Message from Anita September 4, 2008
I Samuel 12:20-24
“Then Samuel said to the people, ‘Do not fear. You have done all this wickedness; yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart…For the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people…Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you.”
Recently I started to begin my quiet time with the Lord each morning with this prayer, “Dear God, please grant me a deeper realization of my sinfulness and a deeper appreciation for the surpassing worthiness of your Son so that I might serve and glorify you with ever increasing zeal and faithfulness.” Now this is a type of prayer that is a little scary to pray. Yet somehow this was a real desire of my heart. When one is busy in ministry for the Lord and you are constantly reaping the joy of seeing lives impacted for the kingdom, you can tend to forget the real wickedness of your own heart. What I wasn’t expecting was for Satan to jump on this request. One morning during my time in the Word, an assault began on my mind. At first I thought it was the Holy Spirit bringing conviction over sins of my past to remind me of how wicked my heart can be. Yet the strange thing is that I have always felt the Lord’s forgiveness and cleansing in my heart. For four days I searched scripture and cried out to God during this assault. God pointed me to Psalm 27:14, “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, Wait, I say, on the Lord!” Through out my days as this burden weighed on my heart, I kept praying what is called the Jesus prayer, “Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner,” and I waited on Him.
Finally on Tuesday morning, I woke up at 5:00 which isn’t too normal, and I just knew that God had some business to do with me so I went to my “spot” and just started devouring His Word and praying. I stayed at that spot for 4 hours! In that time, God pointed me to the passage above in I Samuel as well to another book that I felt God wanted me to read. I came to the realization that God had allowed Satan to torment me, but He used it to answer my prayer request of a new realization of my sinfulness and a deeper appreciation of what Christ has done for me. Yes, I am a sinner. I have had shameful attitudes and actions, yet God in His infinite mercy, keeps me from turning aside and has given me a passion to serve Him will all my heart. I don’t have to fear! To think that it pleases the Lord to make us His people is truly too marvelous to fully comprehend. Praise God! It just makes me want to shout for joy over all the great things He has done for us. I continue to pray that God will use times like these to keep me on the path of humility and brokenness in serving the body of Christ.
Ministry update
Our time in Franklin, Pa. was a lot of fun. The Todd Agnew Concert was great! He is a simple communicator with a gift of expressing his soul through song and guitar. Previously I had sent one of my books to his parents who live in Franklin, in hopes that they would pass it on to Todd as a way of introducing myself. To my surprise during the concert, Todd mentioned that he was adopted! After the concert, I had the blessing of meeting Todd, his parents and his adopted sister. They ended up sitting in on my session on Saturday morning. We enjoyed conversation afterwards centered around adoptions
More important though were the young people that I had the opportunity to serve! I only had one hour with them, but I pray that the workshop made an impact on their spiritual lives. . If you go to my blog and look at my last entry you will see a picture of Todd, his family from the area, and myself.
Sunday morning I spoke for one hour during a combined Sunday school hour with about 140+ people as well as Sunday evening for the youth/a few adults. This congregation was so receptive to the message and many shared with me afterwards that it had been just what they needed! One high school age male student handed me a note written on the church bulletin that said, “I’ve been praying for a message about what you gave us today. Thank you so much for speaking today.” That was worth it all right thereJ! Another great comment came this week in the mail from a woman in that congregation, “I want you to know that your message sunk in—my husband read his Bible before the paper on Monday morning!! A miracle, since he is an avid paper reader first thing each a.m.!”
An email we recently received:
“You spoke at Camp Hebron in June of last year and gave us the 21 day challenge and I took it! I was really amazed how journaling added to my devotions and Bible reading. I never thought that journaling would stick for me - I've tried over the years and my entries were few and far between! I now have over a full year of journaling the amazing things that God has been showing me, mostly through His word and I actually write in a nice journal instead of a little throw away spiral note book. :o) There really is an amazing connection that happens when you write down the thoughts the Lord gives you - not just leaving them swimming around in your head. So I just wanted to send you a note of encouragement and to testify to the Lord's faithfulness! Keep cheering for Jesus - it has impacted my life.”
As these words of encouragement come in I like to pass them along to you because with out your support I could not serve the body of Christ as effectively. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for partnering with me!
Ministry Prayer Requests:
--Sept 8-9, (Monday and Tuesday) Mt. Calvary Christian School
--Sept 10, (Wednesday) Strategic Planning Day for the Board
--Sept 27, (Saturday) Two one hour sessions at Sandy Cove
Pray for receptive hearts, an anointing of God’s presence and lives impacted for eternity.
A fellow God Seeker,
Anita
I Samuel 12:20-24
“Then Samuel said to the people, ‘Do not fear. You have done all this wickedness; yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart…For the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people…Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you.”
Recently I started to begin my quiet time with the Lord each morning with this prayer, “Dear God, please grant me a deeper realization of my sinfulness and a deeper appreciation for the surpassing worthiness of your Son so that I might serve and glorify you with ever increasing zeal and faithfulness.” Now this is a type of prayer that is a little scary to pray. Yet somehow this was a real desire of my heart. When one is busy in ministry for the Lord and you are constantly reaping the joy of seeing lives impacted for the kingdom, you can tend to forget the real wickedness of your own heart. What I wasn’t expecting was for Satan to jump on this request. One morning during my time in the Word, an assault began on my mind. At first I thought it was the Holy Spirit bringing conviction over sins of my past to remind me of how wicked my heart can be. Yet the strange thing is that I have always felt the Lord’s forgiveness and cleansing in my heart. For four days I searched scripture and cried out to God during this assault. God pointed me to Psalm 27:14, “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, Wait, I say, on the Lord!” Through out my days as this burden weighed on my heart, I kept praying what is called the Jesus prayer, “Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner,” and I waited on Him.
Finally on Tuesday morning, I woke up at 5:00 which isn’t too normal, and I just knew that God had some business to do with me so I went to my “spot” and just started devouring His Word and praying. I stayed at that spot for 4 hours! In that time, God pointed me to the passage above in I Samuel as well to another book that I felt God wanted me to read. I came to the realization that God had allowed Satan to torment me, but He used it to answer my prayer request of a new realization of my sinfulness and a deeper appreciation of what Christ has done for me. Yes, I am a sinner. I have had shameful attitudes and actions, yet God in His infinite mercy, keeps me from turning aside and has given me a passion to serve Him will all my heart. I don’t have to fear! To think that it pleases the Lord to make us His people is truly too marvelous to fully comprehend. Praise God! It just makes me want to shout for joy over all the great things He has done for us. I continue to pray that God will use times like these to keep me on the path of humility and brokenness in serving the body of Christ.
Ministry update
Our time in Franklin, Pa. was a lot of fun. The Todd Agnew Concert was great! He is a simple communicator with a gift of expressing his soul through song and guitar. Previously I had sent one of my books to his parents who live in Franklin, in hopes that they would pass it on to Todd as a way of introducing myself. To my surprise during the concert, Todd mentioned that he was adopted! After the concert, I had the blessing of meeting Todd, his parents and his adopted sister. They ended up sitting in on my session on Saturday morning. We enjoyed conversation afterwards centered around adoptions
More important though were the young people that I had the opportunity to serve! I only had one hour with them, but I pray that the workshop made an impact on their spiritual lives. . If you go to my blog and look at my last entry you will see a picture of Todd, his family from the area, and myself.
Sunday morning I spoke for one hour during a combined Sunday school hour with about 140+ people as well as Sunday evening for the youth/a few adults. This congregation was so receptive to the message and many shared with me afterwards that it had been just what they needed! One high school age male student handed me a note written on the church bulletin that said, “I’ve been praying for a message about what you gave us today. Thank you so much for speaking today.” That was worth it all right thereJ! Another great comment came this week in the mail from a woman in that congregation, “I want you to know that your message sunk in—my husband read his Bible before the paper on Monday morning!! A miracle, since he is an avid paper reader first thing each a.m.!”
An email we recently received:
“You spoke at Camp Hebron in June of last year and gave us the 21 day challenge and I took it! I was really amazed how journaling added to my devotions and Bible reading. I never thought that journaling would stick for me - I've tried over the years and my entries were few and far between! I now have over a full year of journaling the amazing things that God has been showing me, mostly through His word and I actually write in a nice journal instead of a little throw away spiral note book. :o) There really is an amazing connection that happens when you write down the thoughts the Lord gives you - not just leaving them swimming around in your head. So I just wanted to send you a note of encouragement and to testify to the Lord's faithfulness! Keep cheering for Jesus - it has impacted my life.”
As these words of encouragement come in I like to pass them along to you because with out your support I could not serve the body of Christ as effectively. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for partnering with me!
Ministry Prayer Requests:
--Sept 8-9, (Monday and Tuesday) Mt. Calvary Christian School
--Sept 10, (Wednesday) Strategic Planning Day for the Board
--Sept 27, (Saturday) Two one hour sessions at Sandy Cove
Pray for receptive hearts, an anointing of God’s presence and lives impacted for eternity.
A fellow God Seeker,
Anita
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