Answer to Prayer/Prayer Request/Thoughts on 1 Peter

I am happy to report to you that Denise is no longer in a coma and has been transferred to rehab!! Praise the Lord!!! This is truly His hand... Mommy said that it sounds like Denise is wishing she could get better quicker than she is able to, which is understandable, so if you could pray that she would heal quickly and that during this time of rehabilitation that her heart would be set on God and drawn closer to Him.

Most of the people had church seem to be coming out of the flu; the auditorium was a LOT fuller this week than last. Praise the Lord!

Thanks also for praying for Nathan; he's doing a lot better. However, now Evan Gerber has the pneumonia. :-( So if you can pray for him now! And that no one else gets it!

Here's some beautiful verses I read today:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1:3-9)

I love 1 Peter! How often I need this reminder, that the events in my life are to burn off the dross and make me more like Christ. Instead of focusing on how hard things are, I should look to Jesus, whom, having not seen, I love... And when you focus on Jesus, things take on such a new perspective, don't they?

Well, to try to expound upon these verses would pretty much be to just repeat them! So reread the verses and let the message sink into your hearts!

Answer!

Wow. According to Teddy, and to Nathan's brother Josiah's email to my mom, Nathan's temperature is broken and it seems like he will be on the mend!

Isn't God good! Here yesterday it was sounding very serious and then God intervenes and sets him on the mend! (He sure did give us a scary, didn't he, Ted? How dare he! ;-) ) So, praise the Lord! He hears the prayers of His people!

I'll keep you updated on Denise as best as I can!

God is Good!

Yesterday I posted Psalm 46, one of my favorite psalms as it reminds me to rest in the character and promises of God. "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted..."
"God is our refuge and strength; a very present help in trouble."

When I think refuge, I think of a place where one can hide-- from a storm, from a battle... perhaps someone hiding from an enemy in an inner chamber of an old castle or monastery. God has granted us to be able to "hide" in Him-- He provides shelter and protection in the storms of life. When the storms of trial or temptation break over you, you can flee to Him to hide you. He is so good!

When I think strength, I think of a soldier in battle, growing weary, perhaps, or unable to stand against an enemy so much stronger than himself. We are in a battle. There is an enemy stronger than ourselves, and sometimes we feel like we have been fighting so long and so hard, and that we cannot go on anymore. That is when we must acknowledge our weakness to God and go to HIM for our strength. He is the God who created and sustains the world by the world of His power. He is stronger than our strongest foe. We can trust Him!

"A very present help" can also we translated, "a well-proved help." God is both! For one thing, He is always present to help us. To those who follow Him, He has said "I will never leave you nor forsake you." He is also well-proved. When has He ever broken His word? When has He ever failed to keep His promises? The question is rhetorical; the answer is "never". Day by day, God continues to prove to us His love, His mercy, His justice, His patience, His greatness, His power, and His faithfulness. Therefore, we can go to Him and trust Him in times of trouble!

This week He has proved again that He is the help of those who seek Him.

Perhaps you have heard of the earthquake in the South Pacific, and of the predicted tsunamis. When Mommy told me about them, we were concerned for our many missionary friends in the area of Fiji and American Samoa. We have been praying for their safety in the face of these impending dangers.

This morning, we got an update from Scott and Katie, who are missionaries in American Samoa.

Dear Praying Friends,

I am sure that most of you have heard that American Samoa and
Samoa experienced an earthquake at 6:45 a.m. local time. Fifteen minutes
later a tsunami struck parts of the islands. We only felt the
earthquake where we live. We live in the middle of the island and
farther inland. Several other spots were totally devastated. Boats
were taken out of the water and placed on the land. Cars were left in
the sides of buildings. Houses and buildings were flattened. Some
areas were only flooded, while some had 15-20 foot waves hit them. All
of our church members are okay, but everyone seems to know someone
either killed or injured by the tsunami. Thank you to everyone who has
inquired about our safety. We know that it could of been much worse.
Please continue to pray for the people here, especially those who have
lost loved ones and lost everything they owned. We keep on reminding
the people of God's goodness and grace to help in time of need.

Serving our Lord,

Scot and Katie Daku

Isn't God good? He is our refuge, our strength, an ever-present, well-proved help in times of trouble. We can trust Him!

"Be still and know that I am God." Know that He is in control, guiding the events of life for His glory and our good. "The Lord our hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge."

Hi :-D What a Name for a Post! :-P

Just wanted to drop a note and say "hi". :-) We're housesitting for some friends in Holmes County this week and have to use their computer, since they don't have wireless internet. Plus we'll be busy with VBS and such so I won't have much time to post.
But the Lord is teaching me things, and He has been sending special answers to prayer. Being down here for the week is an answer to prayer in itself. We had wanted to help with VBS, but didn't think we'd be able to because of the long drive. Well, a month or so ago, the S. family said, quite out of the blue, "We're going to be out of town from [such and such date to such and such date; what day is it today anyway?] and you're welcome to stay at our house that week." We looked at each other. "That's the week of VBS, isn't it?"
So here we are, and praising the Lord for knowing our needs and supplying them.
Another special answer was a little more material, but still very, very exciting. I had been praying for a way to make a little extra money because there were so patterns I wanted very much to buy. Well, in the meantime, I posted pictures of my Romantic Era dress on the forum, and Mrs. Chancey liked it so much that she included it in her most recent e-newsletter. Then I got an email from her, saying that I got a gift certificate for Sense & Sensibility patterns, because she had featured me in the newsletter!! Isn't God good to fulfil even those small desires of our hearts? :-D
I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend. <3
~M

This message is on a magnet on the Hadley's refrigerator. I read it while washing dishes:

He who plants a seed

beneath the sod,

and waits to see,

believes in God.

BTW, thank you all who have been praying for me here in IN. Honestly, I haven't been homesick at all, but have been having such a good time. I'm really in my heaven here. ;-) Not that I don't miss my family and friends, you understand. :-) But I'm not pining! The Lord has been teaching me so much. So thank you for praying for me, and please continue to pray that I will be diligent and helpful and, above all, keep my eyes on Christ. I love you all!

Thoughts on Prayer

Last week was a wonderfully refreshing week for me spiritually, but either I didn't have time to post, or I had so many things to post that I couldn't get it all down. I thought I might briefly share a little of my happiness now. :-)

My week began with spiritual depression in my soul. I was struggling with believing that God does hear, does see my needs, does answer prayer. Circumstances in life were bogging me down and satan was very active in making sure I was depressed. I asked God, weak in faith, but hopeful, that He would show Himself to me, and help me to know that I can trust Him. And God heard, He saw, and He answered!! And that, in many, many ways. However, in this post, I will just talk about what He taught me about prayer; otherwise, it would be a very, very long post. :-)

God prompted me to pick up a book that has been sitting on our shelf since a couple Christmases ago, that I had never read. It is a biography about James O. Fraser, entitled Mountain Rain. That was actually the week prior, but it was this last week that I read about James' spiritual depression and how the Lord taught him how to have spiritual victory, and also how he learned about faith and true prayer. So much of it pinpointed very specific things in my life that I had been struggling in. For instance, why weren't my prayers being answered? Reading Mountain Rain showed me that much of it was because I wasn't praying in faith, believing that God would and could answer it; also, many of my prayers did not have much heart in them, as I would go from one prayer request to another almost robotically; or I would not take the time to pray for them as I ought, suggesting that I did not really feel like they were so important. I was blaming God for not answering my prayers, when the problem was really me-- I was not truly asking Him in such a way that He could answer me-- until last Sunday evening when I asked Him to help me out of my depression and show me Himself. Here are some words of wisdom in Mountain Rain that directly ministered to me:

"I feel even when praying alone that there are two concerned in prayer, God and myself... I do not think that a petition which misses the mind of God will ever be answered (1 John 5:14)."

"Unanswered prayers have taught me to seek the Lord's will instead of my own."

"Praying without faith [is] like trying to cut with a blunt knife-- much labor is expended to little purpose... 'According to your faith,' not labor, 'be it unto you.' "

“The aim of Satanic power is to cut off communication with God. To accomplish this aim he deludes the soul with a sense of defeat, covers him with a thick cloud of darkness, depresses and oppresses the spirit, which in turn hinders prayer and leads to unbelief – thus destroying all power.”

I'm afraid I would bore you if I was to record all that James wrote that encouraged my heart in that matter, and I would also have to write out almost a whole chapter, so I will refrain. :-) Besides, I overload you on quotes as it is. :-)

Another way God encouraged me in the matter of prayer was by leading me to the verse which I posted about on March 11. I was writing out the verse on a pretty sheet of paper to put up on my wall by my bed, and, like I usually like to do, writing it in poetry form, capitalizing in large, fancy letters the words I wished to emphasize, and that is how I discovered the acrostic: ASK. God wants me to ask Him, believing He will answer and give His blessings; seek Him, believing He will be found; and knock, believing that He will open up His ways and His will to me. I encourage you to read Wednesday's post, if you haven't yet, to see more of what God specifically showed me in that verse.

Something else that God taught me about prayer was in Luke 6:27-- love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who despitefully use you. One of my discouragements lately has been hurt from a family who had been saying things about us that weren't true and breaking confidence that we felt we had in them. In this verse, Jesus taught me, so very specifically, to pray for that family, and to pray for grace and strength to love them as God does. I prayed this in faith and with the knowledge that it was definitely God's will to answer this prayer (practicing what I'd been learning in Scripture and in Mountain Rain ;-) )... and as soon as I prayed, I knew God was answering my prayer-- I do not know about the other family, but I knew He was filling my heart with a spirit of genuine, Chirst-like love and compassion for that family. It boosted my spirits and encouraged me greatly!

On Thursday afternoon, I decided to pull out Nave's Topical Bible and do a little study on prayer-- looking up the references and asking God to teach me through the verses. I am not done with it yet-- not nearly!-- but have already been greatly encouraged by it. Here are some things I discovered and wrote out in my notebook:

"Hebrews 4:16. Boldly has also been translated with confidence. We do not need to come trembling to god in prayer, fearing that He won't listen, hear, understand, or answer. jesus can empathize with our weakness and wants us to come with confidence to Him and know that He does care and will answer.

"Genesis 18:23-32. Never until now did I consider a connection between this account and Hebrews 4:16..... Two things Abraham remembered and prayed according to were

1. God's character ("just", "righteous") and
   
2. God's heart ("[He] is not willing that any should perish", "will not punish the righteous with the wicked")"

On Thursday (which was probably the most encouraging day) I wrote in my journal:

"Mountain Rain" is an overwhelming book and I feel almost overloaded with all he says about what God taught him about prayer. I am realizing how very shallow my prayer life is, and how active the devil has been in trying to discourage me... and quench the relationship and prayer life I can have with God. Read Mountain Rain, chapter 4. That's what's on my mind right now. I am determined to climb out of short, hurried, muttered prayers with no faith or relationship behind them. I want a deep, intimate, strong, personal prayer relationship with my God. O Lord, 'teach me to pray.' Grant me victory over the very real and active forces of satan. Glorify Yourself in me!"

On a final note, I will record what form J. O. Fraser suggested direct, specific prayer to take:

1. "A firm standing on God-given ground, and a constant assertion of faith and claiming of victory. It is helpful, I find, to repeat passages of Scripture applicable to the subject. Let faith be continually strengthened and fed from its proper source-- the Word of God.
   
2. "A definite fighting and resisting of satan's host in the Name of Christ. I like to read passages of Scripture, such as 1 John 3:8 or Revelation 12:11 in prayer, as direct weapons against satan. I often find it a means of much added strength and liberty in prayer to fight this way. Nothing cuts like the word of the Living God. (Eph. 6:17; Heb. 4:12)


3. "Praying through every aspect of the matter in detail."

I hope and pray that today you all will be encouraged as I have been! :-)

P.S. Paintings from http://www.allposters.com/. Picture of J.O. Fraser from http://www.jofraser.org/.