Women of Promise

There is great blessing in standing before God with our petitions for one another. We are clearly called to lift up our brothers and sisters. We are to pray for our leaders and any in authority.  We are even called to bless those who curse us (Matthew 6:28).  Something that I fail at miserably,  is praying for myself.  Somehow that always seems so selfish. I often cry out for help in a dire predicament, when I should have been praying far in advance of the situation. We are given clear examples in Scripture of ways we are to petition God for ourselves. I have been learning the prayers that God calls us to pray for myself and making those a more regular part of my time at the throne. Let's look at some of them together -- OK?  1) Guard my heart. Proverbs 4:23 This is, of course, talking about the part of our innermost being that controls our thoughts and desires. That heart, according to Mark 7:21-22 is the source of all our evil doing. Thankfully, if...

Bread of Life Digital Art by April Moen fineartamerica.com        My mom made homemade bread for our large family (12 kids) for all of my years in her home.  She ground wheat berries, mixed dough, kneaded, formed and baked four to eight loaves every two or three days.  Oh, I love the smell of fresh homemade bread just coming out of the oven!  There is simply no better taste, in my opinion, than butter on a piece of warm, freshly baked bread.  This bread was a staple in our home and provided a good part of our daily nutrition.  It "stuck to your ribs," as Mom used to say, especially when topped with Mom's homemade peanut butter and honey from Dad's bee hives! Yum!! Sweet memories. . .     Looking at the names of Jesus, this one jumped out at me:   Jesus is the Bread of Life .       In John chapter 6, Jesus performs a miracle where He feeds 5,000 men plus women and children (probably adding up to over 20,000 p...

  " He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty."  Psalm 91:1 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. John 15:4      Some of the most beautiful, quotable and comforting passages of Scripture use the word, "abide."  This word may be translated "remain" or "joined" or "united" in your copy of the Bible.  Have you ever started looking into something and gotten so excited you had to share it, even before you feel you fully grasp its meaning?  That is the way I feel as I have looked at the word "abide" in Scripture.  When you combine the Hebrew and the Greek equivalents, the Blue Letter Bible Lexicon tells me that there are well over 200 uses of this term in our Bible.  I think that God has something to tell us! Abiding is a beautiful word, isn't it?  I love the poetic tones it brings t...

  Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.  Psalm 119:105     Do you believe the Bible is a handbook for living?  Can the Bible really give you the answers for every decision you face?  Does God care about how we live our day-to-day lives? What about the social and cultural issues that are so divisive in the world we live in? Does God have anything to say about them or does He just want us to all get along as best we can? Is there a bigger purpose to our lives than what we can see?     The answers to all of these questions is a resounding, "YES!" God created and established the world in beauty and order.  When sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden, that beauty was disrupted for a time.  However, the Bible gives us the blueprint for the way that God ordained for us to live.  If Christians will return to a Biblical worldview -- that means living our lives with the unchanging Word of God as our handbook, believing tha...