This Week's Nightly Devotion

I think it is no coincidence that for the last week,
as we have read from E.M. Bounds Classic Collection on Prayer, we have been studying devotion and prayer.  My husband and I have had such awesome discussions on how our prayers are affected by our depth of devotion and how truly devoted we are to God and the things of God.
 It has been an amazing study!

Two nights ago I could not sleep, so I got up and started reading my Bible where it fell open at Matthew 6:9.  I actually only was able to read that one verse as I mulled it over in my mind.  I grabbed my Strong's Concirdance and looked up hallowed which is to honor as Holy.  As I sat there thinking of the Holiness of God and all that He is, I felt God leading me to get on my knees and start praying.  As I started praying I was overcome and fell on my face crying and weeping as I recognized His majesty, His power and His righteousness!
 I felt like I was standing in His Holy presence, dressed in the rags of my unrighteousness, and all I could do was humble myself before Him and give glory and honor and praise to His name. 

How can we not be totally devoted, in every aspect of our lives, to such a Holy God?  Why is it a fight to be devoted and stay devoted to the One who loved us and gave His life for us? 
Continuing on with my study on devotion..........

Three Times a Day

 

Last November during Sunday School, my husband taught on how so often we give God lip service and not heart service.  How we always say we are going to do this or that, change this area or that area of our live and always promise we are going to spend more time with God praying or reading His Word but these are often empty promises, just lip service.  I was very convicted!  One of the things he talked about was how Daniel stopped everything he was doing three times a day and took time to worship the Lord with his whole heart.  I am very devoted to my morning devotion and prayer time and love spending that hour and a half with God before I start my day, but is that enough time to devote to God?  In 1 Thessalonians 5:17, God tells us to pray without ceasing which I try to do.  I pray as I clean the house, as I drive to the store and so forth, but how focused am I praying as there are a million little distractions around me as I go through the day?  It is not the same as shutting myself up in my room and getting on my knees before him.  I decided I needed to give more time to God and so I started having another personal devotion time at night before having devotion and prayer time with my husband. 
It has been amazing and I feel like I am learning and growing
 so much from this extra time or worship!

This year, as God has placed the word devotion on my heart, he has told me that spending time alone with him twice a day is not enough.  God told me he wanted me to be like Daniel and take time in the middle of my day to spend prayer and devotion time with him.  You would think this would be easy but this has been my biggest struggle this year!  I have found that it is so easy to start and end my day with God but to stop everything and spend even an half hour alone and totally focused with God in the middle of my busy day is a daily challenge to me!  As I was praying last week I was telling God my struggle and that I was just too busy...........instantly my heart felt like it had been sliced as I said those words.  I am too busy for God, I am too busy for my King, to give Him even a few more minutes of my day, the day He has given me.

My thoughts were turned to Psalm 116:16,
 O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.
I ask myself, am I truly God's servant?  When He calls do I immediately stop everything and fall on my face before him?  Am I ready to serve Him always no matter how I am feeling physically or emotionally
that day?  Do I allow Him to make make every descion in my life
and direct me in every way or do I pick and choose what I feel I need His help in, His wisdom and direction in?  God has redeemed me from my sins and I owe everything to Him but how much do I truly give
Him of my life, of my time, of my devotion?

Day by day, as I study a heart of true devotion, God is revealing to me more and more that there are so many things in my life that I need to change in order to truly be His servant and to be truly devoted to Him.  My journey of learning true devotion continues............


Another Day of............

.......digging.  Our men prayed and prayed that they would

be done digging after the rough year they had least year with broken water lines, replacing water and sewer lines and many, many other digging projects the year was full of.

 

Last night my husband noticed the church toilets were plugged

so he did everything he could to unplug them and getting them working.  This morning he and several men again tried everything but ended up calling the plumbing guys out.

 

 

The plumbing guys ran their snake down the sewer

but couldn't get past the blockage.

 

So of course the men then started to dig but with the ground

being frozen it was not going well. 

 

 

Thankfully one of our newer members works construction and ran to his work and brought back a backhoe!  Praise God!

 

They were able to dig the line easily and find the problem.

 

Frozen solid for several feet.

 

After breaking the line up, they put a new line in and filled the hole back in.  With the help of the backhoe they were able to finish just before it got dark outside.  Can not stop praising God for His goodness and mercy in helping the men finish this job in just a few hours!

 

 



Devoted

The word God put on my heart for 2013 is "Devoted".  How devoted am I truly to God and His word and His gospel.  How much time do I spend at his feet everyday, how much time a day do I spend serving Him and thus others, is my daily walk sweet and intimate with Him?  I have asked myself these questions and more as I look to how devoted I am to God and what can I do this year to become more devoted to Him. 
Over the last 9 days as I have studied devotion in my Bible, prayed about devotion and also changed many things in my day to make more time for things that will center my time, my actions and my thoughts toward God, I have noticed how devoted I am not!  There are several things I am praying about and will share with you as God takes me through a journey of learning true devotion to Him this year.

We had our January Ladies G.A.B. Night last night
and we had so much fun!  We laughed and talked and each lady shared the things she is working on to build a stronger relationship with God and their families.  It was so amazing to hear the hearts of these ladies and I am fervently praying for each one!

Our devotion was on being "Devoted".  (I teach the ladies what God is teaching me!)  We talked about how we know when someone is devoted to us and then looked through the Bible at people whose lives showed such devotion to God.  So far my favorite Bible people that showed devotion are Zacharias and Anna.  In Luke 1 we see where Zacharias was visited by Gabriel and told about the birth of John the Baptist.  When Zacharias questioned this, saying he was an old man, Gabriel said he would not be able to speak until John was born.  Even though Zacharias was now mute and deaf, he did not return home until he had finished serving God his appointed time in the temple.  Anna was an amazing woman because despite her age she dwelt in the temple and served God with fasting and prayers night and day.  What examples for us to live by!

I hosted the food this month and brought several crock pots
 full of hot delicious soup!  Meatball soup, Ham and Bean and Pasta soup and my husband's favorite, Cheesy Potato Broccoli soup. 
It was so good and Keith helped Mrs. Robin eat!

For our craft I washed out all my empty candle jars,
(I love burning candles and had over twenty jars!) and the ladies decorated them to use as prayer jars, devotion jars or candle jars. 
The ladies are so creative and the jars all turned out so cute!

 

Another awesome night with our ladies, now to get

 busy planning for next month!