December 23, 2024

Words

August 18, 2015 by

psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv

They’ve made me feel like a prisoner
They’ve made me feel set free
They’ve made me feel like a criminal
Made me feel like a king

They’ve lifted my heart
To places I’d never been
And they’ve dragged me down
Back to where I began

Words can build you up
Words can break you down
Start a fire in your heart or
Put it out

Let my words be life
Let my words be truth
I don’t wanna say a word
Unless it points the world back to You

You can heal the heartache
Speak over the fear
(Speak over the fear)
God, Your voice is the only thing
We need to hear
(We need to hear)

Words can build us up
Words can break us down
Start a fire in our hearts or
Put it out

Let my words be life
Let my words be truth
I don’t wanna say a word
Unless it points the world back to You
(Back to You)

Let the words I say
(Let the words I say)
Be the sound of Your grace
(Sound like Your grace)
I don’t wanna say a word
Unless it points the world back to You

I wanna speak Your love
Not just another noise
Oh, I wanna be Your light
I wanna be Your voice

Let my words be life
Let my words be truth
I don’t wanna say a word
Unless it points the world back to You
(Back to You)

Let the words I say
(Let the words I say)
Be the sound of Your grace
(Sound like Your grace)
I don’t wanna say a word
Unless it points the world back to You
(Back to You)

Words can build us up
Words can break us down
Start a fire in our hearts
Or put it out

I don’t wanna say a word
Unless it points the world back to You

Hawk Nelson
Written by Jonathan Steingard,  Matt Hammitt, and Seth Mosley

 *  ~  ♥  ~  ✞  ~  ♥  ~  *

We can use our words to build up or to tear down.  It is our choice.  I am sure we all have heard words that have torn us down in our past.  We often repeat what we hear or what we believe we hear.  God did not give us those words.  

Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?
Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and does them, I will show you what he is like:
he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.
And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house
and could not shake it, because it had been well built.
Luke 6:46-48

When we hear those words that have torn us down repeating in our minds, we need to rebuke them.  We need to repeat the promises God has told us about who we are in Him.

  • We are His adopted sons and daughters
  • We are loved
  • We are cherished
  • We are not beyond His help
  • We do have a hope in God through His Son Jesus

 *   ~   ♥   ~   ✞   ~   ♥   ~   *

Father, thank You for the promise of Your Son and for the promise of being Yours.  Help us to see through the lies and deceit constantly echoing in our minds.  Give us the strength to turn the lies to right thinking in You and embracing Your promises.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

Filed Under: Psalms Hymns and Spiritual Songs Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Guard My Mouth, Lord

August 14, 2013 by

SeekingHimLogo

Set a guard, O Lord, before my mouth; keep watch at the door of my lips.
Psalm 141:3

Now this is not the thing to pray AFTER letting a tirade fly out of your mouth!  RATHER it should be our prayer—perhaps at the opening of each day—before any words even come out.

Oh, sometimes it seems that we truly might have been better equipped if our Creator had chosen to give us a zipper for our lips, do you agree?  But, He Who knows best, chose to give us mouths to speak AND the responsibility to use our lips, our tongues, our words for blessing not cursing.

Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.  For ‘Whoever desires to love life and see good days,
let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit…’*
1 Peter 3:9 and 10

As in all things that the Lord charges us to do…we are never left alone.  He is always helping us.  So as we pray asking for His help with these mouths and tongues of ours, we can be assured that He WILL help us!  Temptation(s) will come, and sometimes we may feel that we are just going to succumb and sin.  But we have the Lord on our side; He is strengthening us.

[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.
Philippians 2:13 AMP

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13

Today, friends, let’s choose God’s way—and seek His help in guarding our mouths and watching our lips.  May we speak blessings today!

* * * * *

Dear Lord, I so desire to be pleasing to You with my words!  And to be a blessing to those who hear them!  Truly as the psalmist prayed: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”  Praying in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

* quoted from Psalm 34

Filed Under: Seeking Him Daily Devotional Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Girls With Swords: Chapter 8 – “Sword Words” (pgs 121-125)

May 13, 2013 by

Click HERE for this week’s reading assignment

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Part 3 – ARMED

 It’s time to break camp, Warriors!  We have been called. We have been trained.  We have been forged into a weapon to be used against the forces of darkness.  We are “ministers of hope whose words are seasoned with salt and light and sound foreign in a world peppered with darkness” (Bevere, p. 121).  How is it that we have these sword imageries and our weapon is one of ‘words’?  Have you ever stopped to think that the words coming from your mouth directly reflect the heart inside your body?  That is pretty powerful stuff.

Lisa tells us that “words are invisible, but if misused, they can prove deadly.”  Have you killed someone with your words?  Have you left walking wounded?  It’s time we thought about this for a little while, take stock in our words and let the Holy Spirit reveal areas of our speech we need to work on.  Take time to do that now.

(pause)

My Bible tells me that we were all created with one language in the beginning.  We spoke the same language as God, the Father.  We knew His voice.   We could recognize Him as He walked with us in the garden.  I like to think God whistled as He walked in the cool of the day, asking Adam and Eve how their day had been.  I say “we” because we are descended from Adam and Eve…and God the Father.  We are here, now, because of them…back there.  “God has given us His language… He has framed the words in strength and carefully structured each sentence so that every syllable is woven with power and punctuated by promise.”  (p. 122).

I think that makes our words pretty powerful!  They are the words of our Father, they are powerful, and we should be sharing them with the world.  How will we know what to say?  Where will we find the answers to our questions???  2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us:

“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.  It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.  God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.”

You have been forged as a SWORD.  Are you ARMED???

I was asked these questions last week, “If the Bible is my guide book to life does that mean I should follow all the ideals set forth?  Do I pick and choose which ones I like and which ones I don’t?  If I do have to follow all of them, how do you translate those stories to apply to modern day living?”  So many good questions from one seeking person.  After our basic training, and now our warrior training, how would YOU answer these questions?

Lisa poses an interesting point:  If we knew we were going to live out the rest of our days in a foreign country we would take the time to learn the language and the culture and learn to communicate.  As born-again believers, we KNOW we are going to live out our days in heaven with our spiritual family.  We need to be learning how to communicate.  Our Father speaks a heavenly and holy language.  We need to learn heaven’s language NOW.  “We lift swords when we lift His Word:  ‘Death and life are in the power of the tongue’ (Proverbs 18:21)” (p. 123).

So let’s go back and apply what we have learned in our training.  Let’s use the language we are learning to shine a light for a lost soul.  Give me some Sword Words to support your answers to this person’s questions.

  1.  If the Bible is my guide book to life does that mean I should follow all the ideals set forth?
  2. Do I pick and choose which ones I like and which ones I don’t?
  3. If I do have to follow all of them, how do you translate those stories to apply to modern day living?

This language may seem foreign to you right now.  Or it may come naturally and you have suppressed the sound of the Father’s voice.  Either way, let’s put our hearts together and help this brother out with his questions.  I would like to see how you WARRIORs put your SWORD to use.  Are you ARMED?  We need to light the path, ladies!!!

Our Call to Arms for this week comes from Hawk Nelson and Bart Millard (Mercy Me):

Let’s Pray:

Heavenly Father,  I want to remember Your voice.  I want to hear the language of Your heart coming from my mouth.  I want to be a light to draw others out of the darkness and onto Your path.  Give us the desire to love our neighbors, to share Your words with those around us.  Let our words point the world back to You.  You have given us every weapon we will ever need to survive this world.  Give us a willing heart to take up those weapons and use them for Your glory.  In Jesus’ Holy Name we pray, AMEN.

 **************************************

If you would like to join us for the “Girls with Swords” Online Bible/Book study, click HERE to be taken to our sign-up page.  Once you complete the enrollment process, we will email you further details.  We hope you will join us!

Filed Under: Women's Ministry Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Resolution for Women: The Affirmation Crusade

July 19, 2012 by

Memory Verse:

You did not choose Me, but I chose you.

I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit.

John 15:16

_______________________

A crusade can be defined as “a vigorous concerted movement for a cause or against an abuse.”

Yes, precious girlfriends, I agree with Priscilla….. what we need is indeed an AFFIRMATION CRUSADE!!!

My primary Love Language just so happens to be “Words of Affirmation.” Not only do I love to hear them…. but I am very generous in giving them out! Today’s lesson made me stop for a minute and think about why I might be so intentional about this and if I am only this way with certain people, or am I free with my affirming words to all I come in contact with.

I really think that I am so intentional about this because of the negative words I was bombarded with growing up. Of course, not everyone in my life did that, but 2 very close people to me did….. and it hurt. It made it hard for me to speak those words over myself for many years, but through understanding the truth of God’s love for me, I have been able to break that cycle.

It is important to be your friends’ biggest cheerleader! You might just be the only woman in their life who affirms them and that alone can completely change their perspective on their day.

I know I am hardest on my family and I am working very hard to change that. I expect a lot from them… more than I should. I do affirm them and cheer them on, but I also can be very critical. I am really going to intentionally do my best to squelch my critical spirit and focus more on building them up!

SO…. we have the “why”… so we need to know the HOW!”

How can you be intentional about affirming other women in your life? I’ve compiled a list here and I would love it if you could add to it in the comments section of the blog today! Let’s think outside the box and see what we can come up with together! Maybe a friend surprised you with some awesome words in a unique way that spoke directly to your heart. How did she do it?

 

You could……..

Write a letter….. you know, snail mail! How awesome is it to get something besides a bill in your mail box?!? Decorate the envelope in a fun way too! You can even address it “To the beautiful Mrs. Megan Smidt!!!” 😀 (…just a suggestion…)

For my daughter’s 14th birthday, we had a slumber party and all of her girlfriends wrote annonymous “love letters” that were full of affirming words and we left them all over our town. We put them on grocery store shelves, the pick up counter at Starbucks, in random mail boxes, and even in the pews at church. The girls had so much fun spreading this joy and Vicky has told me that her friends have continued to leave these letters around town even after they went home! We need to be modeling this behavior not only for our friends but also our children!

Sing them a song on their voice mail. It could be something like “That’s what friends are for” or “Beautiful, beautiful”

You could greet them in a fun way the next time you see them. Instead of greeting them with a simple “hello, ” How about giving them a huge hug and compliment them on something they are wearing or their hair. You could even address them as your “gorgeous friend” or your “most incredible sister.”

Make them a banner the next time you know they are coming to your house! Make it big and bright for all the passers-by to see! Hang it across your garage or over the front door so they can’t miss it!

Send them random txt messages every once in a while just letting them know how much you love that they are in your life!

Send their husband or kids a letter telling them how much it means to YOU that they let you have time together. Tell them how much your friend means to YOU!

What can YOU come up with???? What will you do this week to INTENTIONALLY affirm your closest sisters in Christ?

Priscilla points out to us that “…this resolution not only affects you. It will also enhance the women around you as they experience the affirmation that BUBBLES up from the security you’re living in. This should be our MANDATE, our CAMPAIGN. A MOVEMENT of women linked by our resolution and devoted to seeing it manifested in the lives of the women around us.”

WHen we are living OUR lives secure and complete in the authentically unique way that God created us, our salt and light is contagious! Give away your compliments freely to yourself and all those you love and see your love spread to all those around you! Let’s be infectiously bold in our own unique ways for our Lord and Savior! He commands it <3

AUTHENTICALLY ME

I will accept and celebrate my uniqueness,

and will esteem and encourage the distinctions I admire in others.

Signed x       Megan “Lucy” Smidt               

_________________

Let’s Pray: 

Dear Lord, we praise You for all of the unique qualities you have blessed us with! You have made each of us so unique for Your purposes to be fulfilled when we are true to who you created us to be. That is so awesome! Give us Your revelation into anything we are not seeing that might be keeping us from Your very best of us in this area. Help us take off our masks and be excited to show the world the beautiful and sometimes rough women you have so specifically made each of us to be. We love you, Lord, and we thank Your for Your perfect ways! In Your Son’s name we pray, amen <3

_______________

Today’s blog assignment: 

Explore for a little bit why you are or are not affirming in your words to your girlfriends. Also… think about if there are any women in your sphere who you are not comfortable affirming…. why do you think that is? Then….. resolve to commend all of the women in your life for their unique value and worth to you this week! Read the resolution out loud and sign your name below it in your book.

If you are not a member of our OBS Facebook Group, and would like to be, please send us an email and we’ll be happy to place you!!   Our email address is:  GirlfriendsCoffeeHour@gmail.com

my blog: www.glorytoglorylifecoaching.wordpress.com

My Craig’s blog about the Men’s Resolution journey: www.adversusmundi.wordpress.com

Many blessings,

Megan 🙂

Filed Under: Women's Ministry Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,