Showing posts with label flourish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flourish. Show all posts

Monday, March 19, 2018

Flourish From The Rain


Happy Monday everyone!
I hope you all had an amazing and restful weekend! I myself have been crazy busy this past week and through the weekend, but I did take time to rest on Sunday yesterday, as we all should! Anyway, lets get to it! 😀

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."
- James 1:2-4



The page I am sharing with you today comes from a somewhat personal place at the moment. Not about trials I am personally going through, but someone close to me. Watching someone you know and love struggle with decisions in their life, or even things that happen to them that are simply out of their control, it can really take a toll on you. You can try to be there for them in every way you know how, and yet sometimes all you can do is pray for them! But praying for them is such a powerful way to help them! I had recently heard someone say, "I needed to grow, so God watered me." Wow! What a powerful way to think about that! Just like the plants need the rain to grow, so do we!! 





Sometimes we struggle through times in our life, feeling emotionally exhausted and worn out, and we may even think "God where are you? Why are you allowing this to happen to me?!" But the truth of the matter is, He is STILL THERE! He is always there! He never leaves our side. It is through our trials and struggles in our life that we are able to grow closer to God and deeper in our faith. In James 1:2 it says "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness." When you look up the word Steadfastness you find the following definition: 

Steadfastness: sure, dependable, reliable, constant, unwavering. Steadfast, staunch, steady imply a sureness and continuousness that may be depended upon.

Though these times are anything buy easy, you should find comfort in the fact that God is simply "watering" you! He is making you stronger in your faith, as a person, and in your life. With Him by your side, you will come out on top and stronger than ever. You will make it through this difficult time! James 1:2-4 is a verse that has comforted me as my loved one goes through their hard time and all I can really do is continue to pray for them. And after reading and meditating on this verse, I now pray that they will grow and flourish from the rain.


Creative Details: For this page I covered my page with clear matte gesso and added a watercolor background. I then started applying some of the March printables from the set Garden of Grace printed on clear sticker paper. I used acrylic paint to paint the water falling from the watering can and then embellished the rest of the page with the following stamps.

Thanks for checking out my post today! I hope you all have an awesome week!

xoxo,
Stephanie Gammon


Texture Tiles 1
Garden of Grace Printable
Skinny Caps Alpha
Mini Grunge Type Alpha










Friday, March 9, 2018

Pray The Word


Hi friends... I want to share something POWERFUL with you today.

"Pray the Word"... you're asking me, Elizabeth, what exactly does that mean? Before I tell you, lets all agree on 2 things.
1) The Word of God is alive and active - Hebrews 4:12
2) There is power in our words - Proverbs 18:21

Think with me for a moment, what would happen in the spiritual realm if we combine these two truths? If you take an alive, active, and powerful Word of God (Scripture) and you pray it back to God using your powerful words (mouth)... something supernatural happens and God begins to act on your behalf. His Word is not going to return void nor is it going to fall on deaf ears. God LOVES to hear His Word prayed back to Him.

The KEY to answered prayer is to pray according to the will of God and in accordance to His Word.
The way to have a supernatural prayer life is simple... pray the Word of God directly. When we do this we seek to align our words with God's will more fully. Praying in this way is in alignment with God, in the name of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit agrees with you too. I don't know about you but I want all of them on my side when I'm believing for something and need the Lord to work on my behalf. Are you excited yet?

I know you have all been there like I have and had times in you life when you were at a point where you didn't know what to pray or how to pray and the words just wouldn't come. Any time you find your self there remember you can always pray God's Word.

If you have never prayed the Scriptures before it is really easy and rest assured, there are no special skills needed. Praise the Lord for that!! All you need to do is locate a passage that fits your need/desire (google search or ask God to give you one you may already know) and then substitute the pronouns (he or she) with the name of the person you are praying for. You may do this for anyone - yes, that means you too. Use the correct pronoun that represents that person throughout the verse or passage. It's that easy!

For today's post I am praying for my teenage daughter. I am praying for her continued growth in the Lord and that she would flourish as a daughter of the Most High God. I want her to not be swayed by peer pressure, not to succumb to temptation, to be strong and rooted in her faith, and that she would blossom into the woman of God that she is created to be.

I remembered 2 Peter 3:18. "But grow in the grace and knowledge our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
I'm going to use my daughter Zoe's name and illustrate how I prayed this verse over.

Lord Jesus, I pray that my beautiful daughter Zoe would grow in the grace and knowledge of You. I pray that she would flourish as she grows into the godly woman You have called her to be. I also pray that you lead her in all things and that as she acknowledges You, You will guard her heart. Keep her mind pure and alert to the schemes of the enemy. Keep her from temptation and let no evil come to her. And you continue.... You can add more scriptures if you want or pray however your heart leads you.

It's SO powerful ladies!!! God is in agreement with YOUR prayers and He is faithful to His Word to perform it. You should be filled with excitement now!!

So, who is it that the Lord has placed on your heart to pray for? I encourage you to look up scriptures to help you pray for that person and their situation.

Psalm 91 is a passage that you can easily pray and is a great place to begin practicing your new skills. Try it! I promise you will feel empowered as a pray-er (is that even a word?). And just by adding this simple technique to your prayer time you will discover a depth to your prayer life that you never experienced before.

Artist Talk:
I used the simple watercolor 'stomping' technique my friend Colleen showed us and then stamped the tiny word 'grace' randomly all over the page using the same watercolors. You need to make sure that when applying the color to the stamp that it is dry wet and not wet wet like you would use for regular watercoloring. You want more pigment and less water for coloring stamps- especially tiny ones like this. Added some white spatters and then my page elements & finished with the journaling.
I love the watercolor look and used it for the "grow in grace" words as well.

Happy Saturday and may you too "grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus your Lord"!
Elizabeth 💕
Follow me on IG @ icolorinmybible

Check out the Garden of Grace devotional & printable bundle HERE. There are 4 pages of ephemera, washi strips, tabs, a devotional and more. I only used a fraction of the images on my page. Grab it for yourself and play along. 

Find the versatile stamps I used HERE

I'd love to hear your comments or see how you put this prayer technique into practice. Leave me a note or post a picture of your page.