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.