Psalm 46:10

~by Mary Southerland

Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God.” (NIV)

For years, I filled every waking moment with activity. I lived by the principle that busy people are productive people. It was only after I crashed, spending two years in a deep, dark pit of burnout and depression that I learned the eternal value of stillness. This pivotal life lesson is stated in the simple words of a shepherd: Psalm 23:2 “He leads me beside quiet waters.” The psalmist writes this soothing promise from the perspective of a shepherd tending his flock of sheep. A good shepherd understands the truth that sheep are never fully at ease around rushing water because every sheep innately knows that the weight of their wool – when wet – will drown them. A wise shepherd understands that he must make sure to lead his sheep beside still waters.

The lesson of stillness is essential to our spiritual growth and health. We, as His sheep, need still quiet waters. If we insist on spending our days in the rushing water of overcrowded schedules and unrealistic expectations we will surely drown! Stillness demands quietness and solitude! The busier we are, the more we need regular solitude and stillness. In other words, we need stillness the most when we don’t have time to be still. A Greek motto has become a profitable challenge to me: “You will break the bow if you keep it always bent.” Until we learn to stop and be still before God, we are in danger of bending and breaking under the pressure of daily life. Many of us are terribly busy – but only on the outside. Stillness allows us to do the inside business with God that is our main source of strength and power.

The command to “be still and know that He is God” implies that until we are still we cannot know God but when we are still we can know Him. So much of God is unknowable on the run and yet we tend to offer Him the scraps and leftovers of our time and energy.

Even Jesus sought solitude as a place of strength and power. When Jesus was tested, He retreated to a mountaintop or desert wasteland to be alone. There, away from the demanding crowds and distractions of life, He would meet with God. There, He found the strength to do what His Father had sent Him to do. If the Son of God needed stillness and time alone, then how much more do we need that same kind of time?

Let's Pray:
Father, I know that I need to be still before you. I have chosen a time and place to meet you in solitude and stillness. Please help me to give you the best part of my schedule instead of the leftovers. Amen!
~ by Mary Southerland
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blessings girlies :)

More Prayer - a great resolution for 2007...

Matt 6:5-8And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

The best New Year’s resolution you could make this year is to pray more in 2007.

Why is it difficult to have a great consistent prayer life? Here are 3 possible reasons:
a. Business & hurry – many of us are just so busy and this is the enemy of true intimate prayer time… have you ever tried to pray and watch the clock at the same time?
b. Lack of discipline – sometimes we have the desire to but we don’t follow through and make the time a priority
c. Compromise – if you have done something wrong and your heart is not right with God or in a relationship with someone else, you may find it difficult to spend time in His presence. Don’t run from Him, run to Him.
Don’t let those three things keep you from spending quality time in prayer this year.


Three Things about Prayer we can learn from Jesus in
Matthew 6:5-8

1. The Priority we should place on prayer.
He says when you pray (not if you pray). Most of us want to pray more but we fail to plan time for it. We need to understand that prayer is the
…way to overcome Luke 22:32
… key to seeing the lost saved Luke 18:13
… the way to obtain wisdom James 1:5
… the way to healing James 5:14
… way to victory Matt 26:41
… Key to experiencing the impossible Mark 11:23
So we need to plan time to pray but we also need to plan the place to pray – a place with minimal distractions (no other people, not driving or watching tv). If you are a morning person, then morning is probably the best time for you to focus; if you are an evening person, that may be the best time for you to plan to pray. So we should have a planned time of prayer but then also throughout our day prayer should also be continuous and spontaneous as mentioned in Phil 4:6 and I Thes 5:17 . What kind of priority is prayer in your life?

2. The problems you’ll face when you pray…. Matt 6:5-8
When we pray we don’t want to pray rhetoric, ritualistic or category list prayers that require little thought or interaction – this loses the heart and purpose of prayer. In a conversation with another person you are concerned with what the other person is about. So also in prayer – conversation with God. Prayer is about getting your life on God’s page. He does care about the things that concern us, yet there should be a communion with God when we pray. His Word says that He’ll meet all of your needs; keep asking and trusting in Him. The main thing though, is how much I seek Him and grow in Him and trust Him… not just that my request be answered….

3. There is power when we pray v 6-8
“For your Father knows what you need before you ask Him”
As a Father, it brings Him joy for us to bring Him a need we need help with and ask Him about it. It honors Him to hear, ‘I can’t do this on my own’. Expressing the need helps to nuture our relationship. You do not need to be eloquent when you pray. Sometimes the simplest most straightforward prayer is saying to God ‘help’. Know that the answer is coming.

What could happen in our relationship with God... if we each committed to add 15 additional minutes of truly focused 2 - way prayer in our lives during each day this year? ....

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(these are notes from a recent sermon at church)
blessings girlies :)

Isaiah 61

1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion-- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. 5 Aliens will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. 6 And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. 7 Instead of their shame my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs. 8 "For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them. 9 Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed."
10 I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 11 For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.

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Fulfilling God’s Purposes

God declared, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV). Besides goal-setting, five steps are needed to fulfill His purposes.

First, maintain a cooperative spirit. Working well with others is a key to achieving our goals. We must set aside our stubborn pride and develop a servant-like spirit that willingly cooperates with others. Give-and-take is essential in relationships.

Second, exercise courage. God may ask us to work with difficult people, separate ourselves from certain situations, or take assignments that seem overwhelming. Each circumstance requires us to exercise courage and move forward.

Third, demonstrate persistence. We must have a determined mind and tenacious spirit in order to overcome temptation, adversity, discouragement, or personal failure.

Fourth, exhibit a controlled attitude. Having a Christ-centered, hopeful attitude is essential to success. When negative thoughts, doubts, and fears surface, turn to God and reflect on His all-encompassing love and good purposes. Don’t allow pessimistic thoughts and emotions to overtake your mind.

Finally, consciously depend upon God. We must rely on Him for wisdom, guidance, and the spiritual training we need to carry out His plans. Self-reliance and independent action will lead us astray every time.

As the Lord’s servants, we’re to carry out His purposes and plans, not ours. Check that your goals line up with God’s.
by Dr. Charles Stanley
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blessings :)

Ephesians 2:4-10

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Happy Birthday Jackie & Silke (&Jess) :D

To Jackie & Silke on this day (and belated wishes to Jess for her Birthday on Dec 24!)

Ephesians 1 :15-18
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints

we are so thankful to know each of you, glad to call you our sisters, and wish you an ever closer walk with Jesus in the coming year!
Blessings Jackie, Silke, and Jess :)

Ephesians 1:3-8

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will--to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

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blessings ~

A New Year!

Press On
by Greg Laurie

I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
—Philippians 3:14

You remember how God fed the Israelites with manna. Every morning they would wake up, step out of their tents, and there would be the manna just waiting for them. But the manna would not keep overnight. God did not want them to live off the manna from yesterday. The Lord wanted them to be dependent on Him on a regular basis and gather it fresh each day.

In the same way you can’t live off the experiences of last year or 20 years ago. God wants to do something fresh and new in your life today and tomorrow. You can’t live off experiences, but you can learn from them.

Saul of Tarsus went out of his way, to hunt down Christians. But he came to realize that he was not serving God but the devil. Then he was transformed, and went on to become the apostle Paul. He could say, “Now I press on, now I reach forward” (Philippians 3:14). I wish this would be true in the lives of more Christians. What a difference it would make in this world around us if we had that kind of ambition, that kind of drive to serve God as we used to serve ourselves.

In this new year, let’s recommit ourselves to the study of the Word of God.

Let’s recommit ourselves to prayer.

And let’s commit ourselves to win at least one person to Christ in this coming year.

As Christians, we have unprecedented opportunities for our lives to make a difference this year. There is so much to do.
So much growth that needs to take place in our lives. And so much more to accomplish.
It’s time to step into the future. To step into what God is doing today.

by Greg Laurie
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Wishing each of you a New Year in which you are closer to God than ever before!

Blessings :)

Colossians 2

1 I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. 2 My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

4 I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. 5 For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is. 6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. 9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. 18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. 19 He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. 20 Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 21 "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? 22 These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.