Our Common Struggles

It was an honor to pray through every request left here over the weekend. None of us are alone in our struggles to obey God and tame our “flesh.” I related to so many of you, and I felt for all of you.  I prayed for each of you, and your family members if you mentioned them in your comment.

I prayed to the unrelenting God whose love and mercy chases after us all the days of our lives! (Psalm 23:6)

I don’t know who is going to win the book – I’ll pop over to the random number generator website in a minute and find out. I wish I could give you each a  copy!  Some of your prayer requests even reminded me of specific chapters in my book.  I’m going to post a few here so you can get a feel for what the book addresses – and hopefully you’ll pause and pray for these sisters.

Jennifer wrote:

“Something I have struggled to tame is my pet peeves. Oh my goodness I have a long list of them! Recently God told me to write them down (and it filled up a piece of paper mind you). After writing them down God told me to really look at them. Do any of them matter? No. It does not matter if someone leaves a closet door open or doesn't put the cereal box back with the label out. If these things are causing me to take my focus off God, even for a moment, then they are wrong. So I am working to tame my pet peeves!! I am super excited for your book to come out!”

Oh Jennifer – I can so relate.  And let me tell you, chapter 7 of this book is sooo for you!

Faith wrote:

“I struggle with control issues and allowing people to see the real me. I don't like feeling like I don't have any control when it comes to certain issues in my life.”

Sweet Faith, I believe chapter 8 can help you move past this. (And I suspect chapter 9 can help you with the rest of your comment I didn’t post.)

Janet wrote:

“I am struggling with knowing I have all these health issues and using a lot of my money to pay for the medical bills. This exhausts me and frustrates me because I personally would like to be doing other things with God's money. I want to obey him but it is frustrating when my finances seem to burden me with each passing day. I have a hard time realizing that God knows what he's doing and he's only going to let me know so much for the plan he has for my life. I pray that God can change my heart to obey him with his money and through my health issues I will bring glory to his name. Amen! “

Janet, money is such a powerful force in life – that’s why I looked at it in chapter 5.  I’m so glad you recognize it’s on loan to you from God. Praying for you, dear one.

Candice wrote:

“My mom said my favorite word was "why?" until I left home. Recently, she's been hearing it more ...from herself. She has questions for God I can't answer. The struggle to find the right words must be how she felt when I asked so many unexplainable questions; i.e. "why is the sky blue?” I now know why the sky is blue and the grass is green, but there are some unanswered questions still rumbling around my mind. And I'm learning to trust God to show me the way. The encouragement I read in P31 blogs are always spot on!Hopefully, my mom is receiving the same encouragement from me (and from P31) to accept questions that go unanswered.

Candice, I’m not certain if your mom is a follower of Christ struggling to understand some perplexing things in life, or in the seeking stage asking you about the God you follow. Either way, I think chapter 13 could help.  And so could chapter 6. I’m happy to hear glad P31 has been a blessing to you!

Carla wrote:

“I have 2 very annoying and conflicting problems that I struggle with on a daily basis. First, I'm a perfectionist. I like things in order, specific order. I avoid doing something if I don't have the time, equipment, resources, etc. to finish the task or project to the best of my ability. Which brings me to my second problem........I procrastinate/or easily distracted. Because of my perfectionist side, I like to have things DONE but done right. The procrastinator in me won't let me do something unless I know it will be done right, the perfectionist in me is anxious until the job is done......but done right. Are you starting to see the conflict within my own mind that I have to contend with on a daily basis? HAHA....I have to laugh about it sometimes, or I'm afraid I will go insane  :)”

Carla, believe me, I know all about this crazy cycle you are in. I wrote about it in chapter 7.  I also wrote about it in the September issue of the P31 Woman magazine.  And I wrote a very practical accompanying article you can access online at the P31 website HERE.  Pop over and check it out.

So, who will win the book today? Will it be one of these gals - or will it be you? 

Off to get the winning comment number …

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

59     Timestamp: 2010-08-30 11:42:57 UTC

Congrats, Lo, I hope you enjoy the read! The rest of you stay tuned here  for other possible chances to win -  pop over to Amy Carroll’s blog from my sidebar today to enter one - or just grab yourself a copy and see what secrets God has in store for you!