Praising God for 2013

The past couple of days I have been reflecting on 2013 and all I could see was my failure. Today I read a post about how our failure could be another way to give God the glory! This shifted my thinking. What do I have to be thankful for and to praise God for from this past year? There are so many things...

- Praising Him and giving Him Glory for allowing Uriah Jude to be born and after 7 days of being on life support and never touching him I finally was able to hold him!

- Praising Him and giving Him Glory for the Salvation of Mia, Caleb and Joel!

- Praising Him and giving Him Glory for allowing David to be without a job for 5 months and providing for our needs everyday!

- Praising Him and giving Him Glory for a husband who kept pursuing a job and didn't give up when it would have been so easy to. A husband who loves God and his family and wanted/wants to take care of us. 

- Praising Him and giving Him Glory for giving David a job at First Financial Insurance Group

- Praising Him and giving Him Glory for allowing us to go south to see our families this year!

- Praising Him and giving Him Glory for family who came to help in time of need!

 

- Praising Him and giving Him Glory for the friends that we have that are more like family than friends!

- Praising Him and giving Him Glory for the Holy Spirit who continued to convict me throughout the year of areas that needed/needs to become more like Christ!

- Praising Him and giving Him Glory for a wonderful church family...I can't find all the words needed...

-Praising Him and giving Him Glory for times of ministry which seemed more like a blessing!

 - Praising Him and giving Him Glory for each moment that I was able to watch my kids play, grow, sleep and discover new things!

- Praising Him and giving Him Glory for Selah being able to celebrate her 2nd year of life and David and I to grow another year older as well!

- Praising Him and giving Him Glory for the MANY times that I felt and knew that I missed the mark b/c without those times I wouldn't know how desperately I need the Lord every moment of everyday!

There are so many other things I could post and many that I probably don't even remember....

May we all seek to bring Him Glory, Honor, and Praise in 2014 with our lives! May my focus be on Him who saved me rather than on myself, my failures, and accomplishments. 

Great, Horrible, Sad, Heartbreaking, Awesome Day!

     Today started out great! The kids and I took a walk and then came home for lunch and naps. And that's when it happened, I lost my temper while trying to get my daughter down for her nap. The day suddenly turned into a horrible one!
     Not long after losing my temper I realized what I had done...I apologized to my two year old and then proceeded to put her down for her nap. I then sat down to recall what had just happened, why had I lost my temper so quickly? It was then that I was confronted by the Holy Spirit about my sin. It saddened me beyond words that I had sinned against my daughter who I love so much. Then I realized that it should sadden me even more because I had ultimately sinned against my God, and that is when I became heart broken. Why did I chose to sin? I wasn't showing my daughter Christ's grace, love and mercy but instead I had acted as an unbeliever. Then the tears came because that sin that I had just committed, my sin, was what hung Him on the cross. I asked my God for His forgiveness for sinning against him and my baby girl. But, I was struggling with moving on, I could not quit thinking of the hurt that I caused Him. How could I move on? His Word! So I looked up the greatest known verse that deals with anger, Eph. 4:26-27 "Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity." I had given the devil opportunity because I had sinned in the midst of my anger. I also acted as a fool, "A fool always loses his temper, But a wise man holds it back." (Prov. 29:11) The angry, "An angry man stirs up strife, and a hot-tempered man abounds in transgression." (Prov. 29:22) The arrogant, "An arrogant man stirs up strife, But he who trusts in the Lord will prosper." (Prov. 28:25) And at this verse my day became an awesome day in which to praise God for!

     How, when all of these verses show me what a sinful person I am, you ask? I praise God because I have trusted in the Lord and I know that I will prosper because He has given me the Holy Spirit, who convicts me each an every day of my sin. Praise God for I will not remain, quick-tempered, a fool, an angry man, hot-tempered man or an arrogant man. BUT as He continues to change me to be like His Son, I will become one who is, slow to anger, wise, gentle and loving. "He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is quick-tempered exalts folly."(Prov. 14:29) "A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, But the slow to anger calms a dispute." (Prov. 15:18) "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." (Prov. 15:1) "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma." Eph. 5:1-2 With His help, I pray that my kids will see the Love of Christ in me.

Prayerless Praying

     "Prayerless praying lacks the essential element of true praying; it is not based on desire, and it is devoid of earnestness and faith. Desire burdens the chariot of prayer, and faith drives its wheels. Prayerless praying has no burden, because it has no sense of need; no ardency, because it has none of the vision, strength, or glow of faith.
     Prayerless praying stakes nothing on the issue, for it has nothing to stake. It comes with empty hands, indeed, but they are listless hands, as well as empty. They have never learned the lesson of empty hands clinging to the Cross; this lesson, to them, has no form of comeliness.
     Prayerless praying has no heart in its praying. The lack of heart deprives praying of its reality, and makes it an empty and unfit vessel. Heart, soul, life must be in our praying...
     Prayerless praying is insincere. It has no honesty at heart. We name in words what we do not want in heart. Our prayers give formal untterance to the things for which our hearts are not only not hungry, but for which they really have no taste.
     Prayerless praying, it prays for humility, but nurtures pride; prays for self-denial, while indulging the flesh. Nothing exceeds true praying in its gracious results; but it is better not to pray at all than to pray prayerless prayers, for they are but sinning, and the worst of sinning is to sin on our knees.
     The prayer habit is a good habit, but prayer done only by force of habit is a very bad habit."

(taken from Purpose in Prayer by: E.M. Bounds)

"Reformation in Secret Prayer" by: Robert Murray McCheyne

"I ought not to omit any of the parts of prayer - confession, adoration, thanksgiving, petition, and intercession. Proceeding from low views of God and His law, slight views of my heart, and the sin of my past life, there is a fearful tendency to omit confession. This must be resisted. There is a constant tendency to omit  adoration when I forget to whom I am speaking, when I rush heedlessly into the presence of Jehovah without thought of His awe-inspiring name and character. When I have little eyesight for His glory, and little admiration of His wonders, my heart has a native tendency to omit giving thanks, and yet it is specially commanded. Often when the heart is dead to the salvation of others, I omit intercession, and yet it especially is the spirit of the great Advocate who has the name of Israel on His heart.
I ought to pray before seeing anyone. Often when I sleep long or meet with others early, and then have family prayer and breakfast and forenoon callers, it is eleven or twelve o'clock before I begin secret prayer. This is a wretched system; it is unscriptural. Christ rose before day and went into a solitary place. David said, "Early will I seek thee" (Ps.63:1), and, "My voice shalt thou hear in the morning" (Ps. 5:3). Mary Magdalene came to the sepulchre while it was yet dark.
Family prayer loses much of the power and sweetness of prayer; and I can do no good to those who come to seek from me if I have forgotten my time alone with God in the early morning. The conscience feels guilty, the soul unfed, the lamp not trimmed. (See Matt. 25:1-13) I feel it is far better to begin with God, to see His face first, to get my soul near Him before it is near another. "When I awake, I am still with thee"
(Ps. 139:18). If I have slept too long, or if I am going on an early journey, or if my time is in any way shortened, it is best to dress hurriedly and have a few minuted alone with God than to give up all for lost. But, in general, it is best to have at least one hour alone with God before engaging in anything elase. I ought to spend the best hours of the day in communion with God. When I awak in the night, I ought to rise and pray as John Welch and David did."

-Taken from E.M. Bounds on Prayer

Be not afraid to pray; to pray is right;
  Pray if thou canst with hop, but ever pray,
Though hope be weak or sick with long delay;
  Pray in the darkness if there be no light;
And if for any wish thou dare not pray
  Then pray to God to cast that wish away.