Hey guys! If you read my last post, you know I’m out of town and I didn’t think I’d have time to post, but I failed to take into the account the twelve hour drive…yes TWELVE HOUR DRIVE…to New Jersey. So I’ve had time to do a little thinking! Not to mention that we are in the car with a reformed presbyterian…the debates are getting heated!
I recently read a book called, “My Time in Heaven” by Richard Sigmund, in which he stated, “Praying releases God to go into our tomorrows, lay a trap for the devil, and bring our blessings right on time.”
I dug a little deeper.
In doing some research, I read a book by Jan Coleman, “After the Locusts” (which, by the way, is a great book for anyone woman who’s found herself divorced and sitting in a pile of shattered dreams). At the end of her book, after talking to many broken women, she says this about prayer, “Pray the promises, not the problems.”
So now I have been told to pray to release God’s blessings into the future, and to pray God’s promises.
As I thought about my prayers, I realized that I prayed very differently during the seven years of seizures and depression than I did before them.
As I made my way through teen and young adult years, I expected the best. I had my dreams in order, and as I worked to make them come true, I prayed the same. I expected and prayed to graduate from pharmacy school, get a job, get married, and have healthy children. And that is exactly what happened. Until…
A seizure snowball began an avalanche of migraines, seizures and depression, and I began to pray for God to take them away. By doing so, I allowed the devil to get into my brain. By praying for my earthly problems instead of God’s heavenly promises, my focus was constantly on my problems. Without realizing it, it also made me become very selfish and obsessed with me…with fixing me.
The only one of God’s promises that I prayed for during my depression was the rapture! I’m quite sure my reasons there were selfish as well.
God’s promises are all throughout the Bible, some specific to certain people, others to all of his children. In Genesis 15, God promised Abram to make his offspring as many as the stars in the sky. In Genesis 11, he promises never to destroy the earth by flood again.
For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Deuteronomy 29:11)
For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. (Psalm 84:11)
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
(John 10:10)
By which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
(2 Peter 1:4)
And my favorite…
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)
In “After the Locusts,” Jan teaches us to claim the promise God made in the story of Joel. He promises, I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten. (Joel 2:25)
Those are just the tip of the iceberg! Focusing on God’s promises and praying them will inevitably draw us closer to him. When our focus shifts from the worldly tribulation we are experiencing to the heavenly blessings God has for us, we break down the wall separating us from God, and begin building the wall separating us from the devil. God and Satan cannot exist in the same heart together.
Don’t put limits on what God can do by negative thoughts. Pray God’s promises to us and expect the best!
So no matter your struggle, God promises that he will triumph over all, and not only will he triumph, he will restore all that you lost, in abundance!
Dig in to your bible, read the blessings and promises God has for you, and start claiming them!
From my heart,
Celeste
“Pray the promises, not the problems”–I LOVE IT!