I'm baaack! Thanks for covering us in prayer! We had a great week of rest and renewal! I actually slept a lot. Now that I'm home, I'm back to sleeping less. Maybe I need more vacation? Ha! In reality, I drew close to God while away and with using several prayer disciplines from the book we are studying . evenings and using Sundays. But since home, God awakens me early to chat and go deeper and to give me things to blog about with you. Then I get to nap later in the morning. is one of those days!
Good Morning Praying Friends and Servants of the Lord! First of all thanks to Mike and Sarah for covering for us! What a great message on prayer Mike bought . Thanks! Did you notice how God moved and gave him and me overlapping messages. Mike was in the nursery last week and didn't know what I preached on. BUT GOD! I spoke about Samuel getting to know God's voice and become God's prophet and mouthpiece and the last judge of Israel. Mike spoke about Hannah, Sammy's mom, and her prayers that God heard and answered. We may explore this further on . God is leading me to continue our focus on learning to pray. I love how God aligns things and brings His Word alive to us. He even gave me the songs weeks ago and the ending with the Lord's Prayer praise song was so appropriate. Funny how Kay was ready for me to sing the old version the other but I never went there. No denying God is close, hears and acts on our prayers and has great plans for us as we engage with His Living Word and seek to learn to pray and become a House of Prayer for the Nations! PTL!
, God really spoke to me through Our Daily Bread and the associated Scripture from Lamentations. Who is your hope in? God or man? His ways or your plans and agendas? Being real, I have really struggled with the failure of our senators to pass the save America Act for election integrity and only legal citizens voting (and also the bill to make it illegal to hold office unless a natural born citizen) Why would anyone oppose an ID and to be a citizen to vote. It only makes sense for election integrity and for the trust for the American people with our election process. If our leaders fight these, it has to be for fraud and controlling election results. So when the senate adjourned for recess without voting on these, I became infuriated. And worried that we will see a repeat of the stolen 2020 elections and headed towards communism. BUT GOD! Does He not know and have a plan? What can I do besides calling senators to vote for my wishes and pray. And so I have increased earnest prayer for this nation, election integrity, and justice to the fraudsters. I am also praying for blind eyes of our duped citizens to be opened and for God to bind up the evil and darkness of our leaders, press and others. And now that I gave it to God, I am trusting His will to be done in His timing and turning off the noise again and focusing on Him and His plans for me and us. He does have great plans for us and our part is to pray in His Kingdom and plans, trust, obey and follow well. That is my focus again. And I am expecting Him to move in the mid terms and deliver us from evil, fraud and darkness. Amen! Please Lord! Check out ODB below and pray through Lamentations 3:19-16 remembering and reminding God in prayer that, "He is good to those whose hope is in the Him, to the one who seeks Him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord." And that is my prayer for me and us. Be still and know. Pray, prepare and go live and love like Jesus and work at reviving our neighborhoods. This nation needs Christ and God's good ways! And he has plans for us to discover, pray in and do! Amen. Our hope is in the Lord! As I was meditating on ODB the John Reddick song below (click link) came on. God reminded me to praise in the storms and trust Him to work all things together for good! Amen! So your assignment is to draw close, praise, pray and listen. Then write down what you hear, process prayerfully with some friends and then go live and love like Jesus as God is leading. I'm praising and praying for you and for revival!
ODB:
Hope in God
The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him. Lamentations 3:25 Lamentations 3:19-26
Because of his father’s alcoholism and mistreatment of his mother, Pablo left home when he was a teenager. He moved in with an uncle, graduated high school, married, and had three children. But sadly, Pablo began repeating the same destructive behavior he’d once fled. His own alcohol addiction and behavior began to tear his family apart. Soon, it was all gone—his marriage, family, job, and home. “My life was terrible, and it got worse,” he said.
Finally he turned to a treatment facility for help. “I was in bad shape, and God opened the door for me.” One day after praying, he experienced God through the beauty of nature. Soon his youngest daughter noticed he’d changed, and reconciled with him. he’s working to rebuild trust with his other children.
In Lamentations, the prophet Jeremiah grieved over the plight of his people, who had turned from God and were exiled to Babylon: “I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall . . . and my soul is downcast within me” (Lamentations 3:19-20). Like the Israelites, Pablo was far from God. And like Jeremiah, he found hope in God: “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (vv. 22-23).
Like Pablo, the Israelites got a fresh start. We can turn to God and find hope.
By Alyson Kieda
REFLECT & PRAY
Are you looking for hope? How is God inviting you to hope in Him?
Dear God, thank You for offering me a renewed relationship with You.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
In the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), books are usually named for the first word or words in the text. As such, the Hebrew title for Lamentations is “How,” taken from verse 1: “How deserted lies the city.” Those who translated the Old Testament into Greek (the Septuagint) titled the book “Lamentations.” Both titles are apt. In many lament psalms, the psalmist’s cry is rooted in the phrase “How long, Lord ?” (see Psalm 13:1). And Jeremiah’s laments in both his prophecies and in the book of Lamentations are so consistent that he’s generally regarded as “the weeping prophet.” In ’s text (Lamentations 3:19-26), he’s grieving over the city of Jerusalem, which was besieged and taken captive by the Babylonians. Now, seeing the city desolated, Jeremiah finds hope in the faithful God whose mercies are “new every morning” (v. 23). Even in our times of deepest despair and loss, we can hope in God.
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