Monday, November 7, 2011

Made to Crave - Week 4 - Day 2

Week 4 - Day 2

I love a good word study and there was a great one right there in today's workbook!

pg 93 Jesus doesn't remove Paul's struggles, but He does give Paul a promise:
2Corinthians 12:9 ..."My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Grace: divine love, favor, or assistance; mercy; loving-kindness

Sufficient: enough to meet the needs of a situation; adequate; plenty

Power: great or marked ability to do or act; authority; control; strength; influence; supremacy

Perfect: being entirely without fault or defect; lacking no essential detail; ideal; complete; just right

Weakness: lacking strength; feebleness; frailty; failing; limitation; disadvantage

pg 94 the word he uses for "rest" refers to a structure such as a tent, a tabernacle, or a dwelling...a dwelling place in which divine strength doesn't merely come and go but actually takes up residence.

That power is always there right within your grasp, all you need to do is reach for it and ask for it to overcome your weakness.  Overwhelming isn't it!  I personally experienced this concept when I overcame the temptation for a bag of chips.  As soon as I asked for God to help me, the temptation was gone! 

Truly it was - I went from being so distracted by the temptation that I could barely concentrate on working, to sending a desperate text message to bible study group asking for prayer, to being reminded to stand firm on God's Word. When I started reciting some of my memory verses, the temptation was gone!!!!  All I can do is praise God and His perfect Word.

Made to Crave: Week 4 - Day 1

Week 4- Day 1
Chapter 10 - This Isn't Fair!

I read this chapter just one day after having to beg my bible study sisters to pray for me (thanks ladies!).  As I have already written, one of the things I have cut out is chips- my favorite being salt & vinegar.  Well, I have been doing fine with that and have not really missed them too much - until yesterday. 

The case I am currently grading is about a snack foods company and one of the alternatives is to analyze whether or not to produce store brand chips.  Yep, just fantastic!  All I can think about is how yummy Food Lion brand salt & vinegar chips are and how badly I wanted a bag.  It got to the point that it was incredibly distracting and I could hardly work because all I could think about was those chips!  How ridiculous!!!  But in the moment it was a serious battle - between my desire to stay on track and my incredible craving for a bag chips.  Clearly Satan latched onto a big opportunity and threw a big ole temptation right into my face!  

Thank God for friends who are willing to pray you out of any situation!!!!  It was not long after I sent my frantic text message asking for prayer that I was able to put aside the temptation and get back to work.  It also helped immensely (thanks Helen) to be reminded that Eve gave into to the desires of her flesh and that I should stand firm on the Word and His promises, just like Jesus did in the desert!

So after all that, I come to this chapter of the book and read the following that hits so close today...
pg101 But in that moment of temptation, I realized having a pity party was a clue I was relying on my own strength, a strength that has failed me before and would fail me again.  I had to grab hold of God's strength and the only way to do that was to invite His power into this situation.

pg 103 Weakness is hard, but it doesn't have to mean defeat.  It is my opportunity to experience God's power firsthand.

2Corinthinans 7b-10 there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Memory Monday

First a check to see how I am doing on the last couple weeks of verses. This first one is my Nov 1 verse for SSMT verse #21. 

1Corinthians 10:23
Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial.
Everything is permissible, but not everything is constructive.

Psalm 5: 3,8
Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord.
Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.
Lead me oin the right path,O Lord, or my enemies will conquer me.
Tell me clearly what to do, and show me which way to turn.

Proverbs 16:3
Commit your actions to the Lord
and your plans will succeed.

Galatians 5:16
So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives,
so then  you don't do won't be doing what your sinful nature craves.

Galatians 5:22-23
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives:
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
There is no law against these things.


Have I mentioned that it is getting easier to memorize verses and that I am still reciting all of the ones since the beginning of the year! Yep, amazing to me as well. But the even more amazing thing is that I am often finding myself pulling verses I have memorized and being able to apply them to a situation or even a conversation.  God puts His Word into our hearts for when we need it most.  In fact, just today I opened my Bible to search for just the right verse to apply to a friend's situation and found two that apply just as well to me. Three memory verses to work on this week...

1Corinthians 6:19-20
Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit,
who lives in you and was given to you by God?
You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you at a high price.
So you should honor God with your body.

Proverbs 15:18
A hothead starts fights; a cool-tempered person tries to stop them.

Psalm 69:1-3
Save me, O God, for the floodwaters are up to my neck.
Deeper and deeper I sink into the mire;
I can't find a foothold to stand on.
I am in deep water and the floods overwhelm me.
I am exhausted from crying for help;
my throat is parched and dry.
my eyes are swollen from weeping,
waiting for my God to help me.



About Memory Monday
I originally found Memory Monday with Joanne at The Simple Wife.  The idea is to memorize a verse during the week and come back to her blog on Mondays to comment about it.  That's it, nothing fancy, just simply an encouragement and reminder to memorize scripture for yourself.  Please join in Memory Monday as a way to be blessed by hiding God's Word in your heart. And also join me in prayer for Joanne as she continues to recover from the stroke she had in January.


About Siesta Scripture Memory Team
This is another program to encourage us to memorize scripture and is hosted by Beth Moore over on her blog  Living Proof Ministries Blog.  This program is set up so that each person who wants to join the Siesta Scripture Memory Team will memorize two verses a month for all of 2011 and post a comment on the LPM blog on the 1st and the 15th of the month.  If you do that all year you get to attend a Celebration with her and the SSMT next January!  I so want to do that, don't you?