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When you’re worried, pray and thank God

It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon, and I’m drinking a pumpkin spice cappuccino, thankful for the quiet at home (Ray is at work). My plan today is to finish my Bible study on The Armor of God by Priscilla Shirer, the woman who starred as the mom in War Room.

The Armor of God book

Priscilla Shirer’s Bible study

Recently I had a book signing and sale at The Carpenter’s Cup Christian bookstore and coffee shop in Butler, and the store owner Becky Clift invited me to join a ladies’ Bible study there on Monday evenings. (Be sure to check out this cool store if you are passing through Butler!)

This week I’ve been studying the shoes of peace. One of my biggest struggle areas is worrying and stressing out too much, especially over our kids and grandkids. (Actually the way my family puts it is, “Stop freaking out, mom!”)

I deeply desire to be a woman of great faith, but I’m still very much a work in progress. I’m praying for God to help me walk in these shoes of peace each day, because they’re a powerful weapon against Satan.

Marines in war

Marines in war

The author of this Bible study, Priscilla Shirer, says that anywhere peace is lacking, you can be sure the enemy Satan is at work. She writes on page 95:

“Of all the things the enemy seeks to steal, kill, and destroy in your life, peace is almost always at or near the top of his list. He intentionally stirs up discord, division, disruption, and disturbance, both within you and around you. He is the lord of chaos and confusion, using every opportunity to upset your sense of well being and stability. He wants you uneasy, unbalanced, filled with anxiety, worry, and turmoil. Lacking peace.”

fear

Without our shoes of peace, we become unfit for spiritual warfare, unable to advance against the enemy, she writes. Fear, stress, and worry distract you. They imprison you.

anchor

anchor

This lack of peace will keep you and me from being clearheaded and able to fight Satan, Priscilla writes on page. 99. But God’s peace will anchor your soul, tethering it to the security found in His gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.  

The way we get that peace is by spending time each day in prayer and reading and meditating on the Bible, being transformed by God’s word renewing our minds. (Romans 12:2)

Trusting in Him, instead of in our own power. Thanking Him, because “prayer shrouded in gratitude expresses a firm faith. Concentrating on Him instead of being absorbed by our circumstances tells the Lord that we believe He is able to override and overcome even the most difficult issues.” God responds by releasing His peace within us.

woman praying

Woman praying

One of the most powerful lessons I’ve learned from this study so far is this: when I’m worried or stressing out, pray and thank God. What a revelation!

“Any time you feel worry or anxiety creeping into your heart, take it as your cue to turn your attention to God. Pray. Trust Him. Be grateful. And watch His peace–a peace you cannot even begin to explain–swell in your experience. Then you feet will be fitted with the shalom of God.” (p. 112)

pensive woman

woman worrying

Do you struggle with worrying or stressing out too much? Leave your comments below. 

“May the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with all of you.” (2 Thessalonians 3:16, HCSB)

I highly recommend this Bible study by Priscilla Shirer. You can purchase it at LifeWay here.

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Metamorphosis: Transformed from Fear to Faith

Copyright 2016 Beth Jones

Are you like me and worry or stress out too much? Do you battle fear? I’ve written a new book, Metamorphosis: Transformed from Fear to Faith.

It will be available soon as an eBook for your Kindle on Amazon! If you aren’t already signed up on my personal mailing list, be sure to sign up at the top of the page on the right hand side, so you’ll be first to know the details when it releases soon!

Blog, Faith, Marriage, Parenting, prayer

Labor Day: When the bough breaks

I don’t know why Labor Day was created, but my life also sometimes feels like labor–the continual, agonizing pains of childbirth:

  • financial challenges
  • marriage problems
  • our grown kids’ struggles
  • disappointments
  • stress upon stress, until I feel like I’m going to break.

Maybe breaking is what God is after in me. 

Brokenness.

Humility.

Obedience.

Surrender.

The breaking reminds me for some reason of the children’s nursery rhyme and lullaby, Rock-a-by, Baby:

baby in tree top -http://www.crystalinks.com/rockabyebaby.jpg

baby in tree top
http://www.crystalinks.com/rockabyebaby.jpg

Part of the lyrics say:

Rock-a-by, baby, on the tree top

When the wind blows, the cradle will rock.

And when the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,

Down will come baby, cradle and all. 

What a strange nursery rhyme! 

Why would a baby be on top of a tree?

Why does the cradle rock gently when the wind blows?

Why doesn’t it come crashing down right away?

crib

crib

There are various theories to explain the origins of this lullaby.

One suggests it narrates a mother rocking a baby to sleep like the baby is riding on the treetops during a breeze. Then when she lowers the baby to the crib, the song says, “Down will come baby.”

Another theory says it may have been written by an English immigrant observing native American women rocking their babies in birch-bark cradles, suspended from the branches of trees and allowing the wind to rock the baby to sleep. But the words appeared in print first in England, c. 1765.

A third theory is that the baby is the son of James VII and II, widely believed to be someone’s child smuggled into the birthing room to provide a Roman Catholic heir for James. The wind may be the Protestant “wind” or force blowing from the Netherlands, bringing his nephew and son-in-law William of Orange. He deposed King James II in the revolution. The cradle is the House of Stuart. Some nursery rhymes are political in origin.

At any rate, the wind blows…sometimes too hard, and then it all comes smashing down. 

What then?

Only that instead of “laboring” and striving in our own strength, rest in God.

Trust Him.

Lay your burdens and stress at His feet and let Him take care of it all…and cradle you.

What Your Heart Needs for the Hard Days Holley Gerth

What Your Heart Needs for the Hard Days
Holley Gerth

I love what Holley Gerth wrote in her little devotional book, What Your Heart Needs for the Hard Days, pp. 26-27:

“When the day seems difficult, when you’re weary, when you feel like a failure…God is encouraging you. For so long I thought of him as standing by and shaking his head as he wondered, “Why can’t you get it all together?” But that’s not his heart toward us at all. To encourage literally means “to give courage,” and that’s what God wants to do for us on the hard days. He says to us, “I’m here. I will help you. I will give you strength to take one more step.” He looks at your life with infinite love and tenderness. And he knows how hard it is to be us sometimes. He lived in this world. He experienced pain. He died on a cross. Jesus understands how brutal this world can be...What if, on the days when it’s hard for you to get out of bed, you imagined him reaching out to lift you up instead of being disappointed in you? What if he’s cheering you as you take your first step into a day that’s not one you want to face? What if instead of saying, “Get it together,” he’s whispering, “Let’s do this together”? That changes everything. And it can change us.”

 

 

 

 

Blog, Faith, Marriage, Parenting, prayer, Speaking, Spiritual Gifts, Writing

I dreamed of T-Rex dinosaurs; what are you running from?

T-Rex and Triceratops dinosaurs

T-Rex and Triceratops dinosaurs

Last night I dreamed of dinosaurs. Some other people and I were in the claws of a giant T-Rex. He was asleep, and we escaped and began running into buildings for safety as he woke up.

The T-Rex and another T-Rex then began chasing other people and other dinosaurs. He was attacking one dinosaur to eat it when I woke up. 

The picture above is of our daughter Leah’s dinosaurs. She used to love dinosaurs and dinosaur cartoons like The Land Before Time with Littlefoot and Cera. Cera used to be SO annoying because she screamed so much from the evil Sharptooth T-Rex chasing them! But Leah loved the show. That year I gave her a dinosaur-themed birthday party. (The Jurassic Park movie is one of our family favorites.)

Video of Littlefoot dinosaur meeting Cera:

Although I laughed when I woke up this morning remembering my T-Rex dinosaurs dream, and the toy dinosaurs above don’t look frightening, at the time  my dream was scary.

I believe the T-Rex dinosaurs represent fear. What are you running from?

  • God?
  • Your purpose or calling?
  • Writing a book?
  • Fear of failure or fear of success?
  • A troubled marriage or relationship with your child, an in-law, a boss, a co-worker, a friend?
  • Debt/financial struggles?
  • A health scare?
  • The frightening news each day, like about Isis?
  • Something terrible happening to your children or grandchildren?
  • Never achieving your dream(s)?
  • Your life not mattering or making a difference?

Whatever it is that you’re running from, God doesn’t want you afraid. Here are 2 encouraging Scriptures for you today:

“If you will humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, in His good time, He will lift you up. Let Him have all your worries and cares, for He is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you.”–1 Peter 5:6-7, TLB

“When I am afraid, I will trust You.”–Psalm 56:3

You can watch the replay of my scope about this dream at Katch.me by clicking here.