Author: everydaywiththeking

Christmas

Tis The Season

everydaywiththeking

The season is here!

What came to your mind as you turned your calendar to December this year?

  • Advent                                        christmas-2961385_1920
  • Family
  • Traditions
  • Celebration
  • Shopping
  • Gift-giving
  • Decorating
  • Baking

Ideally, it is a season of wonder and joy with families gathering and celebrating together.

However, it is not always so wonderful for all. For many, the season is difficult and challenging. Christmas time can be sad, lonely, painful and a time of struggle. Some have recently suffered a great loss and some are overwhelmed by various difficulties at this particular time. Many are missing loved ones more in this season than any other time of the year.

If you’re missing someone this Christmas this song’s dedicated to you

– The Piano Guys

If this is a hard season for you, don’t put on an artificial smile and act as if you are fine. Remember many others are also feeling like you. Consider being honest with a friend, neighbor, co-worker or loved one and you may find unexpected help and comfort for your heart.

May God give us awareness of those around us who are struggling this Christmas. Let’s notice others and love them. Slow down, pay attention. Look for those Jesus wants to reach out to through your hands. Be thankful for the opportunity and you may be surprised to discover the true meaning of the season.

Thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he is our Father and the source of all mercy and comfort. For he gives us comfort in our trials so that we in turn may be able to give the same sort of strong sympathy to others in theirs. Indeed, experience shows that the more we share Christ’s suffering the more we are able to give of his encouragement. This means that if we experience trouble we can pass on to you comfort and spiritual help; for if we ourselves have been comforted we know how to encourage you to endure patiently the same sort of troubles that we have ourselves endured. We are quite confident that if you have to suffer troubles as we have done, then, like us, you will find the comfort and encouragement of God.

– 2 Corinthians 1:4-7    J.B. Phillips

Tis the season ♥

Your comments are welcome. Always love to hear from readers.

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Goals, Jesus

Appreciate

everydaywiththeking

 We turned our clocks back one hour this past weekend.

I love it when we Fall back into Standard Time!

I went to bed Sunday night happy about the time change. I fell asleep with the expectation of jumping into Monday feeling great. But, that’s not what happened. Instead on Monday morning, I woke up with an awful headache and nausea which lasted the entire day. So much for expectations…

So apparently I had some type of 24-hour virus.

Once I returned to feeling normal, it didn’t seem like normal anymore. No longer being sick seemed marvelous! Each ordinary day this week, after Monday, there has seemed to be so much to notice and appreciate. I am sure you’ve had this same experience after a bout of sickness or pain. This happens because returning to a life free of sickness, pain or _____causes fresh appreciation and a feeling of true gratitude. When we are living in a state of appreciation and thankfulness we are seeing things clearly. If only we could continue in this attitude but it always seems to wear off quickly.

Take a look at the definitions below.

Appreciate

a. to grasp the nature, worth, quality, or significance 

b. to value or admire highly 

c. to judge with heightened perception or understanding: be fully aware 

d. to recognize with gratitude

Since we are only two weeks away from Thanksgiving I am hopeful that I might be able to maintain this attitude. I would love to live with thankfulness, wonder, gratitude and fully appreciating every single day.

The only way I believe to make this happen is to ask Jesus to make me more aware of His Presence with me as I read His Word each day. What could inspire more of an attitude of appreciation and joyful thankfulness than knowing I am invited to walk through each and every day with the King! And so are you!

I am praying that this Thanksgiving season we will not be satisfied to be thankful for a day but will pursue a lifestyle of thankfulness and appreciation that spills over wherever we go.

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in [union with] Him [reflecting His character in the things you do and say—living lives that lead others away from sin],  having been deeply rooted [in Him] and now being continually built up in Him and [becoming increasingly more] established in your faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing in it with gratitude.  – Colossians 2:6-7 AMP

Let the [spoken] word of Christ have its home within you [dwelling in your heart and mind—permeating every aspect of your being] as you teach [spiritual things] and admonish and train one another with all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.   – Colossians 3:16  AMP

Appreciate

Here is a link to a post I wrote two years ago about the time change Redeem the Time

 

 

Uncategorized

Returning From Social Media Break

everydaywiththeking

I have been on a social media break since September 10th.

I expected a break to be beneficial. It has turned out to be far beyond beneficial. It is not an exaggeration to say the break has made an incredible difference in my life.

This refreshing experience has resulted in what I hope will be some lasting changes in my relationship to social media. The most noticeable change is simply that I will be very limited in spending time on anything connected to social media. I will not be planning a new blog post every week and will not be posting on the Facebook page often.

I am not going to detail all the ways a social media break has affected me right now but will likely share some details in a later post. For now, I would like to invite/challenge you to try it for yourself.

I would love to know your thoughts on this subject.

Please comment below ♥

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prayer, Summer of Prayer Series

Summer of Prayer Series

everydaywiththeking

Earlier this week was the conclusion of the Summer of Prayer Series

Did you miss the last post, first post, or any post? Not sure?

 ↓ Here is a link to ALL the post in the series ↓

Summer of Prayer Series

Want more on the subject of prayer?

Consider enrolling in the E-Course Design Your Daily Quiet Time

50% Off

Hope your summer was fantastic and you are ready to jump into the season of Fall.

Blessings,

Lynn ♥

Summer of Prayer Series conclusion (1)

 

prayer, Summer of Prayer Series

Constant Prayer

everydaywiththeking

Summer of Prayer Series

Constant Prayer

You may already be familiar with some Bible verses that mention constant prayer but please take the time to look at a few scriptures with me today. If you have your Bible handy, please find the following verses. I hope you are able to read the entire chapter or more surrounding these verses.

  • Acts 1:14
  • Ephesians 6:18
  • 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

If you’re not able to access a Bible, please see the verses below in the NKJV.

These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.   -Acts 1:14

praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.  -Ephesians 6:18

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.   -1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

What does it mean to practice constant prayer?

It is easy to begin our day with prayer. But how do we continue in a state of prayer once our daily activities have started? Well, why did the time of prayer end? Just because we leave the place where morning prayer began does not mean our time with God is over.

One of the marvelous things about a relationship with Jesus is that He is constantly present. Our problem is forgetting He is there! 

The difficulty in maintaining a lifestyle of constant prayer is caused by not living in awareness of His continual presence.

Is your life-quest for Jesus? Is your greatest desire to know Him? If so, you need to discover the joy of living daily in the awareness of His presence. This not only changes prayer but actually every single facet of your life.

On the subject of being always in prayer, E.M. Bounds said, “Always does not mean that we are to neglect the ordinary duties of life; what it means is that the soul which has come into intimate contact with God in the silence of the prayer-chamber is never out of conscious touch with the Father, that the heart is always going out to Him in loving communion, and that the moment the mind is released from the task upon which it is engaged it returns as naturally to God as the bird does to its nest. What a beautiful conception of prayer we get if we regard it in this light, if we view it as a constant fellowship, an unbroken audience with the King. Prayer then loses every vestige of dread which it may once have possessed; we regard it no longer as a duty which must be performed, but rather as a privilege which is to be enjoyed, a rare delight that is always revealing some new beauty.”

This is the last is the last post in the Summer of Prayer Series.

Did you miss any posts?

Follow the link below to access the entire series all together ↓↓

Summer of Prayer Series

 

I pray that you have found something helpful in this series.

Please leave a comment ♥

series 2018

 

 

 

prayer, Summer of Prayer Series

Praise Part 2

everydaywiththeking

Summer of Prayer Series

Do you think of praise as an option? Is it like a p.s. that you might tack on at the end of a prayer? Is praise something you do when things are going your way?

Praise is an important part of prayer and a joyful life.

“There should be a parallel between our supplications and our thanksgivings. We ought not to leap in prayer, and limp in praise.

– Charles Spurgeon

Praise is worship

Praise is not about your circumstances but about Who you are praising. God is always worthy of praise no matter what is happening or not happening in your life or mine.

A praise-filled day is like the perfect outfit. It is always the right fit and goes with everything.

So, anytime is praise time!

Praise is a key to constant prayer.

God is with us at all times. We live in His continual presence.

He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being,   – Acts 17:27-28

We need to grab onto this powerful reality and apply it to our lives each day. Living in this awareness will cause praise to happen easily and often.

Praise can become a lifestyle.

Sing out your praises to our God, our King. Yes, sing your highest praises to our King, the King of all the earth. Sing thoughtful praises!     Psalm 47:7 (TLB)

I will praise the Lord no matter what happens. I will constantly speak of his glories and grace.                       Psalm 34:1 (TLB

_Thanksgiving is inseparable from true prayer; it is almost essentially connected with it. One who always prays is ever giving p

Need some help getting into praise mode?

Turn on some praise and worship music!

Please share your thoughts on praise in the comments below ♥

 

 

 

 

 

prayer, Summer of Prayer Series

Praise Extra

everydaywiththeking

Summer of Prayer Series

This was not originally going to be a blog post at all but only shared on the Facebook Page. But Facebook has taken it down each time I attempted to share it. So, instead of giving up I decided to share through this blog post. Of course, that means it will actually reach more people than it would have through Facebook alone 🙂

The Leading the Way website offers literally 200 choices for sharing the content. So especially strange that Facebook is not allowing it since Facebook sharing is clearly encouraged on the website.

Follow the link below to the Empowered by Praise audio series by Michael Youssef

↓

Empowered by Praise

Please take a moment to leave a comment below and consider sharing ♥

Summer of Prayer Series

UPDATE on Facebook situation

Guess what happened?

Every one of the posts that Facebook had taken off the Every Day with The King Facebook Page was mysteriously put back up on the Page!

Interesting…