Wise Quotes - POWER OF A PRAYING WIFE 1.

A very blessed day to you all family. I am back again but this time with the agenda of praying for the men in our lives, from grand fathers to sons.........especially our husbands.This month of June is dedicated to praying for them.

There are many battles men face each day without really talking about it. Some men are quiet open about challenges they face on a daily basis while for others, they try to deal with it in a way which they deem best. Whatever the case, we are here to pray for God's divine guidance for them for every area of their lives. So join me as we take a topic to pray about each day. Once again, most of the information i will be sharing with you is taken form the book 'Power of a praying wife' by Stormie Omartian. If you have the book, it'll help a great deal with the prayers......if you don't have it, i highly recommend it. Though the prayers are set mainly for wives to pray for husbands, it doesn't stop those who are single or courting to pray into the future of their to be husbands.

DAY 1 - PRAY FOR HIS WIFE.

The hard part about being a praying wife, other than the sacrifice of time, is maintaining a pure heart. It must be clean before God in order for you to see good results. That's why praying for a husband must begin with praying for his wife. If you have resentment, anger forgiveness or an ungodly attitude, even if there's good reason for it, you'll have a difficult time seeing answers to your prayers. But if you can release those feelings to God in total honesty and then move into prayer, there is nothing that can change a marriage dramatically. Sometimes wives sabotage their own prayers because they don't pray them from a right heart.

Most of us require to see changes in our relationships. When you pray for your husband, especially in the hopes of changing him, you can surely expect some changes. But the first changes won't be in him. They'll be in you. God sees things we don't and also knows where we have room for improvement. He doesn't have to search long to uncover attitudes and habits that are outside His perfect will for us. He requires us to not sin in our hearts because sin separates us from Him and we don't get our prayers answered.

Many of us find it difficult to even utter a word of prayer for our husbands in cases of conflict. "Who actually prays in those times  anyway?" I hear you ask. After years of practicing the habit of praying in those moments, I have realized that something amazing happens to your heart when you pray......the hardness melts and you are able to get beyond the hurts and forgive. It is not an easy thing to even begin to think about but remember there is nothing too difficult for our God. Begin with a sincere heart and see how God turns things around. 

PRAYER

Lord, Help me to be a good wife. I fully realise that I don't have what it takes to be one without your help. Take my selfishness. impatience and irritability and turn them into kindness, long-suffering and the willingness to bear all things. Take my old emotional habits, mindsets, automatic reaction, rude assumptions and self-protective stance, and make me patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. Take the hardness of my heart and break down the walls with Your battering ram of revelation. Give me a new heart and work in me Your love, peace and joy (Galatians 5:22-23). I am not able to rise above who I am at this moment. Only You can transform me.

Show me where there is sin in my heart, especially with regard to my husband. I confess the times I've been unloving, critical, angry, resentful, disrespectful or unforgiving toward him. Help me to put aside any hurt, anger or disappointment I feel and forgive him the way You do, totally and completely, no looking back. Make me a tool of reconciliation, peace and healing in this marriage. Enable us to communicate well and rescue us from the threshold of separation where the realities of divorce begin.

Make me my husband's helpmate, companion, champion, friend and support. Help me to create a peaceful, restful, safe place for him to come home to. Teach me how to take care of myself and stay attractive to him. Grow me into a creative and confident woman who is rich in mind, soul, and spirit. Make me the kind of woman he can be proud to say is his wife.

I lay all my expectations at Your cross. I release my husband from the burden of fulfilling me in areas where I should be looking to You, Help me to accept him the way he is and not try to change him, I realise that in some ways he may never change, but at the same time, I release him to change in ways i never thought he could. I leave any changing that needs to be done in Your hands, fully accepting their neither of us is perfect and never will be. Only You, Lord, are perfect and I look to You to perfect us.

Teach me how to pray for my husband and make m prayers a true language of love. Where love has died, create new love between us. Show me what unconditional love really is and how to communicate it in a way he can clearly perceive. bring unity between us so that we can be in agreement about everything (Amos 3:3). May the God of patience and comfort grant us to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus (Roman 15:5). Make us a team, not pursuing separate, competitive or independent lives, but working together, overlooking each others faults and weaknesses for the greater good of the marriage. Help us to pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another (Romans 14:19). May we be "perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment" (I Corinthians 1:10).

I pray that our commitment to You and to one another will grow stronger and more passionate every day. Enable him to be the head of the home as You made him to be, and show me how to support and respect him as he rises to that place of leadership. Help me to understand his dreams and see things from his perspective. Reveal to me what he wants and needs and show me potential problems before they arise. Breathe Your life into this marriage.

Make me a new person, Lord. Give me a fresh perspective, a positive outlook, and a renewed relationship with the man You've given me. help me see him with new eyes, new appreciation, new love, new compassion and new acceptance. Give my husband a new wife, and let it be me.

Amen.

SCRIPTURES FOR MEDITATION

Mark 11:2,25

I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours. But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.”

Ephesians 4:32

And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Matthew 7:7,8

 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 

Proverbs 24:3,4

Through wisdom a house is built, And by understanding it is established;

4 

By knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

Galatians 6:9

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

#inspired...ann #WiseQuotes

*Stomie Omartian, The Power of a Praying Wife(2006)

Wise Quotes - ALONE WITH GOD 2!

I previously shared a Word based on this topic; ALONE WITH GOD. After much deliberation on what topic to give today's Word I ended up with yet again ALONE WITH GOD.......What God, through me wants to share is fairly in line with it so I guess we end up with a part two of the same topic.

I'm sure you've realised it's been a while since I shared something on here......God has been laying it on my heart to share a Word with everyone but in a different way. I'm sure most of you have realised I've been sharing a scripture daily.......I'm not entirely sure though if the message from those daily scriptures are been realised. Note carefully and you will realise every scripture I've shared over the past weeks has either been about 'The Promises of God' for our lives or positive declarations to speak over our lives......I  have been blessed by them as I have seen the impact it has had in my life and that of my family.

Today we are going to learn about how King Nebuchadnezzar ended up being alone with God in the most weird way possible......let's begin....shall we?

Please read the whole of Daniel chapter 4 for full story.....To recap, Daniel Chapters 1-3 talks about Daniel, Shadrach,Mechach and Abednego being  children of Judah who were with knowledge, skill, talent, wisdom and understanding. They had the Spirit of Excellence over their lives. They served God diligently and fervently even to the threat of death, they refused to bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar's idols. Their commitment gained them favour with God Almighty who rescued them from a fury furnace and even stayed with them......what an awesome testimony of diligent servants of God.....We shall later go into these boys lives......there is so much to learn from them.

In chapter four, King Nebuchadenezar had yet another worrying dream which no one could interpret except Daniel. The lesson in this chapter is what I want to share. Read from previous chapters and you'll realise that King Nebuchadenezar was a powerful and mighty King with all his riches etc. Several times Daniel proved to him that his idol worshipping was no good and that The Lord is the All Powerful one to worship.....for a while the king agreed and praised the Name of the Lord but note that he always went back to his idol worshipping. In this chapter I can bet God had had enough and wanted to prove His Mighty Power to the King.

The kings dream of a mighty tree with its roots planted deep in the ground and reaching to the heavens with birds eating from it.....to angel of the Lord cutting the tree down was all about himself but he had no idea so once again he sort the advice of his sorcerers etc who couldn't explain the dream except Daniel. Lo and behold it came to pass that the years of the King to live in the forest and live like an animal came to pass.

The beauty of this story is that during the time the King was in the forest living like an animal, that is when he realised how Powerful and Mighty God is. His remark in verses 34 and 35 says;

At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation.  All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?”

After reading this I just marvelled on how God in His own power and wisdom uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise.......imagine this wise and powerful King, whom everyone went to for help, ending up living like an animal in the forest (the detailed description means he was unrecognised)......imagine,  he was away from civilization, humanity, far from his comfort zone, away from all his riches and treasures but guess what? That is where he really got to know God. Why? Because he was alone with God.......alone with God to give him the time and chance to think.....alone with God to get the space to marvel at His wondrous power.....alone with God to get closer to Him in prayer.

Question??? When was the last time you were alone with God? In being alone with GOD, He reveal mysteries you'd normally miss in all the business of your life. If you've found yourself in that darkest of place where you don't seem to see a way out, I am here to assure you that, that is the time to be alone with God.....seek his face, seek His direction but above all seek His presence.

Now let's see what happened to the King after what seemed to be one of the most miserable yet the most life changing times of his life. Let's read verse 36-37;

So, at the time I could think correctly again. And God gave back my great honour and power as king. The people who advise me and the royal family cam to me for help again. And I became even greater and more powerful than before. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, give praise and honour and glory to the King of heaven. Everything he does is right. He is always fair. And he is able to make proud people humble.

WOW!!! How awesome is our God! I hear you asking but why did the king have to go through that in the first place? Well as he said himself in the last lines, he was a proud king who thought he was powerful than anyone even God Almighty , so several times even though Daniel proved to him, he still went back to his idol worshipping......it had to take him being removed from all his pleasures to become the lowest to humble him. What have you set before you this day as your idol? what is pulling you back from giving your all to Christ? Why are you lukewarm in your worship to God? Review your life this day and choose whom you want to serve......but as for me and my household, we will serve the living God forever.

Finally, King Nebuchadnezzar was restored back after his encounter with God.....note that he was restored back greater than he was before as he explains in the last verse 37. Brethren, no one ever encounter God and leave the same. Being alone with God always yields greater blessings. Have a blessed day as you think about this king and the King of Kings.

If you don't know about Jesus Christ, I introduce Him to you today.........Don't let anyone lie to you, God is not that mind-pictured old man with a stick who's up there punishing people for any wrong doing. He's such a loving and warm Father who loves us so. He has given us so much of His blessings, grace, goodness, mercies and more. All you need doing is to accept Jesus Christ into you life and enjoy His Perfect Love. Here is what you need to say to accept Christ. (After proclaiming these words, I will encourage you to find a Bible-Believing church and join them for further teachings and fellowship of God).

Prayer of Salvation

"Father, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from you. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward you. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your will for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen."

#inspired...ann #WiseQuotes