But I'm not a Mother?

May 11, 2014 "Mother's Day"...  

Here we are with our boys.  We married in 1972; love each other more today that ever before!

Thinking about Mother's Day, each year I also think of the ladies that want so badly to be a Mother and those that are mothers but have lost either their babies through miscarriage, abortion, or death by accident even after they've grown up. We all know that we, as parents, are 'suppose' to die first but that does not always happen and many suffer on this day due to sadness of such a huge loss. My prayers go up for each of you on these kind of days that can be hurtful. I was taken back a bit when I read that our LORD Jesus had no descendants - so I can see that Jesus really does understand EVERYTHING about us... whether we've never had children OR had them and lost them to death...look at this: "No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream." Here is the reading: Isaiah 53:7-9 (NLT) ....8 Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream.  But he was struck down
for the rebellion of my people  9 He had done no wron
and had never deceived anyone."
     When you read Isaiah 53 it is talking about Christ....I love to read the ending part of 52 and the entire chapter of 53 when we are taking the Lord's Supper together...What a Savior we have what a King we serve! I pray that all of our women, young and old, mothers and those that are not 'mothers' will know that Christ Jesus understands your feelings and is holding you in the palm of His hand...where we all find peace in times that are difficult. love you all!

Where has the time gone, here it is 2014 and we have our 3 year old granddaughter's first photo on here!  I have not put any of her infant photos on here, goes to show you the more children and grandchildren you have the less time you have to take care of photos.  Maybe someday I'll add some more on here but I wanted to start out with all three of them together.

 Love to pray....

A few definitions of "Prayer":

·        To pray is to love God

Prayer is talking to God. Prayer is conversing with God...a conversation with God; it is the conversational part of a love relationship with God.   

⁴ “…The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.^[a] 5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. ⁶ And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands”…. Deuteronomy 6:4-6 (NLT)

·        Prayer is the conversational part of the most important love relationship in our lives - our relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

·        Prayer is not "saying a prayer" it is about loving the one to whom we pray. It is not trying harder to pray but rather becoming true lovers of God.

(I attended a prayer conference and some the above quotes are from Dave Butts of Harvest Prayer Ministries his website address is    www.harvestprayer.com ) Other quotes are from me.

WORLD RADIO NEWS     VOLUME 51 ISSUE 1

Prayer Fellowship                                Carolyn Jo Gower

     

                        Don’t pray, I’ve had enough ... 

Joesph Shulam, World Radio Speaker, Israel, came to our office for a few days.  While visiting he shared this thought with me that God does not always have to listen to us...

   ¹⁶ “Pray no more for these people, Jeremiah. Do not weep or pray for them, and don’t beg me to help them, for I will not listen to you. Jeremiah 7:16

That may sound like an unusual statement coming from me, don’t pray, but our Heavenly Father told Jeremiah exactly that…don’t ask me anymore for these people. 

Prayer is more about talking with God, rather than a ritual. When with my grandchildren sometimes they pray right from their heart and other times it is like "rote" praying...exact same learned prayer. 

And yet in their defense, I've been in congregations where I’d hear grown men do the same thing; repeating the same prayers in a rote manner. As though they went to a "creed prayer class" and learned the correct verbiage that is acceptable at "church". Think about that, if at that same service we spoke to each other that way, people would call in the funny farm to pick us up for examination.  We would be talking 'at”, not “with” each other.

God goes on to tell Jeremiah in 7:23-26  “²³ This is what I told them: ‘Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Do everything as I say, and all will be well!’ ²⁴ “But my people would not listen to me. They kept doing whatever they wanted, following the stubborn desires of their evil hearts. They went backward instead of forward. ²⁵ From the day your ancestors left Egypt until now, I have continued to send my servants, the prophets—day in and day out. ²⁶ But my people have not listened to me or even tried to hear. They have been stubborn and sinful—even worse than their ancestors.” (NLT)

When we are not interested in listening and obeying God, there comes a time when God says okay, I've had enough of your stubborn hearts; just go ahead and do what you want to do; he turns us over to our own evil desires and there are severe consequences we will suffer. (Romans 1)

The answer to a stubborn heart is to repent as we read that David did in Psalm 51 “¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God.  Renew a loyal spirit within me. ¹¹ Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me”. (NLT)

God wants to hear from us but not when living in continual rebellion against Him, instead He wants us to face our sin, repenting so that we can enjoy the everlasting presence of God moment by moment today! So you see God does want us to pray!!

Carolyn Jo Gower            email: jgower@wfr.org

SCRIPTURES TO PRAY FOR YOUR HUSBAND...

Pray these Scriptures for your Husband:

• When he is overwhelmed: Psalm 27:1 

“The LORD is my light and my salvation—so why should I be afraid?
The LORD is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?” NLT

• When he feels inadequate: John 14:27

“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” NLT

• When he is overcome with worry: Eph. 3:20
“ Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”

• Understanding God’s Plan for his life: Matthew 6:33

“ Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” NLT

• His relationships with others: Luke 6:36-38

“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.  Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.” NLT

• His relationship with you: Philippians 2:1-6

Be United and Care for Each Other…
“Think about what we have in Christ: the encouragement he has brought us, the comfort of his love, our sharing in his Spirit, and the mercy and kindness he has shown us. If you enjoy these blessings,  then do what will make my joy complete: Agree with each other, and show your love for each other. Be united in your goals and in the way you think. In whatever you do, don’t let selfishness or pride be your guide. Be humble, and honor others more than yourselves.  Don’t be interested only in your own life, but care about the lives of others too.

Learn From Christ to Be Unselfish… 
In your life together, think the way Christ Jesus thought. He was like God in every way, but he did not think that his being equal with God was something to use for his own benefit.” (ERV)

Hedge of Thorns Prayer...

Prayer is the wing wherewith the soul flies to heaven.
"Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come to You. Psalm 102:1 NKJV

Heavenly Father, I ask you to rebuke (1) and bind Satan in the name and through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ(2).

I ask you to build a “hedge of thorns” around my spouse, so that anyone with wrong influence will lose interest in him (or her) and leave (3).

I base this prayer on the command of Your Word (4) which states, “what therefore God hath joined together, let not man separate (5)”.

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer (6). Amen


The above prayer is based on the following scriptures:
The first few chapters of the book of Job tell us that God had a hedge around Job ….read it and see how Satan approached God about this. When God took the hedge down Satan could attack.

Pray the Hedge of Thorns Prayer around anyone or circumstance that needs God’s special attention to protect the person from Satan.

(1). Mark 3:27; Jude 1:9
(2) John 14:13-14
(3) Hosea 2:5-7
(4) I John 5:14
(5) Matthew 19:6
(6) I John 5:15

Straight from the Word…Prayer Guide
Carolyn Jo Gower

The Bible mentions prayer more than 870 times. There seems to be a pattern of prayer in the Bible that should get our attention regarding our relationship with the Father. We are to communicate often with Him using his word and prayer.
Prayer is not “saying prayers” but rather prayer becomes as natural as breathing as we draw closer to God. Jesus said “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." (John 12:32 NIV) Therefore “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart…” (Heb. 10:22a NIV)

The Bible chronicles some 650 prayers and records 450 answers. The Bible also records 10 major lessons on prayer by Jesus himself during His ministry. His disciples considered prayer training to be essential: “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples." (Luke 11:1 NIV)

So how important is it to learn how to effectively pray? We miss out on blessings, “…You do not have because you do not ask God” James 4:2. We could miss out on playing a part in bringing many people to Christ, in Matthew 9:37-38 Jesus said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. 38 So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.” Jesus wants to use our prayer life as a tool to provide more workers, whether you become someone who is sent, or God uses you to do the sending. Both ways more workers will go and this will continue in fulfilling the Great Commission, Matthew 28:16-20.

Here are a few suggestions from scripture that can be used as a guide in prayer:
• Pray for your enemies. Matthew 5:43-44, Luke 6:27-28
• Pray in sincerity. Matthew 6:5-8
• The Model Prayer. Matthew 6:9-15, Luke 11:1-4
• Ask and it shall be given. Matthew 7:7-12, I John 5:13-15, Luke 11:5-13
• Ask for workers. Matthew 9:35-38, Luke 10:1-2
• Pray as a group in unity. Matthew 18:18-20
• Pray for all nations. Mark 11:15-17, Matthew 21:12-13, Luke 19:45-46
• Always pray and don’t give up. Luke 18:1-8
• Humble yourself before the Lord. Luke 18:9-14
• Effective prayer makes the difference. Mark 9:28-29
• Believe and don’t doubt. Mark 11:20-25, Matthew 21:18-22
• Don’t pray for show. Mark 12:38-40, Luke 20:47
• Pray to overcome temptation. Mark 14:38; Luke 22:40, 46; 1 Corinthians 10:13
• Pray in Jesus name and obey His commands. John 14:13-15; 15:7; 15:16; 16:23-27
• Pray with passion. Hebrews 5:7

All of life’s questions can be answered straight from the Word of God including how to pray. Even when we don’t know what to pray there is help, “26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” Romans 8:26 ESV
Isn’t it great to serve God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that will help us pray! I’m praying for you as you serve Him.