Potty Prayers

¹⁰“For as the rain comes down,
and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
¹¹ So shall My word be that goes
forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the
thingfor which I sent it.
– Isaiah 55:10-11 (NKJV)

Jenny over at Life is Not a Cereal shared yesterday about her struggle with putting God first. There were quite a few awesome things that happened through her honesty in posting. One, it made me stop and think about what I was doing to put God first. Often times I sit down at my computer to catch up on blogs or check email before I read my Bible. Second, there are many of us who struggle with this every day — I’d venture to say most of us if not all of us. There were many “me too” comments to her post. Third, Jenny made it a point to pick up something to read before she even had her coffee. She picked up one devotional and then another — not really feeling God speaking to her. Then she did an awesome thing. She picked up her Bible and just opened it. Have you ever done that? God led her to some scripture that really spoke to her, and frankly spoke to me too.

I sat down first thing this morning, sleep in my eyes and opened my Bible up to where ever. I opened it to Isaiah 55 and read some of these verses. God is so cool These verses talk about how God’s Word will not return to Him empty. It’s always planting a seed, watering a plant, or growing a plant big and strong. God’s Word always does His purpose. So maybe instead of reading what others have to say about God’s Word, maybe you should step away from the keyboard and grab your Bible. And yes, that includes reading this blog too You can always come back and read after you read your Bible!

Prayer: Lord, thank You so much for giving us Your Word to read. It is truly awesome and amazing to think that everything I need to know is in Your Word. Your Word had the power to create this world and everything in it. Your Word is so very powerful still today and will be forever. Thank You for sending Your Word to me. I truly am blessed to be able to read even several different translations of the Bible. Help Your Word grow inside me.

3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ “ — Luke 4:3,4

A friend of mine went through her first spiritual attack last Sunday — at least her first noticeable one since she made the decision to follow Jesus. One friend told her she had left herself open for attack because she read the latest Harry Potter book. One friend told her the devil was trying to tempt her — distract her. She wanted to know my opinion on it. I told her I agreed totally with her second friend. The reason I don’t agree with the first friend is because Jesus was tempted by the devil three times in the wilderness. Jesus didn’t do anything to “open himself up for attack.” The devil is a deceiver and a liar. he will come after every single person, and I think he especially comes after God’s children. Why does he do that? Can he take away our salvation? Absolutely not! What he can do is distract us. In this scripture, we see the devil trying to get Jesus thinking about His physical body and hunger. Instead, Jesus replies with scripture — God’s Word — because He was focused on doing God’s will.

The devil comes after me all the time. “Sure it’d be ok to go read that blog. You can read your Bible later.” “Oh your body is so tired. Lay down and take a nap. The housework can wait another week.” I’m sure you get the point. When we wake up in the morning we need to start the day off with prayer. Prayer to help us be focused on God all day, to not be distracted by the devil, and to obviously see the devil’s lies and tactics for what they are.

Prayer: Lord, I thank you so much for sending Jesus not to just die for my sins, but to give me an example of how I should be living my life. I know I can’t do it alone. Please help me to be strong, to fight off the temptations that may distract me from Your Will, and give me the discernment to know when I’m being attacked and when I’m in Your Will.