Strength in
Prayer – Progressing to Breakthrough - Purity
938
Purity 938 01/11/2023 Purity 938 Podcast
Purity 938 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of a young woman fishing in waters
that reflect the glory of heaven above comes from us from, former Emergency Room
Nurse, and Emerging Christian Writer, Jennifer Schreiner, who shared this photo
of an outing with her daughter on social media back on July 31st of
2022.
I met Jennifer at my local church during a Christian
doctrines class and discovered that she not only had a keen eye for capturing scenes
that give God glory from his creation, she also has a deep desire to encourage
Christian women in following the Lord. Jennifer’s
mission is to support, equip, and encourage Christian women. You can follow her
on Facebook with a link to her ministry page (https://www.facebook.com/Official.Jen.Schreiner)
that I am sharing on the blog today, or
you can just go to https://jenschreiner.com/
where you will find her blog, a collection of Bible Verses for the different seasons of life she has compiled,
and other free resources such as lessons Jennifer has created and Free
Printable Scripture Art Prints.
Well, it’s Wednesday again and because of my
participation in the Pray Together Prayer Event the days are long but the week
seems to be flying by! However, paradoxically, I haven’t been worn down by the
full days because I believe I am being restored and empowered by the Lord
because my days have been filled with prayer!
Last night the event moved to Grace Chapel and the
untied body of Christ came together to share communion and to pray for our
children, their schools, their teachers and administrators, and ended with
prayers for our Christian leaders.
As much as we are petitioning the Lord with prayer
in these specific areas, for others, I feel that the Lord is also using these
sessions to cause us all to personal repentance as these sessions bring our
faith to the forefront of our attention.
We believe in God. We believe in the power of prayer. And so we are
drawing close to Him and to others in the body of Christ through our gathering.
If you are local to the capital district I am sharing
the link to this week’s “Pray Together prayer event. ( https://starpoint.church/events/?fbclid=IwAR2Bi4rGW8KfvIZKXwIe8njRlmmYvMb8MRTESB5b2WDLvRdCytqKB9_oQ-g?sapurl=LytlMzE4L2xiL2V2Lyt3MzNoM3ljP2JyYW5kaW5nPXRydWUmZW1iZWQ9dHJ1ZSZyZWNlbnRSb3V0ZT1hcHAud2ViLWFwcC5saWJyYXJ5LmNhbGVuZGFyJnJlY2VudFJvdXRlU2x1Zz0lMkI5emdrZ3I1)
Consider it my invitation to you to “Come and See” what the Lord may do in this
event. Tonight, we will be praying at Faith Church in
Rexford and it is my prayer that even more Christians will come out in unity to
pray.
Personally,
I am being blessed by this event and by my decision to go through the “30 Days to Resilient” Program on
the One Minute Pause App as these concentrated effort to be in prayer and
meditation seems to be renewing my convictions, building up my spirit, and preparing me for the new prayer ministry training
I will begin next week and the next round of the Freedom in Christ course I
will begin facilitating at the end of the month.
Sometimes
we can begin the new year overwhelmed by the idea that “it is starting all over
again” or by the unfinished business that wasn’t resolved, but when we draw close
to the Lord in prayer and repentance, we can draw on His strength and wisdom to
assist us in another’s year’s journey.
2023
seems to be full of potential thus far as I am excited by the new opportunities
to grow and to serve the Lord and am hopeful to progress to breakthrough status
with a few areas that have carried over from the past.
Because
it is “hump” day, and because I have been up and down the mountain of yo-yo
dieting for most of my life, I am seeking to break the chains and shift the
paradigms regarding food once and for all.
My
pattern seems to be of literal gains and losses with the ebb and flow of
discipline and compromise. History reveals that I keep fighting over the same
ground, as complacency and passivity leads to surrendering the progress that
was so hard fought for. I seem to get to
a certain place and just stop. I have
success but than I hit a wall. I make progress but I don’t “break through”
As
someone who has overcome other addictions and had genuine success with my
health at times, it is frustrating to be in a Romans 7 situation with this “body
of death”, this flesh.
I
joined the “swipe up to see my video” – V shred program and although I feel
stronger from the work outs, my diet over the holidays was way too festive, and
mindless, and now I have to go back to the drawing board, again in terms of
being mindful and intentional and disciplined of what I eat. And thus I am confessing it all here. I want this year to be the year that I have
the breakthrough. I want to have the
same success over food that I have with my former addictions.
So
things might get a little crazy, things may get a little extreme. But that
really is a matter of opinion. The “indulgent” society of mediocrity and
comfort foods discourages what works. It speaks of moderation and balance but
in truth it opens a door to complacency, passivity, and failure. Hard truth.
Moderation
doesn’t work for the addict. Ask me how I know.
I
know this from experience but because of the pressures of an indulgent society
and the personal weakness to want to indulge the flesh I have ignored the
wisdom of it.
There
are some “extreme” things an addict needs to do to be set free and to stay
free. We are not like the rest, and actually
– the vast majority of people live in bondage or ignorance – so we don’t want
to be like the rest.
Addicts
need to eliminate, not moderate, the things that trip them up. They need to make the “wise choice” to say an
emphatic and eternal “No” to the things they have discovered that cause them to
fail.
Me, I
am currently do the “smoke the whole carton” thing at my place down by the River
- when it comes to food. I bought a bunch
of food items that I shouldn’t have for my adult children to enjoy in my
absence during my recent holiday break.
But they didn’t eat them. Granted
they didn’t ask for them… but this stronghold of “not wanting to waste food or
money” kicked in which caused me to eat what I shouldn’t have as sort of a
punishment for both wasting the money and buying the food.
SO
this morning I am happy, shamed, and embarrassed to report that all the holiday
food is gone. Sometimes you have to hit
“rock bottom” to start your way back up.
So I am drawing on the strength that the Lord is giving me with my
increased emphasis on prayer and am going to pour it into being disciplined in
this battle of the flesh. I
t is
my intention to resist the world, the flesh, and the devil and take this year
and use it to overcome and to get to a place that I have been before, to
accomplish a healthy lifestyle that will result in the elimination of my sleep
apnea machine. This was my goal over the
last two years and it is my intention to try to “get ‘er done” and break on
through to the other side like I have never done before.
So, rather
than surrender to failure, I am going to keep walking and talking with God in
prayer to draw on His strength, guidance, and wisdom to overcome and to not
fall into those old familiar traps that would cause me to slip and fall
again.
I
believe in prayer. I believe that God can help us. So if you are facing new or
old struggles this year, let me encourage you to lean on the Lord and to help
you progress beyond progress and find the breakthrough and victory that He has
for you.
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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible
Promise Book for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verse is:
Ephesians 3:16 (NLT2)
16 I pray that from his
glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through
his Spirit.
Today’s verse really kicks off the “new intention” quite
nicely. God has UNLIMITED resources to
empower us with inner strength through His Spirit.
If we need strength, we get it from God. And today’s verse tells
us how: prayer!
So let’s pray to God, abide in Him, and keep praying the inner
strength that He has for us that will cause us to do the “impossible” in our
lives.
___________________________________________
As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink’s “The
Sovereignty of God”
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage all to purchase Bonhoeffer’s books for your own
private study and to support his work. This resource is available on
many websites for less than $20.00.
THE
SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
By ARTHUR W. PINK
CHAPTER THREE
SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD IN ADMINISTRATION continues
2. God governs irrational creatures
What a striking illustration of God’s government
over the animal kingdom is found in Genesis 2:19! “And out of the ground the
Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air: and brought them unto Adam to see what
he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was
the name thereof.” Should it be said that this occurred in Eden, and took place
before the fall of Adam and the consequent curse which was inflicted on every
creature, then our next reference fully meets the objection: God’s control of
the beasts was again openly displayed at the Flood. Mark how God caused to
“come unto” Noah every specie of living creature “of every living thing of all
flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with
thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, of every
creeping thing after his kind: two of every sort shall come unto thee” (Gen. 6:19, 20)—all were beneath God’s
sovereign control. The lion of the jungle, the elephant of the forest, the bear
of the polar regions; the ferocious panther, the untameable wolf, the fierce
tiger; the high-soaring eagle and the creeping crocodile—see them all in their
native fierceness, and yet, quietly submitting to the will of their Creator,
and coming two by two into the ark!
We referred to the
plagues sent upon Egypt as illustrating God’s control of inanimate matter, let
us now turn to them again to see how they demonstrate His perfect rulership
over irrational creatures. At His Word the river brought forth frogs
abundantly, and these frogs entered the palace of Pharaoh and the houses of his
servants and, contrary to their natural instincts, they entered the beds, the
ovens and the kneadingtroughs (Ex. 8:13). Swarms of flies invaded the land of
Egypt, but there were no flies in the land of Goshen! (Ex. 8:22). Next, the
cattle were stricken, and we read, “Behold, the
hand of the Lord is upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and
upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain. And the Lord shall
sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall
nothing die of all that is the children’s of Israel. And the Lord appointed a
set time, saying, Tomorrow the Lord shall do this thing in the land. And the
Lord did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the
cattle of the children of Israel died not
one” (Ex. 9:3–6). In like manner God sent clouds of locusts to plague
Pharaoh and his land, appointing the time of their visitation, determining the
course and assigning the limits of their depredations.
Angels are not the
only ones who do God’s bidding. The brute beasts equally perform His pleasure.
The sacred ark, the ark of the covenant, is in the country of the Philistines.
How is it to be brought back to its home land? Mark the servants of God’s
choice, and how completely they were beneath His control: “And the Philistines
called for the priests and the diviners saying, What shall we do to the ark of
the Lord? tell us wherewith we shall send it to his place. And they said.… Now
therefore make a new cart, and take two milch kine, on which there hath come no
yoke, and tie the kine to the cart, and bring their calves home from them: And
take the ark of the Lord, and lay it upon the cart; and put the jewels of gold,
which ye return Him for a trespass offering, in a coffer by the side thereof,
and send it away that it may go. And see, if it goeth up by the way of his own
coast to Bethshemesh, then He hath done us this great evil: but if not, then we
shall know that it is not His hand that smote us; it was a chance that happened
to us.” And what happened? How striking the sequel! “And the kine took the straight way to the way of
Bethshemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to
the left” (1 Sam. 6). Equally striking is the case of Elijah: “And the word
of the Lord came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, and hide thyself by the
brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of
the brook; and I have commanded the
ravens to fee thee there” (1 Kings 17:2–4). The natural instinct of these
birds of prey was held in subjection, and instead of consuming the food
themselves, they carried it to Jehovah’s servant in his solitary retreat.
Is further proof
required? then it is ready at hand. God makes a dumb ass to rebuke the
prophet’s madness. He sends forth two she-bears from the woods to devour forty
and two of Elijah’s tormentors. In fulfillment of His word, He causes the dogs
to lick up the blood of the wicked Jezebel. He seals the mouths of Babylon’s
lions when Daniel is cast into the den, though, later, He causes them to devour
the prophet’s accusers. He prepares a great fish to swallow the disobedient
Jonah and then, when His ordained hour struck, compelled it to vomit him forth on dry land. At His bidding a fish
carries a coin to Peter for tribute money, and in order to fulfil His word He
makes the cock crow twice after Peter’s denial. Thus we see that God reigns
over irrational creatures: beasts of the field, birds of the air, fishes of the
sea, all perform His sovereign bidding.[1]
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tomorrow------------------------
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Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
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