keep from allowing Satan to steal the joy of your future husbands life.

Heavenly Father-

I rebuke discouragement from my future husband in Jesus name.  Lord Satan wants nothing more than to steal kill and destroy his life, to tear his emotions down, and have him focus on lies and not on the truth of your word.  Father I pray that today you would focus his heart on you,  I pray that you would pour truth into his life.  I pray that you would help him to see the blessings that you are pouring on him.  Father I pray that you would help him to realize trials bring endurance, and perseverance of faith which builds character. Lord help him not to quit, help him not to give up on you . Cause him to walk upright and to know who he is in you.  I pray that you make all things work together for his good. Lord I pray that he would fall more in love with you everyday.  I pray that he would take notice of the things you are prompting his heart to be sensitive to . Lord I pray that you would help him to search his heart and your word for your plan.  I pray that he would meditate on your precepts and promises that would keep him from getting discouraged and giving up on your plan and you.  Lord I pray that as you keep him focused on you that he would have discernment in the decisions he makes.  Lord I pray that you would protect his mind body and soul.

In Jesus name-

Amen. 

Who am I? I am God's Child!

John 1:12-- But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.


My parents are pretty amazing...for the first 26 years of my life they took care of me and helped me to become the woman that I am .  When I was little I hated being called a child.  I wanted to grow up and be someone who could take care of myself.  But whenever I would fall my my parents were  there to teach me from my mistakes and then help me to pick up the pieces.  Even though I am not a  child anymore and I have married and moved out of their house, my parents still love and care for me.  Just this past week I had to go to the doctor.  I felt pretty horrible and really probably should not have been driving, but I was able to call my dad who followed me home from the doctor, went and picked up my medicine and made sure I got home okay.  The next day my mom brought me chicken soup and apple juice.  Its a wonderful thing to be someone's child and to be loved.

We are given the opportunity to be a child of the Most high God.  Its so much more than medicine and chicken soup.  As much love as our earthly parents provide for us in this life, it does not even begin to compare of the love that the Lord has and still loves us with .  He loved us so much that he sent his son to die to pay the penalty for our sin.  Its like if someone were to murder someone you loved.   You would  be angry and would want someone to pay the penalty.  In God's eyes all sin is like murder.  To just say that people could do bad things and get away without a penalty would not justify how the Lord feels about sin.  That would be like a judge letting someone walk away with murder.  We would not think they were fit to be a judge.  The penalty  for our sins had to be paid, so the Lord sent Jesus to die and when he took the sins of the world God turned his face from him, and Jesus was left to bear our burden. 

Because of what Jesus did we are given the opportunity to be a child of Gods.  To be adopted into his kingdom and family.  and all we have to do is accept.  We have to truly believe and surrender our lives down to him, but when we do we receive the right to be a child of God.  The Lord will protect us and guide us .  It doesn't mean that it will be easy.  Just as my life with having good early parents has not been easy, but through their guidance, wisdom, and love, I have made it through a lot of things I never should have.

God is calling us to allow him to be our Father.  Will we accept?  Will we let  him wipe away our sins?  Will we let him provide for us in his way and in his timing?

The Choice is ours, but our choice is eternal....

Who are we ? Really?

One of the things people, women especially, fight and struggle with is finding their identity.  In the world there are so many things that people can align themselves with, but I really am afraid we as a whole are missing the main point.  As we move forward in life there is an ache in our inner most being to be apart of something bigger than ourselves.  To some its an ache to be apart of a team in high school, to some a Greek organization in college.  To others its the longing to be a wife and a mother.  Still others find their identity in the business world.  All of these things are good, but i still believe we have missed the mark. 



It is not until we find our identity in Christ and him alone that our life will truly be fulfilling.  What bigger plan could we want to be apart of than the plan for the Creator of the world to redeem his people.  One of the Amazing things is that he allows us to be apart of this.  He gives us a specific function, and the promise of a reward, and still some of us miss it completely.



If the richest person in the world approached you one day and asked you if you would like for him to adopt you.  He told you that he would meet all your needs and would love and care for you, but he had a job for you to do.  He tells you he has a business, and wanted you to be apart of his new marketing department and he wants you to promote his product, and for each product that was sold that you would be rewarded.  To me this sounds like a pretty amazing opportunity.



How is it that we can miss the opportunity that has been laid before us to be a child of God?  We have been given the opportunity to be adopted by the Creator of the World.  We have been asked to work for his glory, and he will provide for our needs, and reward us for our fruit in his labor.  Why do we see this in a different light.



Is it because we fear persecution, (mostly social and mild)?  Is it because we feel that there will always be time to do this later?  Is it because we feel that other things in our lives are better and more important?  Is it that we see our salvation as fire insurance ?  Or is it that our identity is not truly found in the Lord and his crucifixion.  If we truly believed that our number one calling in life was being a child of God then what he has asked us to do would come naturally and other things in our lives would begin to fall into place.



I am daily learning what it means to completely find my identity in the Lord, and I hope that my journey will be a blessing to you as well.

40 days of Prayer For your Future Husband ... Day 21 (His Talents)

40 days of Prayer For your Future Husband ... Day 21

His Talents

God gives us all talents.  Its up to us how we use those talents.  We can either use those talents for his glory or for our own.  The Lord will do great things through your future husband and develop the talents that He has given him, if your future husband will surrender those talents back to the Lord.  This is something a future wife can and should pray for the man that will one day captivate her heart.

Heavenly Father-

Today I pray that you would bless my future husband.  Father I thank you for the talents that I know you have already placed within him.  I know that you have equipped him with everything that he needs to follow the plan and the journey you have for him.  Father I ask that you would bless his talents, that he would use them for your glory.  Father I pray that you would help him to see how important it is that he turn these talents back over to you and give back what you have given to him.  Father I pray that you would reveal new talents to him that he never knew he had and multiply the talents that you have placed in his life.  Help him to grow daily to become better, stronger, and wiser in how to use these talents for you.  Lord I know that if he gives these talents back to you, you will use him to do great things in your name. I pray that he would always use the talents that you have given him to serve you and to help others.  I pray that he would use them to love others and be a light for you. Father I pray that through the talents you have given him people would come to know you or know you better.  Lord bless him for what he has given back to you, love on him today and always. 

In Jesus Name-

Amen



40 Days of Prayer for your future husband ... Day 20 ( Prayer for Favor)

40 Days of Prayer for your future husband ... Day 20

Prayer for Favor

Nothing is given, no success is achieved, no plan is complete, and no life is changed without the favor of the Lord.  The man that the Lord will one day put in your life will be one day be grateful for your prayers of God's favor over his life.  There is no better day to start praying this for him than today.  Pray that the Lord would effect every area of his life. That the Lord would bless and keep him.

Dear Heavenly Father-




Lord I pray that you would bless the man you will one day bring into my life to be my life-mate.   I pray that you would give him unmerited favor in every area of his life.   Lord none of us deserve your favor, but Lord you give it when we ask, even though we don't deserve it.  So today that is my prayer for my future husband that you would lead him, guide him, bless and keep him in everything he does.   Lord help him to stay humble as you bless him and remind him that as you bless him that these blessings are from you and not of his own doing. Father do not let his foot slip, but establish the work of his hands.  Let him know it is not by his own power or ability that good things come into his life, but that you are blessing him because you love him, and because he is your child, remind him through all these blessings that ultimately the glory always belongs to you.  I thank you Lord for all you have done, are doing, and will still do in his life.


In Jesus Name-


Amen