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She Heard, She Came, She Received

Posted by Deanna on Wednesday, October 13th, 2010 in Faith | Comments (1)

As I pondered Wives of Faith’s theme for this next season, “Come As You Are,” I am reminded of the scripture Mark 5:25-34. This is the story about a woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years. She spent all of her money on many physicians and still was not healed. She had heard about Jesus and heard He was in town. Somehow she knew if she could just touch the hem of His garment, she would be healed. She made her way through the crowd, came behind Jesus and touched His garment. Immediately, she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. Jesus knew someone had touched Him because He felt the power go out of Him. With excitement and enthusiasm, He asked the disciples who touched Him. Because of the crowd of people pressing up against Him, they did not see who it was. Finally, when Jesus sees this woman face to face, He tells her that her faith has made her well and to go in peace and be healed of her affliction.

Imagine for a moment that you are this woman, sick for twelve years, having seen many doctors with no relief and you are broke. You had heard that this man named Jesus who healed a multitude of people and performed many miracles was in town and He could heal you. You are desperate for some relief and will do anything to get to Jesus, even if all you could do is touch the hem of His garment. You have played this image over and over in your head. You have gone back to the people that told you about Jesus and asked them to tell you again about this man that can heal you. You go to where He is and make your way through the crowd to only touch the hem of His garment. Immediately, you feel relief. Afterwards, with a sense of awe and reverence, you finally have an encounter with this man named Jesus. You see the excitement in His face because He knows that you heard about Him from others, you asked about Him, you came to see Him and you exercised your faith. With much love and kindness, He cups your face in His hands, just like a father would his child’s, and blesses you. After receiving His blessing, that peace that passes all human understanding comes cascading over you. You walk away from Him never to be the same, changed forever.

Have you ever been sick and tired of being sick and tired? I can only imagine that this is the place she was in and was very desperate for some relief. Are you desperate for some relief? You may not need relief in your body, but maybe your mind or your soul needs relief.

I think we can all agree that the military lifestyle can wreak havoc on our body, mind and soul if we allow it to. You may be doing just fine and that is great, but do you know someone that is desperate for a healing? Do you know someone that is desperate enough to push through a crowd just to touch the hem of His garment? If so, tell them about Wives of Faith, tell them this is a safe place and they are more than welcome to come as they are. This is a place where Jesus is introduced to some and shared more intimately with others. It is the cry of all of us at Wives of Faith that military wives from all walks of life will hear about Jesus from you, they will come to Wives of Faith to receive from Him and we will all go on our journey of life carrying His peace.

Dear Lord, I am desperate for some relief in my life. I do believe that you are the Great Physician and You will bring healing to my life and other lives. I long to hear You say to me, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.” Help me share with other daughters the healing that You so graciously give. Amen.

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Introduction: The Power (part 1)

Posted by Kathryn on Tuesday, October 12th, 2010 in Bible study | Comments (1)

“A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.“ Proverbs 31:10-12

The Power

Welcome to the first day of the Power of a Praying Wife Bible Study! This first part is going to be an overview of the introduction to the book. The introduction sets the tone for the entire book and there is a lot that is hard to leave out! I will try to cover as much as I can, but at the same time not repeat every single word from the book!

Prayer is such an important aspect of our daily walk with God. Praying for our husbands is important because he is the leader of the home, and he has an important job to do both at home and in the military. But prayer is not, “…a means of gaining control over your husband… It’s a gentle tool of restoration appropriated through the prayers of a wife who longs to do right more than be right, and to give life rather than get even.”

I really love this because I have always been a person who wants to do right. I like to follow the rules and not get in trouble. However in marriage, we usually want to be the one who is always right, we want to prove that our way is better and that nothing else matters. How selfish! In order to properly pray for our husbands we must come with the right attitude. We should want to do right by praying for him, and not pray that God judges him, but that God will bring blessings to him.

Praying for our husbands is not going to be easy. It will be a daily choice that we make every day because we want to do right. In the book, Stormie Omartian explains how she did not always pray for her husband. She says, “I tried other methods first such as arguing, pleading, ignoring, avoiding, confronting, debating, and of course the ever popular silent treatment, all with far less than satisfying results. It took some time to realize that by praying first, these unpleasant methods of operation could be avoided.” If you are anything like me, than I am pretty sure you have used one of these methods at least once! Even as someone who has only been married a year and half, I have done at least several of these. I think we let life get in the way, and we forget that prayer is the most important way to get things done. We don’t need to use these other methods when we have the power of prayer. What better way to communicate with your husband than through prayer with God first!

There will be times when we do not want to pray for our husbands, or we will think that he does not deserve our prayers. Stormie says, “A husband can hurt your feelings, be inconsiderate, uncaring, abusive, irritating, or negligent. He can say or do things that pierce your heat like a sliver. And every time you start to pray for him, you find the sliver festering. It’s obvious you can’t give yourself to praying the way God wants you to until you are rid of it.” So how do deal with these wounds? Ask God to help you deal with the ways your husband may have hurt you. Ask God to forgive him, and give you strength to get past these hurts from the past. This is also a great reminder to check ourselves too. Although we want to find someone else to blame, the only way to come to God is to ask for forgiveness of our own faults. Once we do, we will be able to pray for our husbands with a better attitude.

So what about the title of this post, “the power”? What is power and where do we get it from? The power is that which we have over Satan through our prayers. Stormie says, “We don’t have authority over our husbands. However, we have been given authority over the enemy and can do great damage to the enemy’s plans when we pray.”

“I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.” Luke 10:19

“Many difficult things that happen in a marriage relationship are actually part of the enemy’s plan set up for its demise. But we can say, ‘I will not allow anything to destroy my marriage.’ ‘I will not stand by and watch my husband be wearied, beaten down, or destroyed.’ ‘I will not sit idle while an invisible wall goes up between us.’ ‘I will not allow confusion, miscommunication, wrong attitudes, and bad choices to erode what we are trying to build together.’ I will not tolerate hurt and unforgiveness leading us to divorce.’ We can take a stand against any negative influences in our marriage relationship and know that God has given us authority in His name to back it up.”

You have to believe that you do have God-given power to defeat the enemy, and you have to tell him that you will not let him steal your happiness or your marriage. Will it be easy? Not at all. Will it take work? You bet! Will it take patience? Tons of it I’m sure. Will it take determination and perseverance? You better believe it! You have to believe for what you are praying for. You have to take a stand and know that you will come out better on the other side because of it. Fight for your marriage and your husband on your knees.

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I hope you have enjoyed part 1 of the introduction, and have decided that this something you want to stick to! If you have, I want to ask you to do something. Let’s commit right now to pray 5 minutes a day for the rest of this week for our husbands. Just 5 minutes! Not sure what to pray? Think of some of the things in this post, and start there. I am going to do it too, and I am excited to see what things God will do in my husband’s life this week!

Be prepared:

Questions for next week:

-Did you pray for 5 minutes every day for your husband this past week?

-How did it go?

-What is something you saw God do for your husband, based on what you prayed?

If you would like to discuss the Bible Study with others, please join the message boards here:

http://community.wivesoffaith.org/

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Look It Up

Posted by Pattie on Monday, October 11th, 2010 in Daily Encouragements | Comments (0)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:1, 14 Read More→

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Let Go And Worship!

Posted by Amber Parham on Monday, September 27th, 2010 in Faith | Comments (0)

This weekend, I was able to attend a simulcast of a ladies conference led by a well known speaker. During the opening worship session I could feel myself holding back. I thought, I just need to be able to let go! I could feel the invisible curtain separating me from the joy of being in the presence of the Holy Spirit. I just couldn’t figure out why.

With this month’s topic ‘Worship Lessens My Worries’ in my mind, I have been reading through Exodus, of Moses and the Hebrews as they camped near Mt. Sinai. God instructed the people through Moses to give all the precious metals, animal hides, yarn and linen that was needed to complete the Tabernacle. God also told Moses that certain skilled craftsmen were gifted to be able to complete each part (31:1-18). When everything was finished it was time to set up the Tabernacle. They were to set it up on the first day of the first month exactly a year after they had left Egypt. I had never really thought about how long it took them to build it. When we go camping we get our tent up and ready in a matter of minutes. The Israelites worked on their new place of worship for many months while they were leading everyday lives herding their flocks, tending their children and cooking meals.

Reviewing this account, I noticed two points: 1) It states that, throughout, that everything was done according to God’s direction and 2) The Israelites did not complain during the construction period. In fact, the craftsmen came to Moses and told him that they had more than enough goods to complete the Tabernacle (36:5). Verse 36:6 says that the people were “restrained from bringing more”. From that, we can infer that people were still willingly giving in obedience to Moses’ earlier instruction.

The dictionary defines worship as reverence offered to a divine being or a form of religious practice. However, the Bible teaches us that worship is expressing our love for God through our obedience and submission. When we have a heart of worship, we recognize God’s authority over us. We follow his instructions.

The Israelites were excited about their new gathering place. It united them as a people. It must have solidified the reality that God was fulfilling his promise to create a great nation. They gave precious jewels, gold and silver. They gave yarn spun from the hair and wool of their flocks. They gave their time and skill as craftsmen. They had to be restrained from giving more than was needed. Even though their worship place had not been completed, they were actively worshiping God by following his instructions and giving the best that they had. They didn’t hold anything back. And for those few months they were not afraid of what the future held.

Right before our lunch break Saturday, one of the the speakers at our conference asked if we knew why we were there. I was still asking myself, Why am I here? What am I meant to get from today? It wasn’t until the last afternoon break that the worship leader spoke. He told us to let go so that we can worship and serve God fully. There it was right in front of me. Instead of focusing on God’s greatness, I was too focused on keeping things going on by my own merits. I made a personal commitment (again) to submit to God’s authority, to really and truly let it all go. It’s taking time to squash the old habits. But He is continuing to bless us in ways that we never could have foreseen. And He continues to prove every day that he will provide everything, even the stuff that falls into the “wants” category.

“Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.” Psalm 95:6 (NIV)

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The Word is Alive

Posted by Kathryn on Monday, September 27th, 2010 in Daily Encouragements | Comments (0)

The Word is Alive

Casting Crowns has a song from one of their CDs called, “The Word is Alive.” I was listening to it one day, and it really spoke to me:

“The Word is alive
And it cuts like a sword through the darkness
With a message of life to the hopeless and afraid
Breathing life into all who believe
The Word is alive”

Some people see the Bible as just another book. Something that the pastor reads in church or something to pick up every once in awhile and read. But that is not true; the Bible is alive! It can speak to us every day just like it did years ago when it was first written! It has never died, or lost its power. It is still an amazing book that brings a message of life, love, and salvation. I love how God can use verses to speak to me when I am afraid, or worried, or needing encouragement. Or how I can read a verse that I have heard over and over again and it can still mean something new to me.

God’s Word is alive and He is still speaking to us every day. Reading the Bible helps us to grow more and more in Him. Don’t forget to read it and get the encouragement and growth you need for living each and every day!

Hewbrews 4:12

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”