Monday 3/14/22 – Armwrestling

Dear Lord, thank You for this day. Thank You for all of the blessings You continue to provide for us. Thank You for the reminder as I read today that prosperity in this world should not be the goal of a Christian. The goal of a Christian should be to follow Jesus, no matter the cost and help lead others, in love, to His truth. Thank You for providing a teacher to share his life experience of being a missionary overseas where he needed to be desperate for You and expect that You would provide for his every need while he spread Your truth. Thank You that he needed to be desperate for You, for Your Word, for Your truth so that he can share with me and others what to do and how to be desperate for Jesus in a world with constant reminders that we do not have to be desperate for Jesus to live in this world. God doesn’t call us to be comfortable in this world and if we get too comfortable it could mean that we’re living in AND of the world when we’re called to live in but NOT of this world. Thank You Lord, praise You Lord, bless You Lord! I ask that Your spirit is present as I share today more of what You’ve been revealing to me. I pray for each and everyone of Your people Lord that You put Your hedge of protection around each and everyone of us and continue to remove and destroy the enemy from all around us. I ask that Your truth is revealed to all of Your people Lord, that our eyes and ears are open to seeing You, to see Your work and not only hearing what You have to say but listening and obeying what it is that You say. I claim the power of the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven that You will teach me what it is that You want me to know at this time in life and that I would be open to receiving it, to make this post the most effective. All these things I ask in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Another great day spent with my family. I attended homeschool art class today and was able to paint pictures with my family this morning. I was able to do some reading this afternoon and now I’m soaking in a little sun as I lounge and write in my driveway with my wife and daughters doing their own things by my side as we spend time in proximity to each other. I paused writing and took a phone call from a friend who struggles regularly. I met him about 6 years ago and we’ve talked off and on about a disease he realizes he has, he calls it the disease of more. This disease causes an unbalanced lifestyle of whatever carnal desire he is in pursuit of at that moment in his life. We’ve had many conversations over the years and he helped me realize that I struggled with the same disease just on a much smaller and semi-controlled scale. Now that I’m learning the truth and building a relationship with my Creator, I’m sharing with him what I’m learning also. He grew up in a religious home but wanted to find his own way and through a series of choices he found himself in the 12 step program that he is currently working through and coming to the realization that there is a God and that God has protected him throughout different situations in his life, even when he didn’t believe there was a higher power. He is now struggling with some of the same things a lot of us struggle with, feeling like he’s not worthy to be loved by God because he feels like he’s done some pretty terrible things. My oldest daughter struggles with a similar feeling on a much smaller scale and she displayed some of that to me over breakfast this morning. My wife had a great analogy that was able to snap her out of her “spell” and it was amazing to watch the transformation right in front of our eyes. My oldest daughter was telling herself things like “I’m not good at fractions,” as they were going over what was going to be covered in homeschool today. She was preaching to herself through a lot of negative self talk we witnessed this morning. My wife asked if the girls knew what armwrestling was and she pretended to arm wrestle with me, she played the role of the “dark side” and I got to play the role of Jesus. We then proceeded by throwing out statements and played out which side was winning based on that statement. It was a good visual, even for me, to see how what we say to our self really is that important because we are either manifesting spiritual truth or lies and we will most likely act based upon the feelings we have from the words we say to our self and we tend to fulfill the prophecy we speak either good or bad. We were able to end the night with dinner over a campfire in our backyard and the girls had s’mores. I thank God for my wife who reminds me that it is important to create good family memories. Back to the spiritual war, I read something this afternoon that reminded me of something I knew but I certainly don’t think about enough; Jesus has already won, our job is to go out and share that truth with the world where the enemy wants us to think he is winning. What if it is up to God’s people to call on the power of God to destroy the lies that we’ve been led to believe. What if the rules God set for the spiritual realm regarding our free will, prevents Him from interfering with our lives until we call on Him? Wouldn’t that make more sense when we see all the evil in this world and ask where God is? Why does God allow all this evil to happen? What if God’s people woke up and started to have a serious relationship with Him? What if instead of praying once a month, once a week, once a day, twice a day, three times a day, etc; what if we were in constant communication with God? What if we gave everything to Him? What if we put Him first in our lives, not just said that we’re doing it but actually do it and ask Him if we have any blind spots where we’re not putting Him first? Well, my friend… My suggestion would be to buckle up because when I started to do that He took me on a wild ride and I feel like that journey has only just begun. Welcome to the war! -A fellow warrior in God’s army

“Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” -1 John 3:8 ESV

Our Heavenly Father, hallowed is Your Name. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us today our daily bread, Your Word, Your truth Lord. Forgive us of our sins as we forgive those that sin against us. Lead us away from temptation and deliver us from the evil one. For Your Kingdom is powerful and glorious forever and ever, Amen. -The Lord’s prayer (paraphrased)