Well, today is Thanksgiving and the start of the downhill slide towards the hectic holiday season. The end of the year always feels like it is on fast-forward and before you know it we will be celebrating a New Year and wondering where 2008 went.

But despite the hecticness, today is a day to remember all the things we are thankful for, and as children of God there is much to be grateful about. No matter what our personal circumstances are this season, we serve a mighty God who has saved us from the wrath to come through the sacrifice of his Son. We did nothing to deserve this great act of mercy and yet here we stand in the righteousness of Christ.

And despite my concerns over the future of this country, those of us in the United States have it pretty good. Across the world there are Christians being persecuted for their faith. I am thankful for all the blessings that God has given me and the freedom I enjoy in this great country.

There is much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving and every Thanksgiving to come for those of us in Christ!

I leave you with a few verses.

Psalm 118:1
"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever."

Philippians 4:6
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

Psalm 100:4
"Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name."

1 Thessalonians 5:18
"give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Romans 5:8
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Labels: Carrie

I am researching a potential article about "praying in the Spirit." Have you ever wondered what that means? See Ephesians 6:18 and Jude 1:20-21.

I decided to research this after I had the most wonderful prayer session the other day. I was sitting in my prayer chair, and, as often happens, I felt this delicious tingling course through my body. I have come to recognize this as the presence of the Holy Spirit, and I always welcome the knowledge that He is alive and well within me.

But this particular prayer session was different, because the tingling did not stop. As I continued to pray, the tingling went on and on. My prayer sessions in my prayer chair can go from half an hour to an hour, and since the tingling did not start at the beginning of my prayer, I'm not sure how long I experienced it, but it went on until I concluded my prayer. When I was done, I was so thrilled, I asked the Lord to let me always pray like that.

I wondered: is this what "praying in the Spirit" is? Of course, the writer in me immediately sensed a wonderful new topic to dive into, and today I literally went through every single verse that alluded to "praying in the Spirit" or "in the Spirit." Why did Paul and Jude specifically instruct the church to "pray in the Spirit"? They seemed very emphatic about it--could this signify that more power would accompany their prayers? And how would they know if they were doing so or not?

My M.O. with writing articles is to research first, and then pray and chew on it for a few days, because the Holy Spirit always gives me insights that I did not have when I was first reading. I haven't heard from the Holy Spirit yet, but I will talk about my first impressions upon recording the 25 verses which I feel relate to "praying in the Spirit."

First of all, whenever the Spirit is present, power always accompanies Him. And when the Spirit falls upon someone, His presence is usually manifested by some outward sign. Another thing I find fascinating is that when people in the Bible were "in the Spirit," they knew. Take a look at Isaiah 61:1: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me..." How did he know? I think it's because the experience was unearthly. And in Ezekiel's visions (Ezekiel 2:2 and 3:24), he knew when the Spirit entered him.

It's important to note the difference in semantics here. Having the Holy Spirit and being in the Spirit are two different things. The apostle John who clearly had the Holy Spirit, said that he was "in the Spirit on the Lord's day..." (Rev. 1:10) just before our Lord Jesus appeared to him in all His glory.

It seems that being "in the Spirit" and thus, "praying in the Spirit" is an intentional thing. John knew that it was the Lord's day (sabbath), and was praying in the Spirit. It seems that we can intentionally pray in the Spirit, and the Spirit will respond and give us a manifestation of His presence and His power.

Did I intentionally pray in the Spirit when I experienced the tingling sensation that went on for some time? Maybe not intentionally, but I did ask for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon me.

As Christians, we have the wonder and power of the Holy Spirit available to us, yet how many of us call upon Him to fall upon us afresh? How many of us ask for His power expectantly? How many of us intentionally "pray in the Spirit"? (This is not a judgment call, because I'm 51 and I'm just now getting it.)

I hope you earnestly seek to "pray in the Spirit." This is not something you can do in traffic or in the shower. Set some time aside, focus on the object of your affection (our Lord Jesus Christ), and ask to "pray in the Spirit." He will not disappoint you.

Blessings,
Gwenn

Labels: prayer, praying in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit

1. A wish or desire accompanied by confident expectation of its fulfillment.
2. In Christianity, the theological virtue defined as the desire and search for a future good, difficult but not impossible to attain with God's help.

The book of Job is full of hope....Job's hope that he will be healed and his heart will be restored. Job is ever so faithful and he cannot be broken....no matter what is done to his heart, his land, his fortune, his health. He BELIEVES that God is what He says He is, only faltering from that faith for a split second. Job trusts God. He just does.

Do you? Do I?

I have often wondered where my faith and hope truly rest. Do I believe that God is who He says He is? Do I have FAITH that He will get me through any and all situations with the ultimate goal of showing His glory and my heart for Him growing deeper? I don't know. I just don't.

In my recent days I have seen, over and over again, how quick I am to just take the ball I am given and run with it. Starting a business while raising three kids and working full time is not easy. You just learn to do everything yourself for fear that something might not get done. If it doesn't, uh-oh. If it does, whew. That's it. No big fan fare for a job well done, no big "HOORAY! You did it!" Just....done.

With this taking the ball and running mentality comes FEAR. Big time fear. You start playing "what ifs".....What if I don't get it all done? What if my child doesn't take a bath and have a clean pair of jeans to wear to school tomorrow? What if I can't get my orders filled quickly enough or I'm so tired from being up late that I can't do my "paying job" well enough anymore? Or what if I forget to send lunch money to school? What if one can't go to an event because another has something else more important to attend? Unfortunately, I can't be in more than one place at a time (and actually....now that I think about it....I'm glad I can't. I'm tired enough as it is!).

So I've been looking for an answer. An answer to why my hope isn't fully in God. And you guessed it. Yep....God whacked me upside the head and gave me my answer. I love it when He does that. :) My answer is in Jeremiah 29:11-13.

"For I know the plans I have for you,"
declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future. Then you
will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen
to you. You will seek me and find me when
you seek me with all your heart."

I love this verse. Probably in my top 10 favs. But...and yes there is a but....I MISSED this part. Verse 13. The part where God says "SEEK ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND YOU WILL FIND ME". That's what I have been missing. My lack of faith has lead to fear, which lead to lack of seeking Him with all my heart, which lead to having only partial hope in God and putting the rest of my hope in my own limited abilities.

DUH. DUH. DUH.

Now what? Now what. Well....I seek Him. With all that I am and all that I have. I open my heart to His direction and in that openness is where I find Him. I stop being so hard on myself, stop wearing myself out and give God the chance to take care of things for me. I let Him have control of the reins and steer me down His path where I can only hope is more peace and less stress. That will not be easy but as my favorite line from my favorite movie of all time "Hope Floats" goes...."Just give hope a chance to float up. And it will...."

HOPE....I'M GIVIN' YOU A CHANCE. SO FLOAT ALREADY! :)

Labels: Hope, Jeremiah 29:11-13, sockrma18

Yesterday was a sad day. I didn’t stay up on Tuesday evening to see the results of the election but I knew when I went to bed that things didn’t look promising. When I awoke in the morning and turned on the radio my fears were confirmed. Barak Obama had won the election.

Over the last few weeks my husband had talked to our six-year daughter about the candidates, who we stood for and why. When I told her on Tuesday that everyone was voting she said she hoped John McCain would win. I told her that may not happen but she told me not to worry, God would let the “good man” win.

Unfortunately that isn’t true. I explained to my daughter than Israel had many bad kings and that sometimes God gives us bad leaders to teach us or to judge us. In way though she is right. Our sovereign God does choose our leaders and we can still rest in his choice even when we suspect the outcome won’t be easy for us.

But this is still a sad time for me because our nation has chosen a leader who does not support Godly values. A man who fully supports partial-birth abortion is a candidate that no Christian should be comfortable with. I can only expect that with a liberal President and a liberal Congress our nation will slide further into ungodly practices and incur God’s judgment. That is not a place I want to be.

I am also scaried as a parent. If our nation lurches more and more toward darkness I will have to fight harder and harder to keep my children in the light. As things like “alternative lifestyles” become more acceptable I have to worry that my kids will see things at our local mall that I don’t care to explain to them at a young age. Sheltering my children from ungodly practices may become impossible.

But despite my sadness and fears, I know that God “in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Rom 8:28). The darkness around us may grow but it will never overcome the light.

But I do hope this time will be a wake-up call for Christians. I think too many Christians today have become too comfortable with the world and it is time for us to set ourselves apart and be different. As children of God we are a holy nation – let’s start living that way and show the darkness what is light.

Labels: Carrie