Wanted: Your prayers. REWARD!!

OK, so here's the deal. I know it's unorthodox and bordering on bribery to offer a reward for prayers, but that's exactly what I'm doing. God has placed it on my heart to start an online prayer meeting - right here, right now. I believe that prayer is powerful and alive, and that the prayers of God's people can work miracles in the lives of those being prayed for as well as those doing the praying. When I was little, my Grandma used to take me to church with her, and I will never forget the overwhelming presence of God I felt when it was prayer time. It wasn't like prayer time at my church, where the person in charge would lead the prayer as we all sat in silence, heads bowed, eyes closed. At Grandma's church, prayer was ALIVE. Everyone prayed at the same time, out loud, some softly and some very loudly, all different prayers and all different postures of worship - there were people kneeling, people with arms raised to heaven, eyes open, eyes closed, heads bowed and heads lifted, eyes filled with tears and eyes filled with joy, some closed and some open. It was wild, it was fierce, it was overwhelming, and it was powerful. Seeing prayer in that way helped me understand that there are many ways to pray and that when we sincerely lay our requests at the feet of our Lord, anything can happen.

So today, I call you to pray with me. Let's have an old-fashioned Pentecostal prayer meeting (how cool is it that we can do this online?!?). Let's gather together as one and lay these needs at His feet, asking Him to intervene and bring peace, hope, life, and health to those who need him so desperately. Your participation will earn you rewards greater than anything I can give you, but I'm throwing in a little something as well. Comment on this blog with your prayer - not a statement that you will pray or are praying, but your actual prayer - and you're entered to win a $50 gift card from Freddie Paul's. Share the link to this blog with your friends on Facebook or Twitter and tell them to mention you in their comment, and you'll earn an extra entry. As we get more prayers, I'll add more rewards to be announced when I do the random drawing tomorrow night (Saturday, 2/18) at 10pm. Here are the people I'm asking you to lift up, not identified by names but instead by letters and needs:

"A" needs prayer for patience, comfort, and strength as she cares for her husband whose Alzheimer's is worsening and making it difficult for her to care for him alone. She has multiple health issues herself and his disease is causing him to be very short-tempered, confused, and angry.

"B" just lost her 4-month-old baby to meningitis. Please pray that God will fill her with peace and comfort her broken heart as well as the hearts of her other children and fiance.

"C" and "D" are working to repair their broken marriage and their struggling financial situation. Pray that God will bless their faithfulness to their marriage and strengthen the bonds that hold them together, and that He will continue to provide for their financial needs.

"E" is in the midst of a custody battle with an abusive ex-husband. Please pray for the safety of her children and for wisdom for the judge who has to make some very tough decisions.

"F" has family members who regularly make it known that they reject Christ and his gift of salvation. Please pray with him that their hearts and minds can be opened to the joy he so desperately wants them to find.

"G" is grieving the loss of a close family member while struggling with depression, physical pain, anxiety attacks, and severe insomnia. Pray for healing in every way, physically and emotionally.

"H" was recently diagnosed with an unexplained enlarged lymph node as well as depression and is having daily tension headaches that are leading to frequent migraines. Please ask God to heal the unexplained medical issue and provide peace, strength, and joy as the depression medication begins to work.

"I" has invasive melanoma and had her second surgery today to remove it. It was deeper than they originally thought, so today's surgery also involved a skin graft. Please pray for her recovery.

Lord, today I lift each of these requests up to you. Every single one of them is for someone I love dearly, and yet I know that your love for them is greater than mine can ever be. Please bring healing, comfort, restoration, and joy to these friends who are hurting, and please also bless this prayer meeting you have called me to start. Please let those reading this post feel your presence and your power. Please break our hearts for the needs of others and lead us to surrender our own struggles into your hands. You are the One who can meet all our needs, our Provider, our Strength, our Comforter, our Everlasting Father, and we can do nothing without you. Thank you for giving us the technology to gather together even as we are in different places physically! Thank you for hearing our prayers and joining us all as one body, seeking you. We love you!

James 5:16 The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

No Longer Two

Six years ago today, I was giddy with excitement for our secret wedding. All morning at work, I giggled to myself every time someone mentioned that I was leaving at noon, knowing that they had no idea where I was really going. When I picked up the kids, they were excited too, and the drive to Tulsa was full of anticipation for all of us. KayLynn loved holding the bouquet your mom brought, Aaron loved his blue spiky hair, and Morgan loved the excitement of it all. I was so glad you didn't think it was silly for Jenn to attend by cell phone! So many preparations had led us to that day, and everything worked out just as we had planned. My heart was overflowing when we got to Aunt Virginia's to drop off the kids and she had surprised us with a cake that was a smaller version of the one she made for my mom & dad's wedding - to this day I still have never had a wedding cake that tasted as good as that one! What an amazing Friday that was!

Six years ago today, we were celebrating our wedding. Today, though, we celebrate our marriage. The good and the bad times, the highs and the lows, and the beautiful, rich relationship that has developed through it all. When I look back at the person I was, and at the person you were, and then I look at the person we are becoming together, I am overwhelmed and in awe of the sheer magnitude of God's power. Because we have chosen to let Him lead our marriage, we are no longer two - we are becoming one.

“But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Mark 10:6-9

You truly are my other half - my partner, my friend, my lover, my spiritual leader.  What we are together is more beautiful, more wonderful, more amazing than either of us could ever be alone. I love you more today than I did six years ago, and I can't wait to see how much more I love you next year. :-)  Happy anniversary, baby!

Depression is a demon

Yesterday, a dear friend sent me a link to a sermon on depression, and I finally got a chance to listen to it today. Let me just say – thank you, Lord, for my friends!! I’ve heard sermons on depression before, and they generally aren’t helpful. While the intent is usually to convey an uplifting, encouraging “Jesus can fix it” message, they take a wrong turn somewhere and end up making it seem as if I’m only depressed because I’ve done something to screw up my closeness with God, which then leads to guilt and shame, which leads to more depression….it’s a nasty cycle. This sermon, though, was different. A few minutes in, Steven Furtick said one sentence that made all the difference in the world and brought tears to my eyes:

“Sin can cause depression, but depression doesn’t mean that you’ve necessarily sinned.”

Now, if you’ve never been depressed, OR if you’ve never sought solace in the church world for depression, this might not be a profound statement. But, for me, it was HUGE. Depression is something I’ve struggled with my whole life, and I’ve always felt guilt and shame about that struggle. Every time depression really gets a hold on me, I feel like it’s my fault – and many, many fellow believers have said things to reinforce that belief. Don’t get me wrong, none of them even realizes what’s happening, and every statement is from a place of love and meant to be encouraging, just like every sermon on depression. Unfortunately, depression is a demon that can take anything someone says to you and twist it into something ugly and discouraging. Depression can take your statement that God is bigger than my problem and turn it into an assertion that I must not trust Him enough, so if I could just have more faith, I wouldn’t feel this way. It can take your suggestions for relaxation and stress management and turn them into criticism about how I don’t manage my stress well enough and therefore, the depression is my own fault. It can take your offers to do things for me as hints that I’m not good enough to do things myself and the world would be better off without me. Depression is toxic.

Pastor Furtick went on to say that while only God can heal depression, he can use man-made tools in the process – another idea that’s completely contrary to the inherent belief that Christ-followers should have enough faith and fortitude to conquer this demon within themselves. I’ve realized for a while now that medical intervention is probably something I need to consider; I’ve been depressed enough in my life to realize that I’m past the point where I can just suck it up and fake my way out. But there are obstacles standing n the way of that, and that sneaky demon has convinced me that those obstacles are signs that I just don’t have enough faith, or I just don’t pray enough, or I just don’t spend enough time in the Word, or that I’m not quite depressed enough to seek help, or that it’s my own fault I’m at this point and I don’t deserve help to get out. I need to stop believing that lie, and I need to use every tool available to fight off this toxicity. So, yet again, I’m asking for your help. Pray, please, that God will give me the courage to push through those obstacles, and the means to get the help I need.

The faithful love of the LORD never ends. His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. Lamentations 3:22-23

To listen to the sermon “Depression: A New 24" from the "Treatment" series: http://elevat.io/n/trea2