The Faith Dare: Days 10-11

Shoo, fly!  Don't bother me!  I so appreciated this metaphor!  That is what my mind feels like at times when I become overwhelmed with too many negative thoughts!

...get out the lie swatter of God's Word and hit those pesky lies.  They are lies.  Shoo them away...Shoo them away and get back to the business of living in Christ. (pg. 106)

This may sound random...so be prepared...this would make an awesome devotion for a Women's Retreat, which I just happen to  be planning for this fall.  Hummmm....I might need to invest in a few fly swatters as a retreat favor!

From Day 11, this spoke to me..."Ask for grace to live bigger than the smallness of yourself."  I woke up a little after three this morning with a couple from our church on my mind and began praying for a situation, a situation about which that I have gathered God's Army to pray.  Later, this morning they go before the judge requesting visitation rights to see their grandchildren whom they have not seen since before their mother passed away about a year ago.  I know that God is about to do a mighty work in their lives...and I pray right now that His peace surrounds them as they go through these necessary steps, as they do their part in this work that God is about to perform.  Today, God is going to live bigger than these grandparents who so desire to see their grandchildren.  He is going to live bigger than the grandparent who has denied their getting to see these three young men.  He is going to live bigger than the judicial system.  Today, God is the Great I Am.  Yes!

How gracious he will be when you cry cry for help! - Isaiah 30:19 

Whatever your situation, shoo those pesky pesky flies away with the lie swatter of God Word and cry out for help.  He is the Great I Am!

Blessings!

The Faith Dare: Days 4-9

Listed below are a few nuggets that I have gleaned from my study time in The Faith Dare hosted now by Women's Bible Cafe...

• Day 4:  "Our body is a temple where the Holy Spirit dwells."  Hummm...why do I mistreat this body so much?! Sweets, snacks...weaknesses! Then...
• Day 5:  "Living sacrifice?  The trouble with a 'living' sacrifice is that it can crawl of the altar at any time.  We are to lay down our lives daily, surrendering our way in favor of God's way."  Hummm...am I too busy crawling instead of surrendering?  When I could be spending time in studies such as this, I remain on Facebook or play that game on my phone...just one more time.
  
  Let's pause here please.  From the above two days, I committed to fast from snacks.  Please let me share how this time has been different.  In the past, Tammy herself tried to quit...all by myself...and failed.  This time, with this spiritual emphasis, the quiet reminders have come..."No, you do not need that."  How empowering, how, well, how spiritual saying no to snacks has been!  

• Day 6:  "How can a young [woman] keep [her] way pure?  By living according to your word." Psalm 119:9 - This week my daughter and I have spent some quality time together as I have been working in my classroom preparing to return to teaching high school seniors.  The Lord has pressed upon my heart to talk with her about her clothing choices and adultery, for I want her to make choices that are spiritually based.  (She has left on a trip, but when she returns, we are going to have a Bible study on this topic.)  When are shorts too short?  When does the decision to not wear certain clothes become hers and not just because mom said no?
• Day 7:  "Life gets exciting when we realize that a resurrection took place within us when we became Christ's, and now we are filled with the Holy Spirit."
  
  May I testify?  On Thursday, my husband's managers were to make some changes in the distribution of staff on the crews.  This happens every so often, but this time he seemed stressed about it, for he really wanted to remain on the same crew with one of his friends, so I had suggested we pray.  As the day progressed, he text that no decisions had been made, and when he got home that evening, he relayed that they were still meeting to decide the fate of the workers' schedules.  I sent a message to our wife's pastor and asked if they would pray right then, asking that my husband be allowed to remain on the same crew with his friend and that he accept the decisions with grace and dignity and that he see God's hand in all this.  About an hour later the phone rang, and the decision came through...NO changes would be made, for they could not find a more effective way to redistribute the crews!  As the husband said, "God is good!"  Yes, He is...all the time!  My hands shot up in the air...giving God the praise, for as I said to my husband, "This just shows that God is always going to have more power than any manager on a job!"  Yes!  Oh, the power of prayer! You see...only God could have worked this one out.  This reminds me of Solomon who asked for wisdom, which he received...and also wealth and fame.  God answered our prayer above...by granting more than we had even asked!
  
• Day 8:  "When I remain in Him, a very real anointing gives me power to live."  I have been feeling the pull some time to also fast from Facebook.  I get on there planning to just spend a few minutes only to find that a couple of hours may have passed.  One, I do not have that amount of time to waste...lessons to plan, both for school and class (I do attempt utilize Facebook as a means of testifying at times, but, yes, for the most part, it is just a place to find out the latest!)  Two, these sort of tech tools are just instruments used to keep me from such studies as this.  I think I know the answer to this pull I am feeling...right?  Praying about this....
• Day 9:  "...God will give the right gift and answer to prayer at the right time."  I believe this and testify to this. My challenge...to "handle the wait time." That time in between the prayer going up and the prayer being answered.  I read a sign outside a church this week that said, "We act like Christians...but do we react like one?"  Uh, oh...those reactions I have sometimes during the "wait time" are not Christ-like!  May we remember, though, (yes, you may sing with me!)...
• In His time..in his time...He makes all things beautiful...in His time!
• Yes!  OR you may listen to this beautiful song here...

Blessings!

The Faith Dare: Days 2-3

God is amazing!  Truly!  With my discipleship training class on Sunday evenings, we are studying Experiencing God, and these two studies support each so much.  For example...

From The Faith Dare...To come and follow is a daily call of surrender to the God who made us.  When we do this, we approach him each new day and mover toward Him in fresh relationship. (page 55)

From Experiencing God...To live a God-centered life requires "a daily death to self." 

What does this mean to me?  Is God saying, "Tammy, I need less of you and more of me in you?" As I continue to develop my relationship with God, hearing things repeated is one the ways that I know God speaks to me. (Please check out these posts on this topic:  "The Pit:  Digging In or Lifted Out?" and  "Echoing Themes:  Yes, Lord, I Am Listening.")

Living loved.  May I share a testimony?  God has demonstrated his faithfulness to me and to others this week, and I have been blessed to be a part this...all because I went to Sunday School last Sunday and read the Bible.

While in class, I began to read the verses that fell before our selected text, and my eyes fell on these scriptures, while my soul began to stir.  Here is the PowerPoint slide I created to share my with class just this evening as I shared this past week's experience:

Maybe because we return to school in two weeks, maybe because of my prayer request to return to me the love I once had for teaching, which has been both my vocation and avocation...my job and my hobby, maybe that is why this scripture spoke to me?  Or maybe I am just living loved, loved by my Heavenly Father?  Yes!

Then, as the week progressed, time after time (with two teacher friends, my sister, a young lady from church who stopped by last night), I found myself sharing this scripture either verbally or by sending a text with the scripture embedded and hearing how much that scripture meant to that person.  I even shared it on Facebook, receiving 21 likes and one "Amen!"

Tonight, I feel loved.  God chose to use me in a way that I could not have foreseen. This is why we must be mindful of Him.  Thank goodness I went to Sunday School last Sunday and read my Bible. We should be ever mindful, for one never knows when the Lord will choose YOU to work through.

Did you read the scripture Ecclesiastes 3:12-13?  Be happy.  Do good.  Find satisfaction.  All this as we toil, as we do our daily jobs.  For this is a gift of God!  Yay!

According to author Debbie Alsdorf, "We learn to live loved by taking His Word of truth by faith.  In doing so he replaces our fears with a wonderful peace that some of us have heard about but have never experienced firsthand." (page 61)  To do this, we must first be in His Word.  I am sorry to say that I find this a challenge too much of the time.  Life is busy, and when I do have "down time," I often do not make the best choices for my spiritual life.  Just another good reason to immerse myself in such studies as this one!

My prayer for you:  to live loved, to experience that wonderful peace.  Blessings!

The Faith Dare: Day 1

Picture Source

Today's focus, Day 1's focus is on a new heart...and this one is close to my heart, for this reminds me so much of where we have been to allow God the use of doctors to correct my daughter's heart/lung defect.  She is a miracle, a miracle performed by The Miracle Worker.  He gave her a new heart by correcting her defect via four surgeries.  Praise God!

"As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man." - Proverbs 27:19

Have you ever noticed, though, that the best reflections are the ones in the cleanest of waters?  Muddy water reflects, but that image just does not contain the pristine sharpness, the sparkle of life that comes from clear water.  This, then, has to be true of our hearts as well.  A heart that is pure reflects just that, a life that is lived for Him, a life that reflects His love.

My heart is not pure and will not be so until our days are ended here, but that does not mean that do not daily attempt to live for him.  I can strive to stay out of the muddy, stagnant waters, thereby better reflecting a Christian walk.  Two years ago this past May, I experienced a revival in my soul, and while I may not always reflect this minute to minute, from day to day, from week to week, from month to month...and now year to year, my life does reflect that stirring of revival.  As a matter of fact, I just shared with my Sunday evening discipleship class this past weekend, that this is my prayer for our church...that we experience a revival.  First, though, that revival has to come to each individual, for that is what makes up the church.  Lord, send your people a revival!

Debbie Alsdorf, author of The Faith Dare, encourages the following prayer found in Psalm 86:11:  "Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name."  To obtain this, I must not allow myself to be distracted, to be have division; I must remain focused on Him.  These distractions can be so simple, so sly, so seemingly insignificant, yet so harmful, for they are usually the things that steal our time away from such book studies such as these.  Social media is one such distraction for me...Facebook, Twitter.  If not careful, I can spend several hours perusing posts on each of these.  Precious time that I might have spent reading His Word.

All this adds up to that desire for a continued new heart, to a continued revival of my soul.  Yes, Lord, give me a new heart, one that is not divided, one that reflects Jesus Christ.

Tonight, for the first time, I experienced an online chat hosted by a facilitator for Bible Cafe for Women (please click on the link to learn all about it!).  What a blessing!  Truly! 

How's your heart?  Need a new one?  God can do that.  

Blessings!