Sunday, March 11, 2012

Joy Dare: 3 Gifts Read

1.  Hebrews 10

All of it.  The whole chapter!  It's all good.  The whole book actually.  Read it please. It's not long.




2.  This passage from my personal journal dated Sept 27, 2011:

"Sometimes I feel like there is an emotional wire loose inside of me that wiggles around and sometimes pick up a good reception but most of the time doesn't connect.  When it does connect, I'm impulsive, excited and motivated.  But as soon as it disconnects the reception is gone.  Like bunny ears on an old TV set.  I'm wiggling them around trying to get a clear picture.  When I finally get a good signal, I loose it when I move my hand and eventually give up.  

One clear picture I've been receiving  is that, I need to quit smoking.  God is telling me I need to let go of that sin.  I feel motivated to do it and I'm so confident that I can rely on God, that He is sufficient for me, but but then when I get the impulse to smoke, I find myself rushing to my back porch sitting in my chair and apologizing to God for doing it again.  I know it will be hard to quit but I also know that once I do I'll be taking one giant step with God and he'll lead me out of my comfort zone and onto something unimaginably better."

And that was it.  I did I quit smoking on Oct. 9.  He kept his promise.  He has lead me to something unimaginably greater...FREEDOM.  Because I was so afraid to stop smoking I was giving the enemy opportunities to come in and make me feel shame and turn my face away from the One who longed to have communion with me.  

God showed me that He would take away my shame like brushing scales off of my skin.  He said it wasn't going to be painless but at the end I would stand before Him "pink and raw".  And I have. I am.  I praise Him for His grace and His promises.  By faith, and not by anything I've done, I was able to let go of one sin and grab onto The Hand that was reaching out for me.

God is building my house.


3.  The Power of a Praying Wife

At the lowest point in my life, I clung to this book and the prayers and promises with-in.  As I prayed the words on the pages  I had to only hope He would hear me.  I figured He probably only hung out at potlucks and prayer meetings (although I'd never run into Him at either one) not in the bedroom of a sad, drunk girl who's life was crumbling.  But, I'd heard stories about Christians praying and God answering their prayers.  I was christian-ish. I had walked down the isle to the altar and prayed on my knees that He would be my savior. But, at the time, I didn't believe He could save me.

But, He did.  He saved me and my marriage and my husband.  He heard me.  He was longing for me to call to Him.  He answered. He redeemed.  He made new. It is finished.  It only took a little faith.  A little, "Well it can't hurt to try." 


He didn't answer the way I would've answered or as quickly, but He made everything beautiful in it's time.  "Beautiful Disaster" is what He says to me. (And then He winks at me because He knows I don't like cheesy catch phrases like that.)

And with that, it's time for:


His Sexuality

Lord, bless my husband's sexuality and make it an area of great fulfillment for him.  Restore what needs to be restored, balance what needs to be balanced.  Protect us from apathy, disappointment, criticism, busyness, unforgiveness, deadness, or disinterest.  i pray that we make time for one another, communicate our true feelings openly, and remain sensitive to what each other needs.

Keep us sexually pure in mind and body, and close the door to anything lustful or illicit that seeks to encroach upon us.  Deliver us from the bondage of past mistakes.  Remove from our midst the effects of any sexual experience - in thought or deed -  that happened outside of our relationship.  Take away anyone or anything from our lives that would inspire temptation to infidelity.  Help us to "abstain from sexual immorality" so that each of us will know "how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor." (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5).  I pray that we will desire each other and no one else.  Show me how to make myself attractive and desirable to him and be the kind of partner he needs.  I pray that neither of us will ever be tempted to think about seeking fulfillment elsewhere.

I realize that an important part of my ministry to my husband is sexual.  help me to never use it as a weapon or a means of manipulation by giving and withholding it for selfish reasons.  I commit this area of our lives to You, Lord.  May it be continually new and alive.  Make it all that You created it to be.



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