Dear Sister's In Christ,<BR>I read the following message in todays "My Daily Bread" from RBC Ministries (kind of long, I'm sorry) and it made me think of everyone in this forum. I wanted to share it with you, so when you think you've waited enough or that God has forgotten, you think again. <P>"His Hand, His Heart"<BR>"Sometimes God doesn't grant our prayer request right away. After a while we begin to feel like the psalmist who said, "How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?" (Ps.13:1)<P>I remember feeling like that on one occassion when I had come to God, confessed my sin, and asked for forgiveness and a renewed sense of joy. It seemed as if God's ears were closed to my cry. Only after continuing to pray and wait for a long time did I regain the joy that I had sought.<P>In John 11, we read that Mary and Martha called for Jesus to come because their brother Lazarus was very sick (vv.1-44). The Lord delayed and Lazarus died. When Jesus finally did come, however, He gave them a whole new appreciation of His love and power.<P>Why do you suppose God often delasy His answers or denies our requests? I think the answer is this: When God withholds His hand, He wants us to look to His heart. In other words, He wants us to learn more about His goodness and His love, and to trust Him to do what is best.<P>If He's withholding an answer to a request that is very important to you, just be patient. Keep asking and believing. He may wnat you to look at His heart --and to gain a new appreciation for His wisdom and love--DCE<BR>**And since He bids me seek His face,<BR>Believe His Word and trust His grace,<BR>I'll cast on Him my every care,<BR>And wait for thee, weet hour of prayer. --Walford"<P>I felt so good after reading that, because even now sometimes I loose patience with my H, and I remember my prayers, and the patience you all told me to have, so I am reminding you, that God wants us to be patient and Trust Him.<P>My sisters, you are always in my prayers (even when I don't post that often)...<BR>Love,<BR>Pookie~<BR>P.S. If anyone is interested, I get the monthly little prayer"My Daily Bread" from RBC their website is: <A HREF="http://www.rbc.net" TARGET=_blank>www.rbc.net</A> <P>It doesn't cost anything, you can give a donation if you want, (they don't even ask for one)...

Thanks Pookie14,<P>Your post gives me the strenght i need to go on, when i feel lonely and i feel that the Lord has forgotten me i will remember your post.<P>"Lord, Thy will be done"

Thanks Pookie14,<P>I am having a heck of a time remembering this....God seems so far away from me right now. I am so discouraged and depressed about my situation. I am desparately trying to keep my eyes on Him and not on the situation/storm that is all around me. I fill so empty and zombie-like. <P>Thanks for your reminder that God is always here....even when I don't see or feel Him.<P>Aloha.<BR>

Mrs. O, I can empathize with how you are feeling. <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>This verse sums it up for me.

I too have found this trial so hard and the waiting so long, but somehow God always shows me He is indeed there. There are times when we have to wait and I believe he seemingly removes himself so that we will so cry our to Him. <BR>I got an article over the internet taken from A>W> Tozer's "The Pursuit of Holiness"<P>God is a person, and in the deep of Hid mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires, and suffers as any other person may. In making Himself known to us He stays by the familiar pattern of personality. He communicates with us through the avenues of the minds, our wills, and our emotions. The contineous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing of the New TEstament religion.<BR>If we would find God...we must first determine to find Him. There is little we nned other than God Himself. In old English from the classis "The Cloud of Unknowing" "Lift up thine heart unto God with a meek stirring of love; and mean Himself, and none of His goods. Seeking Him and only to fellowship with Him, "is the work of the soul that most pleaseth God."<BR>The man who has God for His treasure has all things in one. <BR>I am going to start a thread and maybe together we can discover what it means to seek God in a deeper way. I can get something from a study but He has drawn us here for a reason and that is to make Himself known through our study and then sharing these insights as in the boundaries thread. <BR>I have known for a long time that God wants me to seek Him with all my heart. I got a new journal the other day and started to wriote some stuff in it. All three days have lead me to this place that I am to seek God with all my heart. I believe that, is one of the main purposes of our trials. For me I know He has to remove those things that distract me, or those that have become an idol. My marriage has become an idol. As I'm sure those whose husbands have had a ffairs can testify that oce you find out you become consumed by so many emotions and the undercurrent of wanting to fix things. But for many of us this does not help. It is not until we let God work in us changing us and when we start responding to Him to be drawn to His calling of thirsting for Him and Him alone. He wants us to want Him so much. As I am writing this I am struck with the thought that God wants us as much as we want our marriages to work and our husbands to love us. If we put our energy into seeking God in the same way we are putting our energy to do anything to make our husbands want us, think of where we would be.<P>Father, <BR>Continue to draw us to You. Lord, forgive me that I have put so much energy into seeking to fix.. my marriage and love my husband when You have said to put You in the middle. Wow Lord if I had only put that energy into knowing You and seeking You, I wonder where I would be. Lord to know You is what I so desire as the deer pants for the streams, Lord my soul thirst for You. Lord, I just want you. In Jesus name, Amen.<BR>As always when I am feeling this way I always escape to the Psalms. I read only the praise ones and then I approach the ones that cry out to God. Cry out to Him for help. Cry and call for HIm. Read the Psalms until You are no longer afflicted. He is there, and so loving.<BR>Now I am going to follow my own advice and escape into the Psalms before I go to bed.<P>Thanks to all my friends here who have so encouraged me....

Amen HW. I like your idea of starting a thread about seeking God in a deeper way. I know I need to do this, and have been trying, but seem to get caught up in my emotions over my husband being gone that I have a hard time focusing on the Lord. Is it just me, or is everyone being fiercly attacked this week? <P>God bless,<P>AW

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Is it just me, or is everyone being fiercly attacked this week? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>I have already shared that the crazies are happening at my house too, but I figure it has to be that we are getting new ladies to the forum searching and willing to participate, in addition to many of us verbalizing the greater desire to know our Lord. I do admit, the spirit is helping me more (or I am just hearing better ) to bring scripture to mind to rebuke the evil one with truth. PTL! Getting better at hearing the thought and quickly saying "that's a lie" and then stating what the truth is. The thing we can rejoice in all of this is the last time this happened to all of us, God brought about the boundaries thread, so now that we are thinking about the Getting to know God better thread-WOW! who knows what will happen <P>Trying to remmber these two verses:<P> JAS 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. [8] Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. [9] Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. [10] Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.<P>(We don't flee from the evil one but stand firm and resist and the evil one flees from us!)<P> REV 3:19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. [20] Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.<P>I am being refined. I have to listen and decide if it is the evil one or if the Father is showing me an area that I need to change. (attitude, tongue, bitterness, etc.)<P>Hang in there sister, we have evil on the run!

Last night before I went to bed, I prayed, praised and glorified God for a while. I felt better, and was able to sleep without waking up all night. And, I didn't have any bad dreams about David. PTL!!! <P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Getting better at hearing the thought and quickly saying "that's a lie" and then stating what the truth is<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>This is also what I need to get better at. Last nite when I talked to David, and he got ugly, in the back of my mind I heard "it is Satan not David attacking you". My H is getting frustrated with his job out there, and has turned his anger at me. THe H.S. stayed with me, and although I cried a lot after I hung up, I prayed and praised, then before going to bed called David back, and he was much nicer. I praise the Lord for his divine intervention!!!<P>

In Whose Hands Are You ! <BR> <BR>A basketball in my hands is worth about $19 <BR>A basketball in Michael Jordan's hands is worth about $33 million <BR>It depends whose hands it's in <BR> <BR>A baseball in my hands is worth about $6 <BR>A baseball in Mark Mcquire's hands is worth $19 million <BR>It depends whose hands it's in <BR> <BR>A tennis racket is useless in my hands <BR>A tennis racket in Pete Sampras' hands is a Wimbledon Championship <BR>It depends whose hands it's in <BR> <BR>A rod in my hands will keep away a wild animal <BR>A rod in Moses' hands will part the mighty sea <BR>It depends whose hands it's in <BR> <BR>A sling shot in my hands is a kid's toy <BR>A sling shot in David's hand is a mighty weapon. <BR>It depends whose hands it's in <BR> <BR>Two fish and 5 loaves of bread in my hands is a couple of fish sandwiches. <BR>Two fish and 5 loaves of bread in God's hands will feed thousands <BR>It depends whose hands it's in <BR> <BR>Nails in my hands might produce a birdhouse <BR>Nails in Jesus Christ's hands will produce salvation for the entire world. <BR>It depends whose hands it's in <BR> <BR>As you see now, it depends whose hands it's in. <BR>So put your concerns, your worries, your fears, your hopes, your dreams, your families and your relationships in God's hands because, you see, <BR>It depends whose hands it's in.- <BR> <BR> Author Unknown <P>ARGUING WITH GOD IN PRAYER<BR>by Matt Martin<P>Most of us have found ourselves in a difficult life circumstance that left us perplexed as to how to pray. Prodigal children, the prolonged illness of a loved one, a shameful false accusation, an endless financial crisis, a painful marriage, an intransigent conflict<BR>with a family member or a close friend - how do you pray? Whatever the nature of the circumstance, we have likely all felt battered, confused, deeply discouraged, or even overwhelmed emotionally. Paul expresses these kinds of feelings upon occasion in response to his own circumstances. "We don’t want you in the dark, friends, about how hard it was when all this came down on us in Asia. It was so bad we didn’t think we were going to make it. We felt like we had been sent to death row." <P>(2 Cor.1:8-9, The Message)<P>The seemingly overwhelming nature of these difficult experiences can lead us to question what God is doing. Why is He allowing these painful circumstances to continue? Why isn’t He comforting us with more of His presence? Why isn’t He answering our prayers? How should we be praying in these circumstances? <P>There are no simple answers to these kinds of questions. The lament literature in the<BR>Bible, such as the book of Job, is written for times like these. Upon recently re-reading Job, I was impressed with the idea of arguing with God in prayer from Job 23:3-4 ("I would state my case before Him and fill my mouth with arguments.")<P>Now I know that Job’s arguments against God were fruitless and foolish. But I wondered if it was acceptable to God to present prayer arguments to Him. After some reading and study, I concluded that not only are prayer arguments acceptable to God, but He delights in our "arguing" with Him on the basis of:<P>1. His attributes:<BR> Gen. 18:25 - Abraham argued with God on the basis of His justice.<BR> Spurgeon : "Every attribute of God is a battering ram to open the gates of Heaven and obtain the blessings of God."<P>2. His promises:<BR> Gen. 28:15 - God’s promise to Jacob.<BR> Gen. 32:9 - Jacob argues in prayer with God based on the promise God had given him.<P>3. His reputation:<BR> Exo. 32:11-14 - Moses argued with God on the basis of His reputation with the Egyptians.<BR> v. 12 : "Why should the Egyptians say ‘it was with evil intent that he brought them out (of Egypt)"’<BR> 1 Sam. 12:22 : Samuel argued with God on the basis of God’s "great name" to not reject His people.<P>4. The needs of God’s people:<BR> Lam 4:4-9 : Jeremiah laid the needs of the people of God before the Lord as the basis for asking for God’s mercy and grace (v. 5:1).<P>5. The past:<BR> What God has done in the past, we can ask him to do again.<BR> Ps. 27: 9 & 13 : "you have been my helper" "I am still confident of this..I will<BR>see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."<BR> Phil 1:6 : "he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion."<P>6. Jesus’ name:<BR> The "name of Jesus" embodies the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus as the basis for appealing to God in prayer.<BR> Jn. 16:23-24 - "I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in<BR>my name"'<P>Being aware of these grounds for arguing with God in prayer has increased my boldness and confidence that I can pray more assertively when I feel confused, dazed, beat up, or overwhelmed by life circumstances. It doesn’t mean I get clearer or more timely answers to my prayers all the time, but it has certainly promoted more emotionally honest and unequivocal prayers. This leads me to believe I’m on the path to learning what it means to "wrestle with God" in prayer.<P>

Thank you for posting this. I have been in prayer so much lately. I've been feeling so defeated, downtrodden, overwhelmed and beat up that I need something to keep me going. Why, O why does it have to be sooooooooo hard? I feel like I have been trying so hard, pedaling and pedaling as hard as I can, and getting NOWHERE. Can you tell I am frustrated. <P>

Ah yes, dear sister, but where is it you want to go?

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>So put your concerns, your worries, your fears, your hopes, your dreams, your families and your relationships in God's hands because, you see, <BR>It depends whose hands it's in.- <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>This is a hard one for me. Whenever I see one of those bumper stickers that says "Jesus guides this car," I give that car loads of room! Those cars have a lot of dents more often than not. (need a confused icon here, don't know the code) <P>The boundaries thread made several mentions of taking ourselves off the throne of our own lives. I also recall passages about the importance of free will, that it's so important that God will not steer us toward the best choice because we need to make our own decisions (hope I'm remembering that right). I hope someone can explain how free will is exercised while putting ourselves in the hands of God at the same time. <P>Thanks y'all. just call me slow poke

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by lonesome heart:<BR><B>I also recall passages about the importance of free will, that it's so important that God will not steer us toward the best choice because we need to make our own decisions (hope I'm remembering that right). I hope someone can explain how free will is exercised while putting ourselves in the hands of God at the same time.</B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>I think God wants us to seek Him, to seek His will, and to pray for His will to be done, for His kingdom to come, and for us to remake ourselves into His image, having the attributes and thoughts consistent with Jesus' mind and will. As we become more like Jesus we will want the things God wants. This is the fundamental free choice in life: whether to align ourselves with God or not. When we do, we will pray for the things He wants us to pray for, that He wants us to have.<P>Until we approach that level of spiritual maturity, we pray for understanding, pray to be led to do His will, pray to know the path He desires us to follow. He will give us light as needed. As long as we continue to seek Him, He will not leave us lost without help. <P>Sometimes there is no answer to a given prayer because it really doesn't matter in the long run. Or we have asked the wrong question. Other times we already know the answer and are fighting against the light and knowledge He has already given us, so it feels to us like He is not guiding us.<P>Does God give us inspiration on behalf of others? I have received guidance for advising my children. I have received help with my own attitudes and life directions. Never has God told me what He wants another adult to do. I guess I am not supposed to have any larger dominion than my own life and little ministry among my family and friends. Other's lives and choices are ultimately none of my business. Knowing how to respond to my H is miracle enough for me!!! <P>Answers to prayers for healing and such for others is a little bit different. When God desires to take someone from the earth, we should not try to block the event by prayers, but again, pray for God's will to be done. Sometimes a dying person is held here by the prayers of others and only gets release when family and loved ones realize that the prayers needed are not what they have been offering, and switch to a less "controlling" prayer.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>This is a hard one for me. Whenever I see one of those bumper stickers that says "Jesus guides this car," I give that car loads of room! Those cars have a lot of dents more often than not. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>I Love your word picture! That is it exactly! When we seek his face, his will for our lives, we do run into a lot of cinder blocks, sometimes by our own stubborness and unyielding nature, sometimes by other "well-meaning" friends, sometimes by the evil one himself not wanting us to have victory in our lives. Each moment of our lives is a choice, how we respond to the world around us, the people in it, the challenges that come our way. We choose to love, to hate, to be happy, to be sad, to be vindictive, rebellious and on and on...<P>The Bible lays out tenets which shows God character and how we strive to develop those characteristics that align us as being just like our Dad!<P>Have to leave now. Be back this evening! Keep growing an asking questions!