His grace comes to me in my darkest hours to sooth my hurting heart and pour out His love on my wounded soul. I cry out to the one and only true living God who loves and cherishes me more than I will ever comprehend. He is my friend in my dark hours. He is my comfort and covers me with His grace like a blanket of warmth covering my discouragement and surrounding me with His everlasting love that heals me to my deepest core. He has only love for me.

His grace is here for me and is never ending. It moves over me like a cloud and covers me with everlasting love. He brings contentment to my soul and pushes out the poison of worry and doubt. His desire is that all of us turn to Him for healing.

I feel the world trying to push me down, but I turn to God and saves me from the schemes the cold cruel world. I cry out to His Son for salvation and He rescues me. He never turns His back on me. He is my constant, trustworthy savior. Many people come and go, never staying in one place to long.

They run with the wind any which way it goes. They choose a new path because it looks easy or pretty. They run off course because they follow the wrong master of the “pretty” path or the “easy” path. They are lost and they create many burdens for themselves because they wanted the easy way. God is waiting for their return to His way because His burden is light. He carries us to joy and contentment in ways that no one or no other thing can. When we finally see His light, we can rest. We worship Him because He is. And when we worship Him just because He is, we receive rewards unmatched by any other thing in the entire earth.

We will never know the depths that His love can go, because it is never ending. Come to Him O children of this world! Know His love! Know His salvation from our sins! Seek only His love! It is the only way to be saved from the condemnation of the world. It is the only way to find true peace and to understand true love in its purest form.

As I write these words that have been laid on my heart from the Holy One, my heart begins to sing of the great mercy He bestows on me! I would be nothing without the Love of the One True God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ who died for us and for our sins! We could not receive this everlasting comfort without first accepting Jesus as our savior and acknowledging the majesty of the Holy God creator of the universe! Come to God! Praise His Name in the heavens and know that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life! He forgives our sins, our mistakes, our lies and our hatred. He shows us the way to true love and forgiveness for others and removes hate from our ugly souls. He is the only way to true peace.

Great peace to those who read these words, accepts Jesus as their savior and looks to God for all of the answers.

In His love,

Pam

Psalm 85:11-12: For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O the Lord of hosts, Blessed is the who trusts in You!

Psalm 45:2a: Grace is poured out upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever. 

 What a joy it is to have that precious little grandchild come running into your arms with hugs and kisses. The six-year-old calling to tell you she lost her first tooth or your seven-year-old grandson excited about making his first goal in his soccer game.

In addition to the senior discounts, grandchildren are one of the rewards of growing older. Mary H. Waldrip says it well, “Grandchildren are God’s way of compensating us for growing old.”

I grew up in a Midwest rural community many years ago. I didn’t encounter the temptations and pressures my grandchildren are facing today in this media-driven culture. Our society is teetering on the brink of moral and spiritual bankruptcy. I pray for protection from the evil deception in the world around them.

I have nine grandchildren, ages ranging from fifteen years to thirty-six years and four great-grandchildren under 5 years of age. As a long-distance grandmother for many years, I was not fully aware of my grandchildren’s immediate needs. I prayed that God would bless them, give them good health and protection. Ultimately, I became frustrated and felt something was lacking with my vague and general prayers. I asked God to show me how to become more deliberate in praying for them.

After reading Grandma, I Need Your Prayers by Quin Sherrer and Ruthanne Garlock, and When Mothers Pray by Cheri Fuller, prayers for my grandchildren changed dramatically. The books were full of practical advice, encouraging me to use specific scriptures in praying. Motivating me to pray regularly and accurately for their emotional, physical, and spiritual well being.

I want to share some of the practical advice I pursued.

• I developed a Photo Prayer Journal in a three-ring binder with a section for each grandchild. Each section had a profile sheet with the grandchild’s picture and information about their school, church, friends, and activities. Followed with several blank pages on which I recorded my prayer concerns, hopes, and dreams for the grandchild.
• God’s Word became a manual for learning how to pray more effectively for my grandchildren. Praying scripture unleashes the supernatural power of God in their lives. When I pray according to God’s Word, I am in line with His will. As I started claiming God’s promises and personalizing the scriptures for them, I experienced more confidence and boldness in my prayer life.
• New channels of communication opened with my older grandchildren when I asked how I could pray for them. For the younger children, I consulted with their parents to keep abreast of specific concerns. Then I was able to pray more specifically for them.
• A primary prayer for all my grandchildren is that they will come to realize how much God loves them. God will always be there for them. They will accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and spend eternity with Him.
• Paul tells me in Romans 8:26 "when I don’t know what to pray for; the Holy Spirit intercedes for me. The Holy Spirit knows the needs of my grandchildren, so I ask him to intercede according to His will." It is comforting to me that I can put my concerns in God’s hand, leaving them with Him. It shifts the responsibility on God, instead of carrying the burden myself.
• The love I have for my grandchildren would like to control their lives and keep them from pain, disappointment, or discouragement. Humanly, I want to rescue them and pray, “Don’t let anything bad happen to them.” To which the Lord may say, “I need to allow disappointment, pain, and failure so they will learn to trust and obey me so I can pour my blessings on them.” It’s crucial I pray for God’s will in their lives.
• God has created my grandchildren for a unique purpose. I pray they will discover their dreams, be motivated to pursue them, and trust He will provide the resources.
• It is essential for me to communicate with my grandchildren that I love them and accept them even though I may not accept their behavior. I like to call them on the phone; send cards for holidays, note cards, or e-cards to offer encouragement, and let them know I love them and pray for them.

Blessings as a result                       

 I want to share part of a letter from my married granddaughter. It is a confirmation that praying for these precious grandchildren is never a wasted effort. She wrote, “My grandmother’s phone calls, cards, and emails were encouraging and made a significant impact on my life throughout my teenage and college years. Her prayers and encouragement have been rock-solid reminders of God’s truth. Amidst my crazy and incredibly life-shaping year, her prayers helped me surrender the craziness of my life to God.”

 My prayers for my grandchildren have strengthened my relationships with them. The Photo Prayer Album has been an excellent tool for me to stay connected to them. Whether they live nearby or far away, praying for them intentionally keeps me in touch. Often my prayers can be more potent than my presence when I let them know I am praying for them.

Best of all, praying God’s Word has enabled me to pray with His power, direction, and wisdom. As their grandparent, I can have a significant role in stabilizing and influencing their lives by praying for them during these turbulent years. It has given me fulfillment and satisfaction in praying for them.

The seeds of prayer we plant today will yield a harvest of blessing in the future. My prayer is that you have been challenged to pray strategically and deliberately for your grandchildren. In Isaiah 44:3 God told the Israelites, “I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your descendants”.God still promises to pour out his Spirit and blessings on our descendants. Don’t we want that for our grandchildren and future descendants?

The greatest long-lasting gift we can give our grandchildren

is the gift of our time and prayers.

By Lillian Penner, Co-director for the prayer ministry of Christian Grandparenting Network,  lpenner@christiangrandparenting.net

I am not sure forceful writing is something all of us strive for. But I do believe many of us would like to know how to add impetus to the words we write.

How do we write with overwhelming influence on our readers, on our culture? I have thought a great deal about this and I think I have some things to say about writing forcefully. However, before I begin I suppose I should grant you a disclaimer. My books are not, nor are they likely to be, on the New York Times best-seller list. My writing is hardly shaking the world. My lack of authority on this issue opens these suggestions up for discussion. What do you think about each of them? I suspect all of us thinking about our writing, would come up with some principles that could transform our writing and possibly the lives of our readers.

Let me begin with my oldest principle.

Brevity is Force.

Especially for young writers, this may sound counterintuitive. “You are saying, 'The less I write, the greater the impact,?’” Well, that is close to what I am suggesting. I am saying, “Expressing the same thought in fewer words will say it better.” I have a friend who is a riveting preacher. His exposition is brilliant, his illustrations are moving, his logic is cogent and often humorous. But it often takes him over an hour to preach one of them. I have been in some places in the world where that would be ideal, but he does not preach in any of those places. The length of his sermons takes much of the force out of what he has to say. This is every bit as true of writing as it is of speaking.

Clarity is Force.

Most of us would like our writing to be impressive. I remember a comic scene on the old Lou Grant show where someone found an article written 30 years before by their managing editor, Charlie Hume, when he was a cub reporter. The byline on the article read “F. Charles Hume.” He defended himself by saying, “All of us have been pretentious from time to time.” When one of the other characters asked him what the F stood for, he answered, “Nothing, unless you count F. Scott Fitzgerald.” It is always tempting to use big words and try to sound impressive. But the main issue of writing is clear communication. One of the passages of Scripture God has used to speak to me about my writing over the years is Habakkuk 2:1-3. Verse 2 calls us to “write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets.” Great writing is always understandable. A good writer makes what may be complicated plain for people to understand.

I am intimidated by the next of these.

Beauty is Force.

I never feel like my writing can be beautiful. And, indeed, I'm no C.S. Lewis. But writing is an art as well as a craft. Beautiful writing will affect people's lives. Most of us have a sense of beauty when we see it on a printed page. And while I will never be C.S. Lewis, Malcolm Muggeridge, or Philip Yancey, I can read such authors in the hope that their beauty will rub off. And I can strive to improve the beauty of what I have to say and how I write it.

Truth is Force.

I'm not sure this is not the most important of these principles. One of the best writing prompts I have ever seen, especially for poetry, says, “Write the truest sentence that you know.” I am writing primarily to Christian writers. You actually have an advantage over others in this area because you have a grip on ultimate truth.

Conviction is Force.

You need to know why you believe what you believe is true. A good writer is a clear thinker. A good writer is always asking why. You will spend time thinking through things until you come to a bedrock of conviction. A good writer knows what she thinks and why she thinks it, what she knows and how she knows it, what she believes and why she believes it.

Compassion is Force.

Good writers care about their readers. Christian writers pray for the needs of people who will read their work. The importance of what you have to say relates directly to the needs, sometimes the deepest needs, of those for whom you are writing.

God's Moving is Force.

The most life-changing force in writing is the hand of God on your words. At this point I'm talking about something that goes far beyond your craft. The hand of God on your writing flows from the depth of your relationship with God, and the effect He has on all of your life. I believe this is true whether you are writing a devotional book, a theological treatise, or a baseball story. What God is doing in your life we'll impact the lives of your readers.

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Many of us have been greatly encouraged in our prayers for lost friends with the words from 2 Peter 3: 9, “God is not willing that any should perish.”

But I think it is important to note that there are a couple of ways in which this verse can be misinterpreted. The two that I have in mind both interpret the will of God here as immutable. But that is not the word used in the original language. The word is “boulomai,’ which is often a weaker term. The ESV translates this as not wishing that any should perish.

In Luke 13: 34 Jesus actually uses Thelo, the stronger Greek word.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, . . .How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

One misinterpretation of this is that since it is the will of God, everyone will eventually be saved. But the fact that God wants everyone to repent does not mean everyone will. God is always willing for people to turn to Him, but He waits for us to be willing.

The other misinterpretation that concerns me is that this cannot apply two lost people we are praying for because if God wills it, they will be saved, and we know everyone will not be saved.

But you need to understand that when you are praying for someone who has not come to Christ, you are not praying against the will of God. And God will be working on them to draw them to himself.

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When faced with a crisis situation - whether sudden or developing over time - one of our first inclinations is to ask God why. Why are we suffering so? What did we do to deserve this? Why has our God, who is both sovereign and good, allowed this suffering to occur?

This is where Job found himself when God allowed Satan to bring suffering into his life. Surrounded by friends whose only answer was to attribute his suffering to his own sin, Job couldn't reconcile the life he had lived with the pain he was enduring. He longed to be able to speak to God face to face and for God to explain himself.

We may not voice our longing exactly the same way that Job did, but the truth is that many of Job's questions are also our own.

In Job's story, God has peeled back the curtain for us to see what Job could not see - the drama being played out on a cosmic stage between God and Satan. Indeed, God had even started the dialog by pointing out Job's righteousness (would he say the same thing about us?).

Job couldn't know that the trials he suffered were actually helping to make God's point in the debate. His suffering at the hands of Satan showed the difference between life as God intended it and life as Satan marred it. But all this was lost on Job, who wasn't in the heavenly council. All he knew was the misery he was enduring.

After 37 chapters of suffering, Job finally gets to hear from God. But what he hears doesn't answer his original question. God does not explain himself. Instead, through a series of challenges to Job, God reveals his own majesty. In the face of all that, Job drops all his demands and humbles himself before God.

While Job never got an answer to his question of "why", he did gain from his suffering something he had never experienced before - the presence of God in a new and more powerful way. Job summarizes his own experience this way: "My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you."

From our vantage point, then, we can see at least three effects of Job's suffering:

1. It demonstrated the difference between God's blessing on a life and Satan's curses.
2. It gave Job an experience of God he had never had before.
3. It has encouraged millions of people down through the ages who have also suffered through various crises to trust in God.

But Job had no way of knowing anything but his experience. The same is true of us in our suffering. We may not see the impact it is having in our lives or the lives of others; we may not understand the reason for it or have any idea how long it will last. But we can experience God in the midst of suffering and emerge with a stronger relationship with him than we had before.

So, while "why" may be the most natural place for us to start in our dialog with God during trials, a more helpful question is "what". What is God accomplishing in our time of anguish? What does he hope to produce in our lives? What can we learn about him and what new ways can we experience him? As we learn to pray "what", we open ourselves in new ways to his work in our lives through times of trial.

How have you prayed during times of suffering?  How has God answered?  Please share your experiences!

In the past three months, I have grieved for two groups of people. First in April, when my brother Bob had unexpected multiple bypass surgery then his recovery then the past three weeks with his accidental fall, suffering blunt force trauma to the brain – then having brain surgery, and spending time in the Palliative Care Unit dying – and then having his memorial service, I have observed two groups of folks who differed from Bob’s family and friends, in the way they grieved. One group seemed to grieve amiss - not quite right, in a mistaken way, improperly. Bob’s group sang, prayed, shared Bob stories, laughed, and grieved – but not as those in the other groups. One group seemed to lack a faith-system that provided, “Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.” From outside their hospital rooms, one could hear loud weeping and refusal to let go of a loved-one. There seemed to be no hope for reunion, nor any comfort in the belief of a heavenly home for the soon-to-be-deceased. Then another group, while seemingly believers, were trying to make it through the difficult days by themselves, while Bob’s group was daily sustained by a rather large group of praying folks. To enter crisis, and possible death of a loved one without faith in God, is sad to observe. While not quite as sad, is observance of those who have no prayer support team interceding for them and undergirding them. I have grieved for both groups – folks who grieve amiss! The Psalmist says, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints (Psalm 116:15). Since that is true, should we not seek to lead all to be “saints” and then pray for them all the way to their “death?”

How did we get to the point where there is a pervasive attitude of “You owe me?” As a grandfather I understand the desire to spoil the kids, but I wonder if in the spoiling we have created a monster?

It is an attitude not just with kids, but with adults as well. Everyone seems to have their hand out and expect the government, their parents, or anyone to step up and give them what they want. It does not matter that they did not earn it. They want it, and in their mind, they deserve it (for some reason).

How do we stop the madness? Quit giving people everything they want! When I was growing up we had to earn our allowance and it wasn’t a crazy amount of money either. The chores were not difficult, but it took some of the burden off my parents and gave me a sense of accomplishment in the process. What happened to letting people earn what they get?

I know there are people who are disabled and get welfare. I am not trying to put the ones who truly deserve it in this discussion. I am pointing out that we have countless people on welfare that are milking the system. We have untold numbers of kids who don’t know the value of a dollar. We have adults who never learned to earn money, so they expect someone to ante up for them. They don’t care who does it either.

I wonder how many billions of dollars are wasted every year on people who don’t really need the help but demand that they get it? I know that this is a huge problem for our country and possibly around the world as well. We have to use common sense and admit that the system is broken.

We definitely need to help those who are disabled, but there are too many able-bodied adults and kids who are content collecting their checks and never lift a finger.  We can start by setting the proper values in our own families. Let them earn their keep. They will appreciate you for it when they are grandparents. The only way to stop the madness is to change what we are doing.

Shalom!

Dan Skognes

danskognes.com

This is an excerpt form Hannah Brencher's book,  "Come Matter Here" Zondervan Publishers, available on amazon.

The four word prayer that could change everything in your life.

On the days when I get really fearful, I say a tiny prayer. It’s called a breath prayer. During a series my pastor in Connecticut taught on the Beatitudes, he taught us how to say breath prayers — short, gritty prayers that get right to the point. You can say them anywhere and in any posture. You simply pick a sentence, something that looks like a prayer, and repeat it under your breath over and over again, as the song of your heart, a battle refrain. Not long after, the breath prayer makes a little space in your heart and stays there.

I love the idea of breath prayers. There are plenty of times when I can’t find the words or don’t have the energy to get on my knees and pray. There are even times when I feel like my prayers aren’t good enough, as if God won’t meet me in my mess. There are days when I feel like every word that comes out of my mouth is fake or forced. Breath prayers help me bridge the gap between praying sometimes and praying without ceasing.

My breath prayer for when fear tries to take back the lead role is simple: Reduce me to love.

I can’t take credit for making this prayer up. I hear it one morning as I pray with a group of volunteers at my church. I had signed up to work at a conference for worship leaders who came from all over the country to rest, refuel, and get inspired.

Before the doors open on the second morning, our group huddles close and links arms. The woman in the center begins to pray. At one point, she says it. “Reduce me to love. God, reduce me to love.”

After we say amen, we get into place at the doors. Our job is to welcome the worship leaders and get them pumped for the full day ahead. I’m still not certain why anyone would think to give me this sort of job. I only make things more awkward when I am left to greet strangers. I’m that person who welcomes someone into the building and asks, “Is this your first time at church?” They give me the stink eye when they tell me they’ve been attending for four years. I’ve since retired from greeting people and now deliver coffee and bagels to the other people serving on a Sunday. It’s easier to talk to bagels than to people.

I start saying hello to people as they come in the doors. Some look tired. Some look caffeinated. Some look like members of the band One Direction, and some look like Jesus.

A man walks toward me with stringy gray hair. He has his arms stretched out as if he has known me for years, as if this is our family reunion and he’s my uncle. I looked at his name tag: Gino.

Gino and I hug like it’s second nature. He pulls out his harmonica and begins playing “Amazing Grace” in the middle of the lobby as if no one else were there.

“What’ll you have me play?” he asks.

I request the song “Danny Boy.” He plays it, and I close my eyes for a minute. The song makes me think of my grandmother. It was one of her favorites. I can still hear her exclaiming over how much she loved that song.

Gino finishes his song. He places his hand on my shoulder and looks at me.

“Just remember to look beneath the surface,” he says, his voice low. “Beneath the surface, we all just want to be seen. Every single one of us just wants to be seen.”

As he says those words and slips past me into the crowd, that simple prayer comes back to me: Reduce me to love. When fear is leading, I miss these moments.

My prayer expands and gets bigger as I say it more: Reduce me to love. Help me to see beneath the surface. Help me to be a familiar face in a crowd, a light in a dark room. Turn me into love and wipe out all the excess fear.

The prayer is not asking that I’ll be propelled into something bigger for this world. The prayer is “reduce.” Make me smaller. Help me get out of my own way.

It’s a classic John 3 kind of prayer. In John 3, John the Baptist says flat-out, “I’m not it. I’m not meant to be the center of attention.” He tells his disciples that he was sent ahead to prepare the way for the bridegroom. “He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30).

My heart needs this reminder constantly: You are not the center of the universe. You are not the most important. That’s God. If I want to be open to what God has for me, I also must be open to decreasing, to becoming less. I stick close to writer Flannery O’Connor’s words in her prayer journal: “Dear God, I cannot love Thee the way I want to. You are the slim crescent of a moon that I see and my self is the earth’s shadow that keeps me from seeing all the moon . . . Please help me to push myself aside.”2

The world doesn’t tell us a story about reduction. It tells us to be front and center, always impressive. The gospel is a different story. Gospel-living requires us to get smaller as we go, so that God can be amplified. Smallness is where the real work happens.

Smallness is where we learn what we’re made of. Smallness is where our actions trump our words.

Reduce me to love. It’s me saying, “I can’t actually do this reduction thing on my own, so come in and do the work. Have your way. I trust you.”

It’s beautiful because I went a really long time without ever trusting God. My prayers were prayers that I could handle things and that I could see with my own strength. Now I like to pray for impossible things because I want to get to the end of my life and be able to say, “I saw impossible things, and the fear didn’t win.”

Taken from "Come Matter Here" by Hannah Brencher. Copyright © 2018 by Hannah Brencher. Used by permission of Zondervan. www.zondervan.com. All rights reserved.