Devotion Time and Karaoke

Ok, so I'll go ahead and get the Karaoke part of the title out of the way.  I downloaded an app called Sing by Smule.  Depending on your "level/status" you have to start off by joining in on other songs people have recorded and sing the parts they didn't sing.  Well, at first I couldn't find a song that I could just finish (I'm not a singer by no means by the way) and then I got to one particular song.  I couldn't get past the girl singing because I started laughing.  It's bad, I know.  But funny.  You should try it.

Now to the more serious topic: devotion time.  Dun, dun, dun.  So Nate issued a challenge out to our youth this past Sunday.  He wants all of us to start taking our Devotion Time/Quiet time with God more seriously.  He wanted to start out small and eventually work up to more.  His challenge for them is this:  read at least one verse every morning before you start your day.  I don't know about some of these youth, but getting up a little extra early this morning was a pure struggle!!  Here are the two verses I ended up reading:

{Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.  For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.-Philippians 2:12-13}

What I took from this scripture today is, it is so important to live out our faith not just in front of our Christian friends or the pastor or those who might judge us if we stumble, but to live it out every second of every day.  As many people have said, we tend to play the Christian role on Sunday, and then the who we "really" are throughout the week.  Why aren't we being consistent?  Why aren't we being real?

This morning at 6, Nate texted the youth reminding them to spend time with God this morning.  When I finally got up and got out of the shower (6:45ish) I read my scripture and also sent a reminder to the youth.  We've had two reply back today saying that they did their devo.  One did his this morning and the other did it this afternoon.  The second one didn't do his this morning due to not feeling well, but he realized that maybe his day would have been better had he started the day by reading his Bible.

I'm super excited to hear the responses back from these youth on Sunday and to see how God spoke to them throughout the week.  As usual, here is my challenge for you:  for one week, read at least one verse each day.  Think about what is means to you.  Then, as you go throughout your day, see if it applies to anything that happens.

In Christ,
Katie

I Won't Give Up On Us

Within the past 48 hours, I've had two people tell me that they feel their prayers aren't being heard by God.  Both are Christians.  Both are seeking answers to what is going on in their life.  One says, "For the past year and a half, it's like God has not been there. . .Pray for whatever because it's just wasted breath on my end" and "Feel like I've wasted several years of my life...since I felt like God "called me" here.  One says she's prayed for a situation or that God would give her peace about it and neither has been answered.  She told me, "Maybe your prayers will get heard."  I shared this scripture with the first person:

 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”  Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

I told my friend that God doesn't leave us, we take our eyes off of him.

Why are we giving up?  Why do we feel like God's not there or that he's not hearing our prayers?  It could be because things aren't going our way or we really don't have a grasp on the fact that God is in control of everything and he does have a plan for our lives.

I spent several months of my life praying for a certain someone, that God would work in his life.  This person and I don't see eye to eye anymore.  It's hard to talk with him, so I just pray for him.  It wasn't until a couple of months ago that I thought to myself, maybe I should pray for myself that I would be able to show love to this person--regardless. I will admit that I haven't shown God's love to him like I know I should and I can.  But, I haven't given up.  I know God has something up his sleeve whether we see the results in this lifetime or not.  I shared a dance with this person a few months back.  He asked me to dance to the very last song which happened to be "I Won't Give Up" by Jason Mraz.  It just gets me thinking every time I remember this.

My challenge for you: don't give up.  Praying without ceasing takes faith in knowing that God is hearing your prayers.  A friend of mine sent me a text one time that read:

"When in doubt, Pray First.  All prayers are answered: yes.  no.  wait.  It's just sometimes harder to trust that third one."

In Christ,
Katie

P-R-A-Y that spells Pray. . .Do you have a request today??

I never intend on staying up this late during the week.  It just happens.  But I knew I wanted to write a post and share the events from the day.  The theme, as you could guess from the title, is prayer.  About the past week I've been going through the contacts on my phone and just asking my friends if there is anything I can pray for.  Do you really want to be a part of someone's life and know what's going on?  Ask what you can pray for.  I've been getting back a few responses here and there each day.  One prayer request that I got exactly a week ago was from my friend Lauren.  She asked that I pray for her Aunt (mother of 3) who had biopsies on her thyroid.  By the way, I had to look up the definition for biopsy.  Anyways, I wrote down her request, and sometime this past week I prayed for her Aunt.  Lauren texted me today saying they were all benign (yet another word I had to look up).  I'm not saying any of that to lift myself up, but to praise God.  He keeps opening up my eyes more and more to the importance of prayer.  Praying for each other.  Praying for ourselves.

Tonight, Nate and I had planned on cooking a Stoffer's lasagna and chilling at the house.  God had other plans.  It's amazing how he can take "hunger pains" and not wanting to wait 80 minutes for food and turn it into a night of fellowship with young Christians.  We ended up going to Circle Grill--because I was wanting me some onion rings and shrimp--and we ran into some youth we know.  After about an hour and a half conversation while eating, Saylor tells us that he feels God is leading him to be more active with his role in FCA at his high school.  He has a desire to get his classmates involved with devotions and just reaching out to them.  Nate encouraged him to follow through with it and not to give up.  Right before we headed out, we prayed for him.  Prayed that God would open the doors.  Prayed that Saylor's fire would not be burnt out.

During work today I came up with my own personal acronym for Prayer.  I kind of got the idea for it from the acronym for BLESS that I use for prayer walking (another post coming soon!).  Here is what I came up with:

P: People: Pray for my coworkers and the random people I interact with on a daily basis.
R: Relationships: Pray for my family, friends, significant other.
A: Answers: Pray for knowledge, clarification, truth.
Y: Youth: Pray for the youth at church, the students I will be teaching, and the other youth that I know.
E: Emotions: Pray in joy, sadness, thankfulness, doubt.  Pray for that emotion.
R: Report: Thank God for any answers to prayer.

I encourage you tonight---pray.  I know personally there have been several times where I did not want to pray to God.  Sometimes it was because I didn't want to hand a situation over to him.  Sometimes I'm just "too tired".  Sometimes I get distracted.  But, as Nate said tonight, praying and reading God's Word IS our time with God.  So what's your excuse?  He's there.

In Christ,
Katie Jo

Dear Future Self. . .

Every now and then I'll get to read a letter that I wrote to my "Future Self".  The letter is usually exactly a year prior to the date I get to read it.  I happened to open up my journal to find one dated for today.  It was a letter that was written at a Girls Devo last year with Amy Somerset.  I can't remember which youth girls were there, but I hope they enjoyed reading theirs at much as I did mine.  The letter was folded a couple of times so I'll share with you exactly how it read starting from the outside.
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{August 14, 2013 (this is the date which I was allowed to read the letter)
I am beautiful.  I am loved.  Someone died for me.  I am God's daughter.

Top of page:
The Beatles (favorite band)
Lime Green and Brown (favorite colors)
Haiti and Fair Bluff, NC (places I'd like to visit)
Compassionate, Artistic, Kindhearted (words to describe myself.

Katie
1 Peter 3:4
Proverbs 31:30

Dear Katie,
As I begin this new year in my life I am beginning to truly step into adulthood (hopefully).  Here are 5 positive things about YOU!

1. You KNOW when you are straying from God.
2. You are compassionate to others and try no to hold grudges.
3. You strive to not be negative or talk bad about others.
4. You are involved in church.
5. God has blessed you!!! (there was a heart around the 5)

 #5 will always be true.  Hopefully the rest will still be true in a year.
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I don't know why, but it just amazes me how God can use something like this letter to remind me of where I was and where I need to be.  My challenge to you: write a future letter to yourself.  Words of encouragement are always the best ones to read.

In Christ,
Katie Jo :)