Special Letter From Your Friend
By Staff Writer Jerri Phillips of Jerri's Munchies

Dear Friend,

I write this to you as one who has not yet had the pleasure of meeting you. Still, I believe this is a divinely appointed connection, and I look forward to what the Lord accomplishes through it.

I must confess that I have been a little nervous. It’s always a bit awkward meeting someone new. The setting determines and defines so much of the expectations, and you never quite know if you are what was expected. The same if true for writing forums. I am not quite sure what you expect or like, and what if this isn’t it?! Rather than panic and cancel our first date (I like metaphors), I have sought the Lord and asked what He wanted. He said simply, “Be yourself.” Uh, you sure? “Yes, Jerri, I’m sure.” Oh.

I was hoping for so much more. I mean, being myself is messy. Some days I have it all together. We get through all of our homeschool work, my to-do list has everything crossed off, dinner is on the table when my husband walks in the door, and I don’t even raise my voice. Some days, though….well, there are just some days that don’t quite go according to plan. In fact, some days the chaos precludes any delusion of a plan, and some days things seem fine, and in an instant, messy hits like a bomb going off, and there is no reclaiming the day. I’m telling you, being myself is messy.

Surely-surely!-God had something better in mind. Something elegant or something humorous. Oh! Something profound. I like the idea of being profound. Sigh. But no. All He said was, “Be yourself.” Surely I should aspire to more than that.

In response to my obvious discouragement, the Lord took me back to Genesis 1. We are told that God makes all this cool stuff, and He looked at all He had made, and it was good. Then He took me to Jeremiah 29:11, which states, “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Then He took me for a jaunt over to Ephesians 2:10, which says, “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

The creation (I am a creation) is good. The plans God has for me are good. The things He wants me to do are good.

Wow. All those good things. I could deal with lots of good things like that, couldn’t you? So, how do we get the good things?

Go back to the beginning. The creation, as God made it, was good. The person He made you to be is good. If you want the good stuff, you have to be yourself.

Is being yourself messy? Sure it is. That’s why God sent Jesus to cleanse us. Can the good plans get obscured by distractions in this world? Sure they can. That’s why we desperately need the Holy Spirit to lead us into the truth and reveal the path to us. Can the job we are supposed to do end up imperfect? Sure it can. That is why we need a gracious and merciful God to lovingly fix and correct things.

Do you see? God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all doing their part to make it possible for you to be yourself! And you can be yourself without fear because they already have plans in the works to cover you when you need it. Their goal is to restore the created you! That means, you get to partake of and participate in all those good things! AND (can you believe this gets better?), others get to receive the good stuff well because you are doing the good stuff you are supposed to do and it’ll spill over into their lives.

Isn’t that just like God? When we seek to be what He calls us to be, He gives us a no-fail policy.

So, we are left with two choices: we can do nothing because we are afraid the messy stuff will keep us from doing a good job, or we can trust God’s provision to fulfill His good plans in and through us.

I want what I write to you to be the good stuff, so I have to trust God to cover all the messy stuff. In doing that, it frees me to be myself, and according to God, that is good enough.

Praying for good things for you,

Jerri

Prayer & Power = Success
By Staff Writer Donna Schultz, author of Tuesday's With Jesus

"As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning." (Exodus 17:11)
 
Amalek was a tribe of fierce nomads. According to Deuteronomy 25:18, they had attacked Israel from the rear, making a cowardly assault on the weary Israelites. They were later judged by God for this. This act of Moses holding up his hands is almost unanimously considered by commentators to be an act of prayer. This was an act of dependence on God that determined the outcome of the battle. It was also a public display of that dependence to all who witnessed it. "The battle which Israel fought with this foe possessed a typical significance in relation to all the future history of Israel. It [Israel] could not conquer by the sword alone, but could only gain the victory by the power of God, coming down from on high and obtained through prayer." (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the OT) And what a defeat it was! The Bible says that Joshua "overcame" the Amalekite army with the sword. This means literally that he mowed them down, prostrated them, disabled them. Prayer plus the power of God equaled success.
 
What is the battle that you are facing today? What "-ites" are attacking you from the rear? The sickness-ites? The wayward child-ites? The poverty-ites and their cousins the lack-ites? The divorce-ites? Maybe your own -ites of guilt, shame, fear or condemnation? Whatever the -ite, your prayer must meet God's power for you to win the battle and have tremendous victory.
 
We all know that the devil is a liar (John 8:44), but he is also a coward. Just as the Amalekites attacked from behind, so does Satan. He sneaks up on us to attack and take us by surprise. You know those words, "I never saw it coming"? That's how he operates. He prowls around like a roaring lion waiting to see who he can devour (1 Peter 5:8) and then he pounces. We get the bad report, the spouse says "It's over," the phone call comes from your child in jail, a job is lost. We certainly can't avoid these things happening. Jesus said that in this world we would have trouble (see John 16:33) but we can still win the battles. And prayer is our part of the equation. Remember prayer + power = success. Don't ever say, "There's nothing I can do." There certainly is... pray!
 
You can never be sure that God isn't right around the corner with the victory. I can't say for sure, but I would think that Abraham was praying pretty fiercely as he was walking up the mountain to sacrifice Isaac in prompt obedience to the Lord's word. Little did he know that at the very same time, a ram was being put in place on the other side of the mountain to be the sacrifice, instead of Isaac. When they reached the top of the mountain, Abraham's prayer, faith and obedience met God's power, mercy and love and Isaac was spared. "There in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns." (Genesis 22:13) You see, you never know what's happening on the other side of the mountain that you can't see.
 
Isaac "went out to the field one evening to meditate." (Read Genesis 24: 62-67) The Hebrew word for meditate, "suah", is usually translated "walk about," "pray," "wail," "lament," or "moan." He needed comforting after his mother Sarah's death. Little did he know that comfort was coming on a camel. Rebekah was on her way. All of a sudden, "he looked up and saw camels approaching." Rebekah would provide the comfort he needed. Comfort in the Hebrew means strength and staying power. The Bible tells us that she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. (Genesis 24: 67) You see, you never know when your camels are coming.
 
Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Pray in the good times. Pray in the bad times. Make prayer like breathing. Pray all day long. David said that he prayed in the watches of the night. Replace worry with prayer. Be persistent in prayer (see Luke 18: 1-8). Let God's power meet your prayer and give you victory and success. Let your natural meet God's super and watch supernatural things begin to happen. That's the power that is in prayer. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." (James 5:16 KJV) You never know if there's a ram just around the corner or some camels right down the road.
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Donna and her husband Chuck live in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan and have six children between the two of them. Their mission is to bring people to Christ, move them into self-sufficiency and release them to pour into others. Donna has a burden in her heart for Christians to grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ.

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