prayer coach

Today’s post is by Kevin Adams author of his Wake Up My Faith blog. I came across Kevin through his twitter account, @wakeupmyfaith, and through some shared views we came to form a connection. Kevin is one of the rare people who maintain an authentic relationship with God  and with his heart. By not giving up on one for the other, Kevin’s writings bring you into the tension of living true to both. I asked him to share his walk with God in trust and prayer through a recent tough season of his life. He has graciously agreed. I encourage you to follow his blog and twitter to continue to grow from his experiences.

If you’re alive, you have breath. If that breath has ever been taken away, even for a moment, you have a testimony. In the fall of 2008, after a decade of hard work, I had a successful business, high income, great investments and no bad debt. By January of 09, within 100 days, I’d lost it all, was in overwhelming debt, and my entire financial structure had collapsed squarely on top me and my family. Ten years of effort left me with nothing it seemed but guilt, fear, and shame.

Since then, there have been days with no groceries and no way to buy them, days of not knowing where we would sleep, days of marriage held by a thread and depression held by a rope, and even days of watching extended family place material wealth above our need. And some of the longest days were spent watching our prodigal son reject us, and all that we embody.

Joseph has a dream that he would have a position of authority. His dream is followed by 13 years of slavery and prison, in which he rises to the positions of authority. Each place has parts of his dream, but it never realizes until the day he is brought before Pharaoh.

David has an extraordinary experience of the chief religious leader of his time declaring him king of Israel after each of his brothers were overlooked for the position. He has some immediate successes with Goliath and advancement in Saul’s army, but it is 15 years before that word comes to pass.

Abraham gets a word from God, a promise that he would be made a great nation. He believes the word but has to wait 25 years before he even gets one son.

The thing that stands out to me is not necessarily the wait but the acceptance that the promise would come to pass. What assurances did any of these men have that what they were told would happen? How many dreams have you had at night were from God? How do you know what someone says to you is from God?

Even the story of Abraham doesn’t explain how God spoke to him. Did he hear an audible voice, or was it just God’s voice spoken into his thoughts?

I do not doubt any of these men’s experiences, but it makes me wonder how can I be so sure. Several months ago I started my newest walk of faith which I mentioned in my post, Does Your Life Make Zero Sense to UnBelievers. Now I face what Blackaby calls the crisis of belief.

Heart image courtesy of Skitch

This may not be an encouraging title for a Valentine’s Day post, but unfortunately this is a common query people use to come to the blog. Love is made to be lasting, and while your love may still be on, at times the person of our affection stops returning our love. How can we move on?

We were created for love, and for some for some that is a wonderful encouragement. It gives you hope for a satisfying and lasting love with another. For others the idea of love is filled with a painful mixture of a few happy moments and powerfully hurtful ones. While the other person has seemingly moved on, you are stuck with some strange connection to this person who has called you so much pain. You only hope is the cry, “God, please remove them from my heart.”

Listen to God’s words to you. That person was never supposed to fill your needs for love. I am the One who created you for love so that I may be the One who would satisfy your longings. Come to Me. My arms are open to receive you. Lay your head on My chest and pour out your heart. Tears open you up for the healing. Cry for the disappointment and loss, but not for despair for I give you hope. Freedom is coming. My love is on.

Freedom is found similarly to forgiveness. Here are some simple steps to help you find your freedom.

1. Confess how you have placed too much of your heart on the other person. Confess how you have trusted them over God.
2. Thank God for His forgiveness. It is already there for you. Receive it through giving thanks.

image courtesy of Passion

Anyone can have faith when things are going well. The Christian community has just finished all of their Christmas/Winter/New Year conferences where thousands of believers joined together to worship and encourage one another. Hope was distilled and people send home flying high what God can do through them. Now many are back home and are struggling how to put feet to the declarations they made just a few days ago.

Life gets tough. Your past will try to pull you back into your former lifestyle. None of this discounts conferences because they can be wonderful life-changing experiences. However, how do you remember what God has taught you later when you need it? How can you remember that excitement for the Lord in your everyday life? Even more, how do you remind yourself of God’s goodness when you are really struggling?

The best answer is relationships! You were not created to be alone. You were not even created to only you and Jesus. You need the body. Adam had the perfect setup-he got to stroll the garden walking with God. Even so, God said it wasn’t good for him not to have another human around. You need people.

David when he was running away from Saul got severely depressed. You can read some of the Psalms and see his struggles. On one particular occasion, Jonathon went and found him to help David find his strength in the Lord. he reminded David of the promises of God toward him, and he reminded David of his own commitment to David (1 Samuel 23:15-18).

You need people in your life that will keep pointing out to you what God thinks of you and will keep affirming their commitment to you. Let us continue to encourage each other daily (Hebrew 10:24-25). Speak life in each other.

image courtesy of Aaron Tesauro

While it can be very scary, transition is so good. Transition breaks you into a new level of trust. It allows you to dream what your life can be like. Transition brings life to your soul and spirit.

Transition makes you stare your beliefs in the face. Do you really believe that God will lead me? Do I believe that where He will lead me is somewhere I want to go? Can I trust that He loves me enough to not forget about me?

“We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” – Romans 5:3-5

In reality transition is no different than suffering. Transition brings pain. You have to learn new ways of doing things. You often have to learn to work with new people. But, because you have God, you hold on to the belief that God has something good (Romans 8:28). James expounds on Paul’s thoughts by showing the steps from suffering to perseverance.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” – James 1:2-4

Faith is to be tested if you want to attain to perseverance, character, and hope. The testing period is not God’s displeasure on you or Him giving you the cold shoulder. God is always thinking of you. He’s always planning good things for you. He loves you.

Saturday as I was checking online for the scores of my college team, crying came from the other room. My wife was using this “play by yourself” time to catch up on some needed work. I was first to respond to the scene. Our youngest was under the covers of our bed crying with our oldest sitting over her saying she was sorry. Time to open the investigation.

It turned out that the oldest wanted the youngest to do something. When she couldn’t do it, the oldest bit her twice.

Naturally concern and attention went to the youngest. Hold her. Comfort her. Make her feel safe.

Once she settled down, I dropped her off with mom for some extra attention and turned my attention toward the oldest. What am I to do? They are sisters. I can’t permanently remove them from each other. I love them both. Sure I will discipline the oldest, but I also don’t want to crush her spirit.

Can you imagine this is what God does day in and day out. He has a huge heart of love for each person—those that are mean and do evil things and those that have evil things done to them. He is able to go to the child who has been molested to give comfort healing and peace. He is also just as able to go to the child molester and calmed their storm and give forgiveness. Somehow while maintaining justice, God can love the one without hating the other.

Corrie ten Boom was a victim of the evil concentration camps in Nazi Germany. After the war, she was in a church in Munich telling the story of the forgiving God. At the end of her sermon, a guard from her concentration camp came forward. Recognizing him, fear and pain once again gripped her heart. He introduced himself and asked to hear her say she forgave him.

Addictions can be very debilitating for the person and their family. This post on addiction recovery prayers is geared to give some traction in gaining help from God. The greatest thing people afflicted with addiction need is hope—hope life can be different and life can be better.
This prayer list is written for those in addiction to pray over themselves, but it can just as easily be tweaked so friends and family can support their loved ones in addiction through their prayers.

The prayers are written as statements. Speaking them over yourself brings you into agreement with how God sees you which will lead to a transformation of the mind. Pray knowing that this is God’s will and He will answer your prayers.

10 Things to Pray for Addiction Recovery

1. I am forgiven and protected by God. I choose to release all those that have hurt me and bless them that I may pursue life. (more)
2. My mistakes don’t define me, but are transformed by the grace of God. Therefore I release shame off of me and receive love from God and others.
3. People who know the real me will never reject me because God says I am too awesome to reject.
4. I have not missed God’s best for me, so I eagerly look to God for His vision of my future.
5. As I reveal what’s going on inside of me, I will know true friendships and I will like myself more. Hiding leads to bondage.
6. As I look to God, He will lead me into right choices and give me the strength and protection as I hold to those decisions. Every small decision will either strengthen or weaken my ability to stay in freedom; therefore I will also trust God with them.

“God, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. And sever any tie in my heart except the tie that binds my heart to Yours.” – David Livingstone

I came across this quote from David Livingstone in a book I was reading today. Immediately, it reminded me of a conversation with my wife almost 10 years ago. We were at that time missionaries in the Middle East (although they did not know this because of their view that missionaries were some branch of the US government).

We were coming to the end of the year there and were deciding whether or not we were going to return for another year. I was up for it, but my wife had a very hard year. You can only imagine how difficult it is to be a women in a society that treats them less than human. Not all men over there were like that, but it was ingrained in their society and as an intercessor my wife felt it often.

Through this discussion about what we were going to live the follow year, and I said, “I will be happy anywhere in the world as long as I am with you.” I don’t know if I had fully thought that through before it came out, or if it was just unearthed through the discussion, but it was and still is most definitely true.

My wife is my family, my best friend, and my constant source of support. I love her like I never knew what about love before. And, at this point of my life she was even more important to me than God. That summer we were separated. That position I held her at was to heavy for her to carry. She could not be my God, nor did she want to be.