Scripture

Weave Threads of Rejoicing into Your Life

July 22, 2021 by Ellen Leave a Comment

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Tired. Cranky. Summer sinus cold. John Ortburg, in his book Soul Keeping, suggests thinking of something you are thankful for before you get out of bed each day. He calls this “practicing gratitude”. This particular day, I wasn’t practicing gratitude very well. I was struggling to find something to be grateful for.

“Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

My foggy brain remembered that I had been memorizing these verses in 1 Thessalonians. Verse sixteen has got to be THE ONE scripture that is impossible to do! How can I always rejoice, pray without ever stopping and give thanks for everything – even the bad stuff? Can it be done?

Silently I climbed out of bed to dig deeper into God’s word. Settling into my favorite chair, cup of coffee in hand and favorite crocheted afghan around my legs, I began to study the scriptures.

Rejoice. To delight (charm, enchant, captivate) in God’s grace. To be captivated with God’s grace.

Always. At ALL times. Rejoice all the time. Pray all the time and don’t stop talking to God.

Give thanks. Eucharisteo, literally thankful for God’s good grace. In everything. All circumstances, good or bad.

Rejoicing, praying and giving thanks all the time is God’s will for us. His preferred will.

Pondering this information, I plucked at a loose thread on the afghan. Coming out of my reverie of rejoicing always, I noticed the beautiful stitches. They were intricately entwined. I knew if I pulled the loose piece of yard, it wouldn’t come out, because the threads were so tightly woven together.

Then I realized God’s word is like the yarn in my afghan. Interwoven. I can’t rejoice always, without praying and giving thanks. I can’t pray without ceasing unless I rejoice and am thankful in all circumstances. These three verses were knit together as tightly as my afghan.

I studied the crocheted afghan closely. It looked like it was made with one single thread of yard. Each stitch built on the single thread until a full afghan was created. One thread also holds these three verses together: In Christ Jesus. Without Christ in me, I can’t rejoice always, pray without ceasing and give thanks in everything.

Just as each stitch in the afghan builds on one thread, each of these scriptures builds on the cornerstone of Jesus Christ.

With the afghan wrapped around me, I felt safe and content in its warmth. We can wrap God’s word around us, feeling safe and joyful as we go about our day, rejoicing, praying and giving thanks in all our circumstances!

Grace be with you,

This post originally published on June 29, 2014

Praying to God Our Promise-Keeper

January 28, 2016 by Ellen 12 Comments

Do you believe in the power of prayer?

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. James 5:16 (NIV)

I invited my friend Wendy Blight to share with you today about Praying to God Our Promise-Keeper. Here is her beautiful story:

Knowing God by name. Calling upon God by name. Praying His Word … His Promises … back to Him are powerful and effective ways to usher God’s life-transforming work into our lives because our God is a Promise-Keeper.

But prayer is hard. It doesn’t come naturally to most women. I know it didn’t for me. The thought of praying out loud intimidated me. Made me feel uncomfortable.

I have also learned that without prayer, we will never get to know the promise-keeping side of God. In order to know our Promise-Keeper, we’ve got to interact with Him. Pray to Him. And more than just pray, pray His promises … His Word … back to Him. It’s the substance of His promises that transform our prayers to be those powerful and effective prayers James talks about in James 5:16.

This truth came alive to me last year at a women’s conference in Houston.

The women’s ministry leader invited me to share my testimony. It’s a hard story for me to tell. In 1986, just days after my graduation from Baylor University, I fell victim to an armed, masked man hiding in my apartment. The horrific events of that June day locked me in a prison of fear for years. I hated God. I felt abandoned and forgotten by the One I grew up believing loved and cared for me.

A few weeks after my attack, a friend gave me this promise: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you” (Deut. 31:6, NIV). But at the time, it meant nothing. In fact, I saw it as a lie. He had forsaken me. He sat on his throne in heaven and watched what happened to me and did nothing.

Thankfully, God did not leave me in that dark place. As time passed, my heart slowly opened to God’s Word. It was a long and arduous journey, but over a decade later, through much prayer and the transforming power of His Word healing came. Freedom came. My test became a powerful testimony.

As I closed my message and stepped off the stage, a woman walked up and shared her story. Little did I know it was my story too.
She had been a student at Baylor at the time of my attack. She was part of a ministry whose leader invited them to pray for the young woman who had been attacked (me). They prayed a passage from Psalm 62 over me every week … for two years! They prayed the promises of the Promise-Keeper.

Grasp the miracle here. At the very time I felt abandoned by God, He had raised up believers to pray. And not just pray, but pray God’s Word. His promises. She showed me her Bible. Yes, she still had it! Next to the passage was 1986 and my name.
As I read the passage, I saw clearly how each promise had come alive in my life. My promise-keeping God had honored each and every one.

I pray my story not only encourages you to pray but also opens doors for you to invite others to pray. Because you never know what God is up to in the midst of all those prayers!

Will you join me in praying God’s Word back to the One who is our Promise-Keeper? He always honors His Word. In fact, Isaiah 55:11 promises His Word will never return void and will accomplish everything He desires and achieve every purpose for which He sent it … even thirty years later!

In addition to God Our Promise-Keeper, there are hundreds of Names of God. I invite you to visit Wendy’s blog to get a sneak peek of her newest Bible study, I Know His Name and also sign up for her FREE companion devotional, “5 Days to Knowing God More Intimately.”