IDOK DEVOTION FOR THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2010
Praise Reports, Prayer Requests and Updates:
There is truth in the adage: ‘No use crying over spilled milk’.
Just get busy cleaning it up and figure out how it spilled and don’t do it again.
I am so grateful this verse is true! Joel 2: (New King James Version) 25 “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.
Especially since I did not do these following verses all the years my Babies were home with me.
Deuteronomy11: 18“You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. 19” You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. 20” You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens remain above the earth. 22“For if you are careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and hold fast to Him, 23then the LORD will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you.
I was not careful all their pre-adult years that what they saw and heard within the walls of our home was holy; or demonstrative of the love and the holiness of God. The walls of our home and the walls of my mind and walk did not year after year display the Word of God. The Word of God was not the last Word spoken before we went to sleep and His Word was not the first Word spoken when we woke up each morning. For too many of those years, it was not my normal practice to get out and laugh and run and play and marvel at the Creation of our God with them. For at least a decade of those important years, I did not seek the Holy Spirit for teachable moments in our day to day comings and goings when He in me could make the Word of God come alive to them in ways that would turn them on to Him rather than off.
The Text says bind them as a sign on your hand, that is my hands (your hands), what we DO, must demonstrate the Word (the Character, the Ways) of God to our children; if not, we have failed them in the worst way possible. The Text says as frontals on your forehead that is the Word of God governs our choices so consistently that our children SEE it. They SEE GOD IN US. And unless they do see Him in us then we have failed them in the worst possible way.
They may have gourmet meals, they may have perfectly decorated rooms, they may have the latest fashions to wear and every electronic gadget known to man BUT if they do not SEE GOD in us, all that stuff will become a tool for the Evil One to steal their souls.
The GOOD NEWS, the GREAT NEWS is as long as there is LIFE, there is HOPE. If we have failed them in the worst possible way, we can start today with that spilled milk clean up. And we can trust God to restore. We can seek Him and when we do we will find Him. (See Jeremiah 29:11-14.)
For my Babies and me, He’s been restoring for about 15 years now and He is AWESOME! And my Babies? They’re not too ‘shabby’. :)
To review the list of names for prayer, please click here.
ABBA, I praise You for Who You are and what You have done and are continuing to do. I pray for families out there still young that they will learn from Your Word and start today to practice these very verses and give their children the best possible foundation to choose You early and miss the hell of rebellion in the here and now and the eternity of it. And I pray for older families that like me did not do as well as I could have chosen to do that You will encourage them, that they will pick up today and start the clean up process with You and will trust You to restore the years. I pray Holy Spirit that You will take this hard lesson and make it real and practical and start rescuing families this very day.
I pray for our IDOK Troops; asking You to protect them; asking that they make good choices today; that they choose to listen to You today and live godly in hostile places and friendly places. And, ABBA, yes please bring each one home safe and sound to waiting families and friends. And, ABBA, I pray now for each one on our List For Prayer; asking You to take a reading on each heart and apply what is needed to restore. encourage, correct, heal, make well, and all that You desire to do for them.
And again we pray for America, for Your Spirit to come and convict and convince of righteousness and judgment to come and, LORD, start right here with me. ABBA, I’m not any where near as ‘fanatical’ about You as I need to be; as my family and friends and others need me to be. Get me there, please get me there, in JESUS Name. Amen and amen.
Happy 11th Birthday, Josh!! You are so loved my Angel Boy.
