Author: princessleah

How do you deal with people who are difficult? This is real life, and not everyone we deal in our world jives with our personality. Sometimes we even have a family member that is just an odd duck. Maybe the difficult ones you deal with are persistently critical, or cynical, or negative, destructive, or just plain old self centered. We all have to deal with people who like to stir up problems, or those who gossip, or those who twist your words, or try to force their opinions on you. Hopefully those all don’t come packaged in one person!!!! We can still love people who have these kinds of destructive personality traits and habits, but we don’t have to give them open access to our heart. The Bible clearly tells us to guard our hearts, but very often the ones who are hard to deal with, are the ones who really need to know that God loves them. What we can do, is love with boundaries. We don’t need to be walked on, or railroaded by others, but we can show the love of Jesus and maybe point the way of how to live, by how we live.

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Real relationships grow over time. Facebook has made it much easier to connect with old friends, but even before all of the social networking opportunities, all relationships take work. If you are married, you know exactly what I mean. Marriage is all about learning to be selfless, and learning to serve one another in love. I love talking to people who have been married for more than 50 years, and a common denominator in all long term marriages is that the have learned that living selflessly, and giving yourself fully to your mate is how these marriages have stood the test of time. It works in friendships too. To stay connected with friends takes work. You probably like being around your friends because they have similar interests. Find ways to do things together, and to be real when you are with them. I have friends that have become closer and closer through the years. Because we spend time together on a regular basis, we stay connected. What I have also noticed is that new friends are welcome in my circle of frineds because God wants us to keep expanding our horizons and our relationships throughout our life. So keep on growing, in your marriage, your friendships, and in your authentic relationships.

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How would you describe a close friend? Someone who knows all about you and loves you anyway, is one good definition. Someone who loves and gives into your life is another. Has this ever happened to you? You give and give and give to a relationship, and you realize you are putting much more into it than the other person. Perhaps you’ve experienced that. A close friend is one who loves you flaws and all, but one key to a close friend is that they don’t just take from you, they give as well. Authentic relationship in the body of Christ can be closer and tighter than even your real family. The other thing that happens is your close friends don’t have to just be your exact age. I am grateful for my senior friends, and my new mom friends. Even though we don’t have everything in common, we do have Christ in common, and that means we can have friends all around the world. I love when we travel that we meet believers who are instant friends, because we have Jesus in common. Jesus makes close friends even closer. Let’s live authentically and have the best relationships ever.

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How often do you invite a friend into your life and world and ask for their opinion or help with situations you are going through? One of the best places to find trusted people to share your life with in your church family is within your small group. In a small group setting there is freedom to be you. They know you, they love you, and they support you. The power of confession is mentioned in James, and the verse actually tells us to confess our sins to one another. The power of confession lies in the fact that we all know that without Christ we really are nothing. We all need each other, and the power of encouragement and support can make all the difference in our life. When we open up to others, there are some very positive results that can happen. Here are three: 1. It allows others to get to know the real us, and we find ways that we can connect with others in our common areas of interest. 2. It allows us to make restitution if it is needed. We can ask for forgiveness, and have relationships restored. 3. It gives us an opportunity to get God’s light on the areas of our life where we are broken, and start the healing process. Your small group can be a great place of growth when we open up to each other! If you aren’t involved in a small group yet, find one this week.

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This week we are talking again about the one another’s of the New Testament and how we can experience authentic relationships. Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with your dailyeword. This week’s encouraging word is all about being authentic. Too often our brothers and sisters in Christ see our happy face and our put together lives, and don’t realize there could be a hurting, lonely, sad or insecure person inside, longing for love and acceptance. If that’s you, I hope you can learn how loved and accepted you are. If you know people like that, let’s reach out and love them authentically. We can look beyond the surface, and really get to know people, heart to heart. Here is your daily eword.

Have you ever been that person I described in the intro? Probably all of us have been at some point in our life. If a hurting, lonely, sad or insecure person is consistently who you are, this is the time to change. Change can come as you discover how loved you are and how valuable you are in the body of Christ. Who we are inwardly should show outwardly! If we are struggling, we should ask for help. We don’t have to hide behind a mask, put on a pretty face, or act like nothing is wrong. The church is a place of love and acceptance, and we accept each other, flaws, burdens, warts, and all! We can do that because each one of us has received the grace, love and mercy of God, and once you’ve known His love, you just want to share it with others. In the process of life, we all know that everyone faces struggles, and every person you meet is facing some kind of battle. So sometimes, we get to be the encourager, and other times, we get to be the one receiving encouragement. To be authentic in your relationships, be open and honest with people around you. When you’re having a bad day, call a trusted friend and have then pray with you. Make sure you’re willing to reciprocate. Friendship and authentic relationships work that way.

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Release heaven into this earth life through prayer. One of my favorite verses in the Bible says Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. For the believer, this earth life can be wonderful. Of course there will be bumps along the way, we live on a fallen planet, and our earth has a curse, but we can rise above, even the difficult moments of our life. Think about this, we have the right and the responsibility to pray for everything this is God’s will that we don’t see manifested on the earth just yet. Our prayer can be what releases God’s power to do immeasurably more than we can ask or even imagine. That stretches my thinking! I have a huge imagination, and I come up with enormous ideas, but Eph 3:20 says that God wants to increase us beyond what we can even imagine. He wants life to be amazing. We can see that accomplished when we take off any limitations we might have, and let our spiritual imagination take over. God’s will for us is way bigger than we can even think. My prayer is that we can grab ahold of that. So many of us live so far beneath what God has for us. Let’s not wait until we get to heaven to realize it. Let’s reach for that immeasurably more that is available, right now….. More power, more anointing, more ability, more provision. God is more than enough!

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Has anyone ever asked you to pray for them, and you see them the next week at church and realize you forgot to pray at all? I have an easy remedy for that!!! PRAY immediately when they ask you. I have made it a habit of doing that, and so I pray in some very unexpected places. I pray over the phone, I pray in Costco, I pray at a track meet, I pray in the pew right before church starts, I pray in the kitchen, probably even in the bathroom! I look for people who have needs. You can tell by looking when someone isn’t feeling well, or they have a heavy burden, ask them if you can pray for them! Then make a point to follow up. Sometimes we don’t know if a prayer was answered just because we forgot to follow up. What an amazing faith builder answered prayer can be! Follow up and get that praise report. If it’s not a praise report yet, continue praying. Keep standing in faith. Keep thanking God that he heard your prayer and is working on the situation. Make prayer a part of your daily life. I pray in the spirit before I get out of bed. I pray as I get ready, as I drive places, when I am alone, before meals, before bedtime, there are opportunities to pray all day long, each and every day. Take them, and find people to pray for, and then take the time, to check back with them and find out how they are doing. That is one anothering

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When I prayer with others, or even on my own, I love to pray the Word of God. Whatever the topic, I want to have scripture and verse on each item I am praying for. So if it is the favor of God, provision, healing, walking in joy, or whatever, I like to find a scripture that corresponds to the topic I am praying about. Paul’s prayers in the New Testament books of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians are a perfect place to start. If you are needing a clearer revelation, Eph 1:18-20 talks about the eyes of our understanding being enlightened. Eph 3:16-21 is a prayer for spiritual strength. Colossian 1:9-12 is a prayer that helps to process our priorities. Phil 1:9-11 is a prayer for guidance, and I Thess 3:11-13 is a prayer about abounding love. We can pray these prayers over one another. Your family, your church family, your pastor, even those in leadership in our government. We can also pray the Word over people who are in the midst of struggle. Is 40:31 is a prayer for strength. Ps 55:22 is a reminder to cast our care on the Lord. Lamentations 3:22-23 reminds us of God’s unending faithfulness. I know there are scriptures that have been a source of strength to you in your life, and perhaps have even become your life verse. Make it a daily habit to pray the Word over your own life, the ones you love, and especially those who don’t know Jesus yet. Your prayer could be a life changer!

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Pray from your heart is what the Lord asks from us. So often we have the mistaken idea that God values our word usage, more than our compassion. The opposite is true. God would rather see you pray from a heart of compassion than to pray a perfectly worded oratory! So relax! Take it easy on yourself. I know there are times when I just stop praying in English, and just begin praying in my heavenly language, so I can relax and not think so hard, or so much! Praying in tongues is perfect communication with the Father, so when in doubt, pray in the spirit. Paul told us to pray often and regularly in the spirit. Do it every day! It helps me relax, and even helps to segue from one subject to another when I am praying in English. So let the pray flow from your heart. God loves to hear your voice! Just like we love to hear the voice of our beloved, God loves for you to talk to Him. Share your heart with him, let Him know how much you love Him, in prayer! Take time to express your gratitude, for what He has done for you, and thank Him for His tender loving care that He has shown toward you. His heart of compassion is open for you, and He loves it when we show compassion toward others. Don’t get hung up on the words you pray, just open up your mouth, and let your words express your heart towards God. That is what God wants from you.

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I love to pray with a group of people. There is great power when we pray with others. The Bible tells us that when 2 or 3 are gathered in prayer, that God is there in the midst of them. So pray with others, and pray in unity. When praying with others, we can see how each others hearts are connected to the situations and people we are praying for. It can be like climbing a mountain up another path. We can have our set pattern for how we pray, and then when we pray with someone else, we hear the perspective they pray from. You can hear their heart, and you can also be led to pray one after another and build on the other’s prayer. With so many different things to be praying for, a list of family and friends that need the Lord, those who need healing, or those seeking employment, or those struggling in the marriages, our government, the nations of the world who need Jesus, and the list goes on and on, our daily prayer time can seem like overwhelming. When we pray together, we can take a section, and pray the Word over that situation. Then another person can pray the Word over another area. When we combine our prayers together, great power can be made available and it says in James chapter 5.Power in this instance comes from the word dynamite, and truly, the dynamite power of God can be at work in us to change us, and the situations we are praying for. God can work through us as we join in prayer together, in unity.

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