Connection and Thirst

Please join me in welcoming a dear friend, Angela Mackey, to Jesus & My Orange Juice. Within thirty minutes of meeting, we were laughing like lifelong friends. Angela touches my heart and inspires my soul. You will want to connect with her on her blog, Twitter and Facebook.

Also, be sure and visit her blog today where I am guest posting for Angela as well.
___________________

Disconnected. Sounds swell, children move, people rush, cars zoom, and I stare into space. Each of my movements are leaden and off sync. How I long for connection.

How do you connect with the world when it is running at a different pace than you?

How do you find joy when the well has run dry?

My lips stick to my teeth and my tongue feels two sizes bigger than normal. Water. I need living water that flows as a stream.

But there are bills to pay, children to take to school, activities to be done, friends to meet. Sure I pray, but my soul remains dry. My soul hungers for more. I quote a memory verse and pray more, but it is not enough.

“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.” Psalm 42:1

Is this what David meant? The times when my soul feels dry, my heart heavy, and my mind slow, is that when I really am thirsting for God?

God made us for connection through community. He – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – lives in perfect community. Oh that we would spend time in community with Him. Daily reading His word, praising His goodness, worshiping His attributes, and calling out to Him.

It is there in His word that He meets our need for connection. The community that we seek may be found in Him, but also in sharing with others what He is teaching us. Oh that we would realize our thirst is only quenched in Him, the Living Water.

Connection and thirst are these God designed that we may desire more of Him? Are they kind reminders that we need connection with God and water from His Spirit?

Let us pray that God helps us fill those desires with Him – His word, His Spirit, His community.

Will you join me as I:

·         Read God’s word daily?

·         Spend time on our knees in prayer daily (just five minutes a day)?

·        Praise Him out loud daily. We can do this in song, to others as we tell them the things God is doing in our lives, as we pray, etc?

Will you join me? May these steps only increase our desire for connection to God and thirst for God. That we may live transformed lives for His glory.

What do you do when you desire connection and thirst for God?

___________________

Angela Mackey lives in the Arkansas River Valley with her wonderfully supportive husband and three amazing children. She is passionate about teaching women to renew their minds through God’s word so that they may live transformed lives. Angela is a writer, speaker, nurse, and stay-at-home mom who openly shares her struggle with infertility. She loves college basketball (especially the Kansas Jayhawks), reading, writing, and laughing at herself. You can connect with her on her blog at www.rethinkingmythinking.com. She is also on twitter www.twitter.com/Rethinkingme and on facebook at www.facebook.com/RethinkingMyThinking.

Day 14 of Prayer Guide - Health for Your Mind

Day Fourteen

Health for Your Mind

Romans 8:6b To set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. (ESV)

Oh how you long for the fog to vanish. You reach for clarity and focus, but it eludes once more. This season has aged your mind like never before. Could altering the object of your thoughts, restore life to your mind?

Withered one, reach out your hand and clutch health for your mind.

Today I Pray for You:

·         To gather close to the warmth of God’s own heart, as your fog lifts.

·         To focus on God, so He can focus your mind.

Today You Pray:

Sustainer, the tension of my brain slides out as I am shrouded in Your presence. I park my mind on You and allow the particles of my confusion to slip away. Life and peace blanket my mind.

Gone is the tension and strain. No throbbing; no pain. As I fill my mind with the Your fullness, it is emptied of stress. My mind is clear.

Day 13 of Prayer Guide - Health for Your Soul

Day Thirteen

Health for Your Soul

Psalm 31:7 I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul. (ESV)

Lethargic. No better word describes your relationship with God right now. You feel neither isolated from nor close to God. Somewhere along this journey the energy drained like a gas tank run dry.

Tired one, come redeem health for your soul.

Today I Pray for You:

·         To experience the fullness of spiritual intimacy through God’s embrace

·         To open wide your heart to the One who nurtures your soul

Today You Pray:

God Who Heals, press my soul close to You. In Your arms, my scattered soul gathers to Your heart. The connection is real and intimate; almost unnerving.

Melt away my inhibition. I puddle at Your feet and feel the energy pool within. Excitement fills and flows everywhere You touch. I rejoice. You see my soul and it is transformed.

Prayer Guide Day 12 - Health for Your Heart

Day Twelve

Health for Your Heart

John 7:38 (Jesus Talking) Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’

Is it possible to live with a rock in your chest? The heaviness umbrellas your heart and blocks the joy you once felt. This season should be celebratory, but your heart plays a mournful tune.

Suffering one, come gulp joy.

Today I Pray for You:

·         To drink deeply from the life-altering Well

·         That your joy would siphon from the Source of all strength and goodness

Today You Pray:

Living Water, my heart is cracked with thirst for You. I come to the Well dragging my stone of a heart. A trickle of Your river of grace is enough to swell the banks of my heart.

The walls of my chest revive with Your love. May Your joy flow through me and splash over all who walk this journey of preparation. I came empty; I leave filled with You.

When Your Children Walk in Truth

Today I am thrilled to share with you my friend, Michelle Montgomery, of The Journey North. Michelle inspires me. She's the mother of six children and a woman who loves God recklessly and honestly. I am posting over at her blog today too, so after you enjoy her beautiful words here, find me there and read her regularly. Michelle would also love to connect with you on Facebook.
____________________

“Can I sleep over at my friend’s house tonight?”  With a deep sigh, I tried to patiently respond to my 13 year old’s question with love despite my significant irritation at the repetitive question.  “You know how I feel about Saturday night sleepovers.”   

Time after time, tracking the kids down on Sunday morning has caused us to be late to church.  I strongly dislike being late anywhere.  Normally, I’m the person that shows up early for meeting, events, and other commitments.  Therefore, being late to church is almost unforgivable in my mind.  The problem is that most of the time we do run late on Sunday mornings.  With six kids, preparations begin early.  There simply isn’t enough time to drive around town collecting children from various locations.  Out of desperation, we established the rather unpopular rule that Saturday night sleepovers are no longer allowed. 

Unfortunately, the kids have not accepted this directive without a fight.  Each week, they attempt a new angle in an effort to overturn the policy.  I held my breath as I waited for the typical argument and offered a quick prayer for patience.

“But they go to our church now.  I can meet you there.”  I blinked.  They go to our church?  My daughter smiled.  She knew she had me.

Molly (not her real name) is my daughter’s best friend.  Her parents are divorced and she lives with her mom.  That situation has contributed to the bond the girls have formed as they both try to navigate the world of living with one parent and visiting the other. 

Several months ago, my daughter approached me and asked if she could attend a small group for Junior High girls that the church was starting.  Of course, I happily agreed and commended her for wanting to be part of it.  Then, she tossed in the catch.  She wanted to know if I could pick up Molly and take her as well. 

While I happily accepted the responsibility for transporting my daughter, picking up her friend and dropping her back off afterwards did not hold as much appeal.  Desperately I asked, “Can’t her mom take her?”  With six kids, our transportation commitments already exceed reasonable efforts.  “They don’t go to church and her mom doesn’t understand why she wants to join our small group.”

Ouch.  Well, what’s a good Christian mommy to do?  “Yes, I can take her.”  I received a quick hug for my efforts and my daughter excitedly bounded up the stairs dialing her friend as she climbed.

The next week, we started our new routine.  I picked up Molly, drove to the church, dropped the girls off, took care of other commitments, returned to the church to pick them up, waited impatiently for their small group to finish (it always runs late), and dropped her back off at her mom’s apartment.

It didn’t take long before I discovered the unexpected benefits of this arrangement.  First, by bringing a book or my laptop with me and leaving the other kids at home, I captured some much needed quiet time while I waited for the girls.  Second, I realized that small group opened them up to conversations during our ride home that allowed me to share my beliefs in God and my opinions on other various social issues they faced as teenagers.

Several weeks later, Molly’s mom approached the car as I dropped her off.  In broken, heavily accented English, her mother suggested that she could take them to small group each week.  I tried to conceal my shock as I agreed to the carpooling arrangement.  I asked if she knew where the church was located and she nodded. 

That night, I decided to add Molly and both of her parents to my prayers.  I realized agreeing to drive the girls to the church didn’t mean she would start attending church as well, but it was a start.  I prayed each time she drove up there, the trip would become easier and maybe, just maybe, she might decide to take a step inside.

As I found myself agreeing to my daughter’s request for a Saturday sleepover, I thanked God for using my daughter’s devotion and conviction to follow Christ as a testimony to not only her friend, but her friend’s family as well. 

I have no greater joy then to hear that my children are walking in the truth.  3 John 1:4 (NIV)
___________________

Michelle Montgomery is a Christian, wife, mother of six, full time employee, and aspiring writer. Her non-traditional, blended family keeps their lives interesting as they attempt to navigate and balance the ever changing worlds of parenting, relationships and working. Join Michelle as she tries to keep her eyes on God as her journeys north.

You have circled this mountain long enough; now turn north. Deuteronomy 2:3 (NASB)

Day 11 of Prayer Guide - Health

Day Eleven

Health

Proverbs 3:7a, 8 Do not be wise in your own eyes; This will bring health to your body
and nourishment to your bones.

You have a cold you just can’t shake. A lingering headache rings the stress on your body. Health is something you’ve taken for granted. Now your emotional, mental and physical well-being hang over unknown water.

Ailing one, come restore your health.

Today I Pray for You:

·         To relax into the steady arms of the Healer.

·         To embrace health by pressing your ear to the heart of God.

Today You Pray:

The Great Physician, I invite You to examine me. Pass your healing hand over me. Recharge my cells. Reconnect my emotions.

For too long, I’ve relied on my own wisdom to keep my body in balance. Today, I lay on Your operating table of grace and receive from the One who made me and knows me. I open my mind, heart and spirit to Your tender treatment. I am revived.

Day 10 of Prayer Guide - Confidence for Your Body

Day Ten

Confidence for Your Body

Psalm 45:11 The King is enthralled by your beauty

Am I defined by a number? The one who stares back from the scale taunts me. The one I push at the gym mocks me. Both beckon to by-gone days when the numbers were different – lower, higher, a source of pride.

Weak one, come experience confidence for your body.

Today I Pray for You:

·         To soak in the unconditional love of the One who shapes you.

·         To push through the fog of numbers and see clearly the One who is enthralled.

Today You Pray:

Strong God, I am a reflection of Your beauty. I am a reservoir of Your strength. The numbers cannot define me because You’ve already made Your declaration. I find favor in Your eyes.

Allow this truth to flush through my body, undress my insecurity and clothe me with Your vast love. I stand in front of the full length mirror of Your devotion and see the reflection of the King.