 I am praying God’s 250 great and precious promises in the New Testament from Matthew to Revelation over my spouse, children, and loved ones. I’m on promise number 14. If you missed the others you can find them here.
Today’s promise is GREAT REWARDS. There are several scriptures that give us the reasons God promises us great rewards. Matthew 5:12, God gives us great rewards in heaven for persecution because of Him (see Blessing for Persecution post), “Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 6:4, God tells us as we give to charity and to the poor do it in secret and then He who sees in secret will reward us openly. In Matthew 6:6, God says when you pray, don’t do it to be seen and think “look at me everyone” but go in your room and closes the door and prays to the Father who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. In Matthew 6:18, God tells us if we fast to fast unto Him in secret and the Father who sees in secret shall reward thee openly. Luke 6:35 says, “Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Hebrews 10:35 says our confidence will be rewarded. “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.” God is clear He gives us great rewards for our persecution. He gives us great rewards for not broadcasting when we give to the poor and needy. He gives us great rewards when we don’t try to draw attention to ourselves when we pray. He gives us great rewards when we don’t advertise to people we are fasting. God gives us great rewards when we love, do good, and lend to our enemies without expecting anything in return. God gives us great rewards for our confidence as it relates to His word. Father, we thank You for Your promise of GREAT REWARDS. I see in scripture You tell us exactly what we need to do or not do to receive this promise. Lord, I lift up my spouse to You today, I lift up my children and other loved ones and I lift up myself to You and ask for You to show us areas in our life where we pray, give, fast, do good or have confidence from selfish ambition or we do these to draw attention to ourselves. Father, show us early when pride starts rising up in us. Cause our ears to hear Your still small voice but also let us be eager once we hear You to change in the areas You are asking us to change. Encourage each of us as we pray and fast in private and as we love and do good to our enemies without wanting anything in return. Lord, as we submit to Your ways and Your will, give each of us more opportunities to pray and fast for people. Increase and bless our finances so we can give more to the poor and needy. Let us not miss an opportunity to love our enemies and do good to them, for Your word says You are even kind to the unthankful and the evil person. Lord, if any of us lack Godly confidence if any of us lack in a firm trust in You help us to have that kind of confidence. Help us to have free and fearless confidence, to have cheerful courage, boldness and assurance. I thank You today, Lord, for Your promise of great rewards for each of us. In Jesus’ name Amen.
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 Praying God’s great and precious promises over our spouse, children, and loved ones. Today’s promise is BLESSING FOR PERSECUTION. Matthew 5:11, “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Did you know that as we step out boldly in front for His namesake, as our children courageously speak about the Father in school with their peers, as our spouse shares the name of Jesus with co-workers that we open up an opportunity for the Good News of Jesus Christ to save someone but we also open up the door of possibility for persecution. To boldly and courageously speak about the saving grace and mercy of Jesus can bring on undeserved criticism, insults, and even people who want to smear your reputation in the dirt. Some people will strive to bring trouble to you. We must be aware that persecution can and will come to our effort of spreading the name of Jesus. But during those times of persecution, we must intentionally train ourselves to focus on the first part of this scripture which is a promise from God, which can read something like this: Blessed are you when co-workers and peers insult and condemn you for talking about Jesus; blessed are you when people try to smear your reputation for sharing the Good News; blessed are you when the public falsely says all kinds of evil about you because of the name of Jesus. During these times, God promises to supremely bless you! Father, what a beautiful promise for a hard experience to go through. I do not want my reputation undeservedly lied about and smeared and I definitely do not want my spouse, my children and my loved ones to have their reputation lied about and smeared because of the name of Jesus; because of being the hands and feet of Jesus on this earth. I do not want us to be insulted and criticized for Your namesake but I do know we cannot avoid it on this side of Heaven; we cannot avoid the darkness that is on this earth so, Lord, I thank You for strengthening my spouse, my children, my loved ones during these very difficult times of persecution; during the times when they boldly speak of Your goodness, Your saving grace; when they boldly love people for Your namesake; when they boldly speak Your name at work, at school, or anywhere they may speak Your name. Lord, teach us how to not be offended during these trying times. Lord, help our children who walk through persecution for Your namesake to rise up above the insults, the lies. Teach us to turn our eyes and heart to Your promise of blessing us during these times, supremely blessing us, extremely and enormously blessing us. I thank You that we all can trust that if people lie about us for Your namesake that it is a matter of time before You bring forth the truth. We do not need to be offended or retaliate with unkind words. We do not need to rehearse their lies and insults in our head. We instead can praise You and know You promise blessings upon us for stepping out in faith for Your namesake. We love You, Lord, and pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen I want to end with The Message version of Matthew 5:11-12, “Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit Me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.” I am celebrating and cheering with you as you go forth and boldly speak the name of Jesus!  Praying God’s great and precious promises over our spouse, children, and loved ones. Today’s promise is SONSHIP. The following scriptures address this promise from Him.
Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” John 1:12, “But as many as received Him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” A person cannot appoint you as a son of God. This is something you are freely given as you believe that Jesus is who He says He is. When you believe this, being a peacemaker becomes part of that equation. I love how the Message words this verse, “You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.” Romans 8:14-16 “For as many are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” The Message words it like this, “So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who He is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with Him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with Him!” Let's pray. Father, Your ways are miraculous! Thank You for the promise of being Your child; the promise of sonship. Lord, I am your child not by blood, not by the will of my flesh nor by any man but rather by You all because I choose to believe that Jesus is Who He says He is. Lord, I hold up my spouse, my children, and my loved ones to You. I thank You they embrace and believe Who You say You are. I thank You that Your truth of Who You are is louder than the lies the world says about You. I thank You for saving us. I thank You for our heart's desire to do Your will. As Your child, Lord, help us to love more starting with the ones close to us. Grow our capacity to better love the lost, the hurting, and the lowly. Help us to bring peace to the angry, the agitated, and the frustrated. Let us never forget to show the love of the Father to all. Lord, help us to fully understand the liberty and the benefits of being Your child. Holy Spirit, teach us daily about the access we have to our Father; about the power and authority given to us as a child of God. Let our spouse, our children, our loved ones and myself fully understand, as Your son and daughter, we did not receive a spirit of bondage to fear or terror, but rather You adopted us through Jesus Christ as Your very own children to boldly call on You, to call You Father, where every bondage to sin is broken. Every chain that holds us back is removed. Help us to walk in this freedom, Lord. Help us to put the devil in his place and let the authority and power that comes with sonship rise up out of our mouths in prayer and proclamation bringing this Good News to all who will listen. I love You, my Father! I pray and believe all this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Side note: Writing down a prayer for this promise was hard for me to narrow down because the promise of sonship is dear to my heart because of experiencing adoption in our family. God’s definition of adoption is sonship. Not a position under a biological son or daughter but rather an equal to all the sons and daughters in that family. When we become a son/daughter of God, we inherit ALL the rights and privileges as one born in a family. That is sonship! There are no dividing lines. All are God’s children. That is how adoption is in a family on this earth. When a child is adopted into a family, that child becomes a son/daughter of that family with no dividing lines. I wanted to focus the prayer above to all the families who have adopted and encourage them that the children you adopted are not “adopted” children, they are simply your son and your daughter; however, the scriptures above were for all people even the ones who have not experienced adopting a son or daughter 😊 So I chose to write the prayer above for all. And let’s remember how our Father sees all of us: not as His adopted children but rather simply His children.  Praying God’s great and precious promises over our spouse, loved ones and ourselves this morning. Today’s promise is a VISIBLE GOD. Jesus says in Matthew 5:8 Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.” This promise is also found in Revelations 22:4, “And they shall see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads.”
There have been moments after I have cried out to God in prayer that I have stated: “I have seen God”. This has happened during very difficult seasons I have walked through where I felt I was drowning from the weight of the world, all the life was drained from me and I had no idea how to take the next step in life. Now I did not physically see a visible God, but what I did see was a supernatural moment where the Lord showed up whether to give me a direct and specific right-now word to encourage and guide me through the situation I was in or whether it was a very vivid dream of God showing me how He has angels around my family protecting us and carrying us through a difficult time. In those moments, I did not physically see God, but rather I saw God in the way He came and gave me a specific word and I saw God when He reassured me in a very vivid dream that my family was protected. I have "seen" God through answered prayers. During the infertile season where my husband and I desired, cried and prayed for children and God answered through adoption and birth by blessing us with eight children. I can remember a very specific time when I was in prayer with a group from church and as I was praying with my head in my lap and my eyes closed, I saw Jesus walking up to me. I saw Him! As much as I was overcome with emotions at the very presence of Jesus in front of me I could not physically reach out and touch Him. I saw Him in the spirit. However, the promise above, Jesus says we will physically see God. I cannot even imagine what this will be like! But God has a prerequisite for us to be able to physically see Him: a pure heart. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. The Pharisees were outwardly doing the right thing but their hearts were unclean. This can be true for us. No man can clean us and make our hearts pure. Only Jesus can do this. There is no Mom or Dad or person who can make our children’s hearts pure. Only Jesus can do this. Same with any loved one we are praying for. Only Jesus can make their hearts pure. Father, I thank You today for the promise of seeing a visible God. There have been times when I see You through Your word or see You through dreams but to one day physically see You brings excitement deep within me! Lord, the world is against You. Instead of running from impurity, the world seems to run to impurity. We live in a world that is trying to pollute our minds, our spouse’s minds, our children’s minds; portraying sin as a way of life that is acceptable and encouraged. I praise You that greater are You in us than he that is in this world. I thank You for protecting the hearts of our spouses, the hearts of our children, and our hearts, Lord. I pray for a hedge of protection around my spouse’s thought life and mind, around our children’s thought life and minds and my thought life and mind. Where there are any impurities in our lives, I ask You to cause a distaste for sin to rise up in us. I pray we will not grow lukewarm to Your word and Your ways. Shut the unGodly doors in the natural and the spirit we may have walked through because of impure choices but for every wrong door that closes open a new door leading to You, open the doors of opportunities that connect the purposes You placed in us with our Godly passions. Cause each one of us to desire You Jesus. I declare today and speak forth that my spouse, my children, my loved one and myself are pure in heart. We choose Your ways for our life; we choose to keep our heart pure and because of this decision, You promise that we will see a visible God; a visible You! I thank You for this promise. In Jesus’ name Amen.  Praying God’s great and precious promise over our spouse, loved ones and ourselves this morning. Today’s promise is MERCY. Jesus says in Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Jesus is saying blessed are the ones who reach out and help the distressed, the oppressed, the depressed. We are blessed when we wrap our arms in compassion around the suffering, the ones who are troubled, the ones who are burdened.
In our home, I teach our children to always think JOY: Jesus, Others, Yourself. So often we can find ourselves immersed in our own world, our own needs, our own situations that we forget there are people all around us in need of care. Helping others come with a promise… that in return in our time of needing care we will be cared for because we cared for others in their time of need. Father, I come to You today to thank You for the promise of MERCY. Thank You for Your compassion for us. I hold up my spouse to You today, my children, my loved ones and myself up to You today and ask that we do not miss the moments of showing mercy to the ones around us. Help us to remember to lift up our chin and turn our hearts and eyes to the ones that are in need of compassion, that is in need of mercy; the ones that feel the weight of the world on them, the ones that are enduring pain and suffering due to a sickness or maybe a loss of a loved one. Lord, maybe there are ones around us being rejected or abandoned. Show us those people, Lord, so we can extend mercy to them so that we can care for them and help them. Let our children understand the beauty of showing mercy to others at an early age. If there is anybody reading this and they are in need of a healing touch from You, may they receive Your healing for their body today so that they can rise up and care for others. Lord, we praise You and thank You for mercy. In Jesus’ name. Amen  Today, the great and precious promise is RIGHTEOUSNESS which to me is a word that I struggle with ever relating to myself. It is a word where if I even associate that word with me, I start hearing the voices in my head say “who do YOU think you are to call yourself righteous?” Do any of you struggle with that? 😊 Biblically, speaking, we are supposed to be growing to be like our Lord; growing to be more and more like Jesus who is righteous. The bible defines righteousness as observing divine laws, keeping the commands of God; a way of thinking, feeling and acting that is comformed to the will of God which encompasses integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking, feeling, and acting; living a holy life.
There are days I know I fall short of being more like Jesus. On those days, instead of listening to the negative voices in my head, to the lies of the enemy, I silence them, get up and go after being acceptable to God; being righteous. If you reread the scripture above, it states “blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness.” Hunger and thirst is another way of saying “strongly desire” for righteousness. I can say I strongly desire for righteousness; I strongly desire to be acceptable to God; I strongly desire to keep God’s commands and in so desiring this the last part of this scripture states “for they shall be filled.” The promise is more than God just bestowing righteousness on us. God says that they which hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled. Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness? Father, thank You for Your great and precious promises. Today, I thank You for the promise of RIGHTEOUSNESS. Lord, as I look into this word I can narrow it down to You wanting each of us to strongly desire a right way of living and a right way of acting; to be a person that is acceptable to You. Father, I hold up my family to you, I hold up my loved ones to You and ask that if each of us is not hungering and thirsting for righteousness that You place that strong desire deep in our hearts. Stir each of us up, Lord! Stir up my spouse, stir up my children and stir me up, Lord. Remove any veils from our eyes where the enemy has blinded us and lied to us about being able to live a holy life. Help us be aware what our hands do, what our tongue speaks, what our ears hear, where our feet walk and what our mind thinks. Place people in my spouse’s path, in my children’s path, in my path to encourage us to live a holy life, a life acceptable to You. Let us remember any voice against this way of living is not a voice I want my spouse, my children or myself to listen to. Remind us during the times the enemy wants to laugh and tease us for desiring to live a holy life that the devil is a liar, he is a thief, he is a murderer, and a distorter. The devil will not be the voice my family and loved ones listen to. Thank You, Lord, that Your voice is louder than the enemy’s voice. Thank You that greater is You in us than he of this world. So today, I declare I hunger and thirst after righteousness; I strongly desire it and I am wholeheartedly pursuing a life acceptable to You. I receive Your promise to fill me with righteousness. Thank You that my spouse, my children, and my loved ones have this same hunger and thirst in them for righteousness and You are giving them this promise as well. In Jesus’ name Amen  Have you ever come to the realization the way you are living is not leading to life but actually feels like darkness has entered? It’s not the abundant life the bible talks about or life-giving to the people around you. It’s not the life you hear about at church or the one you imagined you would live.
Do you ever think, “I want more of God but I don’t know where to begin.” Or even laid in your bed in the dark of the night and pondered about your day and said out loud, “Why did I say that or Why did I do that?” There is no perfect person in this world. Even the person we perceive as a strong Godly person makes mistakes. The beauty of the Lord and Savior is today your life can be rebuilt. So many people get stuck and truly don’t know where to begin to change their life because they feel there are just too many areas that need changing. Maybe for the first time, you are hearing negative, ugly words coming out of your mouth. Maybe you have become aware that you are judging people in your mind daily. Maybe for the first time ever, you are aware of things your hands have been doing that embarrass you now. Maybe your feet have walked in places that you know God would not approve or your eyes have looked at images, movies, and tv shows you know down deep in your heart you should not be watching. These are the areas that are broken in our lives as it relates to our spiritual walk with God. Until these areas are repaired, do not expect to experience the real joy of the Lord or to ride on the heights of the land or feast on the inheritance of Jacob (Gen 28:13-14, Gen 35:10-12). Let me pause and reiterate the inheritance of Jacob that is ours to inherit: land, innumerable descendants, and blessings from the Lord. We deprive ourselves of this inheritance if we chose to remain as we are. We deprive our children. We must choose to create a new us; to build a better you. In doing so, our lives will be enriched. So, where do you begin if you don’t know where to begin. First, above all, we must receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior. I know this can be a scary phrase for those that have lived most of their lives in sin but we, the people, the sinners, are the very people Jesus died for on the cross. We are the very people Jesus loved so much that He sacrificed His life so that we may receive the gift of salvation. Maybe Jesus already lives in your heart and you are saved but you know there are areas in your life that you need to rebuild. Start with one of those areas to rebuild. As Christians, we have to remind ourselves, we do not need to reach perfection to call upon the Lord. It’s quite the opposite. We call upon the Lord in our sin, in our imperfect life, and in our need for broken pieces of our life to be repaired. For me, I find one area of my life that I feel is broken and I look up the antonym of that word and then I take that word and look up all the scriptures about that word and start reading those scriptures. I study those scriptures and learn how to specifically change in that area. Then I pray and ask God to help me as I rebuild this area in my life. And, oh yes, remember Field of Dreams and Ray kept hearing “build it and he will come?” People thought he was crazy when he actually plowed his cornfield to build the baseball field. His wife was skeptical at first and his brother in law couldn’t see what Ray saw. Yes, this. This will probably happen to you. Family and friends may not understand your desire to rebuild some areas of your life but do it anyway. Can I tell you a secret? The reason you even see an area in your life that needs rebuilding is God has opened your eyes. He wants us to live a life in abundance but we have to change some areas of our life to experience this life in abundance. As we invite the Lord to rebuild areas that are broken, we will see our joy return; we will become aware that the arm of the Lord is not too short to save. No longer will the Lord’s ears be too dull to hear us. No longer will the Lord’s face be hidden from us because of our sins. All this happens because we invite the Lord into our brokenness; to rebuild us. And don’t forget it opens the gate wide open for us to receive the inheritance of Jacob: the land, the innumerable descendants, and the blessings of the Lord! Build it and He will come and not only come once but when we build a new us, He will come and come and come.  In late August of 2017, God laid on my heart to begin to pray His great and precious promises for our family. As I started studying the bible and looking at all His promises in His word, I could not believe how many were in the bible. I am committing to pray all His great and precious promises from Matthew to Revelation in 2018. There are about 250 promises in the New Testament. I believe, as a wife and Mom, one of the greatest gifts I can give my husband and my children is prayer. I have tasted and seen the goodness of the Lord over the years as I prayed for specific requests. I believe in the power of prayer. Prayer can literally change the path your husband or children are on. Prayer is that space carved out to hear the voice of the Lord; to approach our Savior and be in His presence. It is a time where we can come empty and depleted and leave full and refreshed. It is a time to believe that victory for your family is coming.
Today’s great and precious promise is the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus stated in the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The poor in the spirit refers to a person who is humble and meek; a person who knows they need God and gives themselves over to Him. Jesus says this person is blessed and will receive the kingdom of heaven. Lord, I praise Your mighty name and thank You the kingdom of heaven is one of your great and precious promises for us. Father, I hold up my children to you today. There are so many people with so many voices trying to get the attention of my children. I thank You that Your voice is the voice they hear over all the other voices. I come against arrogant behavior and pride in my children. I release a spirit of meekness and humility in my children. I thank You they will not be so full of themselves and self-absorbed that they do not see Your will and Your way for their life. I thank You they recognize they need you, Lord, in every area of their life. I thank You that today You are filling them up with the fullness of Christ. I stand in the gap for my children. I pray Your love is poured out on and in them today. I pray that You are alive in them today. I thank You no weapon formed against them shall prosper. I thank You that the kingdom of heaven is theirs! In Jesus’ name, Amen. |
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Wife, Mother, Christian woman who loves God's word and teaching others what God teaches me, Adoption Advocate, Writer, Illustrator.Who 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. 
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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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