 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 17. If you missed the others you can find them here. Join me in praying for your family and other loved ones.
Today’s promise is NECESSITIES OF LIFE. No matter what season of life you are in, there seems to be an area in our life where worry and anxiety can try to make themselves at home with us. If we are not careful to seek, learn and do what God says about worry and anxiety, we can possibly live our life so concerned about the cares of tomorrow, so weighted down by what will happen tomorrow, we miss taking care of the cares of today; we miss the blessings that God has placed around us. Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need.” Jesus is saying hey wife, hey daughter, hey sister, hey Mom, hey grandmother, hey Dad, hey husband, hey son, hey brother, hey Grandpa, learn My word, My ways, and My thoughts; do what is right based on what you learn, and I will give you everything you need. If we back up a few scriptures in this chapter, God says don’t worry about your life, about what you shall eat or what you shall drink, don’t worry about your body and your clothes “for your heavenly Father knows all your needs.” Nothing is hidden from our Father. He knows our needs. He knows our spouse's needs. He knows our children’s needs. He knows our loved one's needs. Jesus is telling us, “I know the demands of this life but I want you to focus on Me, seek Me, worship, Me, make decisions based on My word and all these necessities of life will be given to you.” Jesus is saying we can trust Him to take care of us in every season of life if we are putting Him first. Maybe you are a fostering Mom and/or Dad and going through difficulty with children in your home. Maybe you are a single Mom and/or single Dad and you feel the weight of this world on your shoulders. Maybe you are a family where some of your children are adopted and some are biological and you are walking through some struggles in your family. Maybe one of your loved ones is weighted down by worry and anxiety. As you say the prayer below, make it personal to your situation and choose to trust your heavenly Father who cares for you and your loved ones deeply. Father, thank You for the promise of giving us the NECESSITIES OF LIFE. Lord, I do have needs. I do feel the weight of worry and anxiety over the areas of my life where I am in need. I look at my loved ones around me and I also worry about what they need and them being taken care of but I believe Your word, I choose to believe if I seek Your kingdom first, if I read Your word, learn Your word and do what is right by making decisions based on what Your word says that You will provide for me in my areas of need, You will provide for my loved ones in their time of need. Father, I praise Your mighty name today! I lift up my chin, my head, my eyes to You right now. I am raising up my arms and hands to release my needs to You. I cast worry and anxiety aside. I seek You first, Lord. I hold up my spouse, my children, my other loved ones to You and ask You to cause them to turn their eyes from the concerns of life and put their eyes on You. Thank You, You are drawing us to You. You are releasing Your Holy Spirit in us. You are touching us where we need it the most. You are pouring Your living water over us. You are going before us and clearing a path. You are orchestrating details of what we need even though we may not see it with our natural eyes right now; however, we can believe You are fighting our battles, You are in the midst of our pains, our struggles, and our desires. We are being filled with Your presence at this moment. We are going forth in life knowing You are taking care of all our needs. I love You, Lord. I thank You for being such a good Father to me and my loved ones. I trust You and believe everything I just prayed. In Jesus’ name Amen.  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 16. If you missed the others you can find them here. Join me in praying for your family and other loved ones.
Today’s promise is FORGIVENESS OF SINS. As a Christian, we know that the moment we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior our sins are washed away and we are forgiven of our sins. Romans 10:9, “If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is LORD," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Just in this scripture alone, we receive salvation, redemption, and forgiveness. But as we live our daily lives even after we believe in Him, we are not exempt from others abusing us, defaming our character, offending us, and insulting us. For this devotion today, the focus is on being a Christian but carrying unforgiveness in your heart for someone else. Matthew 6:14-15, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” and Mark 11:25 relates this promise to our praying, “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” What an amazing promise the Lord is giving us; but, to receive this promise it comes with a sometimes hard to act upon condition we must do. We must forgive. We must forgive those who have sinned against us. For this prayer, I am going to focus on the word forgiveness. Forgiveness is not agreeing and approving what that person has done to you. Forgiving the person that has sinned against you, that has caused you pain, is the beginning of not being chained by what this person has done to you any longer. Forgiveness releases us from being shackled to this person any longer. Forgiveness is defined by Webster’s dictionary as to stop feeling angry or resentful toward (someone) for an offense, flaw, or mistake. In the Bible, Jesus is saying forgiveness is to send away, to expire, to let go, to disregard, stop discussing it, to give up a debt, to remit/cancel a debt or punishment, to leave in order to go to another place. God has this promise available to us so we can live the fullness of what we were created for on this earth. Isn’t it true, if we hold on to unforgiveness, our minds get taken over by negative thoughts toward the person who hurt us? Unforgiveness makes us constantly rehearse the hurt in our minds, rehearse retaliation, rehearse telling that person off, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. That’s what unforgiveness does, it handcuffs us to this person, ties our thought life to this person, it keeps stirring up the hurt, it keeps us immobilized and we end up wasting too much time on this person. So what do we do? We forgive that person. But how? Forgiveness is intentional. The times I had to forgive someone who hurt me, I had to recognize all the time I spent rehearsing what that person had done to me. I had to recognize all the days I thought about telling that person off. Unforgiveness is a consumer. It consumes our time and devours our energy whereas we could be using that time and energy towards the plans and purposes God has for us. Remember, when you forgive a person who has wounded you, you are rising up straight and strong and saying “You can no longer control my emotions! You can no longer have any part of me anymore! I am breaking this invisible shackle you have had on me! I am releasing you to the Lord and I will let Him take care of you! I am free of you! I am free!” That is what forgiveness does. It frees you to let the Lord usher you into His destiny, plans, and purposes for you on this earth. And isn’t this something we want our spouse, children and other loved ones to experience? Father, I thank You for the promise of forgiveness of sins. Thank You that I do not have to be shackled and chained to (name the person that wounded you) any longer. I am deciding today this person will no longer hold my thoughts captive to this wound. I choose to praise You and call out the name of Jesus in the moments my mind wants to rehearse what they have done against me. I am letting this wrongdoing go and choosing to forgive them. I do not agree with what they did and I am not saying it is ok because it was wrong but I choose forgiveness because I want to be free, I want to live life in abundance as You have planned me to live. I want to walk in the fullness of the plans and purposes You have for me. I do not want to hinder You forgiving me of any sins I may do. Lord, I want this for my spouse and child/ren as well. I hold them up to You and ask You to bring to light any unforgiveness in their hearts. Lead them to forgive anybody they are holding unforgiveness towards. I know, as our child/ren walk through life, there will be classmates and other people who will offend them, hurt them, or try to insult them. Help my spouse and I teach our child/ren and show them how to forgive the people who do wrong towards them so they will not hinder You forgiving them of their sins and they will not live their life being weighted down by what others have done to them. Lord, if my spouse is being weighted down by a wrong someone has done to them, I stand in the gap for my spouse. Lead my spouse into forgiveness for this person. I thank You the enemy has no power over my spouse’s mind. I thank You that my spouse will choose to forgive this person and not carry unforgiveness in their heart. Thank You, Lord, my spouse will forgive this person and be set free from these shackles once and for all. Thank You, Lord, for the promise of when we forgive others who have sinned against us, You forgive our sins. I believe all I just prayed in Jesus’ name. Amen.  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 15. If you missed the others you can find them here. Join me in praying for your family and other loved ones.
Today’s promise is GREATNESS. Matthew 5:19, “Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” There is so much pressure to be great in my daily life; to be exceptional and stand out as a wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend. I don’t know about you, but in my life, I strive to be great. I want to be an above normal wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend. I do not want to be just average. I want to stand out in my home, in my church, in my community, and in my work not to draw attention to myself but to be all that God wants me to be. If I am not careful, I can strive to be great based on how the world views being great and miss pursuing being great based on God’s word for being great. In the scripture above, Jesus specifically says to be called great in the kingdom of heaven, you must do and teach the laws of the kingdom. What are the laws of the kingdom Jesus is talking about? He is talking about laws on murder, civil suits, adultery, divorce, remarriage, making vows, retaliation, love, acts of charity, alone with God, the model prayer, condition of answered prayer, and fasting. Jesus is saying if you want to be called great in the kingdom of heaven, listen and do what I say to achieve being great in My eyes. Over the years, as a large family with eight children, I have received countless emails, calls, and texts asking for parenting advice. After 15 years of being a Mom to our children, I do have lots of advice about parenting; however, the greatest advice I can give a new Mom, a struggling Mom, or a Grandmother is to do and teach the laws of the kingdom; practice and communicate the words of Jesus in your home as a parent or as a grandparent. I truly believe we can help our children avoid so much of the world’s brokenness if we take the time to teach them the laws of the kingdom at home which are found in Matthew 5:17 – 6-18. What if you are reading this and you are divorced, you have committed adultery, or you haven’t always followed the ways and words of Jesus in some areas of your life? Well, my friend, there is no condemnation from God. He is a forgiving and loving God and wants the very best for you and your family. Today, you can make a change in your home and your parenting style. Before praying the prayer below, ask the Lord to forgive you in specific areas and, friend, He will wash you white as snow and you can throw off the weight of sin so that it doesn’t go with you in your tomorrows. Father, I thank you for the promise of being called great in heaven as we follow the laws of Your Kingdom while we are on this earth and as we teach the laws of Your kingdom to our families and as You open up doors of opportunity for us to teach others. Father, our goal is not to be titled with the word great but to be transformed by Your word; to be reformed as we submit to Your laws on how to live while on this earth. Lord, as my spouse and I do and teach Your laws to our child/ren, I thank You that my spouse, our children, and myself will be radically changed by Your word. I trust and thank You that as my spouse and I follow Your laws and as we train our child/ren up in Your ways and teach them Your laws, I will see all of our moral character develop; I will see our mind, body, soul, and spirit desire and grow to be a person of integrity and honesty. I will see confusion leave and a clarity of mind come forth in each of us. I thank You, Lord, as my spouse and I put a priority in following Your laws and be intentional in making sure our child/ren know what the laws of the Kingdom are and how to live the way You intended us to live that I will see a holy boldness rise up in each of us, a Godly confidence that only comes from You. I will see my spouse, our child/ren, and myself stand up for what is right. I will see us being set apart for our purpose and destiny You placed in us. I will see us grow in knowing who we are in Christ. I will see us walking through the tough times in life with You at our side carrying us through because we choose to follow Your way of living. Continue to show my spouse and I, Lord, where we can do better as parents in training our child/ren up in Your word. I thank You it is never too late to start following Your ways and teaching our child/ren Your laws. Thank You for Your great and precious promises. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Note: God's Laws of the Kingdom can be found in Matthew 5:17 - Matthew 6:18. Ask the Lord how to incorporate teaching His laws in your home. As you practice His laws and teach them to your family, pray that He will open up doors of opportunity to teach His laws in your community. Remember, it is never too late to start teaching your family His ways. Also, if you are a fostering parent, even though you will have children temporarily, teaching these precious children His laws, even if for a short amount of time, will plant Godly seeds within them that they will take with them on their journey to finding a forever family.  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 |
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. 
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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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