Tag: Prayer

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You Can’t Earn It

Luke 22:42
Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.

Daddy, if I am really good, can I have ice cream?

Mommy, if I clean my room, can I go to the park?

If I exercise all week, I can eat out on Saturday!

If I lose weight, I can go on vacation.

There is nothing wrong with rewards and incentives. We all respond better when we get something for our efforts. If you don’t believe that, ask yourself how long you would continue working at your job without a paycheck!

There is one place where rewards and incentives don’t apply. God! No matter how good we are we cannot earn our grace. We cannot earn our salvation. We can’t even gain blessings and the answers we want to prayers for our “goodness.”

How can I say this with such boldness? That is easy. Can you come up with anyone full of more goodness than Jesus? He is perfect. He is blameless. He is sinless. He asked for one thing, he really wanted out. He didn’t want to suffer. His will was to find another way. He asked to please “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

If anyone deserved a reward, it was Jesus! He did everything he was asked. Yet he was not rewarded with what he wanted.

So what makes you think you deserve something just because you have been a “good Christian”? It doesn’t work that way. Grace and blessings are gifts. God loves to bless his children. Blessings come in many shapes and sizes. Yes, they even come as “No!”

God loves you right where you are, even when you make mistakes. That is one blessing I am glad I don’t have to earn. I am pretty sure I am not the only Christian who stumbles and fells. I am sure glad I don’t get the rewards that I deserve.

Thank you, Jesus, for taking the reward I deserved and giving to me grace and unfailing love that I will never earn.

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Copyright © 2018 Tabetha Frick All Rights Reserved.

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What’s Your Dream?

Hebrews 10:23-25
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

 

I spent some time praying and reading my bible yesterday.  It became one of those deep thinking times.  I admit some days I just go through the motions.  I read and pray and then get on with my day.  However, yesterday was not one of those days.

I felt a like I was being drawn very close to God.  I just couldn’t get enough of him.  Then at one point, I heard a still small voice whisper, “What is your dream?” I was flabbergasted.  I mean I was really speechless.  I couldn’t answer.

For the past month, I have hit a desert spell you often hear Christians talk about.  I knew God was around.  I still had faith and hope.  I saw blessings and answers to prayer, but I felt depleted. I just didn’t know where I was going and what I wanted to do.  I felt like a warrior without a mission.

So when God asked me what was my dream, I answered the only way I knew how.  I prayed God give me a dream. This morning he did just that!

I opened my bible study and again there where the words “What is your dream?” It was followed by some suggestions and the one that sang into my heart was writing.  Earlier this month I was hit with some rejection of my writing.  It really blew the wind right out of my sails. In many ways, I was giving up on my dreams. The good news is God wasn’t!

He popped Hebrews 10:23-25 in my lap to remind me why I wanted to write in the first place.  Right before my eyes was my dream! I realized I had let one rejection kill my dream.  Good thing I have a God in the business of resurrections!  He certainly resurrected my dream.

What about you?  What is your dream?

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God Knows All

Psalm 147:4-5
He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.  Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.

There are lots of verses that tell us God is not changing like Numbers 23:19, “God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind.” Or James 1:7, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

However, we also know God has changed situations such as in Genesis 18 when Abrahan intercedes before the Lord for Sodom and Gomorrah.  God goes from destroying the entire city no matter what to agreeing to save it if ten people can be found righteous.

Jeremiah 18:7-10 “7 If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, 8 and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. 9 And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, 10 and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.”

Jonah is another story where we find God originally going to destroy a city and then changes his mind because the people repent. Jonah 3:10, “10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.”

So how do we have an unchanging God that changes?

I recently came up with an idea for this that totally blew my mind.

Whenever the Bible speaks of unchanging, I believe they are talking about God’s character.  He is not a lier.  His not bi-polar.  He is always good, loving and looking out for us.  He will not forsake us or leave us.  These are what make him him and they will never change.

As far as changing his mind, I am going to stretch your thought process here a little.  Stick with me and it is perfectly OK if you don’t agree with me. But here we go…

I have heard people say things like, why should we bother praying God is going to do what he wants anyway.  I have heard others talk about predestination, meaning God already knows who is going to be saved and who isn’t so why should we worry about it. Then there is my favorite, we don’t really have freedom of choice because God already knows what we are going to do. If any of these aren’t true, then how can you say God is all knowing? What if I were to tell you, when I say God is all knowing, I think he really knows all the possible outcomes.

Let me step back for a minute.  Some of you may know that I am a HUGE Dr. Strange and Flash fan. Recently while watching Dr. Strange for like the millionth time, something the Ancient One said to Dr. Strange got me thinking.  She is dying and is talking to Dr. Strange:

The Ancient One: You wonder what I see in your future?

Dr. Stephen Strange: No. Yes.

The Ancient One: I never saw your future, only its possibilities. You have such a capacity for goodness. You’ve always excelled, but not because you crave success but because of your fear of failure.

It reminded me of a character on the Flash, Devoe (or the Thinker).  He is always one step ahead of the Flash because he can calculate all the possibilities of the future.

What if God, knows all because he can calculate and see all the possibilities.  He knows every possible outcome that could happen depending on how us humans react.  We step right, he knows we will end up here.  However, if we step left he knows we will end up there.  This is why, when Jonah was sent out to Ninevah he was told to tell them unless they change their ways they will be destroyed.  They continue down their current path and possible outcome A, they are destroyed.  They change and possible outcome B happens; they are saved.

This is why we are called to pray. James 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” Our prayers intercede.  Our prayers change destiny. Our prayers take us down one possibility.

I believe God’s character is unchangeable.  However, I believe our prayers can change his mind to another possible outcome.  I believe he is all knowing because he literally can calculate and knows every possible outcome for every single thing going on at any given moment in this universe.

What do you think? As I said before, you don’t have to agree with me.  I just hope I got you thinking!

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Brick by Brick

2 Corinthians 4:8-9
8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

I am struggling today with a couple of personal issues. My father is in the hospital with pneumonia. Praise God he is doing well, but it was quite a fright for all of us last night.

While in the ER, I received some life-altering news that part of my dissertation examination was rejected. Besides feeling like a failure, I am not sure where this path is leading me.

What I do know is this, there is a plan for me. I may not see the path right now but it is being laid out brick by brick.

I don’t know what you are going through today, but I woke up this morning after a horrible day and the Son still shined! He brought me these verses for comfort and now I pray them over you.

14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19

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Copyright © 2018 Tabetha Frick All Rights Reserved.

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Sit Back and Watch

Philippians 4:6-7
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

In one of my devotions this morning, I was reading about not worrying and learning to trust God with all your problems.  I loved it when the author said to tell him your problem with trusting and thanksgiving, then watch him supply your need.

Then watch him supply your need…

I pondered these words for a few minutes and two things came to mind right away.

First, just like Elsa, we need to Let it Go! I am not saying stop praying, but stop worrying.  You have turned it over to the only one that has total control over the situation.  Let him do his thing.  Often when something is eating at me, I have to turn to verse seven.  I lay claim to that peace which transcends all understanding.  I have to tell Satan (and myself) I have already prayed about this and it is out of my hands and now I am going to rely on God’s peace!

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Second, (I chuckle at this one because it sounds so like me) when we make our problems known to God it doesn’t say, give him your suggestions for solutions. It says to make your requests known.

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Maybe that is why he tags on verse seven, hoping if we relax in his peace we will Let it Go and Let God.

God never promised us life without problems.  He promised to walk through life with all of its problems right beside us.  Troubles will come our way.  Anxieties and worries will strain our very last bit of hope and faith.  However, we can take all of our problems to God and be assured he will send you peace while you sit back and wait for him to supply your need in his own way and his own time.

Copyright © 2018 Tabetha Frick All Rights Reserved.​​
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Joy in Pain

James 1:2
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.

Anyone else ever wanted to use a black highlighter over the above verse?

I mean, the word trials is synonymous with pain. As a matter of fact, Webster defines it like this:

a person, thing, or situation that tests a person’s endurance or forbearance.
synonyms:
nuisance, pest, irritant, problem, ordeal, inconvenience, plague, thorn in one’s side, one’s cross to bear;bore; informal pain, pain in the neck, pain in the butt, headache, drag, bother, nightmare, albatross; nudnik, burr under someone’s saddle, trouble, anxiety, worry, burden, affliction, ordeal, tribulation, adversity, hardship, trying time, tragedy, trauma, setback, difficulty, problem, misfortune, bad luck, mishap, misadventure
Well, that just sounds something worth being joyful over now, doesn’t it! Surely, God didn’t really mean we should be joyful when we are in pain. Or did He?
Let’s look at this another way.  As a matter of fact, let’s take a look at the next couple of verses.
James 1:3-4
Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature.
Have you ever worked really hard on something? Maybe it was a craft like a painting, wrote a song, a book, crocheted a blanket. Or maybe you have done something athletic like made it on a team, lost weight, ran a marathon, triathalon or biked a century.  Or how about saved up for something like a down payment on a house, a new car, cellphone or other big ticket item.  Whatever it was you had to sacrifice. You sacriced time, money and yes, sometimes a little pain.
As a matter of fact it just might have been a nuisance, pest, irritant, problem, ordeal, or inconvenience.
The point is, when it was over you made it! You finished! You persevered! You probably learned a little something along the way. If nothing else, you learned you can do it! How sweet was that reward!
There are a lot of trials on Earth you would much rather avoid like, the death of loved one or an illness.  However, even these have nuggest of joy.  You grow stronger as you persevere through the trial.  Maybe you find a friend to travel with you.  Or perhaps you grow closer to God as he travels with you.
God never promised us he would get us our of trials, but he has promised he will go through them with us.
That is joy!
Jas1.2-3
Copyright © 2018 Tabetha Frick All Rights Reserved.
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Today I Want to Pray for You!​

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Lord, today I lift up my family and friends before you in prayer, and in agreement with your word, I ask:

That they will love You will all their hearts, souls, minds, and strength. Mark 12:30

That they will be patient thus gain greater understanding, and that they will be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. Proverbs 14:29, James 1:19

Thay You protect them spiritually, mentally, and physically. Psalsm 28 & 41

That they will submit themselves to you, resist the temptations of the evil one, and acknowledge You in all that they do so that You will direct their steps. James 4:7

That you will give them the desire, strength, and courage to run the race with boldness, so that they may press on toward the goal that You have called them to in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12-14

That they will be a wise steward of all the things You have given them, remembering that all things are Yours, given to us by You for Your purpose and glory.
Matthew 6:19-21, Luke 16:10-13

That they would meditate on your word, pray without ceasing, and stay faithful to you Lord Jesus to the end. Psalms 1:1-3, 1 Thesselonians 5:17

In Jesus Name, Amen!

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Copyright © 2018 Tabetha Frick All Rights Reserved.

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No Strength to Carry On

Psalms 18:28
You Lord, keep my lamp;
my God turns my darkness into light.

Have you ever cried so hard and so long you literally had none left?  No more tears.  No more energy.  You were totally exhausted.  You may have even collapsed.  You have no idea where you will get the strength to move on from that moment.  You don’t have one more step in you.

Yet, somehow you do.

Where does that strength come from?

Why does your heart continue to beat? Your lungs continue to breathe in and out. The next day the sun still comes up and so do you. How?

I have been there.  When my first husband came to tell me he no longer loved me and wanted a divorce.  When my mother called to tell me my brother had been murdered. Saying goodbye to loved ones for the last time.

How did I take my next step?  The same way you will. Hope! Hope that the next breath will be a little easier.  The next day will find a smile somewhere.

I will tell you it will not be easy.  It may even seem impossible at times, but it will happen.  Life will continue on and you will find smiles and laughter again.

God will keep your lamp burning and turn your darkness into light.

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Copyright © 2018 Tabetha Frick All Rights Reserved.

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Be the Light in Someone’s Day

2 Samuel 23:3-4
The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me:
‘When one rules over people in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings grass from the earth.’

How can I make someone’s day?

During Lent last year I was challenged to do random acts of kindness each day instead of giving something up. I had so much fun sending little thank you notes to people. I even snuck a card to a lady working in the drive-through window on a very cold and busy morning at McDonalds. I know I was supposed to be blessing others, but spoiler alert I got blessed too!

You never know what baggage someone is lugging around or what scars they have. You may be the only smile or kind word they get. Never pass up a moment to be someone’s sunshine. It doesn’t matter if it is your spouse or the rude cashier, everyone deserves a smile, thank you, can I help you or may I pray with you.

Generosity doesn’t take a lot of money. It just takes a heart!

Light up someone’s world today. You just might be the only thing keeping them from total darkness.

Lord,
Help me be like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain to someone today.

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Copyright © 2018 Tabetha Frick All Rights Reserved.

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Give Me Light For The New Year

2 Samuel 22:29
You, Lord, are my lamp; the Lord turns my darkness into light.

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I love to wake up to a brand new year. I have brand new journals, planners, and calendars laid out in front of me. Blank pages.  How will they be filled? What will this new year bring?

I am not much for New Year’s resolutions. I have goals I want to accomplish. Places I would like to see. Things I would like to do. Yes, there are even things I would like to change or improve about myself.

However, I know just like those blank pages, my life will soon start to fill up. Any promises I make today will fall to the side and soon be forgotten.

Instead of resolutions, I want to offer up this simple New Year’s prayer.

Lord, you are my lamp; you turn my darkness into light. Guide my steps this year. Light my path. Help me to never give up even when I falter and fail. I want to follow you and fulfill your resolutions for my life. 

 

Copyright © 2018 Tabetha Frick All Rights Reserved.