Guidance Continually?

According to Evelyn Christenson, prisoners who accept Christ while incarcerated often pray, "God, get me out of this hell-hole." If God doesn't, their response to his refusal is, "If that's the kind of God I'm serving now, I don't want anything to do with Him any more. He let me down."

Frequently, however, inmates who have recently become Christians share that they have already grasped that God knows what He is doing, that it is for their ultimate good, and that they can trust Him completely. Then their response to God is, "Thanks, God, for leaving me here. You have a purpose. What is it?"

God does what we trust Him to do. Do you believe a loving God controls every detail of your life? If you believe He is doing that for you, then He is!

God delights in giving moment-by-moment guidance to those who look to Him. Trust and praise Him for the guidance He'll give today-the interruptions, the help in your work, the interactions with others.

Those who seek Him with all their hearts find Him. And if our seeking Him includes looking for Him in the ordinary routine of our everyday lives, we will find Him there.

A key truth God teaches us through His Word is that when we're living in the Spirit, all our circumstances help us. God can make all things, even others' sins, "work together for good to them that love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). Seeing God in everything is the only way to find a completely restful life.

Thank You, Lord, that You delight in guiding us in all situations.

"By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night" (Exodus 13:21).

 Memory Verse for May  

 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6, 7). 

Prayer Request   Where there is more prayer there is more of His Spirit. Pray that God will pour out a spirit of intercession upon His people and that many will be faithful to prepare the way for a visitation of God's Spirit.

Dr. Roseveare's Wrong Medicine

A large truck drove into the hospital compound and delivered over four tons of medical supplies for Dr. Helen Roseveare, a missionary in the Congo. She and her helpers sorted and stacked  the bottles on to shelves but were a little disappointed that the most needed drugs were missing. Instead there were two cartons of 24 pint-sized bottles for treating a rare type of food-poisoning.  They relegated them to the back of the top shelf since such food poisoning was virtually unknown to their people. That week, the villagers ran short of food during a wedding feast and gathered, cooked and distributed wild yams to the guests. Within six hours, the whole village was gravely ill with food poisoning. Over twenty people died before they could help them. Of those who managed to reach the hospital, 48 of the most severely ill were treated with the medicine Dr. Roseveare gratefully retrieved from the back of the top shelf in the pharmacy. Those 48 lived. Dr. Roseveare had no doubt that most of those 48 would have died without that particular medical aid which she had never owned before and never received again. It had arrived the very week that the need arose, and she never learned who sent it. Dear Father, Your ways are truly mysterious and awesome. "And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).

Victory Every Time

When the Holy Spirit places His desires in our hearts, then we can and should pray until we know He has heard. It would be foolish to think that a person we are talking with can assure us she has heard our request, but to doubt that God can assure us He has heard. John implies this "knowing" is possible when He says, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God; that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have whatever we asked of him" (1 John 5:14-15).

Our need is to learn to allow Him to give us His desires. In 1 Chronicles 5:22, God's people won the war because the battle "was of God" (KJV). Whenever the Israelites sought the Lord regarding which battles to fight, and then went at His command, they always had victory. On the other hand, if they went without God leading them, they lost the battle.

Prayer is our battleground, and we, too, must expect God to help us to know which battles are "of God." Sometimes when we begin to pray, the Holy Spirit lets us know our request would not fulfill His desire. It is as though He says, "You mean well, but I have a higher desire." As we continue to pray, at times exact words will form in our minds, words that we recognize the Spirit is pleased for us to pray. It may simply be a heartfelt, "My deepest desire is for You to be glorified in this situation."

An amazing phrase is repeated in 2 Samuel 8: "The Lord gave David victory everywhere he went" (vss. 6, 14).  Earlier David had prayed, "Do as you promised, so that your name will be great forever." When the desire for God's name to be honored is the basis for our persevering prayers, God gives victory 100 percent of the time.

Teach us to pray, dear Lord, so we ask for what You desire to give us.

"We do not know what we ought to pray...the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will" (Rom. 8:26, 27).

 Memory Verse for May  

 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6, 7). 

Prayer Request  
Call on the Holy Spirit to convict believers of hidden sin and move them to confess and repent.

When Darlene's Faith Failed

Darlene Deibler Rose writes in Evidence Not Seen the story of her four years in a Japanese internment camp. She spent weeks in solitary confinement with very little food and much harsh treatment. One day with real effort she climbed up to look out a window to watch some prisoners in the courtyard and saw a woman grab some bananas from a hand that shot through a tangle of vines while the guard's back was turned.

Darlene began to crave bananas. "Lord, I'm not asking You for a whole bunch like that woman has. I just want one banana."  She looked up and pleaded, "Lord, just one banana."

Then she began to rationalize. How could God possibly get a banana to her through those prison walls? She would never ask the guard. She bowed her head again and prayed, "Lord, there's no one here who could get a banana to me. Please don't think I'm not thankful for the rice porridge. It's just that--those bananas looked so delicious!"

The next morning, she heard officers coming. "Lord," she prayed, "officers are coming. Give me strength to make a proper bow." But with her guard was Mr. Yamaji, a camp commander, where Darlene had previously been imprisoned.

He said, "You're very ill, aren't you?" After a few words he and the guard left. Then it hit her. She had forgotten to bow. She heard the guard coming back and knew he was coming back to beat her.

He opened the door, walked in, and laid at her feet--bananas! "They're yours," he said, "and they're from Mr. Yamaji." Darlene sat down stunned. She counted them. There were 92 bananas.

Darlene said, "In all my spiritual experience, I've never known such shame before my Lord. I pushed the bananas into a corner and wept before Him. 'Lord, forgive me; I'm so ashamed." He answered back in her heart, "That's what I delight to do, the exceeding abundant above anything you ask or think." She knew in those moments that nothing is impossible with God.

Thank You, Lord, for even answering prayer when our faith fails.

"Consider the great love of the Lord" (Psalm 107:43)

 Memory Verse for May  

 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6, 7). 

Prayer Request   Pray for a continued summoning by the Holy Spirit so that every woman who should be at the conference will learn about it and be drawn to attend.

Could Practice Make Perfect?

The practice of praise is to be continual, but it will only become that as we discipline ourselves to practice the praise of God.

In The Hallelujah Factor Jack Taylor tells of a converted atheist who related how he and his atheist friends would gather in their meetings and take turns publicly blaspheming God. They were so adeptly trained that they could stand for hours and hurl insults and ridicule toward God without ever repeating themselves.

How can we train ourselves to praise God? Perhaps David was so skilled at worship because he did it often. He wrote, "Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments" (Ps. 119:164).

To begin practicing the praise of God, let's declare with the psalmist: "My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise" (57:7).

Dear Jesus, I need Your strength to continually praise You.

"Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise" (Hebrews 13:15).

 Memory Verse for May 

 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6, 7).

Prayer Request   Pray for a continued summoning by the Holy Spirit so that every woman who should be at the conference will learn about it and be drawn to attend.