I am comforted today by the fact that Allie knows the Lord. She asked Jesus into her heart at VBS the summer before we started homeschooling- an answer to a specific prayer- and has been walking with Jesus ever since. Whenever she is gone for several days like this, I am SO thankful she is a child of God. He can comfort her, protect her, speak tenderly to her, and guide her in the truth when I'm not there to help. I am praying and trusting that God is loving her in my place today and that she can really feel it. And I'm praying that the others will come to know Him as soon as they are able to, too. :)
I've gotten another vision from God!! Actually He stirred up a vision that He had given me when He first called me to homeschool, and it's one that I've battled spiritually to carry out ever since. I want to start our days singing and dancing to victorious songs of praise. Songs like "Trading My Sorrows", "Shackles", "When I Think About the Lord", "We Come Rejoicing", "Crown Him With Many Crowns", and"When We All Get To Heaven". It's so wonderful when we start the day like this. And I'd like to sprinkle throughout the day and end the day with big, hairy, audacious prayers that show that we believe God is powerful and able. I know in my own life, so often I come to God timidly, saying something like, "Um, God, if you don't mind, could you um, maybe grant this one request? I mean if you don't, that's okay, I'll understand. . . " That's not a prayer of faith, now is it?? I want to learn, and teach my children, to believe in a big God that is happy to answer "big" prayers to show us His glory. That, to me, would spell victory for our family. Victory over the enemy, victory in our lives.
"But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." -1 Corinthians 15: 57
"Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place." -2 Corinthians 2:14
"Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." -Ephesians 6:13
"Big, hairy, audacious prayers" -- Are you sure you don't have some Youth Minister blood flowing through your body? Ha!
ReplyDeleteActually I LOVE this concept and the truth that accompanies it. I agree that we don't pray big enough prayers often enough, and I'm challenged to remedy that in my own life.
I love you.