Calling All Warriors

I am so blessed to have so many friends in my life who spur one another on to love and good deeds. My friend Laurel sent this timely little piece to me yesterday and I asked her permission to share it here:

Hi Friends,
God wove some interesting Scripture together for me today. I thought I'd share... I praise God that His word is timeless. The same verses are just as applicable to me today as they were x number of years ago. His Word seems new every day... The beauty of what God showed me today is that it isn't specific to any one situation. It covers a whole lot of "shtuff".

I Thess. 5:23-24 says, "May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who called you is faithful, and He will do it." Observation: it struck me for the first time the progression of "parts" in that verse. It starts with the spirit--the part of us that has the capability of knowing God and having relationship with him. Without this, we are just bones, flesh, and parts. Then it moves on to soul--the seat of the emotions and personality. Then body--the physical part of our beings. Isn't it interesting that it starts with the core, our spirits, and works its way out? I know him and am sanctified in my very inner part first, and then my personality and emotions will follow and then my physical body.

So how does that work? How does one overcome difficult situations and circumstances (thereby showing proof of the sanctification of the parts)? Eph. 1:19-20 says, "I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms." Just before that, Paul calls that power our "inheritance". We automatically "get" that when we belong to Christ. God pointed out to me that we get it, but we don't always use it. His power can be alive in us. What is it that you struggle with? I know what I'm struggling with. I had my whole list of excuses for it too. Does God understand our weaknesses? Sure. But, sometimes we use our weaknesses as an excuse to keep us in a place that is not overly affective in the Kingdom. If God wants to sanctify my whole spirit, soul, and body, then I want to love him with my whole spirit, soul, and body. That means getting rid of some of the junk that would keep me from being able to do that. I've tried to get rid of the junk on my own. It doesn't work. My power is NOTHING. His power is EVERYTHING. His power is what raised Christ from the dead! Could there be a more HOPELESS situation???

II Cor. 10:4 says, "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have diving power to demolish strongholds." Something struck me. It's not that I haven't wanted to battle the strongholds. I've just been using the wrong weapons. The world offers many of them. But none of them compare to our spiritual weapons. THOSE weapons have the POWER to DEMOLISH strongholds!! What do I mean? Here would be a "for instance". Let's say that my stronghold is my overeating. (I'm really reaching here... Wait, no I'm not!) =) I can determine in my heart to battle that. I can be all ready to "start Monday" with my new plan. I've got the best diet available; I've got my exercise regiment all mapped out; I've got my veggies and fruit all ready to consume at a moment's notice. Those will work OK. For awhile. But then comes the "I don't want to do this anymore. I'm tired." So then what? Have I demolished any strongholds? No, I've simply given my colon something to think about. But, if I were to pick up the spiritual weapons like prayer, perseverance, sanctification, etc., THEN I've got some serious armor.

Don't think prayer works very well? Have you "tried" it and found it to fail? Or, have you, like me, hidden behind the excuses and allowed God's power to go unused? Gear up, dear Warriors! Tap into the real power. It's there no matter the situation, no matter the stronghold.

Love you,
Laurel

Thank you for sharing this with us Laurel!

In His Love,
Niki

Update on my nephew

It's busy times here as we are preparing to go on our annual family vacation to Puerto Penasco, Mexico. I'm especially excited this year as our 10th wedding anniversary falls on the day we travel down there. We will be having a celebration and a vow renewal ceremony on the beach that night! I have been having so much fun planning and preparing for it, that I haven't updated on my nephew.

He is doing fantastically as well. He might be released in the next week or two, which would still be about 4 weeks earlier than his due date. He is up to 4# 7oz. as of Sun. He is feeding on his own regularly and was moved out of his incubator to a nursery bed last week, so he is holding his own body temperature. He is still on a canula for breathing and despite several bad apnea episodes, a transfusion and meds for anemia, and a now "minor" PDA (a valve in his heart did not seal completely-very typical in premies), he is doing incredibly well. They are talking about sending him home on oxygen. The completely amazing thing in this is that they are certain, based on his development at the time of his birth that he was actually more than 13 weeks early and not the 12 weeks that they had calculated prior to his birth. He responds to his mommy so much and always watches the nurses. They have affectionately nicknamed him "Curious George" because he is constantly watching them with his big soft brown eyes! (Can you tell I'm a proud auntie?)

I also got to be blessed enough to meet him for 5 minutes on the last day of my trip to visit and take care of my sister. It was truly a miracle and a blessing, since NO ONE except mom, dad, and grandparents are allowed in the NICU there. But the head nurse heard that I had flown out to take care of my sister and had been sitting in the waiting room all week while she visited him and told my sister I could come in for 5 minutes as a going away gift. I almost missed my plane, but it was so worth it! It was amazing. He is amazing. God is so amazing. Despite all the pictures and videos, it's too hard to understand exactly how small he was. It's like trying to imagine and comprehend how big the Grand Canyon is. God is so great and mighty. Wow!

So, now I looking forward to seeing him again on May 29th! Thanks for sharing this journey with me and for continuing to keep them in your prayers. I know my sister and her husband are getting really nervous now that their son is about to come home. They are also very anxious about RSV, since he will be high risk. Thank you in advance to all you prayer warriors.

In His Love!