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.
by Stacey | Sep 25, 2014 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
I had a birthday yesterday. A big one. And I can’t help but look back over the last 40 years and thank God for His hand in my life. It seemed like an appropriate time to repost this letter to my 16-year-old self.
To that 16-year-old girl, forever trying to prove herself, seeking acceptance, and standing at a fork in the road, I say: There’s hope Sweet Sixteen.
You’re going to take the wrong road. A road that will lead you to a day, two years later, where you weepingly confess your wandering heart to the Lord. That wrong road changes everything, and your dad comforts you saying, “Honey, it may seem like the end of the world, but it gets better.”
Sweet Sixteen, your Dad is right. It gets better.
God in an act of marvelous grace will bring you back to that fork, and this time you will choose differently. God will redeem those lost years wasted on your own strength, on your own wisdom, forging your own way.
It will be ten years before some scars heal. More for others. It will be nearly fifteen years before you settle into yourself and really move forward. But Dad is right. It gets better.
Your sister really is the best friend you’ll ever have. Your brothers of few words are deep thinkers who love completely. Your parents are your biggest cheerleaders and your in-laws are not in-laws. They’re family. And family matters.
All things young eyes can fail to see.
You will marry the most wonderful man and wonder if you will ever have children with him. You will move away. You will come home again. You will embrace life, even when it knocks you down.
Then you will get back up.
Your mother heart will come to appreciate your Mother’s heart, and all that she quietly did for you. And you will quietly do it all for your children.
You will learn life, even your own life, is not really about you. It is so much bigger than that. The thought will both scare you and comfort you in a strange and intimate dance.
You will wish you could go back and do things differently, but you eventually accept your past as a piece of you, making you who you are. That drives you to your knees interceding for the three tiny souls entrusted to your care.
Sweet Sixteen, Dad is right. It gets better. And the unconditional love he gave you paves a way of acceptance of unconditional love from your heavenly Father.
You don’t know Him as well now as you one day will. Like so many things, you won’t fully appreciate Him when the path is easy, but you will when the path gets hard. And it gets hard.
Your black and white world will accept some grey -in some things – but not others. You’ll come full circle and discover some things really are black and white after all.
And when you come full circle, embrace the dance, Sweet Sixteen.
by Stacey | Sep 18, 2014 | The Weekend Visitor
Whenever I start to get discouraged about the future of the church, I remember a conversation I had a few years ago with evangelical theologian Carl F. H. Henry on what would turn out to be his last visit to Southern Seminary before his death.
Several of us were lamenting the miserable shape of the church, about so much doctrinal vacuity, vapid preaching, non-existent discipleship. We asked Dr. Henry if he saw any hope in the coming generation of evangelicals.
And I will never forget his reply.
“Why, you speak as though Christianity were genetic,” he said. “Of course, there is hope for the next generation of evangelicals. But the leaders of the next generation might not be coming from the current evangelical establishment. They are probably still pagans.”
“Who knew that Saul of Tarsus was to be the great apostle to the Gentiles?” he asked us. “Who knew that God would raise up a C.S. Lewis, a Charles Colson? They were unbelievers who, once saved by the grace of God, were mighty warriors for the faith.”
Of course, the same principle applied to Henry himself. Who knew that God would raise up a newspaperman from a nominally Lutheran family to defend the Scriptures for generations of conservative evangelicals?
The next Jonathan Edwards might be the man driving in front of you with the Darwin Fish bumper decal. The next Charles Wesley might be a misogynist, profanity-spewing hip-hop artist right now. The next Billy Graham might be passed out drunk in a fraternity house right now. The next Charles Spurgeon might be making posters for a Gay Pride March right now. The next Mother Teresa might be managing an abortion clinic right now.
But the Spirit of God can turn all that around. And seems to delight to do so. The new birth doesn’t just transform lives, creating repentance and faith; it also provides new leadership to the church, and fulfills Jesus’ promise to gift his church with everything needed for her onward march through space and time (Eph. 4:8-16).
After all, while Phillip was leading the Ethiopian eunuch to Christ, Saul of Tarsus was still a murderer.
Most of the church in any generation comes along through the slow, patient discipleship of the next generation. But just to keep us from thinking Christianity is evolutionary and “natural” (or, to use Dr. Henry’s term “genetic”), Jesus shocks his church with leadership that seems to come like a Big Bang out of nowhere.
Whenever I’m tempted to despair about the shape of American Christianity, I’m reminded that Jesus never promised the triumph of the American church; he promised the triumph of the church. Most of the church, in heaven and on earth, isn’t American. Maybe the hope of the American church is right now in Nigeria or Laos or Indonesia.
Jesus will be King, and his church will flourish. And he’ll do it in the way he chooses, by exalting the humble and humbling the exalted, and by transforming cowards and thieves and murderers into the cornerstones of his New City.
So relax.
And, be kind to that atheist in front of you on the highway, the one who just shot you an obscene gesture. He might be the one who evangelizes your grandchildren.
Dr. Moore is the Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice-President for Academic Administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He also serves as a preaching pastor at Highview Baptist Church, where he ministers weekly at the congregation’s Fegenbush location. Moore is the author of several books, including The Kingdom of Christ, Adopted for Life, and Tempted and Tried.
Used with permission
by Stacey | Sep 4, 2014 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
The day is hard. Correction. The season is hard. Hard enough that it is tempting to doubt and fall into despair. But You, Lord, are my refuge and strength. You are my help in times of trouble. I don’t understand, but I don’t need to understand. I need to believe that Your ways and thoughts are higher than mine and that you love me.
Give me eyes that see beyond now. Give me feet that walk the hard road of obedience. Give me a heart in beat with Yours. Give me the faith to believe that my ram is coming.
“It had to have been the darkest day of Abraham’s life as he trudged up the mountain, with firewood strapped to his son’s back. Every step took Abraham closer to what he believed to be the sad ending of a hopeless situation – the death of his son. Yet in spite of his sorrow, Abraham trusted God. His heart wasn’t soaring with joy. He wasn’t dancing up the mountain. But he put one foot in front of the other. Walking through the darkness of the situation; obeying His God’s commands.
Unbeknownst to Abraham, something else was walking up that mountain. Quietly. Out of sight. On the other side of the mountain. Something else was putting one foot in front of the other. Only Abraham couldn’t see it.
For every step Abraham took, a ram on the other side of the mountain took a step.”
– See more at: Proverbs 31 Ministries Devotions
My ram is coming. So is yours. We cannot see it, but with every heartbeat, believe that God’s response to your need is climbing up the other side of the mountain. You will meet at the peak where you will fall to your knees worshipping with Abraham at the place named, The Lord Will Provide.
