Terri's Wellspring

So then, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you will be healed. The prayer of a good person has a powerful effect. James 5:16 GNT

Prayer is a powerful way to show our love and concern about each other. Our passage is a reminder to pray for one another. When situations arise, we may be quick to discuss it, talk about it and talk some more before we take it to the Father. When our first response is prayer, it allows us to connect with God, who is all powerful. We may know about one who is sick, another one who is mourning or yet others who are discouraged. Whatever the issue, we can pray to God for His blessings of peace, healing and love to be manifested in each situation. We can pray for His perfect will and His direction to guide our steps. With thanksgiving in our hearts, we can lift each other and our situations up to God in prayer. He is faithful to hear our prayer and to bless our situations in ways that we can’t imagine when we are submitted to His will.

Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn’t rain, and it didn’t—not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again. James 5:16-18 MSG

Come, let us bow down in worship. Let us get down on our knees before the Lord Who made us.  Psalms 95:6

I heard a woman describe her approach to faith as maintaining a “kneeling stance”.    No matter what she was tasked to do or what circumstances were to arise, her heart approached life from a kneeling stance to God.  I imagine some of us may think of someone physically praying on their knees all day but I think she was describing something much different.  Her kneeling stance emanated from her heart and her love and reverence of God.  I imagine a heart in this position is yielded to His will and His ways.  This position recognizes God’s sovereignty and His power and His grace.  From this spiritual stance, one can experience His guidance and His transformative love.  A kneeling stance is a place of power in God’s presence.  It is a place of safety, peace and joy.  I learned that we can kneel both with our legs and our hearts, submitted to His will and experience the blessedness of being His child.

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer! Psalm 19:14

We use words every day to communicate what we think and feel.  Sometimes our words are careless and harmful, not reflecting God’s Word concerning His children.  These are a few examples: “That is going to make me sick”, “I can’t remember anything”, “I am always broke”, “I can’t do this”.  The Bible tells us that the power of life and death are in our tongue. (Proverbs 18:21) In Bible Study, we were reminded that as God’s Children our words should be lined up with His Word.  What if I were diligent about speaking LIFE in every situation… What if I spoke about God’s desire for me to be healthy, to provide for my needs, to provide protection and that I can do all things through Christ… I am so thankful for this reminder, to line up my thoughts and my words with God’s word, because it reflects God’s truth about me.

I hope my words and thoughts please you. Lord, you are my Rock, the one who saves me. Psalm 19:14 NCV

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

We can turn to the Lord when we need help. Problems, decisions and planning can seem insurmountable, when we try to accomplish things on our own. We are blessed with so many skills and abilities but when we turn it over to God, He can help us to reach higher heights. He can help us with our thinking, with our problems and to find our way through a difficult situation. I am thankful that we can reach out to Him for His guidance for the right strategy, the right approach and the right words to help us to reach a better place. We can pray, read His Word and ask the Holy Spirit within to guide us. He is faithful to help us through on a higher plane than we thought possible. This passage reminds us that His thoughts and His ways are nothing like our own. As He leads, yield to His direction. He will help us to higher ground.

Terri in Barcelona

Trust in the LORD and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.
Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart’s desires.
Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you.

Psalm 37: 3-5 NLT

As a young girl, I would use my imagination to create images of my adult life. The dreams of my future included everything from a being a doctor, to owning a bookstore, playing tennis, traveling the world to having a family. Dreaming consumed summer afternoons playing with dolls and picking household items in department store catalogs. It was a time dream big about my future. Now that I am an adult, I have started to brush off some of those aspirations. Some of them were channeled into other pursuits but on my list there are still things that resurface in my heart and mind. I am thankful that God reminds us of our dreams and allows us to plan and pursue things that we have always wanted to experience or to accomplish. Although many years have passed, I believe it is still a time to dream big. My list has matured with my age but I still want to learn to play tennis, to see the Great Wall in China and to write a book. Our passage today is a reminder of the pathway to our heart’s desire: Trusting Him, delighting in Him and committing everything we do to Him sets the stage for His opening the door to the dreams of our heart.

Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.  Psalm 90:12

During childhood, the days we have ahead seem as infinite as the leaves on a tall oak tree. Hopefully, this time is spent learning, developing and maturing into the individuals God crafted us to be. As we get older we begin to realize how God’s gift of another day is precious. For some of us it takes the experience of aging, illness or even the loss of a loved one to bring the value of our time on Earth into focus.

Our society is full of distraction that keeps us away from things that bring meaning to our lives. We may drift from one thing to another without real direction or authority of over our daily living. It takes a conscious effort on our part for us to live according to God’s individual purpose and calling. While it is easy to allow things that simply don’t matter to consume our time and resources, we can make the most of the opportunities God gives to us. We can live with a grateful heart. We can show love in our words and actions.   We can demonstrate forgiveness and mercy. We can honor the gift of each day living on purpose.

Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the LORD: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; He is my God, and I trust him.
Psalm 91: 1-2

Violence and unthinkable tragedy have become commonplace in our society. Mass killings with indiscriminating guns have been used to create mayhem in our schools, workplaces and other community settings. It is a burden on our hearts and minds considering the senseless loss of life and how to prevent the next tragedy. Safety measures have expanded our vocabulary of terms. The phrase “Shelter in Place” is a plea for individuals to stay where you and to seek cover because danger is near. The words were repeated over and over again in the news and again in my mind. I begin to think about the reference to shelter in this familiar Psalm. I am so thankful that God provides shelter and refuge even when we face the unthinkable. He provides rest and a place of safety for our hearts and our souls. I am thankful for His faithfulness even when we don’t know or understand why bad things happen even to good people. We continue to pray today for peace, safety, healing and comfort for our communities and all of those who are touched by violence.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.  Proverbs 3:5-6 

On any journey, we may find the unexpected. A bend in the road, an unplanned stop or unexplained detour may suddenly be in our path. Our first response may be filled with frustration; it may be disappointment and even fear. After all, if we had planned our journey it would be smooth traveling all the way.  No sickness, no finance worries and certainly nothing that would require us to have faith in things we can’t see. We may be tempted when we reach a difficult pathway to reevaluate the whole journey. But as believers our steps are ordered by the Lord. This passage instructs us to Trust in the Lord and not to depend our own understanding. Our Father’s ways exceeds our thinking in every way. On the journey, we are to seek His will for our lives and His direction. God will show us which way to go. We are to walk in trust each step of the way, having confidence that as we seek His will for our lives that He will show us the way.