by Stacey | Nov 20, 2014 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
It’s snowing. The first real snow of the season. Shrieks of joy fill the living room as the children press their noses against the window. They scamper outdoors, poking and jabbing every sparse flake as it flutters to the ground until it is time to go.
We pile into the car and the ride goes something like this.
Her body wedged between theirs. Booster to thigh. Thigh to booster. Squeezed across the tiny bench seat in the vehicle that provides the most miles per gallon.
It begins with a poke. A small jab. A fluttering under the breath. Someone wants what someone else has. But isn’t that how most battles begin? The temperature inside the vehicle plummets as the battle for elbow space rages and the light snow turns ugly. It’s war.
War is always ugly, bringing to the surface what hides within—
—Within every one of us.
The car swerves to the side spitting gravel and jerks to a stop. “THAT IS ENOUGH!”
The youngest covers his face and cries. “I don’t like that sound!”
The sound of the small vehicle shuddering as tractor trailers fly by? Or the sound of his mother’s anger?
Conviction falls like that snow. Softly, then poking and jabbing my hard, cold heart, burying me under the ugly truth. War rages in me, bringing to the surface what hides within.
It. Is. Ugly.
The anger is mine. The sin is mine. And it is time to own it.
Be angry and do not sin.
It is no longer about the correction and instruction of my children. It is about accepting correction and instruction from my Lord.
Forgive me.
And the snow eases. Once piled high in weighty conviction, it disperses into gentles flurries that bury me under a blanket of white that covers a lifetime of failure. Making me, white as snow.
White as snow. Though my sins were like scarlet, Lord I know, I am clean and forgiven. Through the power of your blood. Through the wonder of your love. Through faith in you I know that I can be white as snow.~ Keon Olguin
by Stacey | Nov 13, 2014 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
A house of superheroes. Meet Batgirl, The Flash, and Robin. Superheroes fascinate our children, dominate their dress-up attire, and inspire them to be brave and heroic.
I am thankful for these three super kids and how God is using them to grow both my faith in Him and my dependence on Him.
Despite not being pictured, I am also thankful for Ironman. No, not the one created by Stan Lee for Marvel Comics, the iron girls (plural) who sharpen me. You ladies know who you, are and I am thankful for YOU.
Lord, thank you for Iron Friends. Friends who sharpen. Friends who stretch my boundaries and limits. Friends who refuse to tickle itching ears. Their stirred love creates action powered by your Holy Spirit. Heavy burdens are lifted together. Two are better than one.
Thank you for admonishment, encouragement, help, and patience. All gifts from you received through my Iron Friends. I want to be like them, because they want to be like you. And more than anything, I want to be like you, Lord.
Knit our hearts together in love, grant us the rich experience of knowing Christ with certainty and clear understanding. We have everything when we have Christ.
Thank you for Iron Friends. Now, help me be one.
Proverbs 27:17, Hebrew 10:24, 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Galatians 6:2, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, 1 Thessalonians 5:14, Colossians 2:2-3, 10
by Stacey | Oct 30, 2014 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
Last week we prayed powerful Scripture over our husbands, and this week we apply the same principle to how we pray for our children. Praying Scripture is more than uttering a collection of magic words or reciting a written script. Praying Scripture is admitting that we need God’s help—even to pray. I need God’s help to pray for my kids, because He knows better than I do what they really need most.
Father God, who not only loves me with an everlasting love, but also loves my children with an everlasting love, who desires that none should perish, but that all should come to know You through the Lord through Jesus Christ, please hear my prayer.
I pray that (insert your children’s name) will delight in your laws and meditate on them day and night. Make them like trees planted by streams of water, yielding fruit in season whose leaf does not wither. May Your Word dwell in them richly, teaching and admonishing them with thankfulness in their hearts to you. May they seek You, seek Your wisdom, and Your kingdom first, asking for wisdom in faith without doubting that You are the giver of good gifts.
Take their heart of stone and make it a heart of flesh. Strengthen them through the power of Your Spirit so that Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith. May they be rooted and grounded in love and fully understand the depth of Christ’s love for them. Fill them with the fullness of You.
Give them a desire to, through the power of your Spirit, put off their old selves and be renewed in the spirit of their minds to put on their new self, created after the likeness of Christ. Remove all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander and malice, stirring up love for one another—tender-hearted and forgiving love that mimics the love Christ has for them.
Grant them complete satisfaction in their current state, teaching them thankfulness and contentment. Hide Your words in their hearts, filling their minds with life changing Scripture, gently yielding their wills to Yours.
Lord, have your way with them.
There is nothing more powerful that I could pray for my children then the very words and desires of God. Moms, let’s move our prayers from surface comfort toward deeper and truly life changing prayers.
2 Peter 3:9, Jeremiah 31:3, Psalm 1, Colossians 3:16, Matthew 6:33, James 1:5, James 1:17, Ezekiel 36:26, Ephesians 4:17-19, Ephesians 4:22-24, Ephesians 4:31-32, Hebrews 13:5, Psalm 119:11
by Stacey | Oct 23, 2014 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
I just returned from a conference where I was reminded of the privilege and honour I have as a wife to pray for my husband. And Ladies, lifting your husband before the Lord is one of the most important things you will do—and you need to do it daily.
I loved this conference session because the instructor, Bethany Donaldson, does something I love. She prays Scripture. Praying Scripture is a powerful prayer because when you pray God’s Word, you are praying God’s will. And I don’t know about you, but I want my husband to be in God’s will.
If you want to join me in this pursuit of prayer on behalf of our husbands, here are some Scriptures you can pray. Insert your husband’s name.
Lord, Please answer me when I call. Be gracious with me and hear my prayer. Give ear to my words and consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, for to You, I pray.
I lift up (insert name) before you, asking that he may be filled with knowledge of Your will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so he may walk in a manner worthy of You, fully pleasing to You, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of you. It is my prayer that his love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that he may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
May he look beyond his own interests and be concerned about others and seek Your kingdom first. May he delight in your Word and meditate on it day and night. May he delight in your commands and be blessed by You.
Keep him above reproach, keep him from being arrogant or quick-tempered, drunk, violent, or greedy. Instead, may he desire to be hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. May he hold firm to the trustworthy word that is taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.
May he flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. May he put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. May he submit himself to You, resist the devil until the devil flees from him, and draw nearer to You.
Father God, please make his way straight, spread your protection over him, cover him with favour as a shield. Lead him in Your righteousness.
These beautiful words are not mine, dear sisters. They are the very words of God prayed back to Him. They are God’s will for my husband. They are God’s will for your husband. And praying His will is a very powerful prayer.
Colossians 1:9-10, Philippians 1:9-11, Matthew 6:33, Philippians 2:4, Titus 1:7-9, 2 Timothy 2:22, Romans 13:14, James 4:7-8, Psalm 4 and 5
by Stacey | Oct 2, 2014 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
God is Jehovah Jireh, my provider—my sustainer—His grace is sufficient for me. Set aside my worries, my obsessiveness, my planning, and instead, choose the better thing. Choose to praise His name for bringing me to the place where I must depend on Him. The place where faith truly comes alive.
His Word reverberates through my soul. The last chord fades, and my hands remained raised because—
He. Is. Able.
And I don’t just know it, I KNOW it.
Because I’ve been here before. And he’s brought me here again, close to him, so the prayers cried here will change me.
Beloved. I am loved with His everlasting love, love that does not merely rebuild from the brokenness, but re-creates. Nothing is wasted. Nothing. He knows my sorrow, my pain, my need. he has collected my tears in a bottle.
I am not able. But He is.
He is the great I am.
