Dealing with restlessness...

Today's devotional is by my friend D. Andrews from San Diego.

Good Morning Ladies (and few gents),

Today’s devotion included below “The Cure for Restlessness” is a reminder from GiG Gwen that, “Satan longs to control and master us so that our relationships with both God and man suffer.” In addition, this is also true, “The challenge is daily and the struggle is real, but the supply of God’s power is endless.” Amen!

Have you checked your power source lately?

GiG, I just want to spend some time today focusing on our prayer lives. There are a few of you going through some heavy stuff. Whether it is you personally, a family member or simply someone in your circle of influence, there’s a lot going on. We are often given advice and encouraged to “take stuff to the Lord in prayer.” And the person who often tells us this really means it. However, some who hear this advice or mandate get frustrated because they have done so and continue to do so, but still find no relief. The distress is to the point it is affecting one’s health.

In all honesty, as I continue to be transparent, wishing you the healthiness of being so too, I admit I’ve been there before. But the image is clearer and God is bigger when we get to the other side of the circumstance or situation weighing us down. So when we hear someone telling us to pray, trust that she (or he) knows what they’re talking about because they’re often on the other side of an experience, situation of her (or his) own.

“One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up.” Luke 18:1

I read recently some thoughts on prayer in The Standard Lesson Commentary 2017-2018. Then to be sure I heard God clearly, He timed that I would hear the same illustration used in an audiobook I “randomly selected’ to listen to yesterday on my morning walk. This word picture on prayer was so on point in helping me understand the struggle to maintain a consistent prayer life. See, the average American treats prayer like a spare tire. OUCH! Yup, we simply bring it out in crisis and then “tuck it away like a spare tire—to be saved for use when the next calamity strikes.” OUCH!

GiG, it’s important to our emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical well-being to remain persistent in persevering with the Lord in prayer.

Pastor Warren Wiersbe said it this way, “Nothing paralyses our lives like the attitude that things can never change. We need to remind ourselves that God can change things. Outlook determines outcome. If we see only the problems, we will be defeated; but if we see the possibilities in the problems, we can have victory.” Yet, don’t get this twisted; we must allow God to define the victory not the world. OUCH or Amen!

May we be encouraged in knowing that our God is bigger than our problems and has an eternal perspective. The question for us is this, do we trust HIM without having the same heavenly high view.

Here’s a thought to remember taken from Pastor Wiersbe’s book On Earth as It Is in Heaven: How the Lord’s Prayer Teaches Us to Pray More Effectively, “The immediate purpose of prayer is the accomplishing of God’s will on earth; the ultimate purpose of prayer is the eternal glory of God.” Allow that truth to marinate in our hearts and minds.

God’s Got It…so we can HOPE—We may not be in an ideal situation, but we have an ideal God.

Have a “Turn, Learn, and Teach” Tuesday, July 17, 2018—yes, turn from temptations toward Jesus, learn to rely on prayer, and teach others by taking off the masks and sharing life with them; the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Called to serve and encouraging others to thrive,

DEA

Check out today's Coffee and Conversation: The Pruning Process https://youtu.be/bROBCY5B1wY