I've enjoyed hearing from so many of you as I've read your comments. Several of you wanted to know what I meant when I wrote that I speak blessings over my husband in my "Bragging Rights" post. Its pretty simple, really.
Through out the Bible we see this spiritual principal in action. God's first act after creating Adam and Eve was to bless them (Gen.5:2). He also spoke a blessing over Noah and his family after the flood (Gen.9:1), and Abraham (Gen.12:1-3), and Jacob (Gen.32:24-30), and David and his descendants (2 Samuel 7:24-29). Look these scripture references up today for yourself and read them.
There are also examples through out the Bible of people speaking blessings over other people. Genesis 27 tells the story of a father departing a blessing to his son (vs.27-29) - although this particular story involves some trickery and scandal! In Genesis 48:14-20 we have a beautiful picture of how Jacob (Israel) blessed Joseph's sons by placing his hands upon their heads and speaking. Then in Genesis 49:22-28 we read how Jacob also blesses Joseph. In the New Testament in Luke 2:34, Simeon blesses both Mary and Jesus. Hebrews 7:6-7 mentions blessing being departed. Jesus himself even instructed us to "bless those who curse you" (Luke 6:28).
A beautiful traditional blessing can be found in Numbers 6:22-27. Many pastors speak this blessing over their congregations at the conclusion of the weekly worship service.
These blessings I speak aren't prophetic, except perhaps in a vague sense of the word. A prophecy would come from God's Holy Spirit, and be spoken through a person. A blessing comes from a person, and is spoken to God's Holy Spirit, that it might be carried out. It's an active, intentional prayer spoken with confident authority and faith.
So how do I do this? I often lay my hand on my husband and declare in Jesus' Name that he is blessed of God. I don't always touch him, but I always say it out loud - whether Rick can hear me or not (sometimes he is busy working or asleep). I say this confidently but respectfully - knowing that I cannot command God to do anything, yet believing that God has good plans for my husband and desires to bless him (however He defines that or sees fit). I'll do the same for my kids as we say nightly prayers together, or as as I stop into their bedroom at the end of the day to check on them before I head to bed. While they sleep I touch them or call them by name, as I call them blessed in Christ's name. Sometimes I go into more "detail,"other times I simply declare them "blessed."
Bottom line: a blessing is essentially a commanding form of prayer, seen in the Bible performed by God or by children of God. Its part of the way God reigns in and through our lives. So, all you who desire God's blessing and seek His face, today I call YOU blessed in Jesus' Name!
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Friday, October 12, 2007
Understanding the Bible
I used to read a lot of Christian books but I rarely read the Bible other than in church. I figured this was fine because the books contained scripture. (True, but that's a little like eating only the grapes that are loose at the bottom of the bag and avoiding the ones that are still on the bunch.)
If you find it hard to understand the Bible, or feel like many sections of it aren't very applicable to your own life, then begin your quiet time by praying and asking God to give you a passion for His Word, and the wisdom to understand and apply it!
"Call to me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know." Jeremiah 33:3
What a sweet promise from our Maker. Have you spent time with Him today?
PS - Those of you who asked about speaking blessings over your loved ones, I will address that in more detail in a post soon!
If you find it hard to understand the Bible, or feel like many sections of it aren't very applicable to your own life, then begin your quiet time by praying and asking God to give you a passion for His Word, and the wisdom to understand and apply it!
"Call to me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know." Jeremiah 33:3
What a sweet promise from our Maker. Have you spent time with Him today?
PS - Those of you who asked about speaking blessings over your loved ones, I will address that in more detail in a post soon!
Thursday, October 11, 2007
How I spend time with God - setting the stage
In my ideal world, I’d have a Starbucks’ frappachino every morning. But that requires that I go to the coffee shop and shell out $4 to buy one. That doesn’t happen often. Sometimes I buy those Starbucks drinks in the small glass bottles from the grocery store and pull one of those from the fridge. Not the same, but still yummy. More often than not, however, I’m drinking tea with God.
I’m weird about drinking hot drinks in the morning – I only like them at night unless I am freezing cold. On the coldest mornings I’ll have hot tea or hot cocoa with God. However, mostly I drink iced green tea or Diet Coke. We usually meet with friends or family over coffee, tea or food, so I figure why not with God!
Besides my liquid of choice, I like to have a scented candle lit to set the stage. It makes me settle down and feel all warm and fuzzy. Something about that flame says to me: this is special time. The lighting and later the blowing out of the candle marks the official beginning and ending of my "quiet time." Of course, I’m never really apart from God:
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height or depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:38-39
I’m a scented candle kind of gal. That’s an understatement since from where I sit at the moment I can see 11 different candles across two rooms! But I try to use the same candle during my time with God. That way I have a visual reminder of how often I’m spending time with Him. As the wax level drains I know my spirit is filling up. If I get to the end of a week and that candle jar looks just as full as it did on Sunday, I know I’ve not been making time to connect with Him. Some people might like to check it off a to-do list, or mark an X on the calendar day to indicate they’ve spent some time with Him, but I like watching the scented candle wax disappear into the heavens like a fragrant offering.
A final way that I set the stage for spending some time with God is with music. If I’m trying to read the Bible I usually avoid playing anything with lyrics so I can concentrate. I have several instrumental Christian CDs - try hymns set to a Celtic beat for something different. I also have ambient music CDs like a running stream or birds chirping at dawn.
Occasionally, however, I just feel like "gettin' my praise on" as my worship leader girlfriend Gwen says. So I'll put on an up-beat contemporary praise and worship CD and crank it up loud. I’ve been known to dance and sing. I've also been known to lie on the floor with my eyes closed ... lost in the music and the One it is for ... letting the tears that sometimes come push their way out between my closed lids.
Music can usher us to God’s throne room! If you're trying to connect with God or the Bible and can’t seem to “get into it,” try playing some worship music, closing your eyes and contemplating the lyrics as you listen for awhile.
Other times I enjoy the weight of the silence in the room. Sometimes silence is just what the soul needs. Now, if you’re a mom with little ones I KNOW this feels like a tall order. I have two kids, and once they reached school-age I began home schooling them (in an open floor-plan home no less). So alone time and silence were very hard to come by most days. Hard to come by, but not impossible: I could get up before them, or stay up after them. Or I could adapt to the fact that other things were going on around me, and make the effort to press into God anyway. My friend Marybeth who was also home schooling her brood used to tell me she did her praying in the shower because that was the only place she could find some peace and solitude!
Tea, candles, music - none of this is necessary but it helps me transtion into a place of connection with the Lord. So set the stage in whatever ways you can to help you to come to and connect with God. Don’t set yourself up for failure, however, with expectations about how a quiet time “should” be (or used to be) that your current circumstances can’t match. Just make it a priority and press in, letting God take care of all the rest.
Have you decided yet when you’ll sit down with God tomorrow? Remember it doesn’t need to be long; it just needs to be done!
stay tuned for more to come on this topic
I’m weird about drinking hot drinks in the morning – I only like them at night unless I am freezing cold. On the coldest mornings I’ll have hot tea or hot cocoa with God. However, mostly I drink iced green tea or Diet Coke. We usually meet with friends or family over coffee, tea or food, so I figure why not with God!
Besides my liquid of choice, I like to have a scented candle lit to set the stage. It makes me settle down and feel all warm and fuzzy. Something about that flame says to me: this is special time. The lighting and later the blowing out of the candle marks the official beginning and ending of my "quiet time." Of course, I’m never really apart from God:
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height or depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:38-39
I’m a scented candle kind of gal. That’s an understatement since from where I sit at the moment I can see 11 different candles across two rooms! But I try to use the same candle during my time with God. That way I have a visual reminder of how often I’m spending time with Him. As the wax level drains I know my spirit is filling up. If I get to the end of a week and that candle jar looks just as full as it did on Sunday, I know I’ve not been making time to connect with Him. Some people might like to check it off a to-do list, or mark an X on the calendar day to indicate they’ve spent some time with Him, but I like watching the scented candle wax disappear into the heavens like a fragrant offering.
A final way that I set the stage for spending some time with God is with music. If I’m trying to read the Bible I usually avoid playing anything with lyrics so I can concentrate. I have several instrumental Christian CDs - try hymns set to a Celtic beat for something different. I also have ambient music CDs like a running stream or birds chirping at dawn.
Occasionally, however, I just feel like "gettin' my praise on" as my worship leader girlfriend Gwen says. So I'll put on an up-beat contemporary praise and worship CD and crank it up loud. I’ve been known to dance and sing. I've also been known to lie on the floor with my eyes closed ... lost in the music and the One it is for ... letting the tears that sometimes come push their way out between my closed lids.
Music can usher us to God’s throne room! If you're trying to connect with God or the Bible and can’t seem to “get into it,” try playing some worship music, closing your eyes and contemplating the lyrics as you listen for awhile.
Other times I enjoy the weight of the silence in the room. Sometimes silence is just what the soul needs. Now, if you’re a mom with little ones I KNOW this feels like a tall order. I have two kids, and once they reached school-age I began home schooling them (in an open floor-plan home no less). So alone time and silence were very hard to come by most days. Hard to come by, but not impossible: I could get up before them, or stay up after them. Or I could adapt to the fact that other things were going on around me, and make the effort to press into God anyway. My friend Marybeth who was also home schooling her brood used to tell me she did her praying in the shower because that was the only place she could find some peace and solitude!
Tea, candles, music - none of this is necessary but it helps me transtion into a place of connection with the Lord. So set the stage in whatever ways you can to help you to come to and connect with God. Don’t set yourself up for failure, however, with expectations about how a quiet time “should” be (or used to be) that your current circumstances can’t match. Just make it a priority and press in, letting God take care of all the rest.
Have you decided yet when you’ll sit down with God tomorrow? Remember it doesn’t need to be long; it just needs to be done!
stay tuned for more to come on this topic
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
How I spend time with God - the place
For me personally, where I sit is important. I can't concentrate well if I'm surrounded by other projects or clutter. Clutter will make me feel too chaotic to get started, and seeing lots of other things I need to get done will make me think I'm too busy to have time for this today.
That's a lie of course, but I know that's how it makes me feel so I avoid facing my desk, which makes me think of the six deadlines I've got. I avoid facing the kitchen sink because it reminds me of the dishes I need to do, or the meals I need to plan. And I wouldn't dream of going near the laundry room because I seem to be forever behind on laundry! But if I wait for my house to be perfectly clean to sit down with God, I'll only spend time with Him maybe 10 days a year!
Instead I sit at my kitchen table which is situated in a nook with a bay window. I face out the windows with my back to the rest of the kitchen. If my kitchen table happens to be cluttered, I clear it first. Else I move to a different location since I'm so easily driven to distraction.
Spot number two is a little cafe table in my family room that is situated in a corner between two windows. I face, you guessed it, out the windows with my back to the rest of the house. I like sitting at tables because it allows me to easily write down thoughts or scriptures or prayers. My little cafe table and 2 chairs tend to stay clean and clear with little effort (unlike my kitchen table) so its almost always available.
Some days, however, the best I can do is collapse in my recliner and read some out of my Bible. Maybe I'm feeling tired, or a little under the weather, or just totally uninspired, but on these occasions I don't try to have a big Bible quiet time "session." I just crawl in the recliner with God. If you have uninspired days too, do what I do and trust in the fact that God said His Word would never return to Him void. If you have times you feel like nothing you are reading is sinking in, pray that Isaiah 55:ll will be true in your life:
"So will my word be which goes out of my mouth: it will not come back to me with nothing done, but it will give effect to my purpose, and do that for which I have sent it." -Isaiah 55:11
But that's more on par with my next post on this topic ... so stay tuned for more. And check back in the coming days and weeks if you want a little accountability on this. Oh, and feel free to leave a comment and tell me where you like to meet with God, I'd really love to hear about it!
I'll try and post a picture of my "quiet spots" tomorrow.
That's a lie of course, but I know that's how it makes me feel so I avoid facing my desk, which makes me think of the six deadlines I've got. I avoid facing the kitchen sink because it reminds me of the dishes I need to do, or the meals I need to plan. And I wouldn't dream of going near the laundry room because I seem to be forever behind on laundry! But if I wait for my house to be perfectly clean to sit down with God, I'll only spend time with Him maybe 10 days a year!
Instead I sit at my kitchen table which is situated in a nook with a bay window. I face out the windows with my back to the rest of the kitchen. If my kitchen table happens to be cluttered, I clear it first. Else I move to a different location since I'm so easily driven to distraction.
Spot number two is a little cafe table in my family room that is situated in a corner between two windows. I face, you guessed it, out the windows with my back to the rest of the house. I like sitting at tables because it allows me to easily write down thoughts or scriptures or prayers. My little cafe table and 2 chairs tend to stay clean and clear with little effort (unlike my kitchen table) so its almost always available.
Some days, however, the best I can do is collapse in my recliner and read some out of my Bible. Maybe I'm feeling tired, or a little under the weather, or just totally uninspired, but on these occasions I don't try to have a big Bible quiet time "session." I just crawl in the recliner with God. If you have uninspired days too, do what I do and trust in the fact that God said His Word would never return to Him void. If you have times you feel like nothing you are reading is sinking in, pray that Isaiah 55:ll will be true in your life:
"So will my word be which goes out of my mouth: it will not come back to me with nothing done, but it will give effect to my purpose, and do that for which I have sent it." -Isaiah 55:11
But that's more on par with my next post on this topic ... so stay tuned for more. And check back in the coming days and weeks if you want a little accountability on this. Oh, and feel free to leave a comment and tell me where you like to meet with God, I'd really love to hear about it!
I'll try and post a picture of my "quiet spots" tomorrow.
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