Creating Pleasures

by Lillian Humphries

I love hosting a good party. Sometimes I like just to through a few things together and hope for the best, but sometimes I love to really put on the Ritz. This past couple of weeks I was planning for Easter dinner at our house. I searched Pinterest for all the cute decorations and tasty treats that the grand children would enjoy. I had such fun preparing everything. The only problem with having a picture in your mind is sometimes it does not translate to my hands during the creation time. However, this year I was successful. There was only one fail and that was the big white cardboard Easter egg that I put a ribbon on. I didn’t buy the wire ribbon and the bow just laid there like a wet noodle.

I made rice crispy treats in pastels, layered and cut then placed on lollipop sticks wrapped with cellophane and tied with a bow. Easter bark filled with chocolate and candies, Cheetos in cake

decorating bags that looked like carrots and egg shaped sugar cookies decorated so precise that Martha Stewart would have been proud of me. Homemade yeast rolls that were the bomb and topped it off with butter piped into little swirls. Did I go over the top, you bet I did.

All that was wonderful and I loved the faces of my family as I showed off my talents waiting for the accolade’s that would follow, maybe not one of my most humble moments.

There was a lot of energy put into the preparation of the event. In the evenings I was exhausted from all the planning and creating. I wonder how God felt about creating the universe and all that is in it. How excited He must have been of all His creations. So proud and pleased. The beauty across the universe, the trees, flowers, animals and then saved the best for last – humans.

My mind can’t comprehend anything near that grand. The pleasure our Father must have felt in the beginning surely was overwhelming.

Do you give our Father the accolades that you do others? Do praise Him and thank Him for the beauty all around us? Spring time is a wonderful time of year to see His beauty unfold. Praise and thank God today.

Do You Pray for Extra Blessings?

by Lillian Humphries

Taken from the book: The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson 

http://amzn.to/1Geo8o3

1 Chronicles 4:9-10
9 And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren: and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow. 10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.
Jabez was never found mentioned again in the Bible, but this small one verse prayer is so powerful. 


Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed
For Jabez to add the word indeed to the end of his request for blessings in like putting five exclamation points at the end of a sentence, or writing it in capital letters and underlining it.

When we pray for blessings and ask for more we are crying out the wonderful unlimited goodness that only God can provide.

“Ask”, promised Jesus, “and it will be given to you”. (Matthew 7:7) “you do not have because you do not ask,” said James (James 4:2).

enlarge my coast or territory
It is not wrong to ask God for more as long as we are using it for His will.
For some of us our math equation would be similar to this

My abilities
+ experience
+ training
+ my personality and appearance
+ my past
+ the expectations of others
= my assigned territory (or my success)

Maybe it should be:

+My willingness and weakness
+ God’s will and power
= My assigned territory (or my success)

Remember – we will always feel fear and anticipation when we begin to take on new projects for God, but we will also have the thrill of God carrying us as we are doing it.

that thine hand might be with me
So now God has enlarged our territory or family audience, etc.
Now we go into panic mode.
Guess what – we are supposed to feel like that. If we don’t than we won’t be dependent on God. We might stop occasionally to say thanks and give Him praise, but we get away from the dependence on God that we need to make it through. 

and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me!
Those words “keep me from evil” does not say keep temptation from me because Jabez knew temptation would be there. The more we do God’s work the more Satan is coming after us.

God is our only answer.

How Do I Pray?

The internet is a wonderful thing, but it is also daunting. What do you do when someone asks you to pray for them on Facebook?  It may be someone you know or someone you don’t know.

Prayer is powerful and we understand that God hears all prayers. I have always thought there is several different kinds of prayers. Remember this is my opinion.

• Formal prayers are long thought out precisely worded. These may be in private or in a public setting.

• Flash prayers are simple, just a few words. I mean God knows all so I don’t have to go into real detail for Him. These normally are the ones I use driving down the street or when you get a call asking for prayers for an individual or a situation.  

• Heart felt prayers where you end up pouring your heart out to God and I normally end up in tears. These are gut wrenches for me, telling God all my problems, as if He didn’t know. Sometimes I use visualization with these prayers. No I do not know what God looks like and He does not speak to me except through His word, the Bible. But it helps me to see in my mind’s eye a man form of God that I can hand my problems to until His arms are filled and mine are empty. That is how I truly give things over to God.

• General prayers, which are meaningful showing you care but more dutifully than heartfelt. This is normally for someone I do not really know, but I understand they are having troubles and need prayers on their behalf to let God know that we are thinking of this person.

• Praise/Thankful prayers are normally incorporated into all my prayers in some manner. Thanking God for all the blessings He has bestowed upon me and my family. Sometimes these are a quick thank you for good news on someone recovering from and illness or I just received good news. Always give the glory to God.

 There may be other words that could be used to describe these prayers and it may be different for each one of us. The bottom line is that I do stop and pray and whatever form it takes, my Heavenly Father hears me and I am confident that He will do His will with these prayers of mine.

How do you pray? I would love to know and learn more.