Wednesday, February 27, 2008

PRAYER - More about - Thanks - Award

WOW!!!!!

I don't know about the rest of you......but I have been so blessed by the wonderful, in-depth discussion and thought that we, as The Body of Christ, are having about prayer and the aspects that relate to it. None of us have the entire picture, or answers, but put us together and the Holy Spirit moves and fills in a lot of understanding. One of my favorite scriptures is:

"Iron sharpeneth iron;

so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend."

Proverbs 27:17 KJV

&

"You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another."

The Message

and that is what I experience here from all of you. God has used each of you to sharpen me!!!


There are a couple of additional thoughts I have. We need to be very careful in requesting prayer that it does not turn into a form of gossip passing. For instance: "Mary needs your prayer because her husband is having an affair." If Mary feels close enough to you to share that kind of hurt and burden, then that is her option but it should not be passed on to another mutual friend, or acquaintance. Instead you could say, "Please remember Mary in your prayer as she is going through a difficult time". Even standing up in Church and saying something like, "Please pray that my husband will start coming to church with me." turns into a disparaging word against your husband.


I'm probably going to touch a tender spot here, but another thing I am personally against in praying for the sick is using the phrase "If it be your will please heal Mary." God is the healer........it is always God's will that we be healed. Satan is the one that comes to kill, steal and destroy not our God and Christ paid for our healing, as well as our sins, on the cross at Calvary.


We are ALL called to pray and to carry one anothers burdens. A prayer can be as simple as saying, "Jesus!" Some people have a special gifting in the area of prayer, just as some people have a gifting for teaching, or hospitality, etc. Some people are called out as intersessor's for their particular church, or their city, or their nation, or a particular mission area but we are ALL called to pray.

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Now a special thank you to Heather. Heather has a monthly give away here for a Home Interiors Candle each month. My name was drawn several months ago. Heather contacted me later to see if my candle had arrived and it had not. Apparently it had been lost or destroyed in the mail. I totally forgot about it. Monday I had a package arrive in the mail. I did not even recognize the name on the return address and I thought, "What is this?". Well, Heather had not forgotten and sent me not only 1 but 2 candles!!!! Thank you very much Heather. I will enjoy them.
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Last, but certainly not least, I have just been passed this Blogging With A Purpose award from a new blog friend, Tiffany of Southern Sass.



This award was created by Eric Novak at Blogging with a Purpose. Here’s how it works:Awarded parties must nominate five people who have not received the award.The blogs that receive the award must serve some purpose.In their post about the award they need to link back to this entry.Awarded parties must post the award banner on their site. The banner must remain linked to the above linked site.
These are Tiffany's remarks in passing this Award to me:
I am happy to finally have the opportunity to share something with Susan @ Penless Writer. She is truly an inspiration and a portrait of a Titus 2 woman. She is honest and forthcoming about her love for Jesus and her desire to know Him more. I admire her commitment to her marriage and her family and how she fervently prays for them without ceasing.
I am very honored to receive this award. I truly want the purpose of my blog to be to lift up the name of Jesus and tell of His wonderous works and ways and how wonderful He has been to me.

The five I pass this award on to are:

Aimee of Adopted As His Own. Just go to Aimee's blog and look at the beautiful picture of their family as her header and you will see why I have selected her. She is not only mother to EIGHT beautiful children but even creates beautiful patterns for childrens clothing on her SewSensible site. Aimee your entire life has a purpose and I am honored to know you.

Jennifer of Double Nickle Farm. Jennifer and her husband and children have just recently purchased a place in Southern New Mexico and the purpose of this blog is taking us step-by-step in the process of their learning to live a much more self-sufficient and self-sustaining life style. Something we can all gain from and learn from. Jennifer is truly a "can do" person.

Heather of Especially Heather. Heather does not even "know" me. I have only left her a few comments over the months I have been reading her blog. But read her blog I do!!!!! Heather's blog is about her journey with Brain Cancer. This young wife, mother and woman has such faith and courage and honesty that I marvel every time I read her. Many times I am reading through tears as I cannot begin to imagine going through what she is with such grace and charm. Your blog certainly qualifies as A Blog With A Purpose.

Rita of Jungle Hut. Rita is another of my must reads. She is a missionary wife and mother, although they are currently in the U.S. preparing and raising support for their next assignment. Rita's purpose in this blog is to keep us updated and informed about the doings of dictator Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. I am thankful for her doing so because we sure don't get this information on the nightly news.

Last, but believe you me not least, is Ginger of Just A Thought. Ginger is truly one of my dearest blog friends. BUT, not just mine she is a dear friend of many of us because she is such a kind, gentle, carrying, sweet friend and she loves Jesus with all her heart. Every post of Ginger's points us to Jesus........even in the difficult times and issues. I know you don't particularly like getting these Ginger but I just could not NOT name you.

As I have said in times past.........I take both the receiving of these Blog Awards and the passing them along VERY seriously. What we say, and how we say it, here in this public domain of Blogland is very important. There are MANY of you who bless me and you all know who you are because I comment on your posts. It is very hard to limit this to only 5 and pick only 5 but as always I do follow the rules.




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11 comments:

Rita Loca said...

Thank you so much! I am glad you find my blog to be informative. And I am proud you are one of my most faithful readers!

Anonymous said...

Susan, I am extremely touched that you have included me. I love awards...enough said :o)

This post was incredible. You have shared some very wise words and once again been a true inspiration to me. I agree whole heartedly with everything you wrote.

Love you! I need to know more about the candles. I love candles.

Pen of Jen said...

Susan...first thanks for the deeply enriching post about prayer. I have been praying for a stronger prayer life, and YOUR POSTS have been so right on.

Forgive me for not commenting...I am in so I hope I have things fixed.

Thank you for this. I am walking a path that many before have walked. But thanks to the internet I am able to share the transformation.

Thank you for being the Penless Writer, as I have loved visiting!
Jennifer

Tammy said...

Congratulations, dear Susan!

And I do agree with you on praying over the sick.
Yes, sometimes, for reasons we may never know here, God does not heal someone...but yet He did say to come boldly to the throne...to come in faith, believing...and God's perfect will is healing and I don't believe He ever causes sickness. Jesus went around healing the sick...and after His time on earth, Christians continued to pray for the sick in Jesus Name and He healed them.
So...Amen!

Anonymous said...

Susan, you say-
"I am personally against in praying for the sick is using the phrase "If it be your will please heal Mary." God is the healer........it is always God's will that we be healed. Satan is the one that comes to kill, steal and destroy not our God and Christ paid for our healing, as well as our sins, on the cross at Calvary."

This reminded me of two things in my going to church years. One was that it always seemed to be implied that God's will was not your own. (Your will and not mine be done, his ways are not our ways, etc, etc).
I struggled a lot with this in my young adult years, because I was programmed to think that everything that I wanted (my will) was something that God *didn't* want, and therefore, practically everything I perceived to be good was a sin.

Secondly, the healing thing- My good friend's husband was diagnosed with a rare disease that made his bones turn to sponge. He had a month to live from this at the time that I found out about it. There were many healing services and prayers being held for him, and when he was not being healed, they said it was because his faith was not that strong. They convinced him, in the last month of his life that the faith he had was not real. That's psychologically a very bad way to die.
Hope you don't mind me sharing.

Humble wife said...

Susan I completed this, and thank you!

Unknown said...

Dear Susan,
I am so glad you enjoyed your Home & Garden Party candle and I am soooooo sorry again for how long it took!

I thnak you for shareing about getting the package, it made me feel better to know you got these!

HUGS

Connie Barris said...

Susan,
I love and agree with your thoughts on prayer...
I can hear your heart just speak of His love....

I so appreciate my award from Tiffany. What a special person she is,, and you must be... thank you

May you be blessed and I look forward to visiting more

j said...

Susan, I am proud of the discussion that went on about prayer too. Help me understand prayer for healing. I don't know how to pray if I don't ask Him for His Will to be for healing. What can I say if they don't recieve healing, that Satan had more power than Jesus? Can Jesus in His Will not say 'NO'. I completely feel the scripture about By His Stripes we are healed. But isn't that spiritual healing? Let me say right now that I am not arguing with you. I truly would like to understand. I have so many questions that God will answer and meanwhile I would like to know how you feel. Your blog always gives me blessing and makes me think! Jennifer

Anonymous said...

Great message

Mary@notbefore7 said...

Such a great discussion Susan! Thanks for sharing so honestly.

Congrats on your award. You clearly have touched so many and challenged so many in their walks with God!