 Good news. Have you heard any good news lately? News stories are everywhere you turn. Some are heartwarming while others are heart wrenching. Lately I have mostly been hearing the heart wrenching ones. Sometimes I dread turning on the news channel because I know I will hear more than I can take of death, destruction, and despair from around the world to right here in our communities in our state. This kind of news instills fear, anxiety and alarm in people. Aren’t you ready for some good news? News that brings peace, calmness, security, happiness, assurance, and confidence? Well I have some good news for you! You see this good news is simple but I will admit some people believe it to be complicated; however, I have come to realize that the good news itself is not what is complicated but rather complicated for some to accept the good news. So what is this good news? Simply put, the good news is the message of the cross. The cross which is truly a crossroad where you come to a crucial place where a decision must be made. The decision to listen to the full message of the cross and accept it or reject it. To some it is God’s saving power. To others it is complete foolishness. “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18 The cross symbolizes the sins of this world. The sins of you and me. This old rugged cross carried on the back of a man, Jesus. The very reason He came to this earth… to rid me of the weight of my sin, to rid you of the weight of your sin. He carried my sins, your sins and endured ridicule, mockery, and severe abuse. But why? Because of His great love for me. Because of His great love for you! He was then nailed to this cross. Pierced for my wrongdoings. Pierced for your wrongdoings. Died for me and died for you. But the best part of this good news is He conquered death. He rose to life! The grave could not hold him back. The authority is His. The power to break me from the grip of the enemy. The power to break you from the grip of the enemy. “Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. 4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. 11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” Isaiah 53 The message of the cross is more than a story to just hear. The message of the cross is an invitation to not only hear what one man did for mankind but it’s a personal invitation to believe and accept this one man Jesus carried the sins of the world on his shoulders for you and me. We accept His invitation not because we earned it or deserve it. We accept it because we are invited.
We all end up at this crucial intersection in life. You are invited to accept and believe the Good News. Will you accept it or reject it? PRAYER Lord, here I am at the crossroads of knowing I need to accept this invitation but struggling to come to You. I am desperate for some good news. My life is a mess. I have made wrong choices. I choose this day to accept this Good News for me. Forgive me of my sins. I believe You carried my sins on the cross. I believe You died for me and rose to life and now I am free from my past. I am forgiven of all my wrongdoings. From this day forward I am Yours and You are my Savior, my Lord. Thank You for what You did for me. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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 Our adoption and birth story is up on the website. Ours is one where God used infertility to teach me how to trust Him and His plan for our family. If you are walking through infertility, my prayer is that our story brings you much needed hope!
Read our story here.  Has God ever led you to something in the bible very specific to your need or showed you some details in a dream about a deep desire you have? Are you walking through health issues and God led you to a healing scripture that you know is from Him but you are not seeing that healing in your own body? You know in your heart God did lead you to that specific scripture just for you. Or maybe He has given you a dream at night where you are pregnant or holding a baby but you have been on a journey of infertility for years. But that dream! It was so real. What do you do after you believe God has spoken to you? It’s so easy during these times to question God and question whether that healing scripture was for you personally or whether that dream was even a God dream when you are not seeing God’s word come forth. In 1 Kings 18:1, the Lord said to Elijah, “go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.” If you look back to 1 Kings 17, you will see there had been no rain for several years. Three years to be exact. No well watered garden in this area. No rain to cool the day. Not even a drop of dew in the morning or at night. Life like they knew it was changing. Everything had dried up, even the brook. I can hear the cries now, “Lord, where’s the rain?” Plant life was withering away. The children and animals would surely die with no water. But here we are in 1 Kings 18:1 and the Lord is telling Elijah He will send rain on the land. Three years of no rain but today the Lord said He will send rain. But the rain didn’t come in verse 2 or 3 or 4. The rain did not come until verse 45! What do you do when you receive a word from the Lord for yourself but you do not see it come forth immediately? Early in my marriage I walked through infertility….. five years of infertility. One night I dreamed I was 8 months pregnant. In my dream, I saw my 8-month pregnant belly as clear as day. It was beautiful! I woke up wide-eyed. The dream was so real! I couldn’t shake it. I knew it was a dream from God. I even told my husband I was about to get pregnant which would be a total miracle from God since I was in my fifth year of not getting pregnant. Have you experienced something like this? Maybe God has given you a dream about something you desire or has led you to a specific scripture for healing while you are battling a health issue but you are not seeing that scripture play out in your life. You are not seeing healing come upon you. You are not getting pregnant. Nothing is happening that He said would happen. What do you do when you know God has shown you something but you are just not seeing it yet? I know for me, I fought with disappointment, confusion and hurt after not becoming pregnant soon after my dream. I wrestled with so many emotions but I knew God had given me that dream to show me I was going to become pregnant and give birth to a child. Something that I deeply desired. I kept going back to that dream and then I would go back to God. Elijah was told by the Lord that He was going to send rain. It had not rained for three years. So how did Elijah react to what God said would happen? This is where we can follow the example of Elijah after hearing something from God but not seeing it immediately come forth. 1. Elijah believed. Elijah heard God and believed him. Elijah believed rain would surely come because God said it would. Has God told you something or has shown you something and you know that you know it is from Him? Then believe it! Believe what God told you or showed you. 2. Elijah spoke it forth before seeing it happen. In 1 Kings 18: 41, Elijah told the king to go eat and drink for a heavy rain is coming. What boldness this took to declare! There wasn’t even a cloud in the sky. Everything was dried up but what Elijah saw around him did not stop him from announcing what the Lord had said to him. When I had that dream I was pregnant not only did I tell my husband I was about to get pregnant but I also told my Mom, my brother, my sister in law, my Dad and inlaws and anybody else I talked to. I spoke that dream forth even though in the natural month after month was passing by and I was still not pregnant yet. So you received a word from the Lord. You truly believe what God said is going to happen. You believe it so much you have no problem speaking it forth and telling your family and friends. But as of yet, it has not happened. Do you just wait and do nothing? Elijah did something else besides just wait. 3. Elijah prayed. Even though the Lord had told him rain was coming, Elijah found a place, got down on his knees, bowed his head and prayed. Even though he believed what the Lord said and then declared it to the king, he still got on his knees and pressed in prayer for the rain. Remember, there was not even a cloud in the sky when Elijah declared that rain was coming. Elijah didn’t just pray one simple prayer. He pressed in prayer and sent his servant to run and look in the sky for any signs of rain. His servant saw nothing. Elijah went back into prayer and pressed in some more and sent his servant again to go look to see if there were any signs of rain. Seven times Elijah sent his servant to look towards the sea for rain clouds. AND ALL OF A SUDDEN! Don’t you love an “all of a sudden?" After the seventh time his servant went to see if there were any signs of rain, he came back and said in I Kings 18:44, “a cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” And then the bible says in verse 45, “the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain started falling.” The rain was here! What God had said was going to happen was happening. And like Elijah saw God’s word come forth, I too saw what God said would happen to me happen. I did get pregnant and birthed a beautiful baby girl. Maybe this post hits home with you. Maybe there is nothing, not even a small something to show what God said is going to happen. Let the example of Elijah encourage you to continue to believe and speak it forth but to also press in prayer about what the Lord is about to do. I believe your rain is coming! {Feel free to speak forth God’s promise to you in the comments and I will rejoice alongside of you now and when it comes forth.} “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.” 1 Kings 18:1 “The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of His bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands.” Deuteronomy 28:12
 I believe in the power of prayer. I believe by praying to God things happen. Families are healed. People are set free. Chains do break. Lightness breaks through darkness. Wholeness replaces brokenness. Hope rises from the ashes of despair. Life comes back into lethargic situations and dead circumstances. Lives change all because of prayer.
Do you believe this? Have you seen the power of prayer in your own life or in someone else’s life? When you see your praying impact you or someone else, you will notice your faith will rise. Your confidence in God grows stronger. Your trust in Him increases. Or maybe you have never seen the results of the power of prayer because you believe you just don’t know how to pray. When you hear the term “prayer warrior” a few people come to mind that you know are strong pray-ers but you would not add yourself to that list. Well today that is going to change! I am going to show you five ways you can not only become a “pray-er” but a “prayer warrior” where you can pray with purpose and see the results from the power of prayer. Praying can be done anywhere. Jonah prayed in the belly of a whale. David prayed in a cave. Hannah cried out to God on the floor of the temple. Jesus prayed in the mountains and in the wilderness. I pray wherever I am when I feel led to pray by the Holy Spirit. Sometimes I pray at red lights, grocery check-out lines, in the laundry room, while cooking, in the living room chair when I wake up or in bed before going to sleep. Sometimes I pray in the carpool line at our children’s school. There are times I pray with friends and others at church. Praying can be done anywhere and it doesn’t always have to be long and wordy. Actually I have found that getting to the point with God allows me to be honest and heartfelt while I am praying. However, there are times where throwing up a few short sentences is not what is needed. There are times in life where I know I need to enter into prayer and press in for a certain situation or a specific person. In these times, I have learned a few habits to make the most of my prayer time with God. Below are five habits to learn to make the most of your prayer time. 1. A Place to Pray. Set apart a place to pray. I am married with 8 children (six live at home). I have daily distractions. There are times when I need to pray but with all life responsibilities calling for my attention it is almost impossible to check out and enter a prayer closet and pray. So during these times I look at my calendar and what needs to be done that day and then I am intentional about setting apart a place and time to pray. It can be done. It may be waking up a little earlier than normal or praying a little later when everybody has gone to bed. Whatever it looks like it can be done. 2. Your Motive. Check your heart and motive. Before praying to God make sure you have the right motive to pray. For example, you would obviously have a wrong motive if you came before the Lord because you are so mad at this person that deceived you and now you want to pray and ask God to kill them J. Yes, I am exaggerating a little but you get the point. We don’t want harm to come to people. We want our heart to be moved by the Spirit. We want our circumstance to change. We can be upset, hurt and mad at a person or a situation but let’s follow the example of Jesus and clothe our self in humility and love and then we can pray and know God does hear your prayer. 3. Petition God. You are coming to God in prayer for a reason. To petition God is simply to make a request, to ask Him with deep sincerity. Tell Him your desire. This is the time to be honest and heartfelt and let God know your heart’s plea. 4. Thank God. Don’t forget to thank Him while in prayer. When we thank God before we see the answer to our prayer, this tells God, “Lord, I believe that You heard me. I trust You in this situation.” There is something powerful about thanking God for what He is going to do before we actually see it happen. So go ahead and get in the habit of thanking God when you pray. 5. Praise and Worship God. While you are thanking God for all He is doing, praise Him for Who He is, the Lord of lords and the King of kings. Show God adoration with your words. Love Him and praise Him with your lips. I’ll shout praises from my mouth and lift my chin high to Him. Sometimes I start clapping for the Lord. Don’t be timid in prayer instead replace bashfulness with boldness and courage. The Lord loves when you talk with Him and seek Him. One of my favorite verses in the bible is, “For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of Him.” Hannah poured out her heart to the Lord. Hannah prayed with purpose and God answered. Did this help you see that praying is easier than you thought? |
Hello and Welcome!
Wife, Mother, Adoption Advocate, Writer, IllustratorWho am I? Galatians 2:20 does a great job of summing up who I am. My life is His, the One who loves me and gave Himself for me . In return, I want to be all He wants me to be and do all He wants me to do on this side of Heaven. 
Recipient of the Angels in Adoption Award 2016. A program of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute in Washington D.C.
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