God Does Answer Prayers

I don’t know why we are always surprised when the Lord answers our prayers.  Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”  That is because the desire of your heart will line up with His will because you will know Him and His heart.

Oh, the desire of my heart is to be pleasing to the Lord. The 5 “R”s are the cry of my heart to the Lord.  (You will find other posts explaining them more.)

1) Renew my mind
2) Revive my spirit
3) Reinvent what I do, how I do things, etc.
             ( I am in my 60s. It is never too old to change.)
4) Reveal. Reveal those things in me that are not Christ like.
               The deep things that I have not acknowledged
5) Restore. Restore what is broken in my life. Restore the joy.

I’m adding a 6th “R” as the Lord reveals things I need to have done…Regenerate.  Regenerate those things in me that have lost their strength and power.

After getting back into town this past Thursday, I was so emotionally exhausted that I almost didn’t go to the Don Moen concert we had tickets for for over a month.  Many from our church were going to be there, so I didn’t want to disappoint them, nor my husband, so I went.

The concert was very good and my husband and I both felt washed of the stress and exhaustion we have been feeling.  However, one other thing happened that, at the time was so insignificant, I didn’t think about it until I got home. 

One of the biggest Christian radio stations was there hosting and promoting one of their programs and were giving out little flyers with a free ebook.  So, I picked one up during intermission.  No big deal, right?!

When I got home I read the title of the ebook by Randy Carlson. He has a program on the radio called, Intentional Living, a ministry of Family Life Communications Incorporated and Parent Talk, Inc. with a mission of transforming the world through the power of living an intentional life
in Christ.

Now remember one of my 5 “R”s was “reinvent”.  The name of the ebook was, “Really Live – When Getting By Isn’t Good Enough”.  That has been the feeling inside my heart, I don’t want to just “get by” and settle in to the same old routine and being comfortable.  I want God to really change me and reinvent what I do in this life.  To make my life make a difference now and the rest of my life.

So, He is giving me insight on how to take one more step to renewal and reinvention through this ebook. (If you want a copy of it and go on the journey to really living, with Randy Carlson, go to his website: http://www.theintentionallife.com/.)  Join the journey to renewal and reinvention.

God does orchestrate our lives, in ways we don’t expect and at times we don’t expect, to answer our prayers and to help us.  How I thank and praise Him.  Look for His leadings and His answers.

Blessings,     Pat

Baby Gracie update

 
I've been out of town being Grandma this week. I was getting my two granddaughters ( 10 and 11 years old) off to school in the morning, then going up to the hospital to see my daughter-in-law who was in the hospital with an infection (doing better and is home now), then going to another floor to see her baby (my granddaughter), Baby Gracie.

She has been in the Infant Intensive Care unit for five weeks. She was born at 34 weeks with an omphalicele (her liver outside her body) and her lungs underdeveloped.

She is still struggling with her breathing, but she has gained weight. She was born 4 pounds 1 ounce and is now 5 pounds 11 ounces. So, she is thriving, but through a feeding tube.

She does not have the sucking reflex and has acid reflux so they have to feed her through a tube inserted into her intestines. She is a fighter, but she has some bad days still.  She seems to take one step forward and two steps back.

We believe she is going to make it and believing God's faithfulness.

This is yesterday morning’s picture of her.

Please pray for her mother (Billie) and Baby Gracie and the family who is pulled in every direction right now. This will be a long journey and is indeed “uncharted territory”.

We were ministered to at a very needed concert with Don Moen last night, who wrote an album called “Uncharted Territory”. He shared some of the journey in song and I thought of my son and daughter-in-law and their family who are on this long journey.

We never know what life will throw at us, but we do know God is faithful and will be with us as we walk through whatever we have to.

Blessings!   Pat

Another R

I've added another "R" to the last post.  RESTORE!  Restore the joy of my salvation.  I haven't lost the joy, but there are some things in my life that need restoring. And the Lord is showing me those things and asking me to let Him restore.  It is part of the journey I am  on.

This morning in my time with the Lord, the verse from Psalm 51: 10 and12 (KJV), came to mind,

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

 ¹² Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

No matter where we are in our relationship with the Lord, there seems to be a daily opportunity to be made whole and to "be changed" in some way to be more like Christ. We can't do it, but God can...if we let Him.

By reading the Psalms, you will learn to trust the Lord to do everything and be everything you need. There is one condition...that you have accepted Christ as your Savior.  He is the way, the only way to be restored to God.  He paid the price for that reconciliation.

On the sidebar on the left of this blog I will put what I am finding in Psalms.  Maybe it will help you see Psalms in a different light and see the mighty, wonderful, loving God we serve - Our Heavenly Father. 

Blessings,    Pat