ANOTHER UPDATE

Just a short note today to bring you up to date on what I have been doing. My book, It Is Written: My Prayer Journey into the Heart of God is currently being read by Margaret Gibb, founder of Women Together, as she has generously agreed to endorse it. In the meantime I have been working on a study guide to go along with the book. I do not have a specific publishing date, but hope they will be available within the next month or so. I plan on publishing them together, so it depends on how long the study guide will take to finish.

Then, I have been side-tracked on another issue. My computer keeps telling me I need to update Windows. But the only problem is that I don’t have enough disk space to accomplish that. So I have spent days deleting many, many documents that I have no use for. Also, I discovered I had never resized many of my hundreds and hundreds of photos. Plus I had numerous duplicates that I had no need for. I am not quite finished yet, but I am getting closer to creating enough space for my update. Quite a chore, but one I have wanted to accomplish for some time now.

Some things I just have to be forced into doing. I suppose that is the way life often works, even in the spiritual realm. The Lord asks us to do something, but we are “too busy” to obey, so we keep ignoring it. Eventually, He gets our attention one way or another and we are forced into following His instructions. Often the thought of what we must do appears to be a mountain which, once we begin, we find is not much more than a hill. Yes, it takes effort to climb it, but it’s not really so bad after all.

I hope you are having a productive week. Thank you for taking time to drop by to read my post. I really appreciate you. Please take a moment to leave a comment in the box below before you leave. And if you have any extra time, please feel free to browse through my other posts. If you are not already following me, I would be happy if you would take a moment to click on the “Follow” button. You will receive e-mail notifications when I add a new post.

May the Lord bless you abundantly throughout this week and always.

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STILL EDITING and WRITING

My apologies for having neglected my blog over the past couple of weeks. I have been editing my book It Is Written: My Prayer Journey into the Heart of God. Finally, on Thursday evening, I finished what I think was the fourth recent edit and, hopefully, the final one except possibly a final read-through.

I e-mailed the manuscript to Margaret Gibb, founder of Women Together, and she is currently reading it in order to endorse the book for me. Then there will be just the last minute things to do before I upload to KDP Print.

It’s exciting to see another book so close to being in my hands. I am now writing a companion workbook to use either in a group study or for personal use. This is a new area of creation for me, and I am enjoying it. I have 30 pages done as of Saturday night (first draft, of course), and hope to be able to publish both books together. I will let you know when they are available on Amazon. If you would like a preview of part of this book, check this post and follow the links to read the rest of the topic.

Other than this, I have been occupied with the usual things such as prayer, going to church and Bible Study. I had a lovely afternoon yesterday. A friend invited me to lunch after church. After eating, we sat out on her little patio enjoying a cup of tea and the beautiful weather. 

Well, this is just a short post, but I will be working on the study book this week and I just wanted to keep you updated on what is happening in my world.

Thank you for stopping by and reading my post. I hope you will take a moment to share your thoughts with me in the comment box below. And if any of you are not yet following my blog, please take another moment to click the “Follow” button to receive e-mail notifications of future posts.

Oh, and please watch for an announcement of my new web site sometime in the future (hopefully not too-distant future). I hope once it is made public that all of you, my followers on this blog, will skip over to the new site and sign up there, too. This site will remain and I may possibly post from time to time, if only to share new updates on my new site.

God bless you all. I pray you will have a wonderful and exciting week.

PRAYER AND EDITING

Sounds like a strange title for this post, no doubt. But the two words do have more  in common than you might think. If you are a regular reader here, you will know that I have written a book about prayer and am in the process of doing some final edits. If you are new here, now you know too.

It has been a little bit tedious as this current edit is to check all of my Scripture references and make sure they are correct. A good thing, too. I have found a few typos which created references which do not even exist, such as 1 Samuel 49, which should have been 19. I had also included a few which, on reading now, could not figure out why I had even chosen them. Out they went. I have another 30 pages to go to finish this edit.

Then comes the next edit. All of the concordance references. That, too, will be rather tedious as there are a lot of them, and footnotes are in smaller type so not as easy to read. But better to make sure now that they are correct than let them go through the publishing stage to find there are a bunch of mistakes. I’m sure I won’t get it perfect, but I do want it as close to perfect as I can come. It can be frustrating to read a book, check a footnote or Scripture only to find it doesn’t make any sense.

Next I will probably read the whole thing over again to check for any other type of errors. I have someone who has agreed to read and endorse the book, so I will probably send it to her before I do the that particular read-through. We can do that simultaneously. Since I have been working on this book for years—more than a decade—since before I even considered turning it into a book. Originally it was just a list of prayers I would pray on a semi-regular basis. I had no idea it would turn into a 350-page book!

When I read/edit, I always do it out loud as I find I can pick out errors much easier than doing it silently. Otherwise I can skip over without even seeing extra words, typos, missing words. I find these audibly much more quickly than visually. I think I tend to almost become hypnotized and sleepy if I don’t verbalize lit.

When I thought further about prayer and editing, it came to me that sometimes we need to actually edit our prayers. There is a possibility that we could be praying wrong prayers. We may be inserting too much of the flesh and too much of what we consider the answer should be. Perhaps we are analyzing the situation from a worldly standpoint and not praying according to the will of God. It’s time to edit.

Not that we want to get too tied up in knots as to how we pray. The exact words are not of such importance as the attitude of our hearts as we come to the Lord. But it never hurts to check our prayers from time to time to see if they line up with God’s heart and word in the situation or for the person we are praying for. Or if we are seeing ourselves rightly before the Lord. If our spiritual vision is twisted or clouded, our prayers will be the same and we will not see the answers we hope for. So an edit might just be appropriate from time to time to make sure we are still in alignment with God.

Prayer is our communication line with heaven and with our heavenly Father. You could call it a life-line. Without it, we have no connection to the source of life. So we need to be sure the lines are clear. This particular book is all about how to pray using the word of God. I have often been in prayer meetings where the leader would ask someone to take a particular verse and pray into it. I discovered that many people do not know how to do this. They will read the verse, but then seem to be at a loss as to how to turn it into a prayer. So my book was born partly for this reason. Then it expanded to a teaching on the different types of prayer we find in the Bible. It kept growing, together with personal anecdotes, until it is now almost ready to publish. I hope it will prove to be a useful tool for many people to enhance and deepen their prayer life.

So there you have the story, in a nutshell, of It Is Written: My Prayer Journey into the Heart of God.

Stay tuned for future announcements when it becomes available on Amazon.

Thank you so much for stopping by to read my post. I would really appreciate it if you would consider leaving a comment in the box below before you leave. And feel free to browse other posts here as well. If you are not already following me, please take a moment to click on the “Follow” button to receive e-mail notifications of each new post. I would also love it, if you are new here, if you would tell me a little about yourself and how you found my blog. It would be a great help to me.

I pray you will have a wonderful weekend. May God bless you abundantly.

HAPPY SUNDAY

Just a short post today to say, “Happy Sunday”. I hope you are enjoying the spring weather. I was beginning to wonder if we would ever get a real spring day, but today, though a little cool, is just perfect.

As I drove to church and back this morning, I so enjoyed the flowers filling gardens and the blossoms on the trees. It is a beautiful time of year. Another thing I love is to hear the birds singing and filling the air with life.

I also wanted to share with you some of my recent artwork. My photo cut off off a little of the chickadee, but I hope you enjoy the colorful birds. I don’t know if I have ever done drawings of birds before, but I had fun doing them in colored pencil.

From top to bottom: Cardinal, scarlet-bellied mountain tanager, red-breasted grosbeak, chickadee and American goldfinch.

I hope this has brightened your day a little. Thanks for taking time to stop by. I hope you will leave a comment in the box below before you leave. I do look forward to your comments. And if you are not following my blog, please take an extra moment or two to click on the  “Follow” button at the top. You will receive e-mail notifications for every new post.

God bless you and may you have a wonderful week filled with joy and peace and love.

SPRING INTO NEW LIFE

Spring. A time of awakening. A time of new life beginning. A time of the sprouting up of plants from the earth. A time of opening of buds and blossoming of flowers and greenery. A time of change from the often dreary, dark and cold days of winter into the warm sunshiny days which promise to follow.

Although spring is not my absolute favorite time of year (that would be summer), I love this new stirring of all nature as it prepares for the maturing of summer growth and, eventually fall harvest. This means increased rains in many areas as well as milder temperatures and sunshine (unless, of course, you already live in a tropical or semi-tropical area). I am fully aware that the rain is essential to spring growth, for is it not April showers that bring May flowers? Yet I am not fond of day after day of rainy and damp weather. That’s why I prefer summer–most years.

Spring is a time, also, for the stirring of hearts, the renewal of hope and faith. It is a time of the blossoming of love. Countless weddings take place in the spring months, and particularly in June. Weddings speak of new beginnings, the promise of blossoms and new life to be produced through these new relationships.

What has seemed dead for so long has come to life again in nature. This brings hope to heavy hearts that life can once again return to them. Senses are reawakened by this breath of life. It is time to shed the spirit of heaviness and receive the garment of praise from the Lord of all life. To allow His rain to shower us with blessings. To allow His love to soften the hard places in our hearts. To allow His joy to awaken new senses. To allow His peace swallow us up in His presence.

A time of renewal. What needs to be renewed in your life? Do you need to work on your prayer life? Your relationships? Your spiritual walk with God? Or do you need to review and revamp your business? Your career? Your job? Your marriage? Perhaps even your geographical location? Regardless of where your particular need lies, spring is a great time to make any changes necessary to improve life in any and every aspect. 

Do you have a dream to awaken? Do you know what steps you must take in order to see that dream come to fruition? Is there something you have set aside for whatever reason that you know now is time to bring it back out of storage? There is no time like the present. There is no time like springtime.

Let’s together do a life-check to see if spring has come into our lives again this year. Let’s check where we need to do some weeding, fertilizing, watering, new planting, tilling of the soil of our hearts and lives. Now is the time. Now is the hour. Let’s be busy on improvements wherever we can. 

What is the Lord saying to your heart? Stop. Sit still. Listen. Ponder. Act.

I’m not sure what prompted me to write this, but here it is. I hope you have enjoyed reading it and I hope it has spurred you on to find your place of reawakening and blossoming so that, in the future, your life will provide a great harvest for the Lord.

Thank you so much for stopping by and reading. I would love it if you would leave a comment in the box below before you leave. And if you are not following me, please take an extra moment from your busy day to click on the “Follow” button at the top. You will receive an e-mail notification of each new post as it is published. Oh, and do feel free to browse previous posts.

I pray that you have been blessed with your visit and that you will come back soon. Please share with your friends on social media and/or through e-mail or word-of-mouth so the blessing can spread. I pray that you will have a blessed day and week filled with encounters with God.

AROUND THE WORLD AND BACK AGAIN

Anyone here ever heard of Kiribati? Have you ever been there? Neither have I. In fact I had never heard of it until a couple of years ago. And when I searched a map for it, it turned out to be on the tiniest island, only a dot, in the middle of the ocean, in the South Seas. No bigger than a pinpoint. Actually it is on Canton Island. And I have a strange “connection” with Kiribati.

December 23, 2010, I placed an order of skin care products from a company named L’Bri Pure N ‘Natural. I had been a distributor for this company for a few years, and this was the last order of that year for me. Actually it turned out to be the last order I ever placed as within a couple of months I could no longer keep up with the annual doubled quotas that were being set. The order did not arrive. I cannot now remember if I had them reship or if I may have even forgotten about the order. Probably not as some of the products would have been for customers, and I imagine the company resent the order to me eventually.

But where did that order go? Well, I would not find out for seven years. One day in January or February of 2017, the postal delivery buzzed me to come down to the lobby. He had a parcel for me. It surprised me as I did not recollect placing an order for anything. Down I went, and the first thing the postman said was that it looked rather battered. And it did. I should have taken a photo of it. But from the box I could not learn where it came from. Upon opening it, I saw the products, one of which had broken and leaked all over everything else. I checked the Customs declaration. It had come by Priority Mail. I looked more closely and discovered that, instead of being sent to London, Ontario, Canada, it had been addressed to London, Ontario, Canton Island (Kiribati). It had the correct postal code even. And the postal code is supposed to be enough for the parcel to be directed correctly.

But what happened between 2010 and 2017? I guess I will never know. But how it ever eventually arrived at my door is an even greater mystery to me. I really wish I could have traveled with that carton to see some of the places it went. The only explanation? You can see it on the label: Missent to Kiribati.

I think there is something to learn from the spiritual standpoint from this story. We must be directed to the right location. Are you heading for heaven? If not, you need to find out how to redirect your life onto the right route to get there. If you are expecting to get there whatever route you take, you may find out you are too late. The story in Matthew 25 about the 10 virgins confirms this. Five had enough oil for their lamps to last, but the other five had not taken extra. By the time they had gone out to remedy that situation, they returned to find out they were too late. How disheartening those two words would be. “Too late!” I want to make sure my life is directed to the right address. I don’t want any delays or detours or wrong destinations to jeopardize my arrival in heaven when my life here is completed. Check the “shipping address” on your life. Do you need to be redirected to the right location? It is simple enough to do. Just ask Jesus to forgive your sins and ask Him into your heart to take over the direction of your life. All it takes is a sincere heart to reach out to Him. Take a moment to check the address marked on your life. Where are you headed?

I hope you enjoyed my little story. Thank you for taking time to stop by and read it. I would very much appreciate it if you would leave a comment in the box below. Have you ever had anything similar happen to you? Please tell me about it. If you are not yet following me, please click on the “Follow” button at the top and you will receive e-mail updates when I publish new posts.

Have a wonderful day and a wonderful Mother’s Day this coming Sunday. May the God of all peace bless you with the peace that passes all understanding. Put your hand in His and let Him lead you.

PRAYER OF COVERING Part 7-The Armor of God

Ephesians 6:10-18

We all know about the armor of God. We have read about it in the Book of Ephesians where the Apostle Paul explains to the church at Ephesus what this armor consists of. You have probably even seen small replicas or photos of the armor. I have heard people say we do not need to do warfare prayer. If that were so, then why do we need armor? Why do we need weapons? If the Lord did not intend for us to engage in spiritual warfare, He would not have provided the equipment to protect us and to fight with against our enemy. And He has more than adequately equipped us with all we need.

There is a danger here, however, and we must learn to understand just who our enemy is. Paul wanted the Ephesians to recognize that we do not fight against flesh and blood. We must not look at people as being the enemy though the enemy may be using them for his purposes. It is the spiritual forces and powers in this dark world that we must do battle with. Our weapons are spiritual so we may accomplish this and come out on the victory side. With God on our side, and when we choose His side, we cannot lose the war.

I have also heard it taught by many who would have us believe that we have no armor, no protection, for our backs. But the term “full armor” actually means panoply, or a complete covering. It means we are wrapped up in that armor. Can you even imagine a breastplate that only covers the front of the body? How would it stay on? Tied with a ribbon around the soldier’s neck? No, the breastplate has a front and a back so we are fully protected. Our God does not leave us vulnerable in any area. We only become vulnerable when we neglect to put on that armor, when we lay our weapons down.

Following is the final part of the Prayer of Covering.

May I always conduct my life with integrity, Lord—in full measure, innocent[ly[, blameless[ly], upright[ly] (see Proverbs 10:9).

I now put on the full armor of God—Jesus Christ Himself (see Romans 13:14)—that I may be able to stand strong today against all the schemes and trickery of the devil (see Ephesians 6:10-17). I put on the helmet of salvation—Jesus is my Salvation (see 1 Corinthians 1:30)—to protect my mind in every spiritual battle. I put on the breastplate of righteousness—Jesus is my righteousness (see 1 Corinthians 1:30)—to protect my heart, my spirit and my back from the onslaught and ambushes of the enemy. I wrap around me the belt of truth—Jesus is the Truth (see John 14:6)—to protect the workings of Your Spirit in my inner man so truth abides and prevails within me at all times. I put on my feet the shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace—Jesus is the gospel (see 1 Thessalonians 3:2), and He is my peace (see Ephesians 2:14)—that I may be fully provided for and ready to go where You call me to go, refrain from going where You do not want me to go, and that wherever I go I will, as a peacemaker, take with me Your peace and the truth of the gospel. I choose to take up the shield of faith—Jesus is the Author and Finisher of my faith (see Hebrews 12:2)—He is my faith (see Ephesians 3:12 KJV)—and, according to Your Word, not one of the flaming darts of the enemy will be able to penetrate that shield but will all be extinguished. I take hold of the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God—Jesus is the Word (see John 1:1)—which “…is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). By the power of the name of Jesus I will use this sword to cut off from my life those things which are contrary to Your Word and Your purposes for my life. In the authority and truth of the Word of God I will use this sword to expose the lies and deceits of the enemy. By the power of the blood of Jesus I will use this sword to defuse and defeat the work of the devil in my life and in the lives of my family and friends. Motivated by Your love and in the power of the Holy Spirit I will use this sword to bring life and deliverance, hope and freedom to myself and others, and glory and honor to Your name. I take up the weapon of all-prayer in order to intercede in heaven’s courts and war on behalf of myself and others because Jesus, as my example, is at the right hand of God interceding for me (see Romans 8:34). I put on the armor of light—Jesus is the Light of the world (see Romans 13:12; John 9:5). I take up the weapons of righteousness (see 2 Corinthians 6:7). I put on the breastplate of faith and love—Jesus is love—(see 1 Thessalonians 5:8; 1 John 4:16). With these I go forth in victory into this day in the name of Jesus.

I hope you have enjoyed this series of posts on the Prayer of Covering. I have enjoyed sharing it with you and trust the Lord has blessed you and shown you how you can perhaps add this prayer, or a similar one you choose to pray for yourself, to your prayer life. I would like to be able to pray this prayer on a daily basis, but being an intercessor for my church, there is so much to pray for some days that I only have the time to pray it once in a while. But I do feel the power behind it when I do make the time, and it is never wasted time. I not only pray it for myself, but often for others, either specific people or for the whole church.

If you have not read the previous six posts in this series, please go here for the beginning. Click here for Part 2. Part 3 is here. You will find Part 4 here. Click here for Part 5 and Part 6.

I cannot give even an estimate of when my book “It Is Written: My Prayer Journey into the Heart of God”, from which this series is taken, will be published. It is my hope to be able to have it available before the end of 2019 or perhaps sooner. I will let you, my readers, know when it is published.

I thank you so much for taking time to read my posts. It means a lot to me. If they have blessed you, or if you have anything to add to what I have said, please feel free to leave a comment in the box below. Also feel free to share these posts with your friends on social media or through e-mail. I love to read your comments and I will respond to them. If you are not already following me, please take another moment to click on the “Follow” button at the top to receive e-mail notifications of new posts when they are published. If you have a little more time today, please browse through other posts to see what might interest you. Or come back again–as often as you like.

I pray God’s blessings on you throughout this coming week. May His joy be your strength from day to day.

PRAYER OF COVERING Part 6-The Memory, Attitudes and Motives

Memories can be good, but they can also be very destructive. Abusive words and actions can take root very deeply in our memory, both conscious and sub-conscious. They can be very difficult to root out, and they often leave a gaping wound in the heart, a wound that is hard to heal. And they have power to dictate our own words, actions and attitudes even years after becoming embedded in our minds. It takes an encounter with the Lord to heal that kind of wound and to erase the negative results from them. The best protection we have is the blood of Jesus. If we daily ask for the covering of the blood over our memories, we have a better chance of not being affected by them and also of protecting ourselves from adverse events becoming a stronghold in our minds. We need to learn how to make good memories to counter the not-so-good remembrances.

Our attitudes and motives influence our lives either for good or otherwise. And they can be greatly affected by our memories. When our memories take us into dark places, our attitudes and motives often sink down with them. We need to take active steps to prevent our thoughts from the negative. Memories are confined to our minds, but attitudes eventually spill over to others through our words and actions,and motives can adversely affect our treatment of others. When we develop wrong motives, others can be hurt. It is good to do regular attitude checks and to monitor our motives. Here again, the blood of Jesus is the answer to keep our attitudes and motives in line with the Word of God and His purposes for our lives. The blood is powerful and we must avail ourselves of that power daily.

I claim the protecting power of the blood of Jesus over my memory. Consecrate my memories past and current, and reverse any damaging repercussions which have occurred because of them. Clear my mind, conscious and subconscious, of all memories which have occurred because of them. Clear my mind, conscious and subconscious, of all negative influence which has hindered my progress in Your ways. Help me to dwell on the good memories when I think about the past (see Proverbs 10:7). Help me to extract from every memory all that is beneficial to my life today, and to discard all that is unprofitable.

I claim the protection of the blood of Jesus over my attitudes, Lord. May my attitudes line up with Your Word. Help me in every area of my life to have the same attitude of humility, submission, servant-hood and love that Jesus displayed when He left heaven to be born in human form (see Philippians 2:5-8).

I claim the protection of the blood of Jesus over my motives. Your Word says that You weigh our motives (see Proverbs 16:2). Purify my motives, Lord, and root out all that are formed on a foundation other than Your Word: selfish motives, motives fueled by greed, wrong attitudes, mistaken understanding, wrong advice, misinterpreted concepts, misguided opinions, wrong information, anger, fear, bitterness, arrogance, jealousy, self-promotion, ungodly outside influence, old or current wounds I have not dealt with, complacency, or offenses or prejudices—personal or transferred from others. May my attitudes and motives be based solely on Your unbiased, unconditional, unlimited, unchanging love.

I hope in some way your spirit has resonated with this part of the prayer. I pray that we would all experience a renewal in our memories, attitudes and motives so our lives will continually line up with the principles the Lord has set before us. I pray for the protection of the blood of Jesus every day, every hour, every moment in each of our lives. I pray for the cleansing that comes from the blood. May we all walk the path the Lord has ordained for us as we become more and more like Jesus. He is coming again. May we all be ready.

Thank you so much for dropping by and reading this post. If this is your first time here, I hope you will browse through some of my other posts. If you have not already read the first five parts of this series, please click here for the first part; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; and Part 5. I would really appreciate it if you would leave a comment in the box below and I will respond to it. If you are new here, please introduce yourself and tell me a little bit about yourself. If you are not already following my blog, please take a moment to click on the “Follow” button at the top to receive e-mail notifications of new posts. 

I pray that you are having a great day walking in the footsteps of Jesus. May God bless you with abundant blessings and answer your deepest prayers.

PRAYER OF COVERING Part 5-The Emotions, Creativity and Will

I have grouped emotions, creativity and will into one, first because it is short, and secondly because they seem to fit together. Our creativity probably depends a lot on our emotional state and on our will. Do I want to create? Are my emotions stable enough to follow through with creative ideas?

When our emotions get out of control, we have a problem. We do not make wise decisions if we are overcome with anger, sadness, guilt, hopelessness, bitterness, or any other negative emotion. Our minds do not function in a rational manner but we think from the viewpoint of that emotion. We can even allow good emotions to run rampant and cloud our judgments. Some people hold in their emotions, either from fear of losing control or of what others will say or think. None of these possibilities is good. The Lord has made us emotional people for a purpose, but those emotions should be under the control of the Holy Spirit.

Our creativity comes because of the Divine Creator who has given us, as Christians, His Holy Spirit, a creative Spirit. But we can use our creativity for the wrong purposes as well. Our talents should be used for the glory of God and to be life-giving to others. It is our choice how we use that creativity.

Our will also has to be “tamed” so we can obey the Lord and choose to do His will rather than our own. The human will can be very stubborn at times. Like Lucifer, we say, “I will…” We make it all about “me” rather than about the Lord, and get ourselves into  a lot of scrapes and sometimes serious trouble because of that. So we need to pray to keep our emotions, creativity and will in line with divine purpose. So here is the prayer. If this is the first part you are reading, you might want to go back to the beginning and read each part in sequence: Prayer of Covering, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

I claim the protection of the blood of Jesus over any ungodly emotions which may begin to rise up in me. Sanctify my emotions today, Lord. I pray that I will not yield to or act out of any ungodly or out-of-control emotions. Yet may my emotions not be stifled from healthy expression. Help me to respond to every situation as Jesus would. May the emotions I experience be pure in Your eyes.

I claim the protection of the blood of Jesus over my creativity. Sanctify my talents and giftings, Lord, so that all of my ideas and inspirations will be birthed by the Holy Spirit. Give me the knowledge, wisdom, understanding, tools, motivation, strategies, ability and perseverance I need to stir them up and carry them through to completion for Your glory (see 1 Timothy 4:14).

I claim the protection of the blood of Jesus over my will. Consecrate it so it may become one with Yours. Empower me to do Your will, Lord. May I willingly and deliberately abandon my own fleshly desires, opinions and will at the foot of the cross and leave them there permanently. Give me courage to always allow You to fulfill Your will in my life. May I never settle for anything less (see Mark 3:35). Help me to cooperate fully with what You are doing day by day in my life.

Amen!

I hope this has helped you in some way today. My main desire in posting on this blog is that I would bring life, hope, joy, encouragement to those who read it. I really appreciate my readers and thank you for faithfully coming back to read my latest posts. I enjoy hearing from you and learning a little about you and what you think about my writing. Please leave a comment in the box below and I will respond as soon as possible. If you are not yet following “For the Joy of Writing”, I hope you will take a moment to click on the “Follow” button at the top to receive e-mail notifications of new posts.

Again, I am so glad you chose to take a bit of your time to visit and read my post. I pray you will have a wonderful day. May the Lord bless you with His abundance, His love, His joy and His peace always. Until next time. Smile, because God loves you.

PRAYER OF COVERING Part 4-The Mouth

Our mouths often get us into trouble, and need protection from speaking out what might be harmful, silly or just useless remarks. Jesus tells us that every idle word we speak will be judged (see Matthew 12:36), so we need to take care to prevent wrong words from spewing out. Paul also warns us about coarse and foolish jesting (see Ephesians 5:4) which is unprofitable and does no good. If you haven’t read the first three parts of this series, you might want to click here to read the first part, Part 2, and Part 3. It doesn’t really matter what order you read these in, but you might want to read at least the first part for an introduction to the series.

I claim the protection of the blood of Jesus over my mouth. Help me to put a muzzle on my mouth today, Lord (see Psalm 39:1). Set a guard over my lips (see Psalm 141:3). Let the Holy Spirit filter out any corrupting, negative, unclean, unwholesome, unhealthy, harmful, antagonistic, poisonous words, idle words, unproductive words, self-righteous words, idle words, unproductive words, self-righteous words, words of accusation, condemnation or any other words which carry death, before they come out of my mouth. May I speak only words of life, encouragement, gratitude, appreciation, healing words, words which build up rather than tear down, words appropriate for the need of the moment so that only grace would flow to those who hear (see Ephesians 4:29). Tame my tongue, Father (see James 3:8). Touch my lips with a coal from off Your altar so my words will be clean and pure and carry only life (see Isaiah 6:6, 7). Father, as Jesus spoke only what You gave Him to speak (see John 12:50; John 14:10), so may I speak only what You give me to speak. Be my mouth today, Lord, and teach me, as You did Moses and Aaron, what to say and do in every situation (see Exodus 4:12, 15).

James tells us that the tongue is a fire and world of of iniquity which can set the course of our life on fire if we fail to keep it under control (James 3:6). And we cannot control the tongue without the power of the Holy Spirit. Proverbs 18:31 tells us that death and life are in the power of the tongue. That is serious indeed. James 4:11 tells us not to speak against a brother or judge him. By these scriptures, it looks as though our tongues can get us into a lot of trouble if we let them loose.  I am sure we have all had experiences when this has happened to us and we have done damage to someone either deliberately or simply because we did not take care what words we used. Most of us have also probably had words unleashed on us that have wounded us, sometimes just temporarily but sometimes very deeply. We know without doubt that it is God’s purpose and desire for us to keep our tongues under control.

If you are anything like me, you probably speak at times without thinking and then wish you could take back what you have just said. Here we see that our mouth and mind work together, so the prayer of covering for our mind is just as important as the prayer of covering for our mouth. I often use this word picture: Take the word “WORDS”, move the “S” from the end to the beginning, and you have a “SWORD”. Swords kill and wound. I want my words to bring life, healing, joy to those I speak them to. I want to guard my tongue, my words, and through the Holy Spirit to have control over my tongue. I’m sure you want this, too.

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I hope you are enjoying this series on the Prayer of Covering. I pray that you are having a wonderful Easter weekend. May the Lord bless you richly. Remember, He is Risen!