{"id":17315,"date":"2014-01-25T01:35:22","date_gmt":"2014-01-25T06:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=17315"},"modified":"2014-01-25T01:35:58","modified_gmt":"2014-01-25T06:35:58","slug":"christlife-saturday-prayers-praises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/01\/25\/christlife-saturday-prayers-praises\/","title":{"rendered":"CHRISTLife &#8211; God Has Surely Listened"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/1520750_415590865239324_1650015559_n.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17093\" alt=\"saturdayprayersandpraisesshort\" src=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/1520750_415590865239324_1650015559_n.jpg\" width=\"534\" height=\"313\" srcset=\"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/1520750_415590865239324_1650015559_n.jpg 534w, https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/1520750_415590865239324_1650015559_n-300x175.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 534px) 100vw, 534px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Quite <\/span>the journey this is turning out to be, wouldn\u2019t you say? \u00a0This study of <em>CHRISTLife: Embracing Your True and Deepest Identity<\/em> is no light matter! \u00a0Our author, Mrs. Myers, has been challenging us to dig deeply as we consider some of the questions she has posed throughout our readings this week.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Right off the bat on Monday, we are reminded that we have the freedom to choose whether to focus on the images in our minds that pull us down or lift us up. \u00a0And she asks, \u201c<em>Are you fully using this&#8230;freedom for spiritual growth.<\/em>..?<\/li>\n<li>Then later in the week, we are reminded that God made us for Himself&#8230;and that our love for Him should be with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30). \u00a0 And the question is asked, \u201c<em>Are there areas of life in which I\u2019m holding &lt;God&gt; at arm\u2019s length?<\/em>\u201d<\/li>\n<li>And a little further into our reading this week, we read, \u201cTo be realistic in the way we view and accept ourselves\u2014that\u2019s the challenge.\u201d \u00a0(Ummmm&#8230;yes, yes it IS!) \u00a0<em>Do we view ourselves too highly&#8230;or perhaps too lowly?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These questions and the thoughts that have been wandering around in my head and heart have caused me to recognize anew how very much I must be running to my Father and seeking His help and guidance and answers through prayer! \u00a0How about you?<\/p>\n<p>I have been so comforted through this as each day I have also been reading the <a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/category\/daily-devotions\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Seeking Him<\/strong> daily devotionals blog <\/a>here at Girlfriends Coffee Hour (do you \u2018follow it?). \u00a0This week, our friends who write the devotionals have been sharing on Psalms 66:16-20. \u00a0Listen:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Come and hear, all you who fear God;<br \/>\nlet me tell you what He has done for me.<br \/>\nI cried out to Him with my mouth;<br \/>\nHis praise was on my tongue.<br \/>\nIf I had cherished sin in my heart,<br \/>\nthe Lord would not have listened;<br \/>\nbut <strong><em>God has surely listened <\/em><\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><em> and has heard my prayer.<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\nPraise be to God,<br \/>\nwho has not rejected my prayer<br \/>\nor withheld his love from me!<\/p>\n<p>Oh, how good God is!!! \u00a0Did you read that? <strong>\u00a0God \u2018has surely listened and has heard my prayer.<\/strong>\u2019 \u00a0You know, God is not expecting anyone of us to live perfectly. Or expecting us to never have doubts, or worries, or be unsure of just how to change. Perfection will be reached\u2014not by anything we will EVER do\u2014but only through Jesus, our Lord, at His return. \u00a0We have been enabled in so many ways to grow to be holy and pure as our Lord, and to be able to renew our minds, and to take our thoughts captive to obey Him! \u00a0But it is a lifelong process begun when we are born anew! \u00a0For now, we do struggle. And we do falter&#8230;and we do fail at times. \u00a0And so we need to remain prayerFULL. \u00a0We must consistently be seeking God and His help as we endeavor to be our best for Him.<\/p>\n<p>So as you think back on what you have considered and learned this week&#8230;and in your struggles to wholeheartedly address these issues that come up&#8230;remember to pray. \u00a0And as you pray, remember that \u201c<strong>God has surely listened and has heard my prayer<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #2130b4;\"><strong>* \u00a0~ \u00a0* ~ \u00a0* ~ * ~ *<\/strong> <\/span><\/h4>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201cOur whole being by its very nature is one vast need; incomplete, preparatory, empty yet cluttered, crying out for Him who can untie things that are now knotted together and tie up things that are still dangling loose.\u201d<br \/>\nC. S. Lewis (quoted on page 44)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Quite the journey this is turning out to be, wouldn\u2019t you say? \u00a0This study of CHRISTLife: Embracing Your True and Deepest Identity is no light matter! \u00a0Our author, Mrs. Myers, has been challenging us to dig deeply as we consider some of the questions she has posed throughout our readings this week. Right off the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":17093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5040],"tags":[5216,5044,235,1287,425,5215,5156,5068,5218,5217],"class_list":["post-17315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christlife-bible-study","tag-challenging-questions","tag-christlife","tag-coleen-hayden","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-god-has-surely-listened","tag-psalms-6616-20","tag-ruth-myers","tag-saturday-prayers-and-praises","tag-seeking-him-devotionals","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/1520750_415590865239324_1650015559_n.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-4vh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17315"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17321,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17315\/revisions\/17321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}