A Consecrated Life

by Joyce Meyer - posted March 31, 2012

Unto You, O Lord, do I bring my life. —Psalm 25:1

I love to lift up my hands in the morning and pray the prayer of consecration found in the verse for today. I actually say the words, “Unto You, O Lord, do I bring my life.” This really defines consecration—complete, voluntary surrender to the Lord. In a prayer of consecration, you are saying to Him:

“Here I am, God. I give myself to You. Not just my money, but myself. Not just one hour on Sunday morning, but myself. Not just a portion of my day, but myself. Unto You, O Lord, do I bring my entire life. I lay it before You. Do what You want to do with me. Speak to me and through me today. Touch people through me today. Make a difference in my world through me today. I am not an owner of anything; I’m a steward. Everything I am and everything I have has come from You and is available to You today.”

When we consecrate something, we set it apart for God’s use. Therefore, when we consecrate our lives, we turn our backs on our fleshly desires, worldly values, carnal thinking, undisciplined living, bad habits, and everything else that does not agree with God’s Word.

We close our ears to the noise of the world and open them to the voice of God. We intentionally put distance between ourselves and ungodly things, so we are prepared and available for God to use us. Consecration is not easy, but it is worth the discipline and the sacrifice it requires.

God’s word for you today: Say to God, “Here I am,” today.

All about your menstrual cycle

Menstrual Cycle - All About Menstrual Period from WomansDay.Com - Woman's Day

http://www.stumbleupon.com/to/s/2EZw9y

Now or Later

If you had to choose between these two scenarios; which would you prefer?

A) Get $100,000 today; save it, knowing that in 3yrs, you'd be broke for a year.

OR

B) Go through 2yrs of lack; and get the $100,000 then.

It's interesting to see your perspective on this.

Approaching the Bible in today's modern world

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. - New Living Translation (NLT) 2 Timothy 3:16

Here are a few tips that can help us maintain a healthy vibrant relationship with God through His Word:

1. Pray First: Before reading, ask God to speak to you through His Word and to prepare your heart for what He says
2. Try Different Versions: While its essential to study with the King James Version, its certainly ok to find an easy-to-understand version that best speaks to you - for reading.
3. Listen: Audio versions of the Bible are easy to get too. Listen while you drive, exercise etc.
4. Try a Plan: Pick a plan and stick with it.
5. Dedicate Specific Time: Give God the best of your day, whether that's the first thing in the day, or in the evening, or even the midday.
6. Take Notes: Take notes to write questions or answers that come up as you read.
7. Share: Connecting with others to share what you are learning reveals insights you can't get alone.
8. Keep Going: If you miss a day, don't quit. Simply pick it back up, open your heart and let God continue to speak to you.

No matter what, when you consistently spend time with Scripture, you will grow to know God more intimately and serve Him more intimately and serve Him more faithfully.

Out of control

What do you do when you find yourself in a situation that is long, hard, and out of your control?

How do your emotions play out?

You sit, pray, and watch God work. It is at these times that God desires our presence more than ever.

We typically want more of God when we face these times but also, God desires more of us too. He yearns for us just as much!

Ladies, these moments are opportunities for us to draw nearer and closer to the Father. Not just for answers or an explanation to our situation but to demonstrate our trust, surrender our weaknesses, and gain His ultimate strength.

Sit back and watch what God can do!

Fugitive of a Hardened Heart

It has been my prayer throughout reading this book that we would all come to see jealousy as a symptom of a broken heart.  Somewhere, we have come to believe the lie that our God is not trustworthy in His justice towards us.  The fallout of the untruth is that we cannot believe that God loves us, because our idea of His goodness has been skewed by life's difficult and inexplicable circumstances.

This scripture gives us the reason for our blindness in seeing the glory of God in our own lives:
Hebrews 12:14-15 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

We can make the false assumption that the secret sin of jealousy is contained to our thoughts, hidden away from others.  Scripture assures us that this is not the case.  The moment we detect the bitterness of jealousy entering our thoughts, we must take those thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ.  If we do not, we are in danger of not seeing the Lord. We must intently examine our thought lives, to ensure there is no place for a bitter root to grow.

Heart Builders:

• How has jealousy made you fugitive, either as its perpetrator or its victim?

Exerts from our book - Living with Unmet Desires

And....Happy New Year

 

So, the year has infact began, thank God.  If your life is as busy as mine tends to get, then you know that the pace isn't any slower yet, the challenges are still greater, the work load is much tougher, and the prayer list has gotten longer....but the real question is: has our faith become stronger?  How about our trust in God?

I am learning daily that faith is not just reading about its great work, but its about living in its great principle.  Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of what's unseen. Some of us have heard this so many times that it's not as real as the first couple of times we actually heard it.  But ladies, I don't know about you but God has a way of bringing me back to perspective and reminding me that He is God and noone else is. 

I want to encourage you today and for the rest of this month to really position your heart to believe God for absolutely ANYTHING....because really and truly...HE CAN DO ALL THINGS. I can testify of this first-hand.  If we can do this together as women for the month of January, we can set the faith/miracle tone for the rest of the year for our needs, our family's needs, our friends, etc...

Never give up!
Don't believe the lie that great things happen to others and not you!  You too are a partaker of God's blessings, so take it, receive it, walk in it, breathe it and see God move on your behalf!

Be blessed Righteous Woman!

Faith Builders:

• Do you believe God can do anything?
• What areas are you believing God for?

2011 Countdown

The end of the year is vastly upon us and it's getting tiring, exciting, busy, costly, crowded, fun etc.  One of the things that I try to do each year, about this time - is pace myself, spend what I really need to and not get too excited when I slam into a sale! :) That's always so so hard, because you know how it is, you go to the store looking for a gift for someone else and VOILA - you run into something on sale that you want and the battle begins... lol.

For our family, we try to keep it fun and exciting each year.  One year, we went to out of town for Christmas and didn't get gifts for anyone - instead we spent time with each other; another year, we did the gift exchange thing; and another year, we made a wish list of 3 things that we want and each person had to pick/purchase one.  This year, we decided to buy $10 gifts for each person.  This is HARD! But the deal is that we have to keep it creative and fun!

So, whatever it is that you, your family, your friends are doing....remember to pace yourself, keep it fun, don't spend next year's money this year if you can help it, stay within your budget, remember the reason for the season, have lots of family time, stay healthy, go to church :), be thankful for what you do have, and look forward to next years blessings.

Be good!

Relationships Take Time

I read this and thought you might appreciate it.

 

Some days I think we all have inherited a double dose of impatience. That could explain why so many of us despise shopping, standing in line, waiting in line and mutter when the driver in front of us balks at turning right on red. More than once, you know, we say about each other or sometimes to each other: "Sometimes I just don't understand you at all!" Well, NEWS FLASH, we're not that easy to figure out, either. 

There's so much more we need to learn about growing in relationships. And it takes time.

 

But why is that so exasperating? My guess is it's part of human nature. A congenital hurry-bone of contention inherited from Adam and Eve who started the whole business by eating an apple guaranteed to give them instant knowledge.

 

When we live by the false "faster is better" creed, we lose sight of the contrasting truth: Relationships take lots of time to develop and nurture. They demand long hours and years and even decades of work....and don't forget the money too!

 

But when you stop to consider the alternative, it's clear that relationships are worth the time. Why hurry to give up on trying when you can take your time and nurture a deep commitmment with someone else for the rest of your life?

 

Relationship Builders:

• Have you ever felt that your relationships should be better faster?
• Why is it so hard to be patient as relationships develop?

Apple Juice Arsenic

http://abcnews.go.com/US/arsenic-juice-consumers-union-study-prompts-fda-action/story?id=15053583


Forwarded by Lynn W...
Nov. 30, 2011

An investigation into trace amounts of arsenic found in bottled juice has prompted advocacy group Consumers Union to urge the Food and Drug Administration to lower its standards for arsenic levels in juice drinks.
The results of the study released Wednesday indicate that 10 percent of juices tested had total arsenic levels greater than the FDA's standard for drinking water of 10 parts per billion (ppb), while 25 percent of juices also had lead levels higher than the FDA's bottled water limit of 5 ppb.

Consumer Reports tested 88 samples of popular brands of grape and apple juice sold in the United States, including Mott's, Minute Maid and Welch's. Most of the arsenic detected in Consumer Reports' tests was a type known as inorganic, which is a human carcinogen.

The testing and analysis has led Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, to urge the federal government to establish a standard of 3 ppb for total arsenic and 5 ppb for lead in juice.

"We're concerned about the potential risks of exposure to these toxins, especially for children who are particularly vulnerable because of their small body size and the amount of juice they regularly consume," said Urvashi Rangan, Ph.D., director of safety & sustainability at Consumer Reports.

Although federal standards exist for arsenic and lead levels allowed in bottled and drinking water, there are no limits defined for fruit juices, a mainstay of many children's diets.

In a statement to ABC News regarding the new Consumer Reports data the FDA -- which stated in September 2011 amid public controversy that apple juice consumption poses little or no risk -- said it is now gathering further information.

"A small percentage of samples contain elevated levels of arsenic. In response, the FDA has expanded our surveillance activities and is collecting additional data," the agency said.


The FDA's statement on the safety of drinking apple juice.
Michael Landa, acting director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition told two advocacy groups last week that the agency will collect and analyze juice samples from U.S. retailers to determine "the prevalence of arsenic in juice and to better understand the species of arsenic found in juice," according to Food Safety News.

The Juice Products Association responded by saying that the study is incongruous.

"Juice is not water. To compare the trace levels of arsenic or lead in juice to the regulatory guidelines for drinking water is not appropriate," the JPA said in a statement.

Consumer Reports also analyzed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's data on arsenic in the urine of men and women who were willing to report their food and drink consumption for 24 hours prior. Analysis showed that people who reported drinking apple or grape juice had, on average, about 20 percent higher levels of total urinary arsenic than those subjects who did not.

Patty Lovera, assistant director of Food & Water Watch, said it's important that the FDA establish an appropriate amount of arsenic acceptable in juice.

"This is movement, and so that's encouraging, but we really want to see the agency get to a point where they figure out the right level," she said.

Just over a week ago, the FDA announced the results of its own testing of apple juice -- most of which is produced in the U.S. The agency found that eight samples out of 160 had arsenic levels that exceeded their own "level of concern" for total arsenic.

Echoing Lovera and Consumer Reports' advice, ABC News' Chief Health and Medical Editor Dr. Richard Besser also says that the FDA needs to set a standard for apple juice for industry. The standard should probably be lower than what FDA is currently using, according to Besser.

The divisive subject reached a fever pitch in September when Besser confronted Dr. Mehmet Oz on "Good Morning America" for what he called "extremely irresponsible" statements Oz made on "The Dr. Oz Show" in an episode focusing on the dangers of trace levels of arsenic present in many popular brands of apple juice. Oz's statements at the time were said to be misleading and needlessly frightening to consumers.

Dr. Besser spoke on the subject on "Good Morning America" on Wednesday, explaining the faultiness of the information provided by the FDA and stating that he feels the agency should hold the juice industry accountable.

"Back in September the FDA made a number of statements that reassured me. I'm much less reassured now. They published the test online, but withheld eight results that were very high," Besser said.

A Message to Women From a Man: You Are Not "Crazy"

~ Forwarded by Lori Archie ~
You're so sensitive. You're so emotional. You're defensive. You're overreacting. Calm down. Relax. Stop freaking out! You're crazy! I was just joking, don't you have a sense of humor? You're so dramatic. Just get over it already!
Sound familiar?
If you're a woman, it probably does.

Do you ever hear any of these comments from your spouse, partner, boss, friends, colleagues, or relatives after you have expressed frustration, sadness, or anger about something they have done or said?
When someone says these things to you, it's not an example of inconsiderate behavior. When your spouse shows up half an hour late to dinner without calling -- that's inconsiderate behavior. A remark intended to shut you down like, "Calm down, you're overreacting," after you just addressed someone else's bad behavior, is emotional manipulation, pure and simple.

And this is the sort of emotional manipulation that feeds an epidemic in our country, an epidemic that defines women as crazy, irrational, overly sensitive, unhinged. This epidemic helps fuel the idea that women need only the slightest provocation to unleash their (crazy) emotions. It's patently false and unfair.

I think it's time to separate inconsiderate behavior from emotional manipulation, and we need to use a word not found in our normal vocabulary.

I want to introduce a helpful term to identify these reactions: gaslighting.

Gaslighting is a term often used by mental health professionals (I am not one) to describe manipulative behavior used to confuse people into thinking their reactions are so far off base that they're crazy.

The term comes from the 1944 MGM film, Gaslight, starring Ingrid Bergman. Bergman's husband in the film, played by Charles Boyer, wants to get his hands on her jewelry. He realizes he can accomplish this by having her certified as insane and hauled off to a mental institution. To pull of this task, he intentionally sets the gaslights in their home to flicker off and on, and every time Bergman's character reacts to it, he tells her she's just seeing things. In this setting, a gaslighter is someone who presents false information to alter the victim's perception of him or herself.

Today, when the term is referenced, it's usually because the perpetrator says things like, "You're so stupid," or "No one will ever want you," to the victim. This is an intentional, pre-meditated form of gaslighting, much like the actions of Charles Boyer's character in Gaslight, where he strategically plots to confuse Ingrid Bergman's character into believing herself unhinged.

The form of gaslighting I'm addressing is not always pre-mediated or intentional, which makes it worse, because it means all of us, especially women, have dealt with it at one time or another.

Those who engage in gaslighting create a reaction -- whether it's anger, frustration, sadness -- in the person they are dealing with. Then, when that person reacts, the gaslighter makes them feel uncomfortable and insecure by behaving as if their feelings aren't rational or normal.

My friend Anna (all names changed to protect privacy) is married to a man who feels it necessary to make random and unprompted comments about her weight. Whenever she gets upset or frustrated with his insensitive comments, he responds in the same, defeating way, "You're so sensitive. I'm just joking."

My friend Abbie works for a man who finds a way, almost daily, to unnecessarily shoot down her performance and her work product. Comments like, "Can't you do something right?" or "Why did I hire you?" are regular occurrences for her. Her boss has no problem firing people (he does it regularly), so you wouldn't know from these comments that Abbie has worked for him for six years. But every time she stands up for herself and says, "It doesn't help me when you say these things," she gets the same reaction: "Relax; you're overreacting."

Abbie thinks her boss is just being a jerk in these moments, but the truth is, he is making those comments to manipulate her into thinking her reactions are out of whack. And it's exactly that kind manipulation that has left her feeling guilty about being sensitive, and as a result, she has not left her job.

But gaslighting can be as simple as someone smiling and saying something like, "You're so sensitive," to somebody else. Such a comment may seem innocuous enough, but in that moment, the speaker is making a judgment about how someone else should feel.

While dealing with gaslighting isn't a universal truth for women, we all certainly know plenty of women who encounter it at work, home, or in personal relationships.

And the act of gaslighting does not simply affect women who are not quite sure of themselves. Even vocal, confident, assertive women are vulnerable to gaslighting.
Why?

Because women bare the brunt of our neurosis. It is much easier for us to place our emotional burdens on the shoulders of our wives, our female friends, our girlfriends, our female employees, our female colleagues, than for us to impose them on the shoulders of men.

It's a whole lot easier to emotionally manipulate someone who has been conditioned by our society to accept it. We continue to burden women because they don't refuse our burdens as easily. It's the ultimate cowardice.

Whether gaslighting is conscious or not, it produces the same result: It renders some women emotionally mute.

These women aren't able to clearly express to their spouses that what is said or done to them is hurtful. They can't tell their boss that his behavior is disrespectful and prevents them from doing their best work. They can't tell their parents that, when they are being critical, they are doing more harm than good.

When these women receive any sort of push back to their reactions, they often brush it off by saying, "Forget it, it's okay."

That "forget it" isn't just about dismissing a thought, it is about self-dismissal. It's heartbreaking.

No wonder some women are unconsciously passive aggressive when expressing anger, sadness, or frustration. For years, they have been subjected to so much gaslighting that they can no longer express themselves in a way that feels authentic to them.

They say, "I'm sorry," before giving their opinion. In an email or text message, they place a smiley face next to a serious question or concern, thereby reducing the impact of having to express their true feelings.

You know how it looks: "You're late :)"

These are the same women who stay in relationships they don't belong in, who don't follow their dreams, who withdraw from the kind of life they want to live.

Since I have embarked on this feminist self-exploration in my life and in the lives of the women I know, this concept of women as "crazy" has really emerged as a major issue in society at large and an equally major frustration for the women in my life, in general.

From the way women are portrayed on reality shows, to how we condition boys and girls to see women, we have come to accept the idea that women are unbalanced, irrational individuals, especially in times of anger and frustration.

Just the other day, on a flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles, a flight attendant who had come to recognize me from my many trips asked me what I did for a living. When I told her that I write mainly about women, she immediately laughed and asked, "Oh, about how crazy we are?"

Her gut reaction to my work made me really depressed. While she made her response in jest, her question nonetheless makes visible a pattern of sexist commentary that travels through all facets of society on how men view women, which also greatly impacts how women may view themselves.

As far as I am concerned, the epidemic of gaslighting is part of the struggle against the obstacles of inequality that women constantly face. Acts of gaslighting steal their most powerful tool: their voice. This is something we do to women every day, in many different ways.

I don't think this idea that women are "crazy," is based in some sort of massive conspiracy. Rather, I believe it's connected to the slow and steady drumbeat of women being undermined and dismissed, on a daily basis. And gaslighting is one of many reasons why we are dealing with this public construction of women as "crazy."

I recognize that I've been guilty of gaslighting my women friends in the past (but never my male friends--surprise, surprise). It's shameful, but I'm glad I realized that I did it on occasion and put a stop to it.

While I take total responsibility for my actions, I do believe that I, along with many men, am a byproduct of our conditioning. It's about the general insight our conditioning gives us into admitting fault and exposing any emotion.

When we are discouraged in our youth and early adulthood from expressing emotion, it causes many of us to remain steadfast in our refusal to express regret when we see someone in pain from our actions.

When I was writing this piece, I was reminded of one of my favorite Gloria Steinem quotes, "The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn."

So for many of us, it's first about unlearning how to flicker those gaslights and learning how to acknowledge and understand the feelings, opinions, and positions of the women in our lives.
But isn't the issue of gaslighting ultimately about whether we are conditioned to believe that women's opinions don't hold as much weight as ours? That what women have to say, what they feel, isn't quite as legitimate?

Yashar will be soon releasing his first short e-book, entitled, A Message To Women From A Man: You Are Not Crazy -- How We Teach Men That Women Are Crazy and How We Convince Women To Ignore Their Instincts.
Follow Yashar Ali on Twitter: www.twitter.com/yashar

Breaking Bread

Hey ladies,

We are a few days away from Thanksgiving day and the holidays are quickly upon us.  I want to encourage you during this time, that its not all about the food, but really about the people that are with us.  Take the time to gauge your friends and family, spend time with them, eat with them, pray for them, uphold them, listen to them and their needs, get to meet new people and invite them to dinner...etc. 

Thanksgiving is a very hard time for a lot of people that do not have family members with them, as this tends to remind them of their loss or absence of...however, as Righteous Women, we are to key into these needs and offer assistance as we can.

Remember to look out to others, and share what you have with them....and hopefully, your relationships will go beyond Thursday's dinner and will carry on for a period or a lifetime...

I pray for your families, and know that God will continue to shine upon you. 
Happy Thanksgiving week...and be blessed!

When others reject you

Have you ever tried to help someone who didn't really want to be helped out of their situation?  Sometimes, we tend to think that if we could just explain things a little more clearly or be a little bit better of a witness, they could be helped.  But honestly and truthfully, we've got to know when to break free from the burden of false responsibility. 

In Matthew 10, Jesus was sending out His disciples, and He told them that if they went to a town and the people didn't accept them, they should shake the dust off their feet and go to the next town. 

What does that mean for us today?  Basically, if someone doesn't want to be helped, we are not obligated to try and change them. 

The world is full of hungy, hurting, needy people who would love to get any little bit of love and encouragement you have to give them.  So when one person rejects you, don't let that stop you.  Simply do what Jesus did.  Move on to the next person and the next person until somebody wants what you've got.

Extracted from Joyce Meyer's November article

A Pure Heart

Jesus is the most controversial figure in the history of mankind.  We all have a sinful nature that does not allow us to see the wisdom in His teachings. We need to be made new; we need to be given new eyes for answers to those familiar patterns in us that lead us down a path of destruction.

Jesus spent much of His ministry teaching radical new ideas. Ideas that seem downright unbelievable because they are so contrary to what our culture says is the way to live life.  On a windy moutainside, Jesus proclaimed what would become known as the Beautitudes - eight pathways of death to our fleshly desires that would bring us the abundant life He promised to this who love Him. 

Matthew 5:8 (New Living Translation) - God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.

Ladies, a pure heart is a heart that is not haughty.  Pride and arrogance will prevent us from seeing God and knowing His will. 

Extracts from Page 126 - Living with Unmet Desires

To a Special Person

IT'S CHRISTIAN PERSON WEEK AND YOU SHOULD SEND THIS TO ALL BEAUTIFUL CHRISTIAN PEOPLE.

When I say that 'I am a Christian', I am not saying that 'I am clean living. I'm saying 'I was lost, but now I'm found and forgiven.'

When I say 'I am a Christian', I don't speak of this with pride. I'm confessing that I stumble and need Christ to be my guide.

When I say 'I am a Christian', I'm not trying to be strong. I'm professing that I'm weak and need His strength to carry on.

When I say 'I am a Christian', I'm not bragging of success. I'm admitting I have failed and need GOD to clean my mess.

When I say 'I am a Christian', I'm not claiming to be perfect. My flaws are far too visible, but GOD believes I am worth it.

When I say 'I am a Christian', I still feel the sting of pain. I have my share of heartaches, so I call upon HIS name.

When I say 'I am a Christian', I'm not holier than thou, I'm just a simple sinner who received GOD's good grace, somehow!

Today is Beautiful Christian Person's Day.

Boost another person's self esteem, and send this to them!

Be Blessed, and be a Blessing.

Family Dynamics

Ah, the complexity of family relationships!  There is something we all have in common: we are all part of a family.  We really had no choice in the matter to whom we were born to or whether we had any siblings.  The greatest encouragement and the greatest discouragement can come from people with whom we have shared a great part of our lives living with.

Take an assessment of your family relationships right now.  How would you rate your intimacy level in the following relationships on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being extremely distant and 5 being extremely satisfying)?

Your parents: ________________
Your siblings: ________________
Your husband / fiancee / boyfriend: ______________________
Your children (if any): ________________________________

Family Builders:

• How can you change the distant relationships?
• How can you model and/or maintain the satisfying relationships?

Happy Rest

Have you ever felt the sweet happy sense of rest upon going to bed at night? How delightful was the sensation of relaxing every muscle and letting your body go into perfect abandonment of ease and comfort.  The strain of the day had ceased, for a few hours at least.  You no longer had to hold up an aching head, a weary back, or a burdened heart. You trusted yourself to the bed in an absolute confidence and it held you up without effort or strain.  You rested!

But suppose you had doubted the strength or the stability of your bed, and had dreaded each moment to find it giving way beneath you.  Could you have rested then? Would not every muscle have been strained in a fruitless effort to hold yourself up, and would not the weariness have been greater than if you had not gone to bed at all?

Now, apply this analogy to what it means to rest in the Lord.  Let you souls lie down upon the couch of His will.  Relax every strain, and lay off every burden.  Let yourself go in perfect abandonment of ease and comfort, knowing that, since He holds you up, you are perfectly safe.  Your part is simply to rest. His part is to sustan you; and He cannot fail.

Rest Builders:

• Is there an area or issue in your life in which you need to experience God's rest and peace?
• When have you felt a God-given rest or peace after particularly difficult times?

The Appointed Time

Pride has been one of the most heartbreaking sins in my life.  You see, I was a "good" girl on the outside. I had mastered the role of what I thought everyone wanted me to be.  Unfortunately, the abundant life Christ had promised me through His Word, and which I saw in others, remained as elusive to me as ever. 

As I look back on my childhood and young adult years, I realize that the main reason I obeyed the rules was fear of disappointing others, not necessarily becuase I wanted to do the right thing. I never thought I was attactive or talented or particularly smart.  I had a driving need to feel significant, but I felt I possessed nothing that was honored by my culture to make me feel I was worthy. I did, however, have my reputation.  That was the area inwhich I was admired and fawned over by others.  I was the responsible one, the mature one - I was even called the spiritual one, often.  I strove with all my might to be what  others said I was.  This standard became my personal criteria to being accepted by others. 

After making some destructive decisions in a dating relationship in my college years, I realized I had failed to meet my own standard of what it meant to be a "good" Christian girl.  The result was crushing guilt that extinguised my joy.  Worse than that, I believed the lie that I had dissapointed God beyond hope of His forgivenenss or redemption.

Until I was confronted with my own inabilitiy to be "good", I was extremely prideful of that false goodness.  Pride is first on the list of detestable sins that God hates in Proverbs 6:16-19.  I truly didn't see my pride as sinful.  I was my own judge and jury when it came to my righteousness before God.

Self Builders:

• What have you latched onto in your life as a direct result of your need for acceptance or attention? 
• Has this been something that has proven to be constructive or destructive to your relationship with God, yourself, and others?

Exerts from "Living with Unmet Desires" - Page 105

Spirit-Led Persistence

by Joyce Meyer - posted September 19, 2011


What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit [by the Holy Spirit that is within me], but I will also pray [intelligently] with my mind and understanding.

—1 Corinthians 14:15

I really want to encourage you to pray persistent, persevering prayers by the leading of the Holy Spirit—not mere repetitious prayers that do not come from your heart, but prayers that refuse to give up. It is possible to use your mouth to speak words of prayer that have no meaning behind them at all, and those prayers are nothing but dead works. I could quote the entire Lord's Prayer while I am thinking about something else, and that would not bless God or do me any good, but if I am sincere and pray from my heart, God hears and works in my behalf.

Lip service doesn't do anything for God or accomplish anything in our lives, so even when we pray about the same thing over and over again, we need to be careful not to fall into meaningless repetition. Instead, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us in a fresh way, even when we are addressing a subject about which we have prayed for a long time. Sometimes He will lead us to be diligent and persistent about a matter, but there is a difference between repetition and Spirit-led persistence.

Words spoken in prayer that are not connected to our hearts are words without power. When we pray we should focus and concentrate on what we are saying. We should never merely verbalize things we have memorized while our hearts are far from God. The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available (see James 5:16).

God's word for you today: Your heartfelt prayers to God have power and He hears them.

________________________________________

From the book Hearing from God Each Morning: 365 Daily Devotions by Joyce Meyer.

Effortless

Smooth like satin,
soft like a baby’s cheek,
clear as a river running in the Congo
is what I truly seek.

EFFORTLESS…EFFORTLESS

I love this word
EF-FORT-LESS.
I say it …I believe it…I receive it!

The vibe I get from it
makes me feel alive,
and I thank God
He has allowed me
to survive all the rain, all the pain,

EFFORTLESS being my gain,
all because He reigns!
My thinking is reborn,
as EFFORTLESS helps me get through the storm,
and it has spun a radiant light,
shining on all my different plights,
reminding me – “ This is not your fight…”

With EFFORTLESS…
I relax,
I sit back,
I am in a constant siesta,
and EFFORTLESS even brings the confetti to my fiesta!

When I have to scale tall walls or if I fall,
EFFORTLESS calls me, finds me,
bringing me goose down pillows laced with harmony.

When I see EFFORTLESS blowing in the wind,
I caress, catch it,
dang, even my little dog wants to fetch it,

EFFORTLESS always leaving me in a good breathless…
EFFORTLESS

Simply amazing, His love never changing.
I am at peace, no labor, no drama.
I attract EFFORTLESS,
EFFORTLESS finds me
desiring to give me a continuity of glee,
empowering me so I can remain free,
and able to be all I can be.

I feel healed
just by rolling this delicious word
from my heart to my tongue and through my mouth
as I happily shout… EFFORTLESS!

I speak it with intention,
anticipating EFFORTLESS coming to fruition,
while thanking God for his son’s Crucifixion
none of this story is fiction,
as you read between the lines, feel it in your spirit
and you see the theme of EFFORTLESS mentioned.
Anyone who cannot offer EFFORTLESS
and her sister named PEACE,
I must release.

It is then I supernaturally increase,
and I gain more momentum,
I hum, I become uniquely undone
with awesome abandonment,
I go higher and higher, focused on what’s truly important.
And as I go even higher, I look back realizing
just how much the enemy is a complete liar
and his plan to keep you, me and all of God’s family away from

EFFORTLESS…
Selah.

L. Archie ©9/14/2011
In the Shadow of His Wings
:~: Lori Archie :~: