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I listened again to that song by Lauren Daigle, “You Say”.  I love it!  For how often do we feel we are “not good enough”?  But that’s not what God sees.

God loves us and thanks to Jesus,  He sees our very best self!

 

As a mother, I have always been awed by the love that Mary must have had for God. It’s hard for me to imagine how difficult it must have been for Mary to watch her son, Jesus, suffer so. But she did. And she did it with a courageous and selfless love and faith that has inspired mothers throughout our world for more than 2,000 years. As a mom, I will always be deeply grateful for Mary’s faith, love and selfless sacrifice.

But how often do Protestants and Catholics disagree on whether people should pray to Mary.  But when one truly looks at both sides, they agree more than they disagree.  Because we are not praying to Mary as if she is God, but rather we are asking Mary to pray for us!

Jesus loves Mary.  She’s His Mother.  Think of how we love our mother.  And then think of how Jesus must love His mother!  And think of God.  God does not make mistakes!  And God chose Mary to be Jesus’ mother, because she was so amazing!   As much as God loved His Son, He would have chosen for Him the best possible mother.   Is it really any surprise that when Mary asks the Lord to intervene, He does?

I could never be as brave or selfless as Mary was, but I can pray to be as brave and selfless as I can be.  I think of her so often.  How young she was, how brave she was and how much she suffered for us.  I know that if my son had to go through all the pain that Jesus did, I would not be strong  enough to stand and watch it as she so selflessly did, to give Jesus what comfort she could.  She was willing to suffer so much, so that we might have a Savior who would take us all to Heaven.  And that, is a really special gift!  How can one not be grateful to Mary?

I ask Mary to pray for me all the time and I can’t wait to meet her in Heaven!  And as my Pastor, Pastor Richburg says, Prayer Changes Things ?

 

So often I think of Gideon, because I am like him!  Scared of my own shadow sometimes, but I show up.

Often, God puts something on our heart to do, but we ignore Him.  We’re afraid, busy, concerned it won’t work out well…

But the truth is, as Jim at 90.5 FM Christian radio says, when we go to serve the Lord, the Lord shows up, and that’s all we have to do as well ?

Ever at a loss for words when praying?  I know I am.  And sometimes during a time of struggle, it’s even hard to know what to pray for.  Seems like it would be easy, but sometimes the truly easy prayer is to pray for God’s Will to be done.  After all, God loves us and He knows better than we do what will genuinely help us.

 

It’s at times like these that I am so grateful that I don’t need to have all  of the answers,  I can just say, “Jesus”, and He will come to my rescue 🙂

I woke up one morning and it was raining something fierce!  The kind of rain that you can’t even see through, much less drive in!  I asked God if He could please stop the rain before I left for work.

It stopped raining five minutes before I left.

An Answered Prayer?  A Coincidence?  There was book I read many years ago, God Winks, that reminded me of these types of answered prayers.

So often, God does answer our prayers, because Prayer Changes Things!

We need to give God the credit and the glory 🙂

 

“Counting all my Blessings” is a popular Christian song right now (Rend Collective).  It reminded me this morning that sometimes I am guilty of forgetting to count ALL my Blessings.  It’s easy to remember the “big” ones, I asked God to heal someone who is sick, or someone got a job that they always wanted, or my daughter got home safely!  But there are times where I forget to count the small Blessings that make my life so much better.  Like a friend calling out of the blue, or turning safely through a difficult traffic light, or being able to make dinner for everyone!

These are Blessings too ?

 

So thank you Lord, for making my day so much easier and so much happier!

^“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world”. – 1 John 4:5, Holy Bible 

How often do we feel that we are just not quite doing enough?  Or that the world is overwhelming, or even winning.

But God knew that those times would come and those feelings would occur.  That’s why He gave us this verse.  And we can count on it, as we can count on all of God’s Promises ?.  And no matter what the world makes us feel, the Holy Spirit which is in us-is “greater than the one in the world”. 

So no matter how we feel on any given day, remember it is who we follow every single day that makes us who we are!  And it’s all good ?

“I made you and I will care for you.  I will carry you along and save you. “

Isaiah 46:4 NIV

 

Wow, how Blessed are we?  That God would care for us that much ?

Father, please help them.

Please help those in trouble, and help those who go to help them.

And please Father, help all those who love them both.

In Jesus Name

Amen