Video Bible Lesson - A Prayer for Moms Who Struggle with Their Temper By: Malinda Fuller

1/2 Hour of God’s Power with Scott Ralls

3/05/2020

A Prayer for Moms Who Struggle with Their Temper

By: Malinda Fuller

“Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil.

For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the LORD

will inherit the land.” (Psalm 37:8-9)

To the mom who just put herself in “time out” before 9 o’clock in the

morning, and is sitting in a locked bathroom with her phone, you’re not

alone.

To the mom who cried herself to sleep last night, and the night before, and

the night before that with promises of “I'll do better tomorrow” and pains

of regret, you’re not the only one.

To the mom who grew up with an abusive mom or a negligent mom and

vowed that you would “do it better,” but feels like you’re on the same

hamster wheel, know that all hope is not lost.

You’re not the only one who has snapped a sharp remark and before you

noticed the tears in your daughter's eyes, you knew it that is was rude and

hurtful.

Your struggle with anger, taming your tongue, and controlling your temper

are not new battles for moms.

Unfortunately, shame has a tendency of moving in the day the newborn

comes home. It stalks with whispers that lazy reactions equal a lousy mom,

or that poor choices are the result of a pathetic mother. If these thoughts

have gone from whispers to shouts of blame and torment, please take a

breath, close your eyes and whisper this one name: Jesus.

For He came that you would never be alone. Not even in your darkest

moments when the questions, anxiety and rage threaten to consume you.

Even when it feels like nothing can penetrate the cycle of guilt and

shame—He can.

He can reach into that moment, that day, and that situation, and bring

peace and clarity. He can overwhelm your heart with love, kindness, and

creative ideas for the struggles that you’re facing. He can speak life to the

circumstances where there seems to be only death, and His grace can be

enough to hold you through whatever trial you are enduring right now.

And here’s the best part: not only can He. He will. It is His promise to you

today and your hope for tomorrow.

He is there to catch every tear that falls, hear every prayer you whisper, and

hold every question that leaves you tossing in the night. He promises to

cover you, shield you, protect you—to supply you with strength, love, and

peace.

Jesus says He will never leave. No matter what you do. No matter how

many times you mess up, cry out for help, and need His forgiveness. He

gives it generously. He is not stingy. His grace is like His love: endlessly

abundant.

So, the next time you are hiding upstairs in your room with toddlers

screaming in the next room—or a defiant child locked in theirs—take a

breath, speak His name, and remember that He is with you.

Please pray with me:

Father, give me eyes to see you and ears to hear you in the midst of my day.

When challenges arise, give me the ability to step out of my emotions to

deal with the situation in the best way. And when I make mistakes, give me

the courage to ask others for forgiveness, and even more, to forgive myself.

Remind me of your promises, of the fact that when you look at my beautiful

and unique child, made in your image, it's the same way you look at

me—with a Father's love. Amen.

#Jesus, #Christian, #Bible, #Salvation, #Heaven, #God, #HolySpirit

Serving Christ.......Dr. Charles Stanley

Serving Christ

Dr. Charles Stanley

Matthew 25:34-40

Stop for a moment and consider the purpose of your life. Are you living to pursue your own interests or success? Does your energy revolve around your family members? Perhaps your ambition is to change the world for the better.

All of these aims—even the last one, which sounds so selfless—are futile. The only goal of lasting value and fulfillment is serving Christ. As His followers, we should model our life after His. And Mark 10:45 tells us that "even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.” We honor Him by doing likewise.

Yet, sometimes we can feel overwhelmed when we consider the amazing ways that other believers are serving the Lord. With God on His side, King David led great armies into war. Today, there are evangelists who speak to tens of thousands, and many lives are saved. How could anything we do compare to accomplishments like these? And while comparisons may discourage us, Christians use other excuses for not trying—such as a lack of experience or having the wrong personality for the task. But God’s call for each person is unique. He will provide the words, ability, and circumstances so that you can achieve what He wants done. Remember, our Father is the one who makes the difference. We are merely tools, and we’re blessed to be used by Him.

EL: Are you demonstrating your love for the Lord by serving others? Live in such a way that each evening you can tell Him, “Lord, as best I know how, I have attempted to serve Your purpose today.”

The End of All Weeping

The End of All Weeping
LYSA TERKEURST 

“‘Abba, Father,’ he said, ’everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.’” Mark 14:36 (NIV)

Do you ever feel like pain and sorrow are chasing you down? Like you just can’t outrun all of the hurt?

Oh, friend. I know how difficult those seasons can be. That’s why I want us to look at someone in Scripture who understands this kind of pain — King David.

Not only did David spend a significant amount of time before he became king running for his life from King Saul, but he also eventually ended up running from his very own son, Absalom.

But whereas Saul openly sought David’s life, we find Absalom sneaking around behind his father’s back in an effort to rip the kingdom from David’s hands. With slick promises and conspiratorial kisses, Absalom easily steals “the hearts of the people of Israel” (2 Samuel 15:6b, NIV). And it isn’t long before David receives word his kingdom is crumbling right in front of him. (2 Samuel 15:13)

In light of these events, David sees that his situation is desperately dangerous. He must escape. The route we find him taking to escape the city, weeping as he goes, is across the Kidron Valley, through the Garden of Gethsemane, over the Mount of Olives and into the Judean desert. This was the known escape route for those needing to quickly flee from danger in Jerusalem.

Within this story we are reminded of a larger story — the people of God are continually wayward in their love and affections toward their king. They allow their hearts to be captivated by others. They are prone to stray. This was true for King David, and it would be true of another King who would come from David’s bloodline generations later — King Jesus.

Years later, Jesus would sit in the Garden of Gethsemane, the very gateway of this known escape route, facing extreme danger. We read about Jesus in these difficult moments in Mark 14:34-36, where He laments: “‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,’ he said to them. ‘Stay here and keep watch.’ Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. ‘Abba, Father,’ he said, ‘everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.’”

His people were turning against Him. Jesus wasn’t meeting their expectations as king. They wanted Him dead.

As I sat in the Garden of Gethsemane during a recent visit to the Holy Land, my heart was overcome with the reality of what Jesus was facing while in that very place. He knew He could escape. He knew He could flee like David had done. He knew the way to take to save Himself.

But Jesus stayed so He could save us.

Though my heart strays from Him, Jesus’ heart is compelled to stay for me.

Jesus ends His prayer to God with nine earthshaking, demon-quaking, hell-shattering words, “Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36b). In other words, He completely submitted to God’s plan because He knew in the end, it was best.

Jesus was the only King who perfectly fulfilled God’s will.

As we read the story of King David, we must always remember that he simply points to the better David — Jesus, who is the King of kings. The contrast between David’s experience and Jesus’ is important:

• Both David and Jesus weep on the Mount of Olives. David weeps over the betrayal and potential loss that he faces — all things that affect him personally. Jesus weeps over the city and people of Jerusalem.
• As David escapes over the Mount of Olives, he faces the potential loss of his kingdom. As Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane at the base of the Mount of Olives, He begins His journey to the cross where He will conquer sin and death and establish the Kingdom of heaven.
• David’s kingdom will eventually be war torn and broken. The Kingdom of heaven will reign forever.

What does this mean for us today?

I would imagine we can all relate to David’s weeping. Our lives are riddled with evidence we live in a broken world — loss, hurt, death, betrayal, heartbreak and relationship breakdowns. But might we also remember Jesus’ weeping as well. He hurts when we hurt. And that’s the exact reason He made a way for us to one day enter His eternal Kingdom where there will be no more sorrow and no more weeping. Praise God!

Lord, I can’t thank You enough for the fact that You stayed and suffered the pain of the cross for me. May the truth of Your sacrifice stir this sometimes-wandering heart of mine to stay faithful, stay hopeful, stay devoted to You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

TRUTH FOR TODAY:
Revelation 21:4, “‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (NIV)

A Prayer of Lament

A Prayer of Lament
By Debbie Przybylski

I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eye—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! - (Job 19:25-27)

Did you know that even in sadness you can worship God in prayer?

You can worship Him in the midst of difficulty through a prayer of lament. There are many of these kinds of prayers in Scripture. All the major Bible characters poured their hearts out to God in lament. This is a type of prayer that we rarely hear about, yet at times, it is a necessary part of each one of our prayer lives.

When experiencing the dark night of the soul, prayers of lament are so helpful. We live in a broken world where things do not always go right. There are times when we don’t know what God is doing or which way to turn. Bringing before God a prayer of lament can make all the difference in the world, because God actually changes us during these times when we pour out our hearts to Him.

Prayers of lament are a form of worship and faith. We worship God even in the midst of pouring our difficulty out before Him. Instead of backing away from God during a hard time or a dark night, we face the pain and worship Him with it. As an act of love, we offer it all to God. We lay everything before His Throne.

“Lamentation is a powerful, and meaningful, form of worship because it places our love for God above even the worst of circumstances in our life… God does not ask us to deny the existence of our suffering. He does want us to collect it, stand in those things and make Him an offering. The Holy Spirit, our Comforter, helps us to do this: He aligns Himself with our will and says, 'I will help you to will to worship God.' The glory of the majesty of God is that He helps us will and do.” - Graham Cooke

A Prayer of Lament:

Lord, I know that you are faithful over all things, even the hard, dark times of my life. Help me not back away from you in my time of grief. Help me instead to lean into you and trust you, even when I do not understand your ways. Please keep my head above the waters of anguish and my feet from slipping off the ground of truth. Help me see you in these hard moments and glorify you in my response. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

When It Seems Like the Bottom Dropped Out...🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

When It Seems Like the Bottom Dropped Out
By Greg Laurie

Have you ever been extremely lonely, maybe even when you were surrounded by people? Have you ever felt cut off? Have you ever felt as though your friends abandoned you or that you were completely misunderstood?

If so, then you have a faint idea of what Jesus Christ went through as he agonized in the Garden of Gethsemane. In a way, we all face personal Gethsemanes in life, times when it seems as though the world is closing in on us, times of ultimate stress when the cup that we are supposed to drink seems too much to bear, times when we feel like we can’t go on another day.

We cannot always know the will of God in every given situation. But there are times when we know the will of God, and, frankly, we don’t like it. There are other times when we know the will of God, and it doesn’t make any sense. My friend Randy Alcorn uses the term “Father filtered,” which means that either God did it, or God allowed it.

Jesus, being God in human form, knew the future. He knew what was coming down. In John’s account of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, we see Jesus literally suffering – suffering so badly that he was effectively sweating blood. This, next to the cross, was most likely the lowest and loneliest moment in the life of Jesus.

In the Bible some significant things happen in gardens. In the Garden of Eden, people sinned. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus conquered sin. In the Garden of Eden, Adam hid himself. In the Garden of Gethsemane, our Lord boldly presented himself. In the Garden of Eden, the sword was drawn. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the sword was sheathed.

At this point, Jesus had preached his last sermon. He had his last meal. And He also had prayed a beautiful prayer in which he prayed for us (see John 17). Matthew’s gospel tells us that Jesus said to Peter, James and John, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me” (26:38 NKJV).

Peter, James and John spent a lot of time with Jesus apart from the other disciples. When Jesus raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead, he took Peter, James and John with him. When Jesus was transfigured on the mountain, he had taken Peter, James and John with him. And in the Garden of Gethsemane, again it was Peter, James and John. Were they the Lord’s favorites? Maybe. Or perhaps there was another reason. Maybe Jesus wanted these guys close by so he could keep an eye on them. Whatever the reason, what an honor to be asked by Jesus to be with him at this crucial moment of his life.

Notice that Jesus did not say, “Explain this to me,” because Jesus didn’t need an explanation. He didn’t say, “Preach to me,” because Jesus didn’t need to hear a sermon. He simply said “Stay here with me.” Because he was lonely, because he was in agony, because he was in pain, he just wanted someone there with them. That’s really all Jesus was asking for.

Matthew tells us that Jesus “went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, ‘My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine’” (verse 39 NLT). Evidently, Jesus was in such agony that He cast himself to the ground in prayer.

Jesus, being God, knew the future in vivid detail. He knew he would be denied by the one he had perhaps invested the most in, Simon Peter. He knew that he would be rejected by his own people, Israel, whom he came to save. He knew that his disciple Judas Iscariot was about to betray him with a kiss. He knew he would be tried in a kangaroo court of injustice and subjected to unfair treatment – ironically, all in the name of God.

And worst of all, Jesus, who had been in constant communion with the Father and the Holy Spirit, would have to bear all the sin of the world, past, present and future. We know that for a time, Jesus would be separated from God the Father as he bore the sin of the world, causing him to cry, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34 NKJV)

That is why Jesus said, “If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me.” In other words, “If there’s another way, please find it.” But of course, there was no other way.

D.L. Moody, one of the great preachers from days gone by, made this statement: “Spread out your petition before God, and then say, ‘Thy will, not mine, be done.’ The sweetest lesson I have learned in God’s school is to let the Lord choose for me.”

Let the Lord choose. He will make a better choice than you will, because he has all the background information. If you’re facing a closed door, a broken relationship, or a disappointment in life, God is still in control. He loves you, and he has a plan.

A 19th-century poem entitled “Gethsemani” [sic] by Ella Wheeler says it well:

All those who journey soon or late
Must pass within the garden gate
Must kneel alone in darkness there
And battle with some fierce despair.

God pity those who cannot say
“Not mine, but Thine,” who only pray
“Let this cup pass,” and cannot see
The purpose in Gethsemani.

We must never be afraid to place an unknown future into the hands of a known God. There’s a purpose in your Gethsemane.

How Can I Hear From God?

How Can I Hear From God?
by Adam Weber

My wife says sometimes I talk too much.

It’s a little embarrassing to admit, but I know it’s true. If you have a pulse, I can and will talk with you. A lot.

“You need to give others a chance to talk and just listen,” she’ll tell me.

Just listen.

This is good advice for having a conversation with a friend, coworker, or stranger. I mean, it’s a basic social norm and a common courtesy that one acquires by the age of 5. It’s important to listen to others. To give others a chance to speak and share. To give each other a turn to talk.

But it’s also good advice when it comes to prayer and talking with God.

To give Him a turn.
To give God a chance to speak.
To listen to Him.

While many of us, especially us extroverts, are good at talking with people, we often struggle when it comes to speaking with God. Prayer can be overwhelming for many because we don’t know the words to speak. That said, when it comes to prayer, the most important part isn’t speaking. It’s listening!

Listening and giving God a chance to speak isn’t just good advice, it’s necessary and vital to having a true conversation with God.

Now, we can hear from and listen to God at any place and at any time, but we must know what the voice of God sounds like.

The best place to start knowing His voice is by opening up the B-i-b-l-e. #SundaySchool. By seeing His words come alive. As we read, we come to understand the character and heart of God. We come to know His promises and truths. His ways. We see what God has said in the past, which gives us a good idea of what He’ll say to us today. And what He won’t say to us. We come to know what His voice sounds like.

Unlike we naturally assume, when God speaks in the Bible, it’s often not in a loud booming voice from heaven that stops traffic. Instead when God speaks, He does so using a still small voice.

Instead of brashly breaking into our lives, He stands at our front door and gently knocks.
Instead of shouting when we don’t listen, we’re told that He draws us to Himself with His kindness, not His anger.

When it comes to hearing from God, often the main question that we need to answer is the most basic one: Do we want to hear from Him?

If we do, we need to give God the space and room to speak.

More practically, invite God to speak and then be quiet.
Turn off the noise. Instead of checking Twitter between meetings, be still for three minutes and listen.
Get into the Bible. Again, we have to be able to recognize God’s voice if we want to hear it.
Declutter your life. Is every ounce of your day full (including every evening and weekend)? Good luck hearing from a God who whispers and quietly knocks.

If we want to hear from God, we need to give Him time.

Time to share.
Time listening.
Time and availability to speak into our lives.

We need to.

Just listen.

Intersecting Faith & Life: Give God the space and room to speak to you today. Put away the distractions and open up His Word — because He has things He wants to say to you.

For Further Reading:

Jeremiah 29:12
Jeremiah 33:3
James 1:22

The Angelic Perspective on Easter

The Angelic Perspective on Easter
by Fred Alberti

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.
Colossians 1:15-16

During this time of remembrance of Christ's sacrifice I am prone to wonder about the angels.

I see them standing at attention internally grieving over the suffering of their creator. Jesus was not merely the creator of just mankind. The Bible says that it was by Him that all things were created. This was their creator in the flesh suffering a brutal death.

I imagine more than a few wishing to dispense with the humans who were causing this atrocity. Matthew records Jesus stating, "Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matthew 26:53). What incredible self-control! What awesome love to bear the punishment of the cross when it could have all ended so easily.

In talking about the prophets, Peter reveals that the angels long to look into this whole business about redemption and the good news of the Gospel (1 Peter 1:12).

They didn't understand why all this was happening. All they knew was their King was being murdered.

Then I hear amongst the mass chaos of the darkness and the rumbling of the earthquake as the Roman Centurion and the witnesses to Jesus death beat their chests proclaiming, "Surely this man was the Son of God!" (Read Luke 23:47-48 and Matthew 27:54).

It was over. Jesus was dead. Now it was time to bury Him in a borrowed tomb.

Three days later I imagine the angels clamoring to be on the special detail that was posted. Who would get to roll back the stone? Who would get to wait in the empty tomb to deliver the wonderful news?

"He is not here, He has risen" (Matthew 28:6).

Oh, what a glorious pronouncement. I wonder just how the angels rejoiced. Were they slapping each other on the back? Were they shouting in victory? Were they beaming with joy over the news that their King was no longer in the grave?

How will we celebrate that day?

How will we honor the death and resurrection of the creator of the universe?

Intersecting Faith & Life: When you make your Easter eggs this year do one with angel wings on it to remember the angel's words, "He is not here, He has risen."

Further Reading

1 Corinthians 15:3-4
God's Secret Agents