The Power of a Praying Woman, A Review @StormieOmartian

This book was hard for me to review because I don't usually review non fiction. But when I was browsing through Netgalley title really captured my attention. 

When I saw it I assumed it would share with me how my prayers could be answered but I also assumed it was about praying for others. To my delight it was about how a woman of God needed to remember to pray for herself. To stand firm in her faith and allow God to do the heavy lifting. 

Description

Stormie Omartian’s bestselling The Power of a Praying® series (more than 23 million copies sold) is rereleased with fresh new covers and new material to reach a still-growing market of readers eager to discover the power of prayer for their lives.

It may seem easier to pray for your spouse, your children, your friends, and your extended family, but God wants to hear your requests for your life too. He loves it when you come to Him for the things you need and ask Him to help you become the woman you have always longed to be.

The Power of a Praying® Woman is just for you. You’ll find personal illustrations, carefully selected Scriptures, and heartfelt prayers to help you

trust God with deep longings, not just pressing needs cover every area of life with prayer maintain a right heart before God

Each chapter concludes with a prayer you can follow or use as a model for your own prayers. Women of all ages will find hope and purpose for their lives with The Power of a Praying® Woman.

It shared a premise that we, as women of God, needed to pray for ourselves. We aren't being selfish.. God expects it of us. He wants that relationship with us. It got me thinking about interacting with my friends and family. When do I share with them? When do I ask for help? When do I... yeah all the time. I don't limit my conversations with my family to talking about others. No I discuss my life, my hopes, my fears, my struggles and my joys. Stormie Omartian just helped me remember that God wants that too. 

But it did more than point out the obvious, it offered a guideline. Ms Omartian took individual aspects of a woman's life and helped her direct a prayer for it. Helped her focus and give direction to her prayers. 

This book was way more than a self help book or an instruction manual, it is a tool that can help women of all ages connect with God. To strengthen the bond and help ferment a relationship that we all dream of. 

I was thinking this might be a good book instead I found a wealth of information about my relationship with God. 

This is not a one and done read, it will remain on my bookshelf as a tool and reminder for when I am struggling with prayer. 

Thanks Stormie..

Shauni



This review is based on the ARC of The Power of a Praying Woman, provided by netgalley

Looking to Make A Donation?

It's that time of the year when our hearts are full and we want to do something for our fellow man. Sometimes we are running around so much we don't know where to even look to make a great donation. Sure, I always drop my change in the Santa bucket but there has to be more.

 My oldest daughter attends Western Illinois University and she is part of an amazing fundraising project.

 "Dear Friends,

I hope you will consider supporting my participation in WIU Dance Marathon. All contributions will benefit and be divided among the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals of Greater St. Louis, St. Louis Children's Hospital and SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center. Any contribution will help, and all donations are tax deductible.

I am on WIU's first E-Board as the Finance Chair, this money we raise doesn't just help the families financially but it helps lift some stress from these families and gives the kids a comfortable environment to be in, this event and organization is very dear to my heart, any amount will help me get to my goal by Feb 1st.

 Donating online is safe and easy! To make an online donation please click the "Support Me!" button on this page. Thank you for visiting my fundraising page! For The Kids!"

You can link to her fundraising page HERE.. this donation will go directly into a fund sponsored by WIU, not into my daughter's hands.. So if you are looking for a way to share your good fortune, give a thought to this noble cause..

 Shauni

How Majestic Is Your Name

PSALMS 8

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.

2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

4 what is man that you are mindful of him,

and the son of man that you care for him?

I read this as I am sitting on a bench at the beach in Duck NC (Right at the edge of the beach)watching this glourious sunrise (the very one in the picture in this post). I see the world wake and and i watch what God has given us for this day, come to greet us and I wonder.. am in complete awe and then I think, what a perfectly amazing day!

It does make me question though. How with all this glory before us can anyone doubt God's existence? But before I get all smug in my faith I also have to wonder, how can anyone (me) reject God's guidance? How can I look at all this slpendour around me and neglect my relationship with Him?

It's easy to point fingers at the non believers but much harder to accept your own failings and yet judgemental fool that I am, this is what I do. Bot not right this moment. Right this moment I sit in awe of what God has displayed for me.

Shauni

In You Do I Take Refuge

Psalms 7

7 O Lord my God, in you do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and deliver me, 
2 lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.

 Now this just struck me because so often this is how I feel. Like those around me have picked and pulled at me feeding not like lions but like crows, tearing little slices of my self until I am no longer able to become me.Parts of me are pushed so deep they become dormant. So asleep they are like the dead but waiting to rise again. Only I don't see that hope only despair. Wh? Because I have let the lions (or crows as it were) destroy me.

 14 Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.
 15 He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made.
16 His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.

 This passsage is so very powerful! First off he speaks to the liars. Lying is EVIL! There are no good lies! Sure a lie can momentarily make life easier but in the long run they destroy. You might appease someone for a moment but when the truth comes out - AND. IT. WILL! You have destroyed way more than you ever hoped to gain. The worst part about lying is you eventually believe your lies - turning you, the person, into a lie, walking evil, an abomination.

 DIGGING THE HOLE!

 We all know what happens when we try to get out of a hole we have dug. The edges start falling in around us, keepin us shovelin to find solid ground. We might make it out but we are going to be much dirtier coming out then when we were going in.

 And finally, What goes around comes around. Not Karma, just life. If we insist upon living a wicked and evil life then wicked and evil things are going to happen to us. Life is an amazing gift and we have been given an opportunity to serve an amazing God! To descend into evil after being given such a gift is abhorrent.

 It saddens me that I can relate so easily to this Psalm Somehow I have become one of the wicked. The hole I have dug has edges that are dirty and falling fast. I have accepted that I am not coming out clean but PRAISE GOD, I am coming out!! 

 And fortunately for us all, I have a God who has managed to make me white as snow!! 

Shauni

Be Gracious to Me, Oh Lord

I know it looked like I had abandoned my study, but I haven't I promise! I was on vacation! On the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Duck to be exact. Every morning, I would get out of bed and hobble down the spiral stairs, then head to the beach! Where I sat and watched the sunrise.. and did my morning devotions! What an amazing way to start your day.

 But not only was it a perfect way to start a day, it offered a wonderful opportunity to commune with God

 2 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. 

3 My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O Lord—how long?

 WOW! I have spiraled far into depression. Having almost lost myself and yet I never thought to look to the Psalms for my answers. Unlike David, I turned first inward and shoved it all down. My head in the sand and then I took it upon myself to find a solution. Writing blogs about my loss of self. 

 But I am not alone! I forgot that I am not the first to struggle with depression nor am I the first to use "worldly" ways to heal. NO MORE!! I need to cast my troubles upon God's waters where I can watch the tide pull them away. 

 This verse was a true revelation to me.. it offered me a chance to seek God's guidance with my struggles. It gave me peace and it rejuivinated me. It's hard to explain how four simple lines can practically change your entire way of thinking and yet that is what happened.

&nbspEvery day we have to remember that we were put here to worship God.. and when we falter, there is only one way to turn. When we try using the ways of the world, we come up short. Feeling alone, confused, abandoned, incomplete, inferior.. the list goes on. Only God can give us the power to go on! The knowledge that we are doing the right thing and are living for the right reason. And if we stumble, if we lose ourselves to languishing, remember.. don't try and fix it yourself, turn to God.. offer yourself up to God and let Him lead you out of the darkness. Which might include counseling or talking about it.. but don't "self medicate" turn to God first! 

Shauni

Lead Me In Your Righteousness

Lead Me in Your Righteousness

5 Give ear to my words, O Lord;
    consider my groaning.
2 Give attention to the sound of my cry,
    my King and my God,
    for to you do I pray.
3 O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;
    in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.
4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
    evil may not dwell with you.
5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;
    you hate all evildoers.
6 You destroy those who speak lies;
    the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
7 But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
    will enter your house.
I will bow down toward your holy temple
    in the fear of you.
8 Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness
    because of my enemies;
    make your way straight before me.
9 For there is no truth in their mouth;
    their inmost self is destruction;
their throat is an open grave;
    they flatter with their tongue.
10 Make them bear their guilt, O God;
    let them fall by their own counsels;
because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,
    for they have rebelled against you.
11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
    let them ever sing for joy,
and spread your protection over them,
    that those who love your name may exult in you.
12 For you bless the righteous, O Lord;
    you cover him with favor as with a shield.

Psalms 5 has ever been a favorite of mine, partially from the pure beauty of the KJV phrasing.. it flows wonderfully. I know I am using the ESV (English Standard Version) because that is the version I have.. but KJV is just pretty.. 

The thing that touches me about Psalms 5, all of it, is the passion and love David directs to God. He is rejoicing in the ability to speak with God. It isn't a duty, it isn't a chore or a requirement.. it's a joy! He gets to talk to God! 

Why don't we all feel that way? Why do we allow Satan to convince us that talking to God is a chore? Why aren't we all on our knees weeping for joy at the fact that God, not only allows us to speak with Him, but he ANSWERS?? WOW!! God answers us.. 

Now David, flawed man that he was, was smart enough to realize that not only does God listen, not only does he answer, but he cares enough to stand for us. To direct us, to guide us, to mold us.. if we will only let go.. 

That is hard for control freak me.. back when I was much more flexible (and way more fun) it was easier for me to let go.. to let God be in charge.. to rejoice in His care.. somewhere along the line I demanded control.. let me tell you, this was not my smartest move... 

Try to impress a world that can not be impressed is a wasted effort. You destroy yourself.. You won't be impressing God.. (FYI.. I just think God is up there singing Shania Twain's "That don't Impress Me Much") But if you give in to God's guidance, you become who you were meant to be, who God wants you to be and you are centered and complete.. Not even caring if someone is impressed with who you are.. 
Maybe today's post was more about rambling than what this verse is telling us.. and maybe not.. these are the words that came to me as I once again read this absolutely beautiful Psalm

Shauni

Answer Me When I Call

Psalm 4 ((ESV)) 

Answer Me When I Call

 4 Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer! 

2 O men,how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? 

 3 But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him. 

4 Be angry,and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. 

 5 Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord. 

6 There are many who say, “Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!” 

7 You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. 

8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

As a single parent there were many many times when I would turn out the lights, and my mind would just start racing. No sleep for me! There was so much riding on me, so much I could do wrong, no one to lean on.. I was alone and afraid. During the day, I could just force myself to take one step at a time.. but at night when there was no sound.. yeah, much harder.

I of course figured out a way to quiet the voices.. I slept with the TV and lights on.. Sure chased the voices away but also made sure I didn't get any rem sleep for years. I became totally and completely exhausted. In many ways this helped lead to my breakdown. No real sleep.

What I should have done was turn those problems and issues over to God.. He would have given me the relief I so desperately needed. I might have still heard voices in my head but they would have been the comforting prayers to my God.. 

I could have had spent those hours rejoicing rather than fretting.. I can not change the past but I can change the future.. I can take those precious moments before I fall asleep and spend them with God.. Offering my fears and failures up to Him. They won't go away, they will just be easier to bear.. 

Shauni