Praying God's Word - Overcoming Pride

As I have mentioned before, I didn't buy this book because of the stumbling blocks issue, I bought it because it was about praying God's Word. This last chapter on overcoming pride was a heart pricker. I am actually going to quote a paragraph from the book.

"In some ways, Christians have to be more alert to pride than anyone. If we don't presently have an issue that is actively humbling us, we veer with disturbing velocity toward arrogance and self righteousness. We are wise to remember that Christ never resisted the repentant sinner. He resisted the religious proud and the Pharisaic. Remember, pride wears many masks. I once spoke on pride only to have someone to remark afterward that she had far too little self esteem to have pride. Pride is not the opposite of low self-esteem. Pride is the opposite of humility. We can have a serious pride problem that masquerades as low self-esteem. Pride is self-absorption whether we're absorbed with how miserable we are or how wonderful we are. We are wise to be on the constant lookout for pride in our lives. I believe we can safely say that if we're not deliberately taking measures to combat pride, it's probably doing something to combat humility." - Beth Moore

That can be me at times.

Father, You have told me to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others better than myself. ( Phil. 2:3) Right this moment I confess my selfish ambition and vain conceit to you. Forgive me for so often considering myself better than others. Help me to look not only to my own interests but also to the interests of others. Please help me have an attitude the same as that of Christ Jesus. (Phil 2:4-5)

Have a blessed week!

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We Moved!

During the busiest time of the year, we bought a house and moved just a little ways from where we were already living. I didn't talk much about it for many reasons, but mostly because I wasn't ready to move. It is not that I liked the house we were renting- it had pink carpet, the kitchen floor as well as the windows needed to be replaced. (We did like having a pool and we were just getting to know our neighbors.) Although the housing market is low, I was (and still am) a little nervous in this time of economic crisis. My husband has been looking for houses all year and I can not tell you how many times we put an offer on a house and we would be outbid by a cash offer or a higher offer. I was ready to be done with it for awhile and then my husband talked me into one more and of course it is the one we are now living in.

Not only did I feel the strain from all the economic crisis that was going on around us, but we thought that we could get moved in before we left on our big 3 week vacation back to the Midwest. Of course it was the Christmas season and life is always busy around Christmas, but it is our church's big live nativity production - 6 nights of 3 mile walking as tour leaders. Not only were we tour leaders, getting home about 11:00 each night, I also was finishing up my college class and I had a final to prepare for. (By the way, I got an A in the class!) Not only that, it was drawing closer to the time that we had to be out of the house we were renting and we still had not closed on our house. That is a long story that I am not going into, but by Friday morning of the day that we were suppose to be out of our house (the property management wouldn't give us an extension) all the paper work on the house we were buying still hadn't closed because of some computer difficulty. I have to tell you that I felt like crying, we were homeless. No place to go.

There are too many details to tell here, but it worked out and we were able to call up some church friends so that we were moved out of our house in about 3 hours. In fact we all were able to go to church that night to help at the live nativity. I am always amazed at how blessed we are and at how willing our church friends are at helping even at short notice. God bless them!

We moved on a Friday and we left for Omaha the next Tuesday! I hurriedly unpacked so that I could pack for our trip. Amazingly, I packed all that we needed for 5 people in 2 checked bags. We carried on a duffel, a big back back and a child sized back pack. What a rush!

I am going to post some pictures of our trip another day and what a good time we had. I will also try to scare up some pictures of the house, but I was so busy packing, moving, unpacking, and then packing again, that I don't have many pictures. I am finally settling into the house more and remembering where I put everything. I am thankful for the blessing of the new house and I am prayerful that it will continue to be a blessing as well. Thank you to those of you who helped and thank you to those of you who prayed for us.

Praying God's Word (Overcoming Unbelief)

For those of you who don't know, I am reading "Praying God's Word" by Beth Moore. When she is talking about unbelief, it isn't necessarily not believing in God or that Jesus is the Son of God, but that sometimes our faith is small. She lists a bunch of example scripture prayers, but I am going to just focus on one.

Father, I desire to fix my eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of my faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)


Have a blessed week!

Praying God's Word and the New Year!

I was able to share my testimony on Saturday with the women at church. Maybe I will post it someday, but it was all handwritten because our computer wasn't up and and running until the weekend. Who knows when or if I will type it up. I did share how much reading through the Bible last year changed my life and that I would be reading a new book at the start of this year called, "Breaking Free from Spiritual Strongholds Praying God's Word" by Beth Moore. I didn't realize that part of the title said "Breaking Free from Spiritual Strongholds" I was just interested in the idea of praying scripture. That being said, I think that this book will give me a lot to think about. I hope that if you read this book as well, that you will share with me what you are reading and discovering as you pray with scripture.

I have already read the introduction and chapter 1, "Overcoming Idolatry." In the introduction, Beth discusses how in Ephesians 6:10-18, where Paul is talking about the armor of God, the only weapon described is the Word of God. I love what it says in Hebrews 4:12 about the word of God, "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." Scripture is God's word. Then Beth goes on to say that Ephesians 6:18 says to, "Pray in the Spirit on all occasions..." Thus she links the Word of God and praying.

I don't want praying scripture to have the illusion that it is more spiritual or give it a feeling like it is a magical spell. Just because you recite scripture doesn't mean it will happen, but I want to do this in order to make praying more reverent and more creative. I think that you will see what I mean as I continue through the book.

I am not for sure how to do each chapter, but for the moment I am going to pick one of the sample prayers listed in the book for that chapter that means the most to me.

"My Lord, where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast." (Psalm 139:7-10)

God bless you this week!