ESTHER’S WARRIORS MINISTRY
Greetings on this International Youth Day! Please take a moment to pray
for children around the world for salvation, safety, access to good water, nutrition, health care and education. We sometimes lose sight of the overwhelming needs of youth who are challenged to just stay alive in untenable circumstances. The youth are our future. Let us pray a God-led path for each and every one of them in Jesus’s name.
It is easy to lose sight of God’s hand on our own life when the circumstances look askew. Life takes turns that we certainly would not craft for ourselves. There are seasons of varying lengths. Some seasons are light and easy. Others are challenging. Still others carry with them an intensity that seems relentless. We can become bone-weary if we are not diligent to maintain a focus set like flint on Him.
What Do You See?
We are called to walk by faith and not by sight. If we allow our situation
to derail us emotionally it will disrupt what He has for us spiritually. Sometimes a long-standing issue (disability, illness, family discord for example) can color how we view everything and everyone around us. We can become overly sensitive and easily offended. We inadvertently want ‘out’ of everything that we perceive to be the problem. In fact, the problem regardless of the situation is a heart issue within us. Only God can give us clarity on it and only God can open the door for healing if we choose to let go and let Him.
In talking with a young lady who is standing in the gap with her family for complete healing and restoration for her mom, trust in God was the underlying theme. She said it was not until she chose to ‘flip the switch in own her heart’ to let go of her mother and fully trust God that she began to see things in a different light. It was not the cancer; it was not the challenges this family faces daily, it was not her mom’s personal struggle that changed. It was a change in her heart (it is always a heart issue) that gave this strong woman of God the strength and courage to pick back up, put on the armor of God and go forth with renewed hope and encouragement in the Lord. I would be remiss if I did not say that I was so very humbled in her presence. Was life easy for them now? No, not yet as they await God’s healing touch but her vision was healed to see life and not all the negative emotions that can swirl around any intense life issue.
Your Heart Condition Sets Your Vision
We are called to walk by faith and not by sight. The Lord makes all things new. His ‘new’ may not always be what we are looking for with our natural eyes. We can still be in the midst of our situation and it can become ‘new’ if we open our heart and our eyes of faith to see what He is doing in spite of what is going on in the natural. “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentation 3:22-23) When we walk by faith we are not consumed by what is going on around us. We see ‘the new’ every morning and we glory in His faithfulness.
Jesus tells us, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8) Here is the key: if we seek to maintain a pure heart we shall see God. With eyes of faith we shall see God in our life. With eyes of faith we shall be able to walk by faith and not by what we see around us in our life. With eyes of faith we shall see that He will make all things new!
‘Pray the States’
Join us this week as we ‘pray the states’ toward the 2012 Presidential election. We are praying for each state in the order of admission to the Union. Please cover California admitted to the Union September 9, 1850 in prayer. Pray for wisdom and discernment for the political leaders, pastors and church leaders, the people residing in California and for all in our Nation. Each state is important in forming our United States of America. We commit to pray for a different state each week so we not only provide prayer cover but also to make us aware that our country is bigger than the space we personally occupy in it. These are our United States. Let us pray that we will arise united ‘for such a time as this!’
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“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.” President Franklin D. Roosevelt
A Prayer Request and Personal Blessing
Thank you for your continued faithfulness to pray. Please keep our servicemen and women and their families in prayer for salvation and safety. They are our frontline on the battlefield, let us be their frontline in the spirit. Also, let us cover all who have come home wounded that they and their families will receive the kindness, help and support they need to go forward in their lives. God bless all our military personnel and their families. May God richly bless the United States of America and keep her safe.
May God richly bless you this week. May we each walk by faith and walk away from the discord in our heart in Jesus’s name. Amen!