365 Days of Spririt-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 234

Have you ever gone along with the crowd or agreed to something because you thought it would please the group, crowd, family, etc? I think we have all been swayed by peer pressure and driven by our own fears of rejection or our needs to belong and done things that we should not have done. King Herod does this in Acts 12. He sees how the Jews are pleased with how he has had James, the brother of John killed and so he decides to seize Peter because he wants to do what is pleasing the crowd. In this case, Peter is put in prison in chains and heavily guarded but God uses this opportunity to show the believers who are earnestly praying for Peter that God is listening by sending an angel to help get Peter out of prison. This is not anything like a jail break in a modern movie with tunnels being dug or schemes being played out that help the prisoner to get out of prison. Peter is literally visited by an angel who instantly releases him from his chains, tells him to put on some clothes, shoes and a cloak and to follow him. The angel leads him out and the iron gate leading to the city opens all by itself. God has taken the unwise decision of King Herod and turned it into an event that brings Him glory. Our own unwise decisions will be used by God for his greater plan as well but how about working on not making those unwise decisions in the first place. We shouldn’t be swayed or manipulated by anyone to do or say anything. Only God is our Guidance Counselor. It is Him we should go to when choices need to be made. This is a tough challenge in our busy world to do. How to stop and consider what Jesus would have us do. Pause and pray for wisdom to make the wise choices. It is something that needs to be cultivated in us. A habit needs to be formed and only a committed heart and some preparation will lead you to successfully becoming prayerful in all your choices. I am going to make it a family challenge and get my family to start working on praying before making our choices. We can celebrate with each other our successes and share our thoughts on how we might do better in the next days. A community effort is always helpful and I am sure pleasing to God.

Acts 12:11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 349

I just love when my hormones shift. NOT. The telltale sign of the shift came with the typical small zit under my nose so I knew what was happening. I was super cranky yesterday morning, teary-eyed and so when I got to work and was slammed on all sides with the negativity that seems to be most prevalent these days I was ready to stand-up and shout “Shut Up!” but I managed to walk out of the room to go get some space and coffee and ran into our admin assistant. She could tell I was not happy since I am usually the light in that dark place and so I laid it on her my feelings and than said I need a hug. She was my angel for the day. Just being able to let go of those feelings and get a hug made a big difference and the hormone shift gradually adjusted itself throughout the morning to where I was back to my some-what normal self. Thanks be to God for giving us people in our lives that can help us when we are in those dark moments.

Psalm 119: 133 Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.