Come Into The Deep End... with ImHisServant (2)

ImHisServant said:

Thursday 1/18/07

Accepting Myself​

Today I seek to become a little more accepting of myself, a little more comfortable in my own skin. Although it is important to recognize and admit my limitations and flaws, only God can remove them.​

Condemning my imperfections has never enhanced my appreciation of life or helped me to love myself more. Perhaps I can let go of all condemnation for this one day. I will recognize that I am on a spiritual path of self-improvement. Every tiny step I take on that path moves me closer to wholeness, health, and serentiy.​

If I become impatient with myself, I can examine my expectations. Perhaps I expect recovery to happen overnight. I will take time today to acknowledge my efforts and to trust the process of growing through Christ one day at a time. (It's progress... no perfection)​

Today's Reminder:​

My walk with the Lord is a gentle, healing process. I will remember to be gentle with myself today, trusting that the healing will come.​

"Today I can accept myself for what I am because I know that whatever happens, I have God and a group of Christian people who will love me anyway." ...In All Our Affairs​

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ImHisServant said:

Friday 1/19/07

Sharing Burdens​

Galatians 6:2​

• New International Version (NIV)
  Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
• Amplified Bible (AMP)
  Bear (endure, carry) one another's burdens and troublesome moral faults, and in this way fulfill and observe perfectly the law of Christ (the Messiah) and complete what is lacking [in your obedience to it].

This weekend we are diving in... hope you have your diving gear.

Let's grow deeper in our relationships with each other... and share our burdens and troublesome faults. When someone has shared... let's post a prayer for that person in response and really life that person up. If you are not comfortable posting your prayer... then just pray first the just make a post saying that you have prayed.

Right now Father I pray that this weekend we can release our burdens one to another, that we can find warmth, love and acceptance in this place... that we can loose chains and become free from what binds us in Jesus' Name... amen

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ImHisServant said:

Friday 1/19/07

Sharing Burdens​

Galatians 6:2​

• New International Version (NIV)
  Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
• Amplified Bible (AMP)
  Bear (endure, carry) one another's burdens and troublesome moral faults, and in this way fulfill and observe perfectly the law of Christ (the Messiah) and complete what is lacking [in your obedience to it].

This weekend we are diving in... hope you have your diving gear.

Let's grow deeper in our relationships with each other... and share our burdens and troublesome faults. When someone has shared... let's post a prayer for that person in response and really life that person up. If you are not comfortable posting your prayer... then just pray first the just make a post saying that you have prayed.

Right now Father I pray that this weekend we can release our burdens one to another, that we can find warmth, love and acceptance in this place... that we can loose chains and become free from what binds us in Jesus' Name... amen

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jenrenee said:

Please help me pray for my grandma - she just found out on Monday that she has cancer. She goes in Tuesday for an MRI to find out more about it.

Lord, I pray that her cancer has not spread, that the doctors are able to help her so that she can fully recover from this. I pray that she can find peace and that she can do the simple things she once did - like being able to sleep through the night. Please give us (her family) the strength to see her through this hard time and give her the strength to get through it as well. In Jesus' name I pray... amen

Prayer is such an awesome thing. It's amazing to realize that God is listening to our prayers and answering them every day.
"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."

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ImHisServant said:

Friday 1/19/07​

Sharing Burdens​

Galatians 6:2​

• New International Version (NIV)
  Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
• Amplified Bible (AMP)
  Bear (endure, carry) one another's burdens and troublesome moral faults, and in this way fulfill and observe perfectly the law of Christ (the Messiah) and complete what is lacking [in your obedience to it].

This weekend we are diving in... hope you have your diving gear.

Let's grow deeper in our relationships with each other... and share our burdens and troublesome faults. When someone has shared... let's post a prayer for that person in response and really life that person up. If you are not comfortable posting your prayer... then just pray first the just make a post saying that you have prayed.

Right now Father I pray that this weekend we can release our burdens one to another, that we can find warmth, love and acceptance in this place... that we can loose chains and become free from what binds us in Jesus' Name... amen

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LivingLifeHisWay said:

Hi Ladies, I have a few areas in need of prayer.

1) My step-daughter Nadia is 10 and lives with her mom. We see her every other weekend. Her mom is not Christian and Nadia is exposed to a lot when she is there. Nadia is a Christian (was saved at 7) but is so young and is very confused. She doesn't understand why she is allowed to do things at her mother's house and not at ours (like watching certain shows and movies). Please pray that the Lord would continue to draw her to Him, that she would come to understand that we should make choices pleasing to Him and no one else and that she would choose to follow His ways. I fear for her future.

2) I have a friend named Sheryl. I met her in August and have become close to her. She is a Christian homeschooling mom that I get together with weekly so our kids can play. I'm starting to have mixed feelings about the arrangement because I don't agree with a lot of her views. I don't know if I should continue this friendship and would like guidance from the Lord. Please pray in that effect.

Thanks so much ladies!
~Christina

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LivingLifeHisWay said:

Great idea Gina!

Father in Heaven, I lift JenRenee's grandmother up to you Lord. I pray that you would place your loving hands upon her body and bring forth healing. Cleanse her from this cancer, replace it with health. Be with JenRenee and family during this time, strengthening them and helping them grow more dependant on You. Thank you Lord for what you are going to do. In Jesus' name I pray. ~Amen~

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LivingLifeHisWay said:

Hi Ladies, I have a few areas in need of prayer.

1) My step-daughter Nadia is 10 and lives with her mom. We see her every other weekend. Her mom is not Christian and Nadia is exposed to a lot when she is there. Nadia is a Christian (was saved at 7) but is so young and is very confused. She doesn't understand why she is allowed to do things at her mother's house and not at ours (like watching certain shows and movies). Please pray that the Lord would continue to draw her to Him, that she would come to understand that we should make choices pleasing to Him and no one else and that she would choose to follow His ways. I fear for her future.

2) I have a friend named Sheryl. I met her in August and have become close to her. She is a Christian homeschooling mom that I get together with weekly so our kids can play. I'm starting to have mixed feelings about the arrangement because I don't agree with a lot of her views. I don't know if I should continue this friendship and would like guidance from the Lord. Please pray in that effect.

Thanks so much ladies!
~Christina

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ImHisServant said:

Friday 11/10/06
Rejection​

Read Matthew 13:53-58:

And so they rejected him. Jesus said to them, “A prophet is respected everywhere except in his home town and by his own family.”​

Matthew 13:57, Good News Bible​

Rejected. Psychologically, “rejected” is a very powerful word. The experience of rejection—especially by family members or those with whom you grew up—is a destructive force that eats away at a person’s soul. To be rejected can lead to feelings of worthlessness, loneliness, isolation, and alienation. Too many of us are walking around with the deep wounds of rejection.
How do you suppose Jesus reacted to the rejection He experienced in His home town? Do you think He got depressed? Angry? Injured? Here He had traveled through the region of the Galilee and gathered a significant following. He had taught large crowds of people and performed many miracles. Coming home, He should have received a hero’s welcome. These are the people who should have been the most pleased with His success. In stead, “they rejected him.”
I wonder how it feels to be rejected when a person does not deserve to be rejected. I have experienced rejection before, but the voice deep within has confirmed to me that I deserved it. After all, I could have been a better, more selfless and giving person. But Jesus did not deserve to be rejected, yet when He came to His own, “his own people did not receive him” (John 1:11).
Jesus seemed to take their rejection of Him pretty well—at least on the surface of the text. He simply quoted a proverb, as if to put their actions in context, “A prophet is respected everywhere except in his home town and by his own family.” Then He moved on, leaving Nazareth behind Him.
Jesus’ ministry in Nazareth took a strange turn, “Because they did not have faith, he did not perform many miracles there” (verse 58). They were deprived of the wonderful things Jesus could have done for them. Their children went unhealed, their deranged people were not delivered, their spiritual condition remained dark. Jesus did not have the influence in His own town that He did everywhere else.
Life is not always smooth and your friends and family are not always supportive. You may be energetically engaged in God’s will—you may be able to show tangible evidence of the help you are giving to others—, but you cannot expect everyone to be happy for you. There will be people who think they know you (the way Jesus’ neighbors and family thought they knew Him), but who really do not have a clue. But to be rejected for Jesus is to stand with Jesus.
“Lord Jesus, thank You for staying with us even when others may desert us. If we are rejected for doing Your will by those we love, teach us how to handle it the way You did and move on in Your will. Do not allow us to become self-absorbed, fearful, or inactive, but keep us energized.”

Have you felt rejected by your own family and friends?? How did you handle it and get through?? Are you going through it now?? That pain is a horrible pain to feel.

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Maharg said:

Praying that God would guide you in your relationship with your friend and that He would guide Nadia in understanding His way and help her to be able to manage being in a house with a non-Christian mother.

I was a Christian in a non-Christian household, and I didn't know any Christians at the time. I became a Christian as a child just through reading a Bible and listening to what was said in Assembly times at school. I had no one but God to support me. I just thought sharing that might encourage you. God will have his way with people. I was confused about lots when I was growing up but God was always there.

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Maharg said:

Sorry - another burden from me.

I'm trying to plan lessons for next week and I just can't think how to teach the topic I'm supposed to be teaching. I've spent two hours thinking about it and I still don't have a lesson plan. I'm getting quite distressed about it because I have to plan 18 lessons each week and I just can't afford to spend two hours working and still have nothing. I can't seem to stop crying at the moment. I'm teaching about Christian responses to poverty and wealth, and so far the only thing I can think of is for the children to match Jesus' sayings, Jesus' actions and Christian behaviour together, but I have lots of children who can't read, don't have long attention spans and won't listen to me. I've been working on Sundays so that I can get all my work done and I'm desperately trying to finish my work tonight so I don't have to work tomorrow. i don't know what to do. it fdoesn't feel as though God is listening. I thought He would help me if I asked Him and He just seems silent. I'm sorry to blurt all this out. I just don't know what to do.

Maharg

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powerofprayer said:

My biggest prayer request is for my daughter Shannon (12 years old). She has had so many health problems these past 10 months & it has really affected our family. The worst thing we are battling right now is that the seizures have triggered Bipolar Disorder. She recently started on medication for it but there are still days when she is just so hateful & angry...and it just hurts me to see her going thru this. She isn't the same child as she was even 6 months ago. Please pray for her as well as our whole family. Thanks everyone!

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Maharg said:

Thank you for the prayers. God answered your (and my) prayer . He told me in three different ways to be still and listen and today this also featured in the service at church. How difficult it is sometimes to let God work.

Anyway, I did become still and waited on God, and the first thing he did as soon as I got out of bed this morning was to give me an idea for my lesson! I'm going to show film clips from Bruce Almighty where the beggar morphs into God to teach the idea that when we are giving to the poor we are giving to God. I'm also trying to get some viedo footage of Christians helping people in poverty. Then I'm going to get the kids to design a poster for a church noticeboard encouraging people to give money and choosing a Bible verse to put there, then explain why they chose that Bible verse rather than a different one.

Thank you so much for the prayers.

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