The More You Pray...

The more you pray, the more you will see the need for prayer. It's cyclic. You pray, you get answered prayers, you get more faith, you then pray more, you get more answered prayers, and you get even greater faith. But you've got to start this miraculous cycle by starting a prayer life.

I pray out loud. I pray silently. I journal many prayers.

I use a notebook, any tablet works for me. And in the quiet dark mornings my pen is moving rapidly across the page.

My pen pours out my heart on how I feel about things:

• the things troubling me,
• the things I need,
• the things I want,
• the fears I have,
• the people causing me anguish,
• the people causing my loved ones anguish,
• friends and family dealing with sickness, heartache
• EVERYTHING THAT CONCERNS ME & THE WORLD AROUND ME!

One reason why I love to journal my prayers is that they are recorded. Because many, many times, my prayers come to pass. And journaling them reveals how God changes my original prayers and circumstances the more I pray.

For example, many people pray for a raise, more finances, right? Common prayer. But through days and weeks of prayer, God may start to reveal that you have all the finances you need. You just need greater stewardship over them. So then a person who started praying for more will start to pray for self-control at the mall, insight on how to have a tighter budget, or they may have a greater desire to give to God's causes more so that the door of blessing will be opened and finances are increased as a result.

Prayer journals record this journey. But not having a pen and pad does not stop me from praying. Having a prayer partner for some big stuff is a great way to record requests made and have that extra person in agreement with you. The Bible says when we agree in prayer, prayers are answered. And that's what we want, right?

Then opportunities for solo prayer come all day long as the day unfolds. Challenges come, trials to endure, hardships land in your lap - it's time to pray. You get a bad phone call, you see a car accident, your kids seem impossible - it's time to pray. You wake up grumpy, you feel hurried, anxious, or sad - it's time to pray.

And when great things happen -

it's time to pray and praise God!

Sometimes people feel like prayer has to be this super formal thing that we do alone always. No way! Prayer is simply talking to God. Acknowledging Him.

Often, in the car with my kids when opportunity arises, I say, 'Let's tell God about that'...'Let's pray that God will _______', 'Hey Daniel, why don't you ask God if He can _______?'

Prayer is something we can do anywhere, anytime.

The point is to pray, and then pray more. Through prayer we get to know our Maker more intimately. The same way you get to know your new best friend, your potential spouse - you talk to them endlessly, right? So why not talk to your Creator endlessly about everything that concerns you and your life?

And seriously, don't be shy about your requests. I think sometimes that people think that asking God for little things are unnecessary. NO WAY! This is when you get to see/feel the infinite love from God. When you ask things that seem so insignificant and He still answers that prayer - you get to experience Him in such a deep, personal way.

So my encouragement is to PRAY...

....and then the more you pray...the more you WILL pray!

Let God be God above all. The Bible says that nothing is impossible for God - so ask Him for impossibilities today!

Prayer Seasons - Prayer Life

Many who know me, know that I'm a person of prayer and I've conclude that life follows the highs and lows of my prayer life.

Do we all have seasons that we make the time and find the energy to seek the Lord like no other? And then we have the seasons, (like when the kids are up all night coughing their heads off and there's no rest), that we hit the snooze button too many times and cut our prayer time short...or out?

Do you have a prayer - devotion time planned daily for yourself?

I pray over a lot of things. I once had a stalker-friend who tried to control me with her prayers. NOTE: You cannot control people with prayer.

While I say this, I find myself experience deep disappointment when a certain things and people are not lining up with my prayers. What's up with that?

I believe that it is God's will that we be self-controlled, Spirit-filled people who are submitted to God's plan for our lives. So when I pray along those lines, shouldn't what I'm praying happen? Hmmmm.

I have learned the value in continually asking. It's commonly said that 'prayer will line our hearts up with God's plan'.

I've also concluded that in the process of interceding for someone, God not only grows my faith and trust in Him with the final outcome, but by devoting time to pray for someone, God reveals the deeper issues that need prayer.

We have to get to the root of the issue to get rid of the external symptoms.

This is going to take some major prayer for bondages to be broken, addiction to be healed, oppression to leave. This is going to require me to give up my expectations, and pray as the Spirit leads.

Think about diets! People use diets to 'lose weight'...once the weight is gone, they go back to eating the junk...only to lead them back to a diet. Diets are temporary, that's why they call healthy eating a 'lifestyle change'.

We need to look at prayer like this. Don't pray a few times for the temporary fix, but be committed to having a lifestyle change with our time. We need to commit to being a devoted follower of Christ by praying, communing with God, interceding for our families, our loved ones, and depositing the Word of God in our hearts for direction and encouragement.

It's when we go from praying seasonally (when the trials strike), to living a life of prayer that we will see major changes and breakthroughs in our lives and those we pray for.

So what are you waiting for? Make the changes to your schedule now & start praying! Your life, your family, your future will make it to the path that God truly intends for you when you do!

Good 'ol Atkins....

How many of you have tried the Atkins Diet? How many of you got throught the 14-day carb depletion without 'cheating'? How many of you successfully lost weight & have KEPT IT OFF since?

Really, if you did...contact me, I'd love to know how, because to this day, I have not yet met 1 person who has kept off all the weight. This is why I call the Atkins Diet a fad diet! You can't deprive yourself of carbohydrates forever, so why even start. What happens? You go down, you go up...you lose weight...you gain the weight back, plus some.

David's weight loss attempts following high school was just this. He went on the Atkins Diet...loss a good amount of weight...and then (because it's so hard to sustain), he went off it...and gained back all the weight and then some.

I have a theory that if many people would not 'go on a diet'...they wouldn't have as much weight to lose. Isn't this true? I see people all the time DEPRIVE THEMSELVES...only to go back to the old way of eating and then have some binging, because they cut so many healthy foods out of their diet, their body is deprived & then they fill themselves up w/ junk food, fast food, dessert foods .


1 whole egg has:
70 calories, 4.5 gms of fat &
215 mg of cholesterol!

 Now tell me, how is scarfing down a ton of cheese, red meats, ranch dressing, bacon, whole fried eggs good for you?

This was taken from MayoClinic.com:

If you are healthy, it's recommended that you limit your dietary cholesterol intake to less than 300 milligrams (mg) a day.

If you have cardiovascular disease, diabetes or a high low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or "bad") blood cholesterol level, you should limit your dietary cholesterol intake to less than 200 mg a day.

Look at the 'cholesterol' content in 1 egg - that's all you need for a day. Research the amount of cholesterol by reading the labels on the sausage, meat, cheese, and milk in your fridge. No wonder everyone's on cholesterol meds...get rid of the cholesterol foods & you won't need them.

Now, I never read the Atkins books from start to finish, but I've come to my conclusion that this diet doesn't work by meeting a ton of people who have tried it & not been successful at staying at a healthy weight!

Now back to Dave: David finally got a roommate in 2004 that got him to go to the gym...but here was a 26 year old young man who had never really worked out before, let alone at the gym. Here he was trying to figure out the machines.

David did a ton of cardio and stuck to the treadmill, stair-climber, elliptical, etc. He was trying to use the weights, but never really got instruction on how to use it to lean out...just get strong.

And yes, I guess you could say he was 'fat strong'. You know these people...they don't eat healthy. They kill themselves at the gym trying to power lift, yet a 5 year-old could outrun them. Again, out of balance.

I appreciate Dave's efforts of trying. He did his best with what he had. And he totally gets an A+ for effort.

When I met Dave, he was in the midst of these efforts to lose weight. He had lost about 70 lbs. At the point he was around 290 lbs. The most he had ever weighed had been 350/360 or so, up to this point.

The day we got married, he was about 285 lbs. And me personally, I didn't mind the fluff. In fact, I am grateful that many women Dave had met along the way disqualified him based on that. Harsh? I know. How could they disqualify such a wonderful man? I don't know, but he was available to me because they had & I was veeeeeeerrrry glad they did.

When I met Dave, his honesty, integrity, love for God, service to God, commitment to the Word of God, his hardworking ethics, compassion for people, faith to pray, and those gorgeous brown eyes & dark hair were enough to win me over. I knew at 28 that it those qualities that would help a marriage last...not buffness, a lean cut body...it's character you marry a person for, right?

Now when we got married, I didn't do Atkins. To me, I felt it wasn't healthy....needless to say, I brought carbs in the house and Dave ate 'em. And within first 3 months of us being married, Dave went from a 2X to a 3X. I said, "HOLD THE PHONE".

I realized at that point that Dave would gain weight if he wasn't on this so-called diet. I called it 'set yourself up for failure' eating plan. Really? How could some gain so much in just 3 months. And he wasn't eating bad. Just some noodles, bread, and sometimes rice. I realized that I had to support him in this 'diet'.

We got married Feb. 20th '06, and by May we were doing the 14-day carb depletion TOGETHER...and on day 9 - I found out I was pregnant. So much for a ZERO-carb diet for me!

From May '06 to Feb. '07 - David gained.....140 lbs. Soon he was a 425 lb. man! I was devestated along the way of my pregnancy. Dave never weighed himself along the way. I just knew that he had gone from a 2X on our wedding day to a 4X by the time Daniel was born. I had cried over his gain, begging him to stop gaining to avoid leaving me as a widow at age 40...but my tears fell on deaf years. That summer, I knew things had to change...or Daniel would not have a DAD to raise him through his childhood.

My only solution....to go to the ONE who could change his heart. And that's just what I did!


.....more on this tomorrow....