Inspiration and Prayers – Page 6

Category: Inspiration and Prayers

Day 6 of Lent and Choosing Hope

Lenten Prayers and Scripture

DAY 6

“Be Holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am Holy.”

Leviticus 19:2

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Father Lord,

You made us all to be Holy and we are grateful for your faithfulness.

Though we are little more than dust, you made us to be a splendor of Your Glory. May we see the smallness in ourselves and the greatness that is only found in You.

Holy Lord of all…may all who love you, simply stand in awe.

In His name,

Amen

********************

Choose HOPE!!

We experience worry and stress in so many aspects of our lives…

Is this a choice or a unavoidable consequence of dealing with problems in our lives ?

Bad things happen.

To good people.

God Loving people

Honest and caring people.

Bad things just happen.

How we deal with these ‘Bad’ things are a true measure of our Faith.

Late next week, i will be starting a series of posts, along with the daily Lenten prayers, about WORRY.

Here is an overview of that series:

Is Worry a Choice?
Emotions that cause us to Worry
Antidotes to Worry
Freedom

I hope you’ll join me as we break the chains of stress and worry and learn to experience true FREEDOM.

Happy Monday!

Day 5 of Lent

Lenten Prayers and Scripture

Day 5

At the time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward He was hungry.

Matt. 4:1-2

_____________________________

Mighty Lord, the redeemer.

When we face temptation today, may we draw into You with the strength you offer us. We know, because of your Word, that satan was defeated by your death on the Cross. May we use your Word and our Faith to fight sin in our lives today.

We trust in you Lord.

In His name,

Amen

Day 4 of Lent

Scripture and Prayers for Lent

Day 4

And Levi had a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.

The Pharisees and scribes began grumbling at His disciples saying “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

And Jesus answered and said to them “It is not those who are well that need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Luke 5:29-32

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Holy Lord,

You sent your Son to transform our hearts so that we could join You in Heaven.

What Love is that!!

Let us come with a hunger to the foot of the Cross, to the foot of Your crucified Son. Let us see Your love more clearly. By turning away from the things of the world, may You grant in us an unquenchable thirst for the Living Water.

In His name,

Amen

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****I am having a challenge with my PC, i’m having trouble connecting to the Internet. Kinda makes me laugh because I can’t help but think that the enemy doesn’t care for these daily prayers. As we know, according to Matt 18:20 “when two or more are gathered in My name, I am in the midst of them”. I will continue to do my best in getting these daily post off.

It is a Blessing to be praying with you!

Third Day of Lent and Third Day

Third Day of Lent

Jesus Answered them, “Can the wedding guest mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?

The days will come when the bridegoom is taken from them and then they will fast”.

Matt 9:15

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*

Jesus,

As You journey into the desert, we walk beside You in our hearts. Help us to understand more fully the depth of Your love and of our salvation.

May we be grateful in our fasting for the sake of our lives, not death. Fasting is about freedom, not death!

May we never take our salvation for granted.

Thank you for dying for us Jesus.

In His name,

Amen

Nothing like rocking out with Jesus!

Third Day

My family and I, met up with some dear friends last night to rock out on the
Make Your Move Tour
with

Third Day and 10th Avenue North!

10th Avenue North

They were banging the house down, praising the Father with

2 sold out, 3 hour shows here in Indy!

If this tour coming to a town near you, you won’t regret checking them out.

Mac from Third Day

Thank goodness I didn’t give up MUSIC for Lent:)

Day 2 of Lent

Lenten Prayers and Scripture

Day 2

And He was saying to them all,

“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”

Luke 9:23

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Lord of all,

As we journey with you, to the foot of the Cross, help us to see the unending love you give us. The Passion of your suffering is our salvation and for this may we follow you to the cross with a hungry heart, willing to suffer along side you. Help us to put down the pleasures of the world and pick up the hand of Jesus Christ.

In the name of Jesus,

Amen

Honor and love goes to The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.

Choose Hope

“Look at the birds of the air,

that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not worth much more than they?”

Matt 6:26

If you have been here before, you know I’m crazy for birds! Note the new blog background:)

I just enjoy them so much, watching them , listening to them, photographing them.

I can even recognize many of their calls!

God willing, I will live to be the crazy old bird lady!

Last night we had a terrible storm and it poured down rain. The noise kept me up half the night, as the wind and rain hit the side of the house with such fury.

I awoke this morning to see my 11 yr old on the floor curled up in a ball. No room for her in the bed because all three dogs had already found refuge there, under the covers, afraid too from the storm. Many schools were delayed as homes and roads were struck with flooding water.

It was a mess!

BUT…

the first sound I hear, besides the alarm, was the birds chirping outside my window.

After all the wind and beating rain, the birds sang out, happy.

This afternoon, the sun returned, and I captured these shots.

The birds were bathing and playing in my birdbath!!

How can it be that after such a terrible storm, these little guys could be playing and singing like that? Just like nothing happened, not a care in the world!

This scripture came to mind, it was also the reading at church this Sunday.

Where did these little guys go last night…where did they hide to be safe from the weather?

We have all been through storms, days upon weeks where we ask ourselves, “How am I gonna make it through this?!” Unfortunately for many, sometimes those days turn into years and we can become hopeless. Hopeless that the job will never come, the cancer will never heal, the house will never sell, the spouse will never return, the addiction will never stop, the child will never grow! Worry is such a burden to so many of us. It’s that endless voice in our heads that nags and tears at us until we are heaped in the corner, defeated and alone.

Worry is the opposite of TRUST.

It is a lie.

LOOK AT THE BIRDS! His Word tells us to look at them…they do not worry. After the storm they play and sing, as if no storm ever came. Or maybe they are rejoicing in the aftermath of God’s mercy.

I pray that whatever aftermath you are feeling today, good or bad, that you would see God somewhere in it. He is holding you in the palm of His hand, right this minute.

He is your hope, choose Him.

This is the start of a random series of posts called Choose Hope. Please pray with me that God would use our blogs to inspire HOPE in others and the desire to know Him more.

Linking up with my friend Jen at Finding Heaven today!

Thank you and may God Bless you!

My Yesterday…A Day in the Life

I am linking up today with an amazing lady named Tiffini. Her blog is beautiful and her heart is beautiful. Tiff invited me to participate over the weekend and I thought it sounded fun, but honestly I thought ” who cares what a day in my life would look like?” I’m a mom of two and most of my days consist of doing the mom things…making lunches, cleaning the house, carpooling, homework, cooking dinner and lots of prayer that God will give me the strength to do it all and still have some time for Him and me. And if you read my last post I was in the midst of “climbing down the mountain of God’s Glory” and I was feeling pretty chilly.

BUT….let me tell you…God’s Glory did show up yesterday! I guess He wanted you all to see Him:) Bare with me as this is the longest post ever and probably has a lot of spelling and grammar errors!

-Wake at 7:30 as usual, not a morning person so I was the last one up. Talk to God in prayer before I open my eyes and offer Him my day…I have few rules but this is one of them and it has helped transform my life.

-Let my posse outside to do their business ( 3 black dogs who follow me around and wait for me to look their way or possibly drop some food)

-Make the kids lunches, brush my sons hair, and kiss them on their way out the door.

-Let dogs out 3 more times!

– Read a little of the paper, answer a few emails, drink coffee.

– My sweet friend calls and we talk about God and how great he is for 45 min! We agree on meeting for adoration (prayer in God’s Holy presence through the Eucharist) on Friday am and to do a nine day prayer (novena) for her prayer intentions.

-Meanwhile my alarm is going off up stairs for 2 hours…chirping birds and I kinda like it so I leave it.

– My amazing bible study group arrives at 9:15 and because I have been yackin on the phone I answer the door in my pj’s and haven’t brushed my hair or teeth. Luckily they love me and luckily I don’t care…I just got off the phone with a godly women and I was high as a kite.

-Bible study lasts for 2 1/2 hours as one of my sisters was going through some hard things and she needed lots of prayer and council. After the convo. we were all pumped up because we had some hope in her struggle which had not been there for a very long time. Around that time an Eastern Blue Bird shows up right outside the window, a few feet from where we were sitting. Well the Holy Spirit knows I love birds and they all stand for different things in my heart when i see them…hope, love, peace, danger, God’s presence etc…so He sends them to me all the time.

The Eastern Blue Bird just happens to stand for HOPE and the girls had never even seen one! We were in awe of that little bird as we knew He heard our cries. Big hugs and they leave.

– Brush hair and teeth…at 11:30, YUCK!

– Work-out to Jackie Warner on-demand video for 35 minutes and she kicks my fat butt. Thanks Jackie, needed it!

-Shower, and get ready.

– Answer a few more emails and make a few calls.

– Pick up the kids at 3:00. Listen about there day and always enjoy hearing it. Unless they are at each others throats and I then tell them to stop talking.

– Run over to get groceries at ALDI, my favorite place, besides TRADER JOES, for food shopping.

-Spend 25 minutes getting groceries and get up to check-out line to pay. The cash I thought i put in my purse is not there and my atm card is not working. ALDI’s doesn’t take credit so I ask the cashier to put a hold on my receipt and let others go through the line while I call my hubby (who says ” what do you want me to do” I don’t know, wave your magic wand?) and frantically search my purse. As I’m looking through my purse, a women comes over, hands me my receipt, and says ” here, I’ve taken care of it”. I say in shock ” What? Oh please no”. And she turns and heads right out the door with me yelling ‘THANK YOU!” I immediately start crying like a baby because of her generosity, but mostly because of the experience I had shopping the week prior.

Week prior-My son and I were at Aldi’s , doing my weekly food shopping. We start talking with a elderly man in a wheelchair while grabbing a carton of milk. He was poor in appearance and had a strong odor and he started to tell me where I could get free groceries and free meals. We chatted for awhile and I went on with my shopping, helping him here in there, put food in his bag whenever i saw him needing assistance. While I was in the last aisle of the store, getting ready to check out, the Holy Spirit says ” Buy that man’s food”. So I tell the Holy Spirit ” OK, I will if he gets behind me in line” I know, pretty stubborn, huh? So of course the old man gets behind me in the line and I purchase his food. Really it was no big deal and more a Blessing to me then the old man I’m sure. Plus my son was all jazzed and it was a great opportunity to witness to him as well that sweet old man.

Back to yesterday…weeping in Aldi’s. People are staring of course and all I could hear the Holy Spirit say was ” I will never be out done in generosity”. WOW, what a moment! I will be donating $83.12 to my church, the exact amount the kind women paid for my groceries.

– Run home, unload the food and get on homework with the kids.

-Go out at 5:oo to my sisters boutique for a open house she has been working very hard to plan. Drink champagne and get treated like “Pretty Women” as i buy the cutest hat and purse for $40 with %50 off, bill equals my exact budget! Yeah! I usually hate shopping but had a blast and felt really cute and very frugal leaving her cute little shop .

– 7:00, go and visit my girlfriend and her new baby who arrived almost 2 month premature. While holding the 4 1/2 lbs. baby boy, looking over his tiny hands, I feel the presence of God’s might and perfection.

-Get home at 8:30 and at 8:45 a dear girlfriend calls, crying over a really sad issue she has been dealing with. We talk for 45 minutes and we both feel better, hopeful that God has this all under control.

– Kids asleep, disappointment because i didn’t kiss them goodnight. Bad Mommy!!

-Husband waiting in our prayer room to do 2 Novenas and Holy Rosary.

– End prayer at 9:57 and kiss hubby goodnight. He goes to bed at 10:00 every night…he’s so good!

– Answer a few more emails and watch TV for an hour, flipping through the stations because it is all trash. Give up and go to bed.

– Prayers of gratitude as I’m in awe of God’s Glory and that He would allow me, a lowly housewife, be a witness to His Kingdom! Fall fast asleep.

I KNOW!!!! Crazy good stuff huh?! What a week I’m having as one of my bff’s is picking me up in an hour to do portrait drawing with a live model for 3 hours!

I love this crazy roller-coaster ride God has me on! So why was I in the valley last week? I guess so that the mountain would be even higher. Like my Priest always reminds me, this is not Heaven. But boy, I felt like i was there yesterday.

I pray that you too yearn for His Glory. He is faithful, never outdone.

The Freeze

To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.
Mother Teresa

Here in the Mid-West, Indianapolis to be exact, we are going through a deep freeze. I woke up this morning to 2 inches of ice and wind gust of up to 50 miles an hour! Crazy stuff with trees and power lines falling down.

You know what is really crazy? That’s how I feel spiritually right know. Before my feet hit the floor this morning, i spent some time with the Lord and I asked Him to forgive me for my sins and give me back the deep emotion that comes from loving Him. If the feeling I have is a feeling of familiarity or complacency, I don’t want it. I never for one minute want to take for granted His love, but lately it feels like i have.

So what has changed? I’m doing all the same things to be close to Him. I’m active in my Church and prayer life, as well as alms giving and ministering to those in need. But as much as I don’t want to admit it, without the emotion, I am just going through the motions of loving Him.

Kinda like I do with my family sometimes, another thing I don’t want to admit. And though I put myself there sometimes, they (HE) still loves me.

I can’t help but think of Mother Teresa, who went through a 50 year period which she calls a dark night of the soul. St Francis also experienced this as it is said he felt unworthy of God grace. And lets not forget Job, wow! Talk about a dark night of the soul! Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not even in the same ballpark as these souls, not even the parking lot of the ballpark! But it does give me some reassurence to know that dark nights happen sometimes.

What are we to learn from being away from Him?

Could God be testing me?

Is He testing my faith?

When the freeze comes will I fall like the mighty trees and power lines?

They look so strong.

Or will I bend like the willow and find shelter like the birds?

They look so fragile… I feel so fragile.

I guess I was a little to comfortable in that peace He was giving me:)

Psalms 27:13-14

I remain confident of this:

I will see the goodness of the LORD

in the land of the living.

Wait for the LORD;

be strong and take heart

and wait for the LORD.

When I climb down the mountain
and get back to my life
I won’t settle for ordinary things

Third Day

Peace

Peace

Is this my new normal?

Living in the not knowing and feeling so safe and satisfied.

Giving you each of my days, letting go of MY plan.

Not thinking about the dropping ball or the ticking of the clock.

Being free to just BE and offering all of myself to the world.

I prayed for peace, now give me the GRACE to sit a while in this place.

More on Being Real

In keeping with the spirit of my last post, I wanted to share this video from country singer BRAD PAISLEY. If you have never seen it, check it out…totally hysterical! Always makes me laugh. And it is so true!

Here in blogland I often wonder what people are REALLY like?

I have had the pleasure of meeting some of you and can honestly say your blog doesn’t do you justice! I also know a few people who blog and they are nothing like the blogs they write. So sad because it shows in their writing. Don’t get me wrong, I try and put my best foot forward too, as I do in my everyday real life. No one wants to log onto a whiny, bitchy blog everyday (and believe me I can be those things like what I’m kinda doig right now!). But I also try and keep it real. As I’ve posted before, I never expected to blog about my faith journey as often as i do and I thought people that posted their kid’s pictures were asking for trouble. I just thought I would have a cute little art blog that would promote my work and workshops.
I have grown to trust you and myself more through blogging and now post any old thing, when ever the mood hits me. This is not a numbers game for me, it is an extention of who I am.
Not saying I don’t try to encourage or inspire you and I’m not saying I would mind more followers. Just saying I would rather have 10 followers on a similar journey, then 4000 followers who really don’t care to have a connection with me or what I care about or struggle with.
I feel so blessed that this blog is growing and you actually care about reading it!

In the next few week I am going to invite you to check out some of my favorite blogs. These blogs are written by genuine women who have touched my heart.

Jen at FINDING HEAVEN is like that. Stop over and visit her for a glimpse into her authentic life and journey of Faith.

Enjoy the show…

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