Do Our Words Matter?

^{Matthew 5:21-22  ( The Message)}

"You're familiar with the command to the ancients, "Do not murder.' I'm telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother "idiot!' and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell "stupid!' at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.

Today I am going to conduct an experiment. From the moment I post this blog post until I go to bed, I am going to speak only positive words over myself and others. I am going to take every negative thought captive and bring it to Jesus. I want to see what the effect will be on my attitude and emotions at the close of the day.
It's not that I have not tried to live this way before, but I have never been totally focused on doing this. I tend to get distracted very easily.

My emotional level this morning is sort of a dullness. I am neither sad nor joyful. My attitude is one of expectancy and determination. 

I included this picture of  my husband receiving prayer because, I do not remember anyone ever doing that on a Sunday service before. This was in an Episcopal church. When he finished preaching he got an rousing round of applause! That just doesn't happen often in liturgical churches.  While I cannot prove it, I know that the words spoken over him had a powerful effect on his sermon.

I am getting excited. My emotional level is rising.  My expectancy has risen...

If you read this, please say a prayer for me today.  Blessings, Anna Marie

Here goes!

Trial or Gift?

James 1:2-4  (The Message)
Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.


This passage really poked my heart this morning.  I have been in a season of testing and I have been crying out to the Lord to save me.  But His answer has been to be with me in the midst of trial.  Day by day, I am getting revelation of the power we have in simply keeping our eyes firmly fixed on His.  He is training me to live and move and have my very being in Him.  When the waves of the storm come crashing over my heart, I am quickly restoring my sights towards Him.

Gratefully, the times I take my eyes off Him are growing shorter and fewer.  But I have also discovered that those moments, when I change my focus from Him to my situation, bring more pain than I have ever known.  What I am realizing is as I stay with Him, in Him, the love that we share is becoming so intense.  Any separation causes distress.  So that it is not the trial causing the pain any longer, but the separation from my Lord. 

Thanks be to God for His gifts of mercy and love...He fills my every empty cove.

What really matters?

Thank You, Lord. You always show me the "Main Thing."  I love You, Jesus.....

Are You Worried?

2 Timothy 3:12-17  (The Message)

Anyone who wants to live all out for Christ is in for a lot of trouble; there's no getting around it. Unscrupulous con men will continue to exploit the faith. They're as deceived as the people they lead astray. As long as they are out there, things can only get worse.But don't let it faze you. Stick with what you learned and believed, sure of the integrity of your teachers--why, you took in the sacred Scriptures with your mother's milk! There's nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another--showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God's way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us. 

Today, let us press into the Word of God. Let us drink deeply of the truth found inside.  This world is passing away, but the kingdom of God is forever.  We are grafted into the olive tree of the Lord.  The way fruit from the tree is obtained, is by shaking the tree or beating the trees branches.  We are entering into a season of harvest unlike anything that has ever been seen in the world.  Expect much shaking and much beating.  But rejoice and take heart!  It is in the pressing of the olive that oil is obtained.  That oil is for the lighting and healing of the world.  ~ Blessings, Anna Marie