Peanut Butter Prayers

It is 11:59 on the very first day of 2011 and what was I just doing you ask? Well, let me tell you…I just Googled myself. (cue laughter) Well, low and behold I found this lil ol’ blog (yes, I just typed that while saying it in a southern accent). I decided it was about time to start updating, but considering the fact that it is indeed so late on January 1st…oh wait, nevermind, it is now January 2nd…I thought it best to find some old tidbits I had written here and there and post those so as not to let them get lost in the land of Microsoft Word; hence, the blog written in November right below this one. As I am searching on my computer I find a document titled “Babbling Blog;” my creative zest for titles is quite impressive I know.

          While I am reading through this blog that was written almost a year ago in January of 2010 I am sitting here wondering…who is this pastor that I am talking about that spoke at church?? Quick, scroll down and read the post below this one…seriously do it. I will just keep typing nothingness until you do. For example, did you know that the coach of Alabama before Bear Bryant had only won four games in three seasons?! I know that because one of my best friends was watching the Alabama/MSU game with her boyfriend’s family today so I thought it was my BFF obligation to text her some impressive “Alabama Football Fun Facts” (yes, I Googled that too). OK the point is I want you to read the previous post…all done? Good. Remember the part where I said “It’s funny how things seem to come full circle.” Ladies and gentlemen, it’s about to come full circle once again (signal dramatic zooming and music). That friend that had written me the e-mail about seeking the kingdom of God above all else is indeed the same fella that spoke on prayer…now is that a coincidence or a GODincidence (you like that term don’t ya? It’s ok I don’t care if you use it…it’s way better than that term Lacey Chabert’s character tried to coin in Mean Girls…sorry my distraction level’s at an all time high at the moment, which is most likely due to the three cups of coffee I had earlier).

So here it is..I left it as I had written it a year ago:

          I was just sitting at my computer doing some lesson planning for the week to come when my iTunes came to one of my favorite songs: From the Inside Out by Hillsong United. (Listen to it right now…seriously).
         How true are those lyrics? Everyday my soul is crying out to Him. I wake up and take my bowl of vanilla soymilk and cereal, usually some sort of organic granola of some sort (yeah I know I am one of those organic eating, tree-hugging types…well sort of) and I go to my computer and do some devotionals. Now I know what you are thinking…devotionals on the computer, really? (Hey, don’t knock it until you try it.) Before I go to bed I read my Bible. During the day I pray for strength, wisdom, discernment…I pray that I won’t tell that student that is rolling around on the floor smashing orange crayon into the carpet that if he doesn’t stop then…wait wait anyways the point is I feel that we as humans can not go through the day without Him. Even if I am distracted by the discouragements and even encouragements of the day He is always there. He is faithful, always faithful, so we should be faithful. How often do we lose sleep because we are worried about everything and anything from what we are going to wear in the morning and if we have matching socks to how we are going to manage the next house payment. I will let you in on a little secret…a secret weapon to combat those worries and anxieties of everyday life: Prayer. Yeah, I said the P word. Prayer…now what does that word mean to you? An all access, never-busy, straight path to the personal cell phone of the Lord and Savior that’s what it is.
          Last week I listened to a pastor preach on prayer. Now I wasn’t going to go to church on that cold January night, but I did. I am sure you can guess what I am about to say next: I felt like that message was meant for me. I felt like it was meant for my family. I felt like it was meant for that teenage kid sitting two rows in front of me in the collared shirt and ripped jeans. I felt like it was meant for that middle age couple quietly sitting behind me drinking their coffees. The point is God uses so many vessels to speak to us and I totally believe nothing is by accident. I feel like every single person in that church that night was drawn there by Him. We all needed to hear that sermon, even if we knew it at the time or not.
          There were two major aspects of that night that stuck out to me. The first was when the pastor said, “You don’t HAVE to pray, you GET to pray.” Now how awesome is that? I mean so many times we do the monotonous, day in and day out prayers that don’t really contain that authenticity of a relationship because we feel obligated to pray. Our relationship with Christ is so contrary to that though; we have the privilege of coming to him and being completely genuine. We have the honor of having that counsel right there for us at any moment. The other thing that really caught my attention was when the point was made with a rather humorous analogy of requesting a PB&B sandwich over and over and over and over again with that fact that many times we may make requests to God by continuously asking Him for the same thing in a million different ways. The pastor pointed out that we do not need to repeat ourselves; we can definitely have short prayers because He hears those. Along with that second element was the fact that we may need to come to Him in prayer for something 2, 3, 4…times because more often than not he is going to change our hearts and our wills to align with His.
           I pray that God will constantly work in me. I pray that God will constantly draw close to me as I draw close to Him. I pray that I can be a light for Him. I pray that contentment and peace will always overcome me as I trust in Him. I pray that I will never stop praying. I pray that not my will, but His will be done.

The Plaid Shirt Devotional

The Plaid Shirt Devotional-Written on November 29, 2010




Last night we had our weekly Euphoria church meeting at Ryan’s house. Although Ryan was out of town, we had a guest speaker, Jaleb Gillman, who is currently serving in an internship position at Cornerstone Church in Highland, Michigan. After a delicious dinner prepared by yours truly…yes I picked up pizzas…we made our way upstairs for the lesson. As we sat around chit-chatting, Jaleb began setting up a little table to set his Bible and lesson notes on. Nonchalantly he picked up the side table stand and stated “Hey this used to be mine.” Funny how things have a tendency to come full circle like that. Moving on, I knew he was ready to begin as soon as the cuffs of his newly bought black and white plaid shirt became unbuttoned and rolled up to the elbows (ya’ll might find it interesting to note that not only was this shirt quite fashion forward, but it even had black cuffs that were revealed as they climbed their way up his arm). Sure enough, he got everyone’s attention and gave a brief introduction of who he was. Next came the good stuff… “Alright, everyone if you could turn in your Bible’s to Genesis Chapter 4. The story of Cain and Able.”

          I was thinking…really…Cain and Able?? As in “Cain killed Able with the leg of a table.” I know what you are thinking…ummm that is not exactly true, but hey I bet you won’t forget who killed who now will you? He said we were going to dissect the different sections of the chapter and discuss it…oh my, now there is a lesson after my own heart. Then he even included life application principles and anecdotes to relate to. Cha-ching! Now that is what I call a million-dollar devotional! What were the principles? What were the anecdotes? What were the applications? I am sure those three questions, amongst others, such as, “Where can I get a shirt like Jaleb’s?” are going through your head right now. Ok, I won’t let you wallow in the feelings of being left out of a lesson any longer; I will do my very best to summarize for you: Master the sin in your life. Yeah, that’s my summary. Master. The sin. In. YOUR life.

          Wait…are you saying you want to hear a bit more? Ok then, I suppose I could include some of the highlights, but that one principle is a necessity for getting that vertical relationship in check. If there is sin that hinders one area of your life it WILL spill over to hinder ALL the other areas as well; trust me, I know what I am talking about. Now I want you to read Genesis 4:1-16 and then you will get so much more from this little summary that won’t even do Jaleb’s lesson justice, but it might bring a little bit of insight into your life. He started out by discussing how Cain sacrificed “some of the fruits” of his labor to the Father, whereas Able gave God the good stuff: the fat portions…MmmmMMM, you know what I’m talking about. Then he went on to talk about how Cain became jealous of Able and murdered him; the sin began to eat and eat and eat at him. God had mercy on him though and did not allow anyone to kill Cain. Jaleb spoke about how many times we have sin in our lives that we need to master.


          Now what does it mean to master sin? My interpretation is this: We need to acknowledge the sin. Confess the sin. Ask for forgiveness for the sin. Ask God to take control of that area of our lives. Then we need to stay away from and ask God to help keep us from that sin. Jaleb gave some great applications that I will just quickly go over: We need to have accountability, we need to pray, we need to read our Bibles. When I reiterate that we need to read our Bibles I am not just saying we need to read the same verses we always read…we need to READ ALL OF OUR BIBLES. Jaleb made the comment on how oftentimes we just read our favorite verses, but it is so important to read the entire Bible; hence, the whole invention of those marvelous yearly Bible plans.
          Time for another random Amanda moment (don’t worry, I will tie it in). This morning I was looking through old Word documents on my computer and came across an old e-mail from a great friend. The last line in the e-mail quoted a verse: "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all other things shall be added unto you". Cue the light-bulb, fireworks, and lightning!! Jaleb quoted this verse last night and I remember thinking, “Whoa, God really wants me to listen to that!” Was my coming across that verse this morning a coincidence? I don’t think so; I think it was confirmation of what needs to be done in my life. I need to stop putting other things first and stop solely focusing on MY future plans and start asking God “Hey…I am ready to give you control…where do you want me to go? What do you want me to do? How can I glorify YOU?” Oh one more thing…that e-mail I came across…it was from November 2008. Like I said…funny how things have a tendency to come full-circle.