First, I want to apologize for not remaining consistent with the Fighting For Your Family posts. I’ll be vulnerable here and admit that an attack happened that immediately intimidated me. Which in turn stopped me from posting about prayer. But God stepped in and reaffirmed my faith. So here we go for week 2!
This week I want to tell you what the most important part of prayer is. It’s……Listening. Soaking in the presence of God and waiting for Him to speak into us. Without God speaking into our life, we run the risk of feeling unworthy, unloved, unheard, unseen, and unwanted. Which creates in us this need to either perform to get the Father’s attention, or shut down because we dont believe we have His attention. When He never called for us to do any of that.
In light of this, let us approach the Throne Room with open hands and listening ears.
Praying For Yourself
Dear Heavenly Father.
Thank you for your Holy Word and the Holy Spirit. Thank you for giving me ears to hear, for speaking to me and for never leaving or forsaking me. You are so good to me!
Abba, I ask today that you would give me ears to hear your voice. Remove the things inside of me that keep me from recognizing your voice. Create in me a pure heart and renew a right spirit within me (Psalm 51:10). I open myself up to you Lord. Search me and know me, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way inside of me (Psalm 139:23-24).
I surrender myself to your will. I surrender the plans I have for my life and accept your holy plan instead. I surrender my attitude, my judgements, my emotions, my thoughts, and my actions to you. All that I am is yours.
Lord, I ask for you to increase my faith and discernment. Help me to be patient with my children, loving towards my spouse, and a good steward of the gifts you’ve given me. I love you Abba and I ask all of this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Hey everyone! Starting today, I am going to be starting a series on praying for your families! I’ll be posting one prayer a week that covers anything from marriage to your children’s future spouses to praying over your house. Prayer is such a vital part of your relationship with God. Without prayer we are just studying scripture and gaining knowledge, whereas prayer invites us into the Throne Room to speak face to face with Adonai. Without this intimacy, there is no relationship. It would be like being married, but never actually speaking with your spouse. Just learning about them from relatives or friends while living inside the home with a stranger.
So without further ado, lets kick off this series with a prayer to cover our family!
Family
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the family you have blessed us with. Thank you for being a constant source of peace and identity in our homes. I pray that you would give my family a heart that constantly clings to you. I ask that you teach us how to train up our children in the way they should go, so when they are older, they will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6) Produce within us an attitude of integrity and a heart that seeks to give glory to only you. Protect each family member as they go about their busy schedules today. Bless them in everything they do. Clothes us in your love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Colossians 3:14) Help us to walk in grace, mercy, and Your Will all the days of our lives.
Bring unity into our households and restore any broken relationships inside these four walls. I pray that your hand of grace would never leave us and that you would strengthen us to stand strong against the worldly influences that surround us. Restore the hearts of parents to the children and the hearts of children to the parents. If there is any contention between them, I pray that your healing oil would be poured out over them. Make our homes a refuge of peace with the presence of your spirit always around. Thank you for being faithful to answer our prayers.
Can I get personal with you? Like, really vulnerable?….My marriage almost ended a couple years ago. It was so close to ending, I’m sure satan was dancing with glee at the thought of his plan working.
Between life, sin, infertility, child loss, T1D, and a little bit of faith there was a family barely holding on. A threshold for sin to saturate. A wife letting her emotions rule her household. Children stuck in a game of war that they never asked to be in. And God, trying to help us see Him.
Life began to spiral out of control a few years ago, but I held on to my vision of being OK for as long as I could. But then the bubble burst, and I was left sitting there in a pile of clothes and sheetrock, crying out for help from a God I didn’t think knew I existed.
With my heart in pieces and my marriage in shambles, I laid on my bed empty searching my Bible for anything to make me feel whole again. And there it was, in the book of Hosea. I had never felt so connected to a book of the Bible before. He understood my pain. He had stood in the ruins of a marriage too. And God had responded to Hosea just as He had responded to me. “Go, show love to your wife again,….Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods…” Hosea 3:1
It was in this book that God put my heart back together and taught me the truth of marriage. Hosea 2:16 was the key verse that taught me.
This verse gave me so much hope! I learned how to accept the love of God in the place of the love of a husband. I allowed God to work on me and re-define marriage for me using His definition, instead of the world’s. He completely flipped my views upside down! I learned that my husband isn’t supposed to fulfill me or complete me. God is!
Thats why so many marriages fail! We go into marriage placing our spouse on the pedestal that God is supposed to be on. No wonder there is strife and bitterness! Only God can fill the emptiness in our heart. No other human alive can carry that weight for to long.
Through that season of sacrifice and pruning, God restored my marriage and I learned what true love really is. This eventually led to my husband accepting the free gift of salvation! It was a wonderful ending to a very stormy season.
If you are in a stormy season in your marriage, let my testimony give you a hope for the future! God is the restorer of marriages. He heals the broken hearted. He is the miracle worker. He can and will restore what the locusts has eaten, if you are willing to let Him.
Please reach out for prayer or encouragement if you are struggling now. I’d love to pray for you!
I’ve been in Exodus for a few weeks now, commemorating my own exodus from the world and this one verse spoke millions to my heart. “Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.”
Aaron was following the directions of God, performing mighty acts to show God’s judgement on Egypt and His glory to them.
The Egyptian magicians and sorcerers duplicated some of the acts that Aaron had performed. BUT nothing of this world is as powerful as God! Aaron’s staff swallowed theirs! God deflated their magic trick and humiliated them in the process.
You see, the world tries to act like God. Some things that are shown to us look good, but they really aren’t godly. And its just that, an ACT! It can never work. Not without God being in it. All that is out there in the world is hardness and failure.
God is so much more! God loves us. He desires us. He has some amazing things in store for us! We are not meant to stay here.
Our exodus from the world looks alot like the book of Exodus in the bible. There was intense spiritual warfare, wilderness walks, camp outs with God, and God showing us His glory daily. We yearned for our daily manna from Him. We spent so much time with Him. There was a Honeymoon phase where all we wanted and sought after was Him.
But just like the Israelites, we tend to wander back into the lusts of the world. Our hearts are deceitful and cannot be trusted. But God always pulls us back to Him. He woos us softly and tenderly. He chastises us like a loving father. He defends us as a protector should.
How was your exodus from the world? Are you currently going through it? Is your battle intense, or on the ending side? I’d love to pray for you or with you. Comment or send me an email with any and all prayer requests! I’m all about my Father’s business.
So a few days ago, we celebrated my sons “Diaversary”. If you do not know what this is, then you are blessed! If you do know what it is, feel free to comment your diaversary date so I can send you some celebratory stuff on the date! But any who, it is the anniversary of his diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes (T1D).
I had plans to make it super special. Low carb cake, balloons, rides to places he enjoys. However, the entire world is shut down right now (thank you Covid-19). So my plan was a stay at home party of five. THEN we woke up and realized his insulin pump had shut off last night…that’s not good. Apparently his sugar spiked right at bedtime due to a small head injury after dinner (no worries, it only bled a little!). That sugar spike caused his alarm to go off all night. Which then led to his battery going from 50% to 0% in the middle of the night.
Talk about a long night for everyone, except him. I started using some essential oils on my children and now they can literally sleep through anything. I have even moved a dresser while tripping over toys inside their room, and no one budged! (Thank you Peace & Calming) Those oils are truly a life saver for a mom of a diabetic child and a toddler who share the same room. the alarm wakes the toddler and then no one goes back to sleep.
So anyway, back on task Stephanie! His insulin pump died, which causes his CGM to disconnect from his pump, and it stops reading how much insulin he has in his pump. It kind of snowballed by 7 that morning. All before I had even consumed coffee! I was overwhelmed, exhausted, and done with the day. So I did what any mom would do, I did the next right thing. (hello Frozen 2 song lyric).
We reset his pump, there was no saving that CGM connection, but luckily it stays connected to my phone too. So at least we have that. With him reconnected and that crisis kind of avoided, I sent the kids to the sand pile. I oiled up with some Stress Away and then joined them. BUT the craziness of this day was not yet over! My son meets me at the door holding his pump and attachments. his insulin pumped had gotten snagged on something and ripped completely out.
Luckily I had just put on Stress Away lol. So, we unhook everything, fill his pump up with more insulin, reinsert it into his little body, and try this outside thing one more time. Yall! I was at my limit of the day by this time. And it was only noon. I could feel the tension in my body, I could feel the shortness in my answers to the kids, I was not being the best version of myself.
Then my son did an amazing thing. He laid hands on me and started praying for me. My humble, wonderful 8 year old child prayed for my heart, my happiness, and for Jesus to help me to feel His love for me. As Wyatt was praying, my four year old son, Mason joined in. With both of my tiny children laying hands on me and praying for my sanity, I felt the layers of stress begin to melt away.
God began to minister to my heart and mind through the actions of these tiny humans. It was a humbling experience. And yes, I ugly cried. Hard. My children are the best blessing I ever received from God. They are truly faith builders and love connectors. Pure. Set apart. I learn about love and acceptance from them every day. Through the faith of my children, I was brought back to a place of perfect peace once again.
So, we finally celebrated his Diaversary in true us style, by swimming all day long and playing with baby chicks. By the time my husband got home with my surprise of chocolate covered pretzels, I was my normal happy, healthy self. We wished my son a happy 1 year Diaversary, told him all the ways we are proud of him and love him, then explained God’s love for him. Wyatt truly is a remarkable kid, his love for God is incredible and we are ready to conquer diabetes for another year.
God Bless
Grace Revival Homestead
BTW! If you are interested in any of the oils I mentioned, shoot me an email or comment below. I’d love to help other mommas find peace in the night and relaxation during the day!
Today I want to thank you for the rain. It’s cleansing and purifying and it is bringing in the colder weather with it. As the seasons transition, I think back to how my own house has transitioned with my marriage over the years. This place was once a hostile battle ground with children held hostage between their selfish parents wants. Now God has purified this place into a holy temple that welcomes in the Holy Spirit every minute of every day. You pour out peace and tranquility on my home every morning before my children wake from their restful sleep. My cup overflows with your love. This house has seen many battles, both spiritual and mental, inside these walls. With Your constant guidance and strength, we have taken back territory from the enemy’s hands. You reached right into enemy territory and snatched my family and I right out; and for that I am eternally grateful. Place a hedge of protection around my house and place your angels on guard around it. Touch my children’s hearts with your loving hand so they feel safe and secure always. Protect their minds from any attacks of the enemy. Fill them with Your Word so they do not sin against you.
Lord, I pray that you do this exact same thing for the families of the world. Pour out your peace on their households. Protect little children from selfish acts of parents who haven’t yet witnessed your love. Help us to be examples to our neighbors of how a godly household should look and feel. Give us discernment to what the spiritual and physical needs of our friends and families are. Teach us to be a shining lighthouse to draw more of the world to the cross.
Today is a special day of prayer for me personally. Maybe it’ll be special for you to! On day 4 of this prayer journey, we are going to be praying about marriage. Mainly about over coming struggles in marriage! My husband and I did not know the Lord when we got married, so the first four years of our relationship were incredibly unstable. Our life was littered with selfishness, infidelity, anger, lust, frustration, and the constant threat of divorce. Once Holy Spirit pulled us into the Lord’s embrace, I wish I could say things calmed down immediately; but we all know that wasn’t true. It took time, persistence, prayer, and lots of time spent gleaning from God’s Word. So, here we go, giving God all the glory for His never ending love of us!
What God Has Joined Together
Dear Heavenly Daddy,
Thank You for this day spent with many children. It has been enlightening to watch them as I learn to have faith as a child. Thank You for the help-mate you have gifted me. He is an amazing man and we are blessed to have him as the leader of our home. Thank You for the obstacles we had to overcome that shaped us and our marriage into a living testimony of Your love and grace. Lord, and thank you for sending us Holy Spirit to comfort us and guide us. His presence in my life has shaped many bad situations into spiritual transformations.
Lord, there has been many attacks from the enemy lately in our marriage. I pray that you would protect my husband and my children from any assaults. You are the greatest protector and I have full faith that You will use these attacks to shape our faith and bring us to a new level of intimacy with You. I pray for peace in the storm and I thank You for these unsteady times so I can prove my faith to You. Your Word says Your grace is sufficient for each day, so I will stand firm against all forms of negativity with full assurance that You have supplied my arsenal with plenty of ammunition. I can block all attacks with my shield of faith.
Lord, I do know sometimes negativity in my marriage isn’t an attack from the enemy, but just plain old sinful selfishness from either I or my partner. So I pray for us to be emptied of self and fully filled with Holy Spirit. Pour out the fruits of the Spirit on us and into our lives. Teach us to be more like you and less like the world. Let my marriage be a true and holy representation of Your relationship with me. I fully submit to You and Your Will for my life and for my family. You are holy and righteous Lord and You are worthy of all our praise and admiration!
Welcome to day 3 of our 30 Day Prayer journey! This has truly already blessed my life in more ways than I can count. God sure is good to us! So since today is Sunday, and I just finished prepping for homeschool tomorrow, let say a prayer about school!
CO-PARENTING WITH GOD
Dear Heavenly Daddy,
Thank You for this day. Thank You for sending the shepherd to take care of your flocks. Thank You for leaving the ninety-nine to come and find me. Thank You for these children You have put under my care to train up for Your Kingdom. Without Your wisdom and guidance, I would be lost daily. Your presence in my house is what keeps me sane. Lord, I know that my children are truly Yours and that You have just entrusted their care to me. Thank you for co-parenting them with me. Your love and Your example is what teaches me how to love them. Thank You for showing me the way.
TRAIN UP A CHILD
Lord, tomorrow is a new day of me trying to put more of You into our children. Your word says to train up a child in the way that they should go, and when they are older they will not depart from it. Jesus, I am standing on that word and proclaiming it over my children. This world is a very scary place and schools are no longer safe for children. So we are entrusting them into your care. Protect and nurture them when they are away from us. Thank you for giving me the means to teach my children from the safety of my home. Your generosity is overwhelming! Give me the wisdom and patience to teach them in a language they are capable of understanding. Speak through me into their lives. Speak life into them. Fill in all the gaps I miss in their education. Fill them with Your Holy Spirit and the fruits of Your Spirit. Help me to equip them to be kind and gentle and loving while the world is cold, cruel and scary. Lets raise up a generation of believers that are not afraid to stand on Your Word!
Yesterdays prayer was so refreshing that I absolutely cannot wait to put up todays! This time we are going to be praying about health, mainly because my son’s sugar has been super high all morning. I need this prayer at this moment and hopefully you’ll find something valuable from it as well.
By His Stripes We Are Healed
Dear Heavenly Daddy,
Thank you for this beautiful but slightly flooded day in Louisiana. We appreciate Your kindness and love so much! Your grace and mercy far exceeds our limited way of thinking. Lord, I pray for divine healing today. We have been struggling to be a makeshift pancreas for my son lately. His blood sugar continues to be untamable and its frustrating to say the least. I pray that you step in and take control. I proclaim healing in his body and for all of his organs. I proclaim healing over every family that comes across this post. I pray for peace during sickness and for comfort. Relieve pain in joints and nerves. I rebuke cancer and all diseases that attack your children.
I pray for peace for the families that have sick children. Wrap these people in your loving embrace. Lord, for people that are hearing diagnosis’s for the first time, relieve their stress and fear. Your perfect love cast out all fear and we are standing on that promise right now. Send them people to support them and help hold their arms up like Aaron and Hur did for Moses. Teach them how to praise you in the storms of life. Don’t allow the enemy to use these devastating diseases to draw them away from Your love and comfort. I am standing in the gap today for families that are so overwhelmed that they cannot reach out to You. Lord protect them and wrap them in Your love.
Thank You Lord. Thank You for doctors with Your wisdom and for counselors that are willing to hear us out when we feel buried under our emotions. Thank You for supplying all of our needs before we even realize we are lacking. You are Jehovah Jireh! We love you so much!
Today is the first day of our 30 days of prayer series! I am so excited to start this prayer journey with you! So to start this month long conversation with Jesus, we will be praying for God’s favor.
God’s Favor
Dear Heavenly Daddy,
Thank you for placing the dream of this blog into my heart. Thank you for all that you have done to bring me to this place in my life. Thank you for each and every person you bring to this blog to follow along with me. I pray for your Devine favor on each person that reads these words. I pray for blessings and peace that surpasses all understanding to surround them. Pour out Your Holy Spirit on them and their family and friends. Lord, establish the work of our hands and let your favor rest on us. Your Word says that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, so we proclaim your favor into our lives. We have faith that You will see us through and bless us. As we actively seek and live by Your wisdom; we will be highly favored and esteemed in the sight of You and men. Our enemies cannot overpower us because Your favor surrounds us. We love you Lord and we lift Your Name forever in gratitude and worship.
In Jesus Name we pray, Amen.
I hope these words bring you peace! With all of God’s Blessings,
Seasons of Grace 