Corporate Prayer & Praying Scripture

I just got off a prayer webinar with my fellow Siestas. We meet every Monday and Thursday nights at 9pm CST to pray for Joanne. Joanne is our sister in Christ who suffered a massive stroke on January 11. She is on the long journey to recovery now in a long-term acute care hospital and will soon be moved to a rehab hospital. Joanne is making daily strides and we are so excited and praying for a complete healing over her.

But meeting online with these ladies who I have never met and only follow on "The Twitter" has made a huge impact on my prayer life. The Lord promises that where two or three are gathered in His name, he will be there. And y'all, He makes his presence known. I love these sisters in Christ and look forward to hugging their necks one day. Their prayers are amazing and such an encouragement to me.

That last few months for me have been incredible in my relationship with the Lord. I have learned so much. The most exciting part for me is learning how to pray Scripture. I've always heard people pray Scripture and told how powerful it is, but I've never really done it. It is SO powerful. Here, for example:

Lord, I come to you. I am weary and burdened. Give me your rest that you promise. I want to learn from you and your gentleness and humbleness. Thank you for your rest for my soul and for your yoke that is easy and your burden that is light. Amen. Matt. 11:28

I am so grateful for Jesus. And for sisters who love Him so. And love each other; even when we don't know each other, but we share a bond, that is Jesus Christ.

I want to pray for you. How can I pray for you?

SSMT #4

Who's memorizing Scripture with Beth? Here's mine for these next two weeks:

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” Romans 12:1-2 NIV

Our pastor began a series on Romans and the title is ALL IN. You can vew the bumper video here. As a church, our pastor is encouraging us to memorize Romans 12:1-2 so I decided it would be a perfect verse for my next SSMT.

This verse is so convicting for me. God wants us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. That means DAILY laying aside my own desires to follow Him. It means putting all my energy at his disposal and trust Him to guide me. And the second verse calls us to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. It has to be a choice that we make in both our heart and in our head. We see worldly things around us all the time. Unhealthy food, laziness, immoral values, materialism. Our flesh desires these things. But remember, we have to lay aside our desires and sacrifice our selfishness and be transformed by the renewing of our mind. I'm thankful for God's mercy. I'm a naturally selfish person, wife, mom, sister, and friend. It's a constant struggle for me. So this verse will be a constant reminder for me to lay aside my desires in my relationship with the Lord, but also in my relationship with people.

I know this verse and have read it a million times and could probably almost say it from memory, but I don't know it verbatim, which is what Kirt (our pastor) encouraged us to do. Memorize it VERBATIM. So here we go. Honestly, I'm thankful I chose this one that I know partially because, well, I have a confession. The last SSMT I didn't work on at all. It's terrible, I know. So these next two weeks, I've got two to work on. Here's my last one (SSMT #3):

"But now, this is what the Lord says - he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass throught he waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.'" Isaiah 43:1-3a

It's long, but is SO encouraging. And the Lords says "When you pass," or "When you walk," not if. In life there will be fire and raging waters and storms. And He promises that WHEN we go through these blazes or storms or raging waters, He will be with us. We won't be swallowed up in the river or burned by the fire.

So what Scripture are you memorizing? Post it in the comments.

Valentine

Dear Jim,

Love, Ashley

P.S. Thanks to Joanne for this idea.

My beauty necessities

Show Us Your Life is all about beauty tips on Kellys Korner, so here are my beauty necessities:

My Hair: I use Biolage Hydratherapie Shampoo and Biolage Conditioning Balm. I have tried to use some cheaper shampoo, but I'm hooked. This stuff does the best on my hair! After showering, I use an AMAZING microfiber head wrap that my mom got me a long time ago at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I.LOVE.IT. I even take it with me when I travel. It soaks up so much water, but not too much to make my hair dry and frizzy before I blow dry it. I highly recommend it! :) Before blow-drying, I use Aquage Straightening Ultra-Gel and Chi Volume Booster in a red spray bottle (it smells so good!). Blow-dry, then straighten with a Chi Straightener. Then, this...

This pin comb is AWE.SOME! It's expensive, but SO good for teasing. My hairdresser, Tracie, has one and uses it on my hair and it works so good. So I asked for it for my birthday in December and got it! (Thanks Mom!) Then I use Aquage hairspray.

Skin Care: Honestly, I'm terrible about washing my face and all that. I go to bed with make-up on, then go workout in the morning, then shower afterwards and wash my face with Neutrogena Oil-free Acne Wash. No, I don't have acne, but it's what the doctor told me to use when I was pregnant with the girl and had terrible prego acne. And I just never quit using it. Sometimes I'll wash my face at night if I shower at night. I'm bad, I know. For face moisturizer, I use Oil of Olay 7-in-1.

Make-up: A mixture of everything really. Revlon foundation, Mary Kay concealer, Clinique blush and loose face powder, Clinique and Revlon eyeshadow, Covergirl eyeliner, and Mary Kay mascara (which I just started using and I LOVE). I also just got hooked on this:

I was cleaning out my kids closet the other day and found this still in the package. Santa put it in my boys stocking at Christmas and so I just stole it. I love it. It has just enough color. I'm not a big lipstick girl so this is perfect.

So that's it. There's my beauty necessities. I'm not sure if they are TIPS, but it's my regimine.

Kindred Spirits

Have you ever had the kind of friend that you could go to with anything? Maybe even do nothing with but just be together. When the feelings bubble up from where you’ve stuffed them, when you’re rejoicing, when you’re feeling angry, when your PMS-ing, even when you know you’re wrong, you can share them with this friend. She will listen with a grain of salt. She may try to encourage you to get on the right track, but would never judge. She will pray for you but she would never betray your trust.

I have a couple of friends like this, but one in particular. We have been friends for several years, but just in the last year or so we have become very close.

Kindred spirits.

I have stood by her side when she thought life couldn't get any worse as a mother of young children, taken care of her when she was sick, helped clean her house before family came to town. I see my friendship with her as a listening ear, and a praying heart- advice when she asked.

And she has done the same for me. Even when I knew God needed to change my heart, and I would say, “I KNOW this is wrong thinking, but I feel… can you pray with me for God to change my heart?“

I am doing Beth Moore's David Study and I'm at the part where Jonathan makes a committment to David and so friendship is heavy on my heart. In the Bible, there are examples of great friendships. These friendships are influenced by God, and their bond is bound by their faith.

“…the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.” (1 Sam. 18:1, NKJV)

And I think of the song by Michael W. Smith, "Friends". The first part of the chorus goes: "And friends are friends forever, if the Lord's the Lord of them." I truly believe that. If our bond as friends is bound by our faith in Jesus, we will be friends forever.

Have you ever had a friend like that?

Faith of a Boy

"Millions of people are watching the State of the Union on TV right now... but SCORES of angels are rejoicing with our Father over my boy's decision to follow Christ!" -- my mom

I was putting the kids to bed and we were doing our usual chatter, I prayed over them and kissed them goodnight. Afterwards, something about Heaven came up. I just casually started talking about who I want to see, like Noah or Daniel. We talked about what we would ask them. The girl said something about having Jesus in her heart and the boy said he had Jesus in his heart, too. The girl said, "No, you haven't asked him into your heart."

He started crying and said he wants to but doesn't know how. He said he wants to go to Heaven. I explained to him that all you have to do is pray and confess to God you're a sinner and thank Him for dying on the cross and ask Him to come and live in your heart. But he said he couldn't say all that (like remember it all). I told him I could say it and he could just repeat after me. He seemed very troubled about wanting it so badly, so we did. This was our prayer: "Dear Jesus, I confess that I'm a sinner. Thank you for dying on the cross for me and saving me. Please come in to my heart and live forever. I love you, Lord. Amen." And then it was like a peace came over him. Then he started laughing and talking about how he wanted to see Mary and Joseph in Heaven and ask them what they did when they were kids like him.

Faith of a child.

Part of me wanted to wait until Jim was home (since he was gone working over at the new house), but then I remembered Matthew 19:14 when Jesus says, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." So we went ahead and then he called Daddy after he did and seemed very excited to tell him.

One of the prayers I have prayed for my children since they were born was that they would come to know Christ at an early age. Now, both of my children have asked Jesus into their heart. Now I need to pray for their desire to be baptized. So would you pray for the boy? Pray that he comes to truly understand and learn to love the Lord with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength? And would you pray for Jim and me? That we would be ready to answer his questions. And pray that the enemy would steer FAR away from my boy!

Now a question for you...have you answered God's calling on your life? The prayer is simple as you read above. If you have just prayed this prayer for the first time, please comment and tell me. I'd love to send you a Bible if you don't have one and encourage you on this journey.

Praying for Joanne

Y'all...seriously.

The Body of Christ just amazes me. I just finished praying (via gotomeeting) with several other women that I don't even know personally but through the online world and I am so encouraged. They have been meeting together on Monday and Thursday evenings to pray for Joanne Heim. Joanne is a 38-year-old Jesus-loving woman who suffered a massive stroke on January 11. Her husband, Toben, has been updating her blog and his twitter. Joanne and Toben have two young girls: Audrey is 12 and Emma is 9. Joanne has been homeschooling them so they just started back into a private school yesterday.

I have never met Joanne. I never even read her blog until I started seeing news about a fellow "Siesta". The time of prayer tonight over Joanne and the Heim family was such an encouragement to me. Sisters in Christ, coming together and praying for a fellow Sister in Christ. It's beautiful. That's it. Just beautiful.

"For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them."

Matthew 18:20