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!