Lily Flower

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One Sunday morning at church, a friend told me as she was getting dressed, she asked the Lord, "Is there someone you especially want to bless through me today, Lord?"

The Lord impressed her: "There is a woman with brown hair who will be wearing blue. Tell her that I love her and to ME she is as beautiful as a lily flower."

As she was greeting me, she realized that person the Lord had in mind was me. (She did not know that lilies were special to me and that Lily Valley is the name of my blog.)

Our precious Lord has so lovingly done for us what we could never do for ourselves. He has cleansed us and made us pure in His sight.

If only we could see ourselves as God sees us: We were made to be loved by God.

In Jesus' prayer for believers, He said:
The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
John 17:22-23

God Even Listens to My Complaining!

I pour out my complaints before Him 
and tell Him all my troubles.

Psalm 142:2

If we don't release our voice in prayer to God, 

we will release it in frustration 
and in the flesh toward others.

John Belt

I must tell Jesus all of my trials,
I cannot bear these burdens alone;
In my distress He kindly will help me,
He ever loves and cares for His own.

Elisha Hoffman

Worship the Lord

Dawn and dusk take turns calling, 

“Come and worship!"

Worship the LORD in all his holy splendor. 

Let all the earth tremble before him.

Psalm 96:9

Pickled

On the Andy Griffith show from the 1950's, there was an episode where Aunt Bea tried once again to win the blue ribbon at the fair for her pickles. Andy and Opie hated her pickles, but couldn't get up the nerve to tell her, so she just kept on pickling!

If I take a cucumber and pour a little vinegar over it, that doesn't make it a pickle. If I want a good old-fashioned pickle, the cucumber must be fermented by soaking in a brine solution. At some point, between 4 to 6 weeks, it's a pickle, and it can never go back to being a cucumber again!

Father God,
May your children soak in the presence of the Holy Spirit until we are saturated with all You have for us.
May we marinate in Your Word until we obey You without trying to second-guess You. Change us from the inside out.

Praying for Wise Leadership

One of the greatest blessings of God on a nation is that He bless it with wise leadership. We are commanded to pray for our leaders, and this is one of the most important prayers we can pray at this time. We are not told to pray for the great leaders, or even the good ones, or ones we agree with, but the ones we have.  

I read about a group of people who are committed to pray for our leaders and for the coming mid-term elections every day through November 6. I pray for God's guidance for President Trump in the many decisions he must make daily. I pray that he will be surrounded by wise people like Joseph and Daniel of old.