Friday, September 11, 2009

Prayer For The Stressed


Many are feeling stressed from undergoing trials so please find below a prayer for you to pray. Some new scriptures & prayers are also posted today in "Reflection Jewels' (link top of page on left side). Sometimes events in life are overwhelming - despite this always remember God is still on the throne and He is still in control. May the messages below minister to your need.
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Be Encouraged Today... Even In Your Storms

Matthew 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

I do not know what your needs are today but Jesus knows. You may be discouraged today. You may be going through the hardest trial of your life. I want to encourage you today! Whatever your situation-- the Lord can meet your need! Trust Him-- He loves you.

In this stressful world in which we live, there is a resting place. Aren't you glad? That rest is found safe in the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ. When troubles come, we can run to our Rock-- the Lord is our Shelter from the storms. He does not always make the winds and the storms cease but He will give us adequate shelter until the storm passes by and will lead us on-- and where He leads, we will follow. We are His sheep and Christ Jesus is our Loving Shepherd. Blessed be His name!

Sometimes, the Lord makes the storm to cease,


Psalm 107:29 says: He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.

Other times, the Lord will shield us from the storm as it rages:


Psalm 27:5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.

Still other times, He will walk us through the trials and storms in our lives to bring about a greater work on the inside of us:

James 1:3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

John 16:33
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

2 Cor 1:3,4
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforted us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

No matter what our need may be today, there is safety in His everlasting arms. The Lord can meet our every need and He will see us through. He gives rest to the weary. Strength to the feeble. Hope to the depressed. Comfort to the hurting. He loves us at all times. No problem is too big for God... and no problem is too small that He does not hear our cry. The Lord can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

We are to cast upon Him our every burden:

Psalm 55:22
Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

Author Unknown: Source - Cobblestone Road Ministries

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Prayer for those who are stressed (Author Unknown)

Lord, I need your help. I am feeling the strain of stress. My body is agitated by worry and fear. I confess to you my inability to handle it alone.
I surrender my mind to you. Take charge of the control centre of my brain. Think your thoughts through me and send into my nervous system the pure signals of your peace, power and patience. I don't want to have a divided mind fragmented from your control.
Forgive my angers rooted in petulant self-will. Make me a channel, a riverbed, of Your love to others suffering as much stress as I. Help me act on the inspiration You gave me rather than stifling Your guidance.
Take charge of my tongue so that it becomes an instrument of healing. Make me a communicator of love and forgiveness as I cheer others on to their best.
I commit my schedule to you, Lord: help me to know and do your will. Guide me in doing your will on your timing so that I don't burn out doing the things I don't really want to do, or fearing to do what is your best for me.
Set me free from the tyranny of acquisitiveness and the lust of seeking my security in things rather than in my relationship with you.
I long to be the person you created me to be and not anyone else. Forgive me when I take my signals of success from others and not you.
Most of all, Lord, help me to catch the drumbeat of your guidance and live by your timing. Here is my life - invade it, fill it, transform it.
And I thank you in advance for the healing of my life and for giving me strength to conquer the stress of daily life. Amen.

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Wings To Fly!



Reflective Thoughts:
For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:6-9)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6 NASB)

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. (Jam 1:2-3, NIV)
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The Butterfly (Author Unknown)
A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.



So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.


The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.



What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were nature's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If we went through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly!
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What an awesome God. (Author Unknown)

God's accuracy may be observed in the hatching of eggs.
For example:
-the eggs of the potato bug hatch in 7 days;
-those of the canary in 14 days;
-those of the barnyard hen in 21 days;
-The eggs of ducks and geese hatch in 28 days;
-those of the mallard in 35 days;
-The eggs of the parrot and the ostrich hatch in 42 days.
(Notice, they are all divisible by seven, the number of days in a week!)
The lives of each of you may be ordered by the Lord in a beautiful way for His glory, if you will only entrust Him with your life. If you try to regulate your own life, it will only be a mess and a failure. Only the One Who made the brain and the heart can successfully guide them to a profitable end.

God's wisdom is seen in the making of an elephant.. The four legs of this great beast all bend forward in the same direction. No other quadruped is so made. God planned that this animal would have a huge body, too large to live on two legs. For this reason He gave it four fulcrums so that it can rise from the ground easily.

The horse rises from the ground on its two front legs first.
A cow rises from the ground with its two hind legs first.

How wise the Lord is in all His works of creation!

God's wisdom is revealed in His arrangement of sections and segments, as well as in the number of grains.

-Each watermelon has an even number of strips on the rind.
-Each orange has an even number of segments.
-Each ear of corn has an even number of rows.
-Each stalk of wheat has an even number of grains.
-Every bunch of bananas has on its lowest row an even number of bananas, and each row decreases by one, so that one row has an even number and the next row an odd number.

-The waves of the sea roll in on shore twenty-six to the minute in all kinds of weather.

All grains are found in even numbers on the stalks, and the Lord specified thirty fold, sixty fold, and a hundredfold - all even numbers.

God has caused the flowers to blossom at certain specified times during the day, so that Linnaeus, the great botanist, once said that if he had a conservatory containing the right kind of soil, moisture and temperature, he could tell the time of day or night by the flowers that were open and those that were closed!

Thus the Lord in His wonderful grace can arrange the life that is entrusted to His care in such a way that it will carry out His purposes and plans, and will be fragrant with His presence.

Only the God-planned safe life is successful. Only the life given over to the care of the Lord is fulfilled.
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"He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:29-31