Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.                                                                               Phil. 4:6-7
Hello Friend,
 
            Have you been “speaking oft with the Lord?”  How is that going for you?  Have you heard from God?  If not, don’t be frustrated.  God answers prayers in many ways.  The following is not original with me and is so old I don’t know who to cite, but the little poem speaks truth about the reality that God does indeed answer prayers, just not always the way we would like. 
 
When the idea is not right;
God says, “NO!”
When the time is not right;
God says, “SLOW!”
When you are not right;
God says, “GROW!”
When everything is right;
God says, “GO!”
 
            We all want the answer to our prayers to be yes, go, and full speed ahead,  right now, anything you ask, my child.  However, when the idea is not right, God says, NO! When the time is not right; God says, slow.  There probably isn’t anything harder to do than wait.   Sometimes we wait so long we conclude that what we desire will never happen, but nothing is impossible with God. We just have to be patient.  We spend years messing up our life and expect God to fix it in two weeks.  God answers every prayer.  We just need to be willing to hear and accept his answer.  God has a wonderful plan for your life.   Lift up your arms in joyful expectation!  Linda                                                                              
 
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​The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cries.                                                                                        Psalm 34: 15
 
Hello Friend,
 
            Last week in my dream, two ideas immediately came to mind—time and speaking with the Lord.  I pray that you are spending your time wisely, that at all times and in all circumstances, you are praising the Lord.   But effective communication with God is more than praise, it’s praying (speaking from the heart) and listening.  Has God spoken to you recently?  Why do you think that is?  Really think about that.    Scripture tells us “Come near to God and he will come near to you” (James 4:8).   That is our promise for effective prayer.
 
            Come near to God.  Hebrews 4:16 says that “we are to come boldly before the throne of God that we may receive mercy and help.”  Come boldly!  Don’t think God’s not going to hear me.  Put faith in your prayers.  Fervent prayer is sincere prayer.  Pay attention to what you are saying.  Don’t use words and phrases that you think you need to say.  The book of James gives us many guidelines for prayer.  Among them are:
            1.  When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives.
            2.  Purify your hearts, confess your sins.  The prayer of a righteous man is                                   powerful and effective. 
            3.  Ask for God’s will.
            4.  Be patient.
After you pray, listen.  Expect an answer.  You won’t always hear God’s voice, although you may.  God speaks through the pages of scripture.  Try this experiment.  I call it “pick a page.”  I used to tell my classes to just open their Bible to any page.  Read just a few scriptures that your eye comes to rest upon.  Stop and meditate.  The scriptures were not meant just for those people at that time.  Ask yourself, “What does this passage mean to me.”  You just might be amazed to hear a message from God.    Your answer to your prayer might come from a trusted friend.  Revelation is not head knowledge.  Listen with your heart.  Become a spiritual person of God.  Be expectant.  God is alive and active.  Expect to hear from him!! 
 
Affirmation:  I feel patient as I wait expectantly for God’s guidance and direction.
 
                                                                        Your partner in prayer,
                                                                                                Linda
 

​For forty days and forty nights he ate nothing and became very hungry.  Then the Devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, change these stones into loaves of bread.”  But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, “People need more than bread for their life; they must feed on every word of God.”                       Matthew 4:2-4
 
Hello Friend,
 
Today’s scripture is a long one, but it is an important message on joy.  How does this pertain to joy?  Well, let me tell you. Forty, when mentioned in the Bible, symbolically means a very long time.  Jesus was in the wilderness a very long time without food.  Jesus replied to the tempter, “Man cannot live by bread alone.”  Jesus was making the point that there is a hierarchy of needs in our lives and that we must feed on the things that meet our spiritual hunger.  Now we all know that scripture reading, verse memorization, and prayer will satisfy our spiritual hunger.  But did you know that eating is also a spiritual discipline?  Our spirits are hungry for nurturing and Jesus is telling us that people need more than bland white bread to satisfy their souls.
 
Did you have toast for breakfast this morning?  Sometimes our lives become so hectic that we develop a routine that expedites our schedule.  Even our meals can become rote.  For five years, five days a week, I ate lunch with Shirley and every one of those days, she ate a small carton of yogurt and a banana—every single day!  Never an orange or an apple, always a banana, how dull.  It met her physical body needs, the food was quite nutritious.  But did this food give her joy, I think not. 
 
Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, they call it “soul food” for a reason.  Dr. Agatston, one of the country’s leading cardiologists, says that it is better to have ½ cup of quality ice cream for breakfast than white bread toast.  Ice cream for breakfast?  Come on, live a little.  It’s important to enjoy your food.  You can take advantage of that passion even when you can’t eat every single thing you want with reckless abandon.   Change your routine, boredom is the enemy of a quality spiritual life.  How are you tending to your spiritual hunger?   Perhaps you need to visit the Marble Slab.     
                                                                        Linda