The Will of God

We don't usually know the will of God...What is the will of God?? Is it what God thinks is best for me? Yes... is it changed by my prayers? yes, I do believe it is changed by my prayers as evident in the book of Exodus when the Children of Israel made the golden calf....God wanted to destroy them, but Moses begged God not to do it...

Exodus 32:1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. 32:2 And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. 32:3 And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. 32:4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 32:5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD. 32:6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

32:7 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: 32:8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 32:9 And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: 32:10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. 32:11 And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? 32:12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. 32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. 32:14 And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

So, this tells us that we CAN change God's mind as to what is supposed to happen...right?? Okay, so I was thinking this morning on the way to work....I am the world's worst to not ask God for anything...and if I do ask him for anything, I quickly follow it with, "Lord, whatever your will is, you know it, not me..." I am thinking that the devil hampers my prayers alot by reminding me that things that I pray may not be God's will...that I shouldn't ask...that God may give me my wishes and I may not want them after I get them... Ok, so am I weird, or does the devil bother other people like this??
I do believe there is a perfect will of God...I believe he has a pattern for my life...
But this morning, on the way to work, I was thinking....of these verses....

Luke 11:9-10

And I say unto you, ASK, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that ASKeth receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

John 14:13-14

And whatsoever ye shall ASK in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the son

If ye shall ASK any thing in my name, I will do [it].

John 15:7

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ASK what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

These scriptures tell me to ASK!!!! There are things in my life that I have messed up....messes I have made, things I need God to move in...I am gonna stand on the authority of God's word and ASK!!!!!! I think the devil has hampered me too long!!! God knows my heart...He knows that I want his will above everything else...I prayed this morning...."God, if this is not your will, then change my desires...change my wants..."

1 John 5:14-15

And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ASK any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ASK, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

Ephesians 3:20

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ASK or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

WOW...what if He DID do above all that I could ask or think!!!!???? Wow..this is a good promise!!!! I am gonna claim it! I am gonna ask!!!!

Look at all the people in the bible who asked things of God...Elijah prayed for fire on the sacrifice... Nehemiah prayed that he could build the wall back....Hannah prayed for a child... Hezekiah prayed and God added years onto his life...Elijah prayed that it wouldn't rain and then that it would...
Okay....so I guess everyone got their bible study for this morning, huh... LOL

We often ask Why?? (Job ch 1-3)

I read the first 3 chapters of Job last night...I want to kinda explore Job deeper but I am notorious for starting things and never completing them...so anyway, I was reading last night and it has been on my mind strong ever since...
Job had no idea about the conversation that had went on between God and satan...he had no idea why...in chapter 3, he even regretted being born...and he had no idea why he was having all the hardships...that just kept coming in waves...
That is what I am feeling right now...waves and waves of confusion, difficulty, troubles, worries...in the past 7 months, my life has done basically a 180 degree turn...nothing is the same as it was...except my job..and I don't know how long that will be the same...you know those stressor scales? I'm off the charts...LOL
So, what if, there was a conversation that went on in Heaven that I am not aware of....?
God had so much faith that Job wouldn't turn his back on Him and that he would endure....!
WOW! What if....What if God knows I am strong enough to endure all these waves of trials and gave satan permission to try me...? Not that I am anywhere near perfect like Job was...I mean, God gave satan permission to do anything he wanted to him except take his life...and we all agree that satan knows our weaknesses as well as Jesus does...so he[satan] knows just what will get us to deny God...What if he [satan] is trying to see if we will deny God, or quit on God?
Then another thing stuck out to me...Job lost his family...10 kids all in one day...I cannot even begin to imagine how this affected him...and obviously they were a close family, according to scripture... If someone came to me and told me I had lost my possessions, I would have a hard time dealing...but to loose my children too?? I would definitly regret the day I was born and wish I were dead and maybe even follow thru with some ideations....esp since right now, I feel like my kids are all I have...so we don't really understand how Job felt...to loose everything all in one day...and look what he did...
Job 1:20-22
²⁰Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, ²¹And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. ²²In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

I have questioned God...I have said, How much longer do I have to go thru this? I have begged God over and over to take it from me...and Job did nothing but fell on the ground and worshipped...have I worshipped God over what is happening in my life right now? no, not really...I have thanked him for letting me see and come to the knowledge of so many things...but worshipped him? no...
I hope this makes you think as much as it has me...

Just hang on...Can I?

I have had so many doubts...about every couple of days, God shows up and gives me something to keep me hanging on...and me, being the very weak Christian that I am, just get so low and down and decide I have nothing to go on for...and I stop and cry out to the only One I know to cry to..
I have prayed God, give me something to hang on to...I need to know that he is still working and that I am not supposed to give up on my prayer...my hope...Someone just asked me yesterday how in the world I am so strong...I am not strong...I will just go ahead and say here that I love Tom with all my heart and just like the saying goes, you don't know what you got till it is gone...and yes, I have loved him since we were 13 or 14 years old...my close friends in high school remember me having a "crush" on him...as a matter of fact, I told one friend (Becky Cope) that I would marry him...that was my sophomore year I think...but back on topic...I am not strong....I am hanging on to hope by the grace of God...and God will show up and give me something to hope in and that will tide me over for a day or two...then I will go right back downhill....and I have to pray again...so just this week, I have prayed several times, God, I don't know whether to move on or hang on...I also prayed God, give me something at Wednesday night church service to help me...and the preacher preached on having Faith...telling the devil that we were hanging on to Faith...Wow...if that is not a sign from God...I felt so full after church...me and kids went to eat and I was just so full in my chest, I kept telling them how good God was to show up and help me...let me post parts of the scripture he read...2Corinthians 4;8-17

⁷But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.⁸We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;⁹Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 17For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

He also made a statement and made me think of my readers here...How can I testify that God is real if I don't have affliction...and He pulls me thru...I want you to know that if God can help me thru this, He can help you thru ANYTHING you are going thru...Never in my wildest dreams could I have thought I could live 7 months without Tom...but I have thru the Grace of God....and only thru Him...

Compassion...(20th)

Today, I want to pray for my children to have compassion... Compassion for the lost, compassion for the sad, compassion for the lonely, the sick, the poor, the rich...

Compassion is described as being deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it.

Colossians 3;12 says Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering...

The words "put on" reminds me of "to clothe" ...So I like to think that as God's elect, we need to put on mercy, kindness, meekness...humbleness of mind is important here too...so many people let satan build them up in their own mind and it causes all kinds of trouble...

Lord, I pray that my children will be able to put on compassion...to be deeply aware of others suffering and wish to relieve it..

I sometimes think my personality make people think I am hard-hearted...I don't like to let my feelings show and I know it comes across as being non-caring...I blame that on the Richards part of my heritage..they were solomn people...LOL

Humility...(19th)

So today is the 19th...my calendar says to pray for my children's Humility...
Humility definition is accepting our selves as we really are or in other words not prideful...

Titus 3:2 says To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men...

I want my children to be proud of being a child of God, but not proud in a boastful way...I can remember being young and in a class with a little girl who really had major hygiene issues. This wasn't her fault and the other kids shunned her...I tried to include her, but she was still an outcast...nothing that I done, but I just can't stand to see someone left out...I have tried to tell my children to treat others better than they would want to be treated...This is hard for even us, as adults...I try to remind them to help others who are having a hard time...Lukas kept being bullied by a little guy who sat beside him...I just kept saying, Lukas, this little boy acts this way for some reason...please try to understand that this is his way of letting it out...then later I found out that he doesn't live with his Mom or Dad...he lives with his aunt...so obviously there is a problem at home...Finally, Lukas did complain and the teacher saw this as a problem and she moved Lukas...Poor little Morgan acts too much like me...I am saying an extra prayer for her!!! LOL
God, help my children to have the love of God in their hearts so strong that they will show meekness to everyone of their friends and people they meet. Help them not to act like me...

Hope...the 17th

I found a prayer calendar to use when you pray for your children...I want to utilize it on the days when I can think of it...:) Today is the 17th...
So for today, Let's look at Romans 15:13
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

May the God of Hope grant that my children may overflow with hope and hopefulness by the power of the Holy Spirit...

I know that Morgan and Lukas both hope that things in our family life will get better..as a matter of fact, Lukas told me the other day that if he had to wait 6 months till Daddy came home, he would be glad to wait...this broke my heart, but we serve a God of hope...This verse says the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace...This is awesome scripture....I want my children to trust in the God of hope...Hope that will fill them with joy and peace...Hope that will help them make it thru each day, even though things may not be perfect...
Abound in hope...this means to be perfectly supplied or filled...so I want them to be perfectly supplied and filled with the Hope of God...
Thanks God for giving them hope...and me too, God...