WIW: Prayer Flowers

The flowers are really just something pretty for you to look at while I talk about prayer stuffs.  I took them at our Zoo's gorgeous gardens.

Remember a few weeks ago when I said that blogging (among other things) had encroached upon my prayer life.  I felt so overwhelmed...I was out of sync with God...NOT a good place to be.

Being the perfectionist, list-making, "law bound" chica that I am...I was flummoxed by where to even start in getting back on the right track.  I was amid another long lonely spell with my Loverbrains abroad and that all spelled "depression."  Not the deepest or darkest...generally they're short lived but there ya have it.  So, it's kind of funny (not ha ha...but ironic/providentially so) that God brings you to the end of yourself to get you back on top.  This last year I heard that "He puts us in valleys so that we have no where to look but UP"...very interesting...and true. 

A combination of things have happened since then.  I started blogging a bit less, for one and...my Bible Study ended...and I was encouraged to study Philippians alone during the summer...which of course started tying in everywhere I looked...in Sunday sermons, in verses texted, in books I was reading...Sort of freaks me out when God does that!  Cool though.  

"And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."  Phil. 1:6

I was also encouraged to begin reading two books...both are powerful and intense...and might kill me before the summer is over...ha!  Spiritual Depression: It's Causes and Cure by David Martyn Lloyd-Jones  and Calm My Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow.  I'll share two thought provoking quotes I've noted so far...

In connection to Mark 8: 22-26...
"But if you start with the theory that Christianity is not clear-cut, do not be surprised if you find yourself, like this man, seeing "men as trees, walking'.  If you start your Christian life and experience by saying that you do not want an exact focus or a precise definition in your picture, you probably won't have it."

Based on having an eternal perspective you should...
"NEVER...allow yourself to complain about anything--not even the weather.
NEVER...picture yourself in any other circumstance or someplace else.
NEVER...compare your lot with another's.
NEVER...allow yourself to wish this or that had been otherwise.
NEVER...dwell on tomorrow--remember that is God's, not ours."

I also learned something interesting...I need to let myself be brought to that vulnerable "end of myself" each morning when I go to prayer.  And, when I do, those lists of things and people to pray for...they pour out of me all day long...cuz, It's about Him, not me.