Potty Prayers

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous hand. — Isaiah 41:10 (NIV)

Most of the scriptures talking about fear, use fear to say we should fear God. Not in a bad way, but a respectful way. Our God is very powerful, holy and just. I’ve been thinking a lot about fear lately. The start of nice weather has brought out ticks in our area. My daughter has had several ticks on her the past few weeks. I started to say I’m afraid of ticks, but I think it’d be better to say I really, really do not like them one bit. I’d rather not deal with them, but it’s a fact of life, I do have to deal with them.

What is your greatest fear? Do you have a fear of pain? Do you have a fear of dying? Do you have a fear of needles? Do you have a fear of insects, bugs and crawling things? I don’t have a fear of dying because I know when I die I will be with Jesus in heaven. My greatest fear is having something like Alzheimer’s. Forgetting who my family is, who I am, and things that have happened in the past would be very difficult to deal with. My greatest fear though, is forgetting I am saved by Jesus’ blood. Jesus died on the cross, suffering an incredible amount of pain, and rose again on the third day. He suffered for me and forgetting that is my greatest fear.

No matter what your fears are — how big or how small — we serve a great and awesome God who cares about every detail in our life. Take your fears to Him.

Prayer: God, I come to You humbly and ask You to strengthen me, to help me, and to hold me in Your hand always. Help me to live the kind of life that brings You glory, and not to live a life of fear. Show me how You’d have me to deal with my fear of . Thank You God that I can bring anything to You in prayer — no matter how small it may seem.

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. — Psalms 119:11

Confession time. I have a horrible memory. Honestly I do. Maybe that’s why God’s calling me to write so I don’t forget all the wonderful things He’s done for me. I shared in “Worthless” that my husband is working with my daughter on memorizing scripture. This of course, has turned into a family affair which is totally awesome. It helps me to remember the verses hearing them recite them to each other. As we are learning more and more verses though, I’m finding it difficult to keep them straight in my head.

I had the pleasure of meeting Debbie a few nights ago. Through God’s wonderful “coincidences” I attended a local Christian Writers Group. Debbie has a tremendous heart for evangelism and sharing Jesus with anyone and everyone she meets. As she shared with us Bible verses to encourage us to evangelize, I noticed she was just rattling off the verses. She had the Word hidden in her heart for sure — and it was overflowing! She was like a walking Bible!!

Some of us in the group shared how we are hesitant to “evangelize” — I think it’s a rather big scary word myself. Surely evangelism is for the pastors, deacons and Sunday School teachers (of which I am not apart of!). I realized from Debbie you don’t have to memorize a lot of verses, or memorize those … um, plans? … to share Jesus. It’s awesome to memorize scripture and we should! But even if it’s only 1 verse, God will still use that. He’ll use whatever verses we store in our heart to bless those around us. What’s important is our attitude — every day and every place we go. As Debbie shared, most of us look like we ate lemons.

Start right now with one verse. Hide it in your heart and no one will ever be able to take that away from you! Having a bad memory is no excuse either. God will bless you if you just try.

Prayer: Lord, please help protect my mind from anything that does not please You. Help my memory. Help me to hide Your Word in my heart and don’t let anything or anyone ever take that away. Put a smile on my face. Let me focus on the great things You’ve done and to spread Your light, Your sunshine through me.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. — Philippians 4:6-7

In everything — every small detail — take it to God. God knows our hearts, our minds, our thoughts, so why must we let our requests be made known? When we pray, it’s not to tell God something He doesn’t know — He knows it all — but when we pray, it puts our minds, our thoughts, and our focus on God. We are being obedient with His will for us. If we don’t pray, we are missing out on the peace of God which does surpass anything we can humanly understand. What’s even better — is that peace guards our hearts and minds. “Guards against what?” you may ask. Guards our thoughts and minds from things that are not pleasing to God. Guards us from evil, helps steer us away from sin. So pray! Pray for everything — every detail in your life. God cares because you are special and unique. Don’t believe otherwise.

Prayer: Lord, please help me to bring everything to You. Help me not to be anxious or worry about things — especially things of this world. Help me to know Your awesome peace and Your will for my life. Guard my heart and my mind and help me to focus on You. Make Yourself known in every detail of my life. Help me to remember I am special and unique in Your eyes. Thank You for Your love.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” — Jeremiah 1:5

God may not have appointed me to be a prophet but He knew me before He formed me in my mom’s tummy. He set me apart and He has plans for me only I can do. That fact makes me so humble. I’m so not worthy of anything. I feel so uneducated most of the time. Surely there’s someone out there who can carry out His plans better than I?

Nope. He knows me. He knows you. He knows the number of the hairs on our head. He put me in this spot, right now, to put these words into the computer. He put you in that spot there to read these words. I have dreamed of being a writer for many years. A dream that I believe is God-given. I’ve been afraid but worse, I’ve been disobedient to the Lord.

Jeremiah goes on to say in Jeremiah 1:6 — “Ah, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.”

Isn’t that the way we all are? God calls us to do something – even something as simple as writing down our thoughts for others to read, and we start making excuses. “Lord I don’t know how to write.” “Lord I don’t know what to say to her – can’t she pick up that book?”

I am coming to realize no one in the world has ever been exactly through the things I’ve been through. We’re not alone though. We all have had similar experiences and if we don’t share them with each other, you start to feel isolated and alone. I’m sharing my stories and I want you to share yours. Only God knows who you can reach with your story.

Prayer: Lord, help me to never feel alone again. Reach down from heaven and put those big world-sized arms around me and make your presence known without a doubt. Draw Godly people into my life. Someone I feel comfortable talking to – someone I can trust and share my fears with. Thank you Lord. You put me in this place, right at this moment and you are looking out for me.

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” — Luke 11:9-10 (NIV)

I have been witnessing to a friend of mine. She’s been asking some really tough questions of me which I think is great. One of the things I keep telling her though, is to pray about it. Jesus gave us these verses when He was teaching on prayer.

We can pray anytime, anywhere. We can ask God anything. He already knows it all, but when we go to Him in prayer, we are letting Him know we are seeking answers. We are looking for the truth. When we seek God, we will find Him. When we ask God questions, He will answer us. It may not be the answer we want, but we will get an answer.

I shared with my friend that I’m easily distracted. So when I pray and ask God to give me clarity, I often add “Lord, you know how I am. I need an answer from You, and I need You to make it very clear – very simple - very obvious. Let me know without a doubt the answer is coming from You.” The Lord has always answered my prayers even in tough situations. He also sent an extra serving of grace and patience with the answers I didn’t want to hear, so even then, I was ok with His answers.

Prayer: Lord, my prayer for everyone reading this is for them to seek Your answers to any questions they have. Help them to feel comfortable asking You anything. Give them an extra dose of grace, love and patience when You give them answers they weren’t expecting or looking for. Thank You Lord that You always open the door when we knock.