Walking in the Word with Breast Cancer

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:4-7 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone . How do we get on top of those anxious feelings?  First, we rejoice in the Lord always, and then we let our reasonableness be known to everyone. Hmm. Would the people in your life describe you as reasonable?  EVERY person in your life?  That would be a great big nope for me. I wish I could respond yes to this question, but the reality is I can’t.  Not everyone would say I was reasonable. I hope the people in my life would say I am increasingly more reasonable - I am striving to be more reasonable in my encounters with others, but I still have s

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:4-7 This verse clearly speaks to the person who struggles with anxiousness. I think the reason this verse has always been so powerful for me is because I used to struggle significantly with anxiety, I used to be anxious about everything - so much so that it causes significant physical problems. Years ago, I was treated for chronic headaches and ulcers in my esophagus because of the stress I internalized. Anxiety puts a horrible stress on our bodies when we don’t manage it properly - many people struggle with weight, heart, or digestive issues as a result of stress; or they suffer from stress in

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:4-7 This is definitely one of my life verses...mostly because He brings me back to it so often as He gently reminds me of all the wisdom He has shown me through this verse.  He did that very thing again this morning.  I used to be a complainer...well, truth be told I still do complain far too often when I when I get wrapped up in the things of this world and I forget. I’m so thankful for how He reminds me of these lessons with His Word. As soon as I spend time with Him and He refreshes my soul and cleans my heart with verses like this, I let go of the complainer in me.   When you get

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. - Luke 18:1 I just love the reminder that God chose us in the middle of this parable:  And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? - Luke 18:7.  He didn't choose us because of anything we did, or because we were somehow good enough...no, He chose us when we were dead in our sins. He chose us because He loves us, and He wants the very best for us. The reminder in the middle of this passage is perfect. He reminds us that He chose us and He loves us in the middle of a parable about persisting in prayer and not losing heart because He wants us to remember if He loved us enough to save us from the greatest depth, then He loves us enough to save us from our current trial. No matter what we face, He promises us here that He will bring justice to His elect.   We may be facing insurmountable odds, but we can know that ultimately, He wil

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. - Luke 18:1 We are commanded by Jesus in this parable to always pray - this is how we keep our faith alive and we don’t lose heart. The danger of living in this world is that our faith and our love of Christ will be diminished by the day-to-day distractions of our lives, or by the opposition we face. How do we endure in our faith when everything around us tells us to leave it behind?  We are to always pray - this is how we are to endure till the end. Never give up praying.  When it’s hard to see through the trial you face, when the reasons to keep believing are diminishing, prayer is what stokes the fire of your faith. It’s keeps you focused on God and His plan for your life, and it keeps your from fretting or striving to solve the problem yourself. Prayer is what keeps you in the fight, even when it would be easier to admit defeat and walk away.  I think one problem of the greatest

Hi friends 😊 I hope and pray that you all have been blessed by this week of Thanksgiving as I much as I have been...it's truly been an overwhelming and humbling week for me having both my birthday and Thanksgiving packed into one week. So many ways that people have reached out to me this week with thoughtful words, cards, and gifts, and I've gotten to spend so much time with a family who never fails to show me how much they care.  I even received my first birthday card from my grandchildren! I am just so incredibly blessed. 💗   My chemo day is typically Thursday, but it was pushed to Friday so I could enjoy Thanksgiving with my family.  A beautiful friend cooked over two days for me, then delivered an amazing Thanksgiving dinner with all the traditional trimmings and more just so that my family could enjoy our dinner without any preparation. I was blown away at her sacrifice of time and energy, not too mention the cost of cooking for a family as large as mine. It was quit

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. - Luke 18:1 In this passage, prayer and not losing heart are connected. If you persist in prayer, you will not lose heart.  If you have lost heart, it’s because you haven’t persisted in prayer.  In other words, if you and I would just persist in fervent prayer to the Lord, we would never lose heart facing our current circumstances.  Before we go any further, we should pause and define losing heart - the term uses ‘heart’ in the sense of courage or spirit, so it means to lose your confidence or your courage.  When we lose heart, we become discouraged, it’s the feeling that we will not be able to succeed at something.  We’ve lost our peace, our purpose, our direction. We lose heart when we focus on the places the world tells us to find our treasure. Our culture emphasises the outward and the seen. The media is dominated by money, possessions, houses, cars, food, physical beauty and outwar

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. - Luke 18:1 God can bring about justice in any situation, even when the odds seem stacked against us or those we love.  If we persevere in prayer, and we trust that He WILL answer our prayers, He will bring justice. This is what this parable about - we are not to lose heart, we are to trust that in every situation, God will reign.   When we are waiting for a prayer to be answered, it can be so easy to lose heart if we don't see Him at work. We have a tendency to give up, thinking He won't answer our prayer and we must just have to learn to deal with the circumstances...things will never change. That thinking can take us to a dangerous and bitter place, guarding our hearts while we’re waiting for prayers to be answered is crucial to our faith. We can do that by remembering a few things when we’re feeling this way.   Start with the reminder that God cares for you immensely, mo

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. - Luke 18:1 Once upon a time, this Parable of the Persistent Widow was confusing to me.  I didn't get the connection to me or to God, so rather than persist in an understanding, I would just pass over it.  Parables aren't meant to be easily understood, though.  Jesus taught in parables to separate the insincere from the sincere. He wanted to filter out those who were not serious about listening, but He also wanted to bring God’s truth to life in the hearts of those who heard and understood. They’re meant to draw the reader in to the story and challenge their world view.  His intention was to capture our attention with a story about every day life and push us to think deeper about the meaning. If we want to understand the parables, we need to dedicate ourselves to making the connection between the point of the story and our own lives.  He wants us to persist in our pursuit of understan

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. - Luke 18:1 Living in this world can be so discouraging sometimes, especially when our focus is in the wrong place.  We can exhaust ourselves trying to create a happy world for ourselves and our families, leaving us feeling defeated when things don't work out the way we planned. We tie so much of our inner peace to our situational happiness, and when things fail, we get discouraged and we lose heart.  In this verse, we are told how not to lose heart - we are to always pray. When we pray, we keep our focus on Him. When we pray, we open the door for Him to lead us and guide us in His strength, and not our own.  When we pray, we allow Him to do the real work in our hearts, trading in situational happiness for supernatural peace. We cannot find the inner joy we long for if our eyes are fixed on things of this world, but we can't change our gaze if we're not in prayer with Him. P

1 Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD!  2 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart,  3 who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways!  - Psalm 119:1-3 I have just loved being in this scripture this week.  Meditating on its truths have really focused my attention on where my happiness comes from...when I feel at peace, and when I don't. My life doesn't have to be perfect to be happy. In the middle of stormy seas, I can be happy because it's an internal state of being that’s grounded in who God is, not in the things of this world.  I can be blessed and happy no matter what is in front of me because He is the anchor of my soul, He is my stability, He is my happiness.  My happiness shouldn’t depend on what is going on around me.  Nothing good ever comes from attaching my happiness to something here on earth, yet I still struggle to free myself from this bondage. When I'm not happy, I try

1 Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD!  2 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart,  3 who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways!  - Psalm 119:1-3 We are told here we will be happy when we walk in the law of the Lord. One of the ways we walk in the law of the Lord is by getting into His Word everyday, but another way is to memorize Scripture. We are told over and over in the Bible that His Word should dwell richly in our hearts. We are to store His Word in our hearts by memorizing it. Just like learning how to get into the Word consistently took some time for me, so did this one. I did know scripture - I could quote a decent amount from worship songs, and I knew the “big” ones, but I never took any intentional time to memorize scripture. I knew we should, but I just never really spent the time doing it - I thought I was doing great getting into His Word everyday. I rationalized that I was storing Him