Prayer for deliverance Continued

In reading the scriptures I came across these scriptures in Psalm 119 that just seemed to go along with my prayer for deliverance. Frequently praying the scripture helps to form the words in prayers where we have no idea what we want to say.

"Lord God I open my mouth panting expectantly, longing for Your commands. Come and show me Your mercy as You do for all who love Your name. Guide my steps by Your word, so I will not be overcome by any evil. Rescue me from the oppression of evil people then I can obey Your commandments. Look down on me with love. Teach me all your principals." Ps 119:131-135

I don't know about you but often when I open my mouth I do so to stick my foot in it, however, with this scripture they talk about panting expectantly and longing for God's commands. Good advice wouldn't you say? I think so.

The next part is asking the Lord to guide our steps and rescue us that we may not be overcome by evil. The part about this that we fail to see is the fact that in order to have God guide us properly we need to follow. We would like to leave off the part about "so I can obey Your commandments." No, no, no not that! Not the "O" word, obedience.

We like the thought of being delivered from the hands of the evil people out there but we don't want to have to do our part in the process. We get ourselves into all sorts of trouble and expect instant deliverance with no effort on our part at all.

Our desire needs to more on the obeying of God's commands and panting expectantly for them and if we do this we already have overcome a great deal of the evil that is around us. What a blessing it is to know that God is looking down upon us with love, our return to Him for that love is to be the student we need to be as we state, "Teach me ALL your principals."

ALL God's principals, not just the ones we like and agree with, we need to be taught all of them and again deliverance is ours. Praise the Lord.

Prepare for Rain

In the movie Facing Giants a mentor to the coach one day told him a story about two people praying for rain. One person prepared for the rain he was asking while the other did nothing but wait to see if his prayer was going to be answered. The mentor then asked the coach, " so who had more faith?"

The one who prepared for God to answer had the most faith. I want to prepare as well for my prayer of deliverance to be answered. This morning I thought about how I could do this preparation. In thinking about deliverance I thought about what I would act like if I had received the deliverance I had requested.

I must say I would be really excited, I would have a tremendous feeling of hope and anticipation. I would have a renewed strength to be able to go on. I would feel a great peace as if a burden had been removed from my shoulders.

In my preparation for "my rain" which would be deliverance from the affects of something that speaks negative harsh words, lives off bitterness, anger, and breeds a lot of insecurities and loneliness. Instead of fearing what is around every corner I'm going to be excited  that deliverance is coming. Instead of feeling an anger, hurt, and pain inside I'm going to feel the joy and peace that is to come knowing God's cares and He will deliver me.

His deliverance may take time but that is okay. Everything will work out according His glory and will and for the benefit of all involved. Praise the Lord we have a God who cares.

Get out your umbrella and prepare for rain!

Continuing to Pray

In my previous entry at first I didn't make it very clear who suffered from the seizure disorder my niece or my sister. It is my niece Stephanie. In her own way my sister suffers from it too as she cares for her daughter.  It's difficult to stand by and see your child suffer so much. Its a tremendous feeling of helplessness. It's been a long and hard journey for the both of them. When I had epilepsy my husband was my caregiver. It was just as hard on him as it was me. It took only twelve years to get thru it but we made it thru together. Unfortunately twenty years later came another journey, one marked by my breast and bone cancer.

Just the same, we should never fall into the trap of trying to figure out who is it harder on the one with the disease or the one caring for them. Both parties are in need of equal prayer and strength.  Both have vital parts to play in the success or failure of the journey they travel together.

So for both my niece and sister I pray that together God will carry them thru in their journey forward towards Him and the plans He has for them in their lives.

Luv always,

          Karen, sister and aunt

Praying for Others

Tonight I set aside my own needs as I lift before God my niece Stephanie and my sister Juli. Fighting seizures most of her life my niece's journey goes on. Hoping for an end to the uncontrolled seizures she's been having the end has been temporarily postponed. Burdened with disappointment yet filled with anticipation as well for the future I pray for both of them tonight that God will comfort their weary souls and renew their strength that they will both wake up afresh and ready to face a new day.

It's been a long journey for the both of you and I just wanted you to know that I continue to travel beside you. Me and all your many other cheerleader prayer warriors lifting you up in prayer and spirit. Stay strong, keep moving forward, and exercise your faith and trust in God knowing He will never leave you nor forsake you.

These prayer candles in this picture tonight I lite for the two of you. As I kneel upon my prayer pillow my heart and love goes out to you. The best I can say and demonstarte is that you will trust in the Lord with all your hearts and lean not onto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.

The road continues and so does God's love for you and my love for you too.

Luv,

Karen, sister and aunt

Let the Journey Begin

Journal note #1

Before starting my quest to work on areas in my life that need improving I kneel before the Lord. I have found out the hard way over the years the best way to start and finish all my expeditions is to do so on my knees. Doing so as I call upon the Lord to travel with me, to not only be my guide but to be my companion as well.

The beauty about prayer is it doesn’t require physical knees to bow upon what is required is a spirit willing to bow humbly before the Lord. We can do it in a chair, from our bed, or walking down the street. We just need to do it.

Its funny how when we find something wrong with our car we instantly get it into a shop for service but we seldom do that for ourselves. When I came down with cancer I had several people tell me I needed to stop thinking about caring for others and start caring for myself.

Although I don’t plan to stop caring for other people I will try my best to care about myself. I have several paths of improvement I want to take and learning to control my eating is one of them. I love food, I love to eat, I love the taste, I love to munch. Like my puppy dog I seem to always need to have something in my mouth. Over the years I have lost weight only to gain it immediately back. I’ve probably have lost over 150 pounds over the years only to gain it back three, four, five pounds at a time.

Thinking of what Hebrews 12:1 said about throwing off everything that hinders us I need to throw off the need to eat when my head tells me to eat and not my stomach. I need to throw off the desire to not hurt anyone’s feelings by not saying “No” to their offers of food I don’t need to be eating on. I need to throw off being lazy and not exercising like I should.

At work today I was doing okay. When people offered me candy I took it but didn’t eat it. However, when it came to the special cheese someone had I never hesitated to eat a slice of it. Going along with the crowd hinders me and it is something that needs to be thrown off as well.

Another path of improvement is my house cleaning skills. I’m good at cleaning my house when I take the time to do it. Being a packrat, or someone who likes to hang on to stuff just strictly because, hinders my ability to improve in this area. What is a person suppose to do when they go into a room with a black garbage bag to throw things away but yet can’t find anything they would throw away. Anyone else who came into the same room would have found multiple things to toss in the trash.

A third area I want to work on at the same time is the vicinity of handling my money well. For too long now I have allowed it to control me instead of me controlling it. It’s time to start telling it where to go instead of it dictating my life.

Another area I want to discipline myself in doesn’t necessarily need “improvement” but I want to do better just the same. That is the area of writing out my journal notes on a daily basis. With a notebook full of half written notes again I’m reminded of my need to finish what I start. So daily I have made it my discipline to finish one handwritten note a day.

Last but not least my biggest path of improvement ties the pavement of all these paths together and that is improving in the area of doing something all the way to the end, to finish what I start.

So here to the diet that only lasts a week, here to the money who dictates too quickly, here to my packrat tendencies that clutters my life. I’m on the path to improvement in a race I intend to finish to the glory of God and the benefit of myself.

Let the journey begin!

Welcome Paulette's

If you haven’t read my profile you need to right now. In it you will read the purpose of this site. The purpose is to learn the failed art of self-improvement. For too long we have stopped taking responsibility for our own actions and started to blame others for our own end results and harvest.

I have my own struggles with self-improvement and I am going to use this site to not only help me but help other struggling Paulette’s. People, men or women, like Paul who struggle with doing the right thing. Do you have that problem? Don’t lie! We all have that issue because we are human. Some are good at mastering the art of self-improvement and others like me are not so successful at it.

This site will be my journal as you walk with me thru the areas I want to improve. Read the notes, laugh with me (not at me), struggle with me as together we strive for the prize at the end of our race.

It’s a journey on our knees because that is how we need to be traveling, on our knees in prayer forever seeking God and His guidance. He is our tour guide, the one who will see us through to the end.

Recently at my grandma’s funeral as I looked around the full church I thought of how all those in attendance were people she picked up along the way in her journey through 90 years of life. The person she started and ended with remained the same, the Lord. It was the others she picked up along the way that may have differed.

No matter who we pick up along the way, where our journey leads us, the trials along the way, the One we start and finish with never should change. It needs to remain Jesus. Our success needs to be His glory and our benefit. He is the one who equips us with things necessary to succeed. Our job is to figure out how to use his provisions correctly.

So, let the journey begin down our paths of improvement.