“And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19

GOD IS GOOD! This morning I was writing in my journal feeling not really disconnected from God but not truly connected either. You see we moved about 7 weeks ago and the move was exactly what we needed to do and blessed in every way yet the outcome of this move is a longer commute for me. (I used to commute 15 minutes one way and now I communt an hour or so one way.) This loss of 2 hours a day has really been challenging for me because my mornings are no longer leisurely and I have less time to get stuff done around my house. Before the move, I drove and now I take the bus so I have an added pressure of needing to leave the house on time or else get stuck taking a later bus and getting to work later. On top of this, my daughter is having her own struggles with this loss of time together so I’m trying to meet her needs as well. On top of these two things is my desire to manage my money better and deal with financial mistakes made in the past that need to get cleared up now and I tend to beat myself up a bit and get irritated at the bad choices that I can’t do anything about. So as you can see, my heart was a little heavy this morning. 🙂

My journal entry started off with a thank you and a help me please. My heart’s greatest desire is to be close to God, so close that He is my all-in-all and my every thought. However, I’m human (as much as I dislike that) and I don’t stay as close because I let life interfere and that’s what I was doing this morning. At one point I was writing that I knew that God has carried me SO far this year already and that He wasn’t going to drop me now and I wanted to look up the verse in Philippians that says basically that He’s begun a good work in me and He’s able to bring that good work to it’s natural end. This verse was feeling right to me because I’m tired and I’m starting to try to do things on my own and I needed a reminder that my life is HIS good work and HE’S in control. So, the verse reference in my head was Philippians 4:19. When I opened up my bible and read Philippians 4:19 I literally burst into sobbing tears at how lovingly and tenderly God met me and answered my need.

“And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”!!!! Philippians 4:19

WOW! I thought I needed to hear one thing from God and yet He addressed the larger issue and came right to where I was and spoke directly to my heart. I didn’t even see the need I had but He did and He met that need. He’ll meet ALL my needs. He’ll meet my need to prioritize. He’ll meet my need to be more disciplined about my chores. He’ll meet my need about finances. He’ll meet my need to spend time with my daughter. I don’t have a need He can’t meet! And not only that, I don’t have a need He WON’T meet! Praise God! Praise the Living God!

How about you? Do you have a need that you are trying to meet yourself? Stop!! You can’t meet your needs and God doesn’t want you to even try. Give Him your needs. Give Him the needs you know about and give Him the needs you aren’t aware of yet. Right now, physically lift your hands into the air and pray, “Heavenly and gracious Father, I am giving you my needs. My needs that are weighing me down right now and my needs that are coming in the future. Take them. Meet them. Replace them in my heart with your love, grace, peace and mercy. You are bigger than my needs and I don’t want them anymore. Thank you for loving me enough to meet my needs long before I even ask. I love you. Amen.”

God is good. He is with you every step of the way so don’t worry, don’t stress, don’t take matters into your own hands…trust Him. He says He’ll meet your needs and He will. Be patient and watch what He’ll do. It may not be today and it may not be tomorrow but He will meet your need in His perfect time. If you need prayer please email me at kaprayingforyou@gmail.com. If you prayed this prayer, please let me know!

May God’s love, grace, peace and mercy fill you to overflow.

KA 🙂

“The Lord directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?” Proverbs 20″24 NLT

Why? Why, though an awesome question in many situations, is a frustrating question when it comes to the struggles we face in life. Why emotional pain? Why physical pain? Why can’t I get a better job? Why I can’t I find a job? Why is my spouse angry? Why don’t my children listen? Why, if you are a loving God, did you allow this circumstance into my life? I could write a novel of all the “why” questions that I and those around me have asked and in the end, what good does that do, really?

Let’s take a quick look at Job. When he sat on a trash heap, scraping at his skin, he didn’t understand why God had taken EVERYTHING away from him. Do you think that if God had answered his why question it would have helped his pain? I don’t. Asking why doesn’t change the situation or take away the pain, it just adds more information to process and that’s not necessarily a positive.  And because God is our Father, like any parent, He’s got more information than we do and He understands the direction we are headed and so His answer most of the time to our question of why is, “Because I said and I’m your Father and I know what’s best.”

My mom died suddenly and unexpectedly. I was talking to her on a Wednesday evening around 5:30p and 30 minutes later she was in an ambulance on the way to the ER. Then 5 days later she was gone. She had an aneurysm that her brain just couldn’t recover from and so she went on to be with God. My mother and I didn’t have a typical mother-daughter relationship. My mother was the center of my world, the glue that held everything together. I worked to support her and my daughter and she did everything else, and that’s no exaggeration. I didn’t know where we banked and I didn’t know how to pay the bills. I didn’t know what was happening in PTA. I didn’t know how to use the brand new washing machine. My mother did it all and losing her was a blow I almost didn’t survive. And how many times do you think I shook my fist at heaven, so angry at God I could barely keep my sanity in check, screaming “WHY!!??”? Too many times to count. And in the midst of my pain I got no response. God was directing my path in a way I was not interested in following. But the truth was that the reason for this amazing pain was to get me back on the path He had for me. See, I had wandered so far away that God was just a shadow in my life and not a central figure. I didn’t need Him, I had my mom! I knew enough about God to believe in what Jesus had done for my sins but I didn’t want to have a true relationship with God because I didn’t feel I needed Him. What on earth could He do for me that my mom wasn’t already doing?

It took me 3 1/2 long and painful years of drinking, of hurting, of being places I shouldn’t be with people I shouldn’t know to finally get an answer to why God had called my mom home to be with Him. God knew my mom was His daughter and that she was going to a better place with Him. He also knew that I would never figure out how much I needed Him with her here and that she could help me more than she ever had here on earth by being in Heaven with Him so He took her. And even though my initial reaction was to run even farther away, the running was actually towards Him because it got me talking to Him even though I was angry and self-destructive. And when my rebellion got me to the place of sitting in a hospital emergency room having an anxiety attack that I thought was a heart attack and then finding that my heart was actually physically hardening, I gave up. I gave up the anger. I gave up the running. I gave up friends and habits. I cried out, “SAVE ME!” and God said, “Here I am”.

Don’t ask why anymore. Have the faith to know that God loves you and that He’ll do whatever He needs to do to draw you close to Him because in the end, He directs your path not you. He has ultimate control not you. He may let you wander but He will never let you go. Don’t let Satan lie to you and tell you that you don’t need God or that you can live life just fine on your own because you can’t. It’s not your option. God directs your path. God has your plan. God loves you. God has redeemed you. God is good. If you don’t feel that it’s ok, pray that you will and find the verses in His Word that will speak to you His love. He’s just waiting for you to say you want Him as the center of your life.

If you need help finding verses that will help you in the midst of your struggle, email me and I’ll share my key verses that I meditate on over and over. If you need prayer, email me and let me walk with you and share you journey. My email is kaprayingforyou@gmail.com.

God’s got you, don’t doubt it. Turn towards Him and before you can even fully turn around He’ll meet with His love, grace, peace and mercy and you’ll never be the same again.

KA 🙂

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning, great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.” Lamentation 3:22-24

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;” God’s love is solid no matter what is happening because it’s steadfast. It never changes. It never fluctuates with your mood. It is never far away. It is ALWAYS towards you and with you no matter what is happening in your life. You can’t escape it and you can’t do anything to earn it. Isn’t that awesome? I know it’s hard to believe for some of us because we feel like we’ve gone too far and God can’t love us anymore. Trust me friend, that is a lie you don’t want to believe because it robs you of everything God has for you. Trust God that His love is steadfast and never ceases.

“His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning,” There is no point at which God will say, “sorry, I have no more mercy for you, you used it all up!” His mercy for you is not only unending, it’s new every morning! So, when you feel like God can’t forgive you anymore because you’ve done too much wrong, try with all your might to quote this verse and call out the lie that Satan is feeding you. God can and will forgive you and pour His amazing mercy on you at any point if you repent with a sincere heart.

“great is Your faithfulness.” If steadfast love that never ceases and mercies that are new everyday AND unending aren’t enough to show you that God is faithful then I don’t know what will.

“The Lord is my portion” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.” All you need is God. His love and mercy is all you need to get through every single moment of every single day of your life. Does that mean every day is wine and roses? Nope. Does that mean that you won’t stumble and fall? Nope. It means that at every moment of your life you have a choice to make: choose God’s steadfast love and unending mercy or yourself. For me, there is no option, it’s God every time.

God has so much He wants to do in your life so don’t be the barrier. Go to God, confess whatever you need to confess, ask for help and then accept His amazing love, grace, peace and mercy. He’s just waiting for you to turn around and once He sees you starting to move, He’ll swoop in and save you. He won’t always stop whatever the natural course of events is, He doesn’t say you’ll never have pain, but He does say that His love and mercy are there for you at anytime and in any situation. Grab hold of that and never let it go.

If you need prayer or feel like you can’t let go of something and need someone to share the burden with, please email me at kaprayingforyou@gmail.com. I know the pain of not letting go and letting God heal you and I want to show you how amazing life can be living in his love, grace, peace and mercy.

KA 🙂