Welcome P31 "Encouragement for Today" friends. I am glad you are here.
Today I am giving away a copy of my CD "The Most Powerful Two Word Prayer." To enter, click on the word "comments" at the bottom of this post and follow the prompts. If you aren't a blogger, choose 'anonymous' and then leave your e-mail address in the body of your comment.
This week we've been talking about the battle many women face with eating. We know what we should eat and yet don't. Then we get caught in a vicious cycle of beating ourselves up over our choices that lead to unhealthy habits that lead to weight gain that leads to just feeling yucky about ourselves.
Not every woman deals with this, but enough of us do that I've been addressing the spiritual side to all this.
For those of you who are visiting today, over the past 6 months I've fasted from sugar and lost nearly 30 pounds doing so. It has been a spiritual journey with great physical benefits.
Probably one of the most profound lessons I've learned is how important it is to praise God in the midst of my struggle.
Praise is powerful. I believe, "Praise God," is the most powerful two word prayer. Yes, there are many other powerful two word prayers... "save me," "help me," and "forgive me," are some of those.
But Psalm 22:3 KJV reminds us that God inhabits the praise of His people. In other words when we praise God we are establishing who God is, who we are as a result and we acknowledge the closeness of His presence.
This is easy when life is skippy and happy and full of fun.
But what about when life stinks? The last thing we feel like doing is praising, right? But oh sisters, when things start to head south for us, this is the exact minute when we need to praise God the most.
Now hang with me here... this can be life changing but it doesn't come natural. We'll have to choose it.
When praise falls from our lips, we invite the power of God and His character to invade us. His character brings with it everything listed in Galatians 5: 22-23... love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Each of those traits can rush in and rearrange even our ugliest of attitudes and darkest of situations when we praise God.
Praising God is like blowing a dandelion in a field of rich soil. Seeds fly. New life is planted.
Listen, I'm not saying we all paint on big lipstick smiles and go around faking it with the hard issues of our life. I'm not encouraging us to say, "Praise God for this weight issue I deal with day after day. " Or, "Praise God for my kid's bad attitude." Or, "Praise God for this loneliness that feels like it might swallow me alive." Or, "Praise God for this horrific diagnosis." No, not at all.
No, I'm not saying we fake this. That kind of plastic recitation makes the world look at us Christians like we're nuts.
I'm saying we step back from whatever circumstance we're in and praise God. Praise Him. Not the circumstance.
Praise Him for who He is. Praise Him for who we are because of who He is. And praise Him for the power to see things and deal with things completely differently because we know Him.
And in that, seeds of hope fly. Our soul becomes a rich field eagerly awaiting. And we remember that resurrection for those who know God is always on the other side of hardship... discouragement... even death. New life always awaits us.
Praise God.
Oh how powerful that two word prayer is.
Leave a comment below and you'll be entered to win my 40 minute message on CD called, "The most powerful two word prayer."
Today I am giving away a copy of my CD "The Most Powerful Two Word Prayer." To enter, click on the word "comments" at the bottom of this post and follow the prompts. If you aren't a blogger, choose 'anonymous' and then leave your e-mail address in the body of your comment.
This week we've been talking about the battle many women face with eating. We know what we should eat and yet don't. Then we get caught in a vicious cycle of beating ourselves up over our choices that lead to unhealthy habits that lead to weight gain that leads to just feeling yucky about ourselves.
Not every woman deals with this, but enough of us do that I've been addressing the spiritual side to all this.
For those of you who are visiting today, over the past 6 months I've fasted from sugar and lost nearly 30 pounds doing so. It has been a spiritual journey with great physical benefits.
Probably one of the most profound lessons I've learned is how important it is to praise God in the midst of my struggle.
Praise is powerful. I believe, "Praise God," is the most powerful two word prayer. Yes, there are many other powerful two word prayers... "save me," "help me," and "forgive me," are some of those.
But Psalm 22:3 KJV reminds us that God inhabits the praise of His people. In other words when we praise God we are establishing who God is, who we are as a result and we acknowledge the closeness of His presence.
This is easy when life is skippy and happy and full of fun.
But what about when life stinks? The last thing we feel like doing is praising, right? But oh sisters, when things start to head south for us, this is the exact minute when we need to praise God the most.
Now hang with me here... this can be life changing but it doesn't come natural. We'll have to choose it.
When praise falls from our lips, we invite the power of God and His character to invade us. His character brings with it everything listed in Galatians 5: 22-23... love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Each of those traits can rush in and rearrange even our ugliest of attitudes and darkest of situations when we praise God.
Praising God is like blowing a dandelion in a field of rich soil. Seeds fly. New life is planted.
Listen, I'm not saying we all paint on big lipstick smiles and go around faking it with the hard issues of our life. I'm not encouraging us to say, "Praise God for this weight issue I deal with day after day. " Or, "Praise God for my kid's bad attitude." Or, "Praise God for this loneliness that feels like it might swallow me alive." Or, "Praise God for this horrific diagnosis." No, not at all.
No, I'm not saying we fake this. That kind of plastic recitation makes the world look at us Christians like we're nuts.
I'm saying we step back from whatever circumstance we're in and praise God. Praise Him. Not the circumstance.
Praise Him for who He is. Praise Him for who we are because of who He is. And praise Him for the power to see things and deal with things completely differently because we know Him.
And in that, seeds of hope fly. Our soul becomes a rich field eagerly awaiting. And we remember that resurrection for those who know God is always on the other side of hardship... discouragement... even death. New life always awaits us.
Praise God.
Oh how powerful that two word prayer is.
Leave a comment below and you'll be entered to win my 40 minute message on CD called, "The most powerful two word prayer."
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