Tag: thekedgeanchor

prayer

Praying Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

The Kedge Anchor
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“Be careful what you pray for, you might get it.” We’ve all heard that saying before. Sometimes what we get isn’t necessarily what we don’t want, it’s not what we expected and that can be either good or bad, depending on your perspective.

Think about the times you have prayed for someone, for their situation, for their salvation or for a situation to change and the outcome or the answer wasn’t what you expected. One thing that God has brought to my attention is as I pray I need to trust Him. Honestly, sometimes scenarios are going through my mind of how things will work out or how God will work things out. I don’t think that’s for me to know, I think that’s for me to trust.

“Not my will, but yours.” It’s God’s desire for all men to be saved, “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” 1Timothy 2:3-4. When you are praying for someone to be saved and know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, what are you thinking?(Not “what ARE you thinking?) What are you imagining to happen? Maybe that they will be driving along one day and have this overwhelming desire to know Jesus and be forever changed. Not that, that can’t happen. But look at Saul or Paul, he was stopped dead in his tracks and made blind for a while. I know I think of easy transitions, smooth sailing for others and for situations. Rarely does that ever happen. That’s not how God works. I am learning that.

Only God can work through situations and change hearts and for Him to do that, He sometimes has to bring us and others to our knees, whatever it takes if we are sincere in our prayers. That’s also not to say we are wishing ill on them or bad things to happen, heavens no, we want to see changes and sometimes that takes hard times. Look at Jesus and His ministry. His ministry was to preach salvation to all. He came to earth as fully human and fully God as a baby to grow up in stature, teach, and to one day die on the cross and rise again in three days. Things got bad before they got better, same with Paul.

This was an “ah-ha” moment for me. When we are praying for God to change situations, change hearts, we need to be prepared that things may get worse before they get better. We need to trust God. We don’t know how God will work in each individual or situation. God knows the details of every challenging situation and the hearts of the people He created. He works “all things together for our good and His glory” Romans 8:28. God will work things out according to His plan, we have to trust. God may direct you or use you in the plan (be prepared for that) and He may give you specifics through the Holy Spirit pressing in on you to say something or do something specific.

Think back to Jesus in the Garden, things had to get worse before they got better. Sometimes we or our loved ones need to go through situations that will get worse before they get better.

We need to remember this:

  1. Trust God, His Providence, His timing.
  2. Things may get worse before they better.
  3. Ask for endurance, courage to get through the next few days weeks, months, however long it’s going to take for God to work things out.
  4. When we get to the other side, when victory comes, remember to give thanks. “Give thanks always” – 1 Thessalonians 5:16 so let’s remember days, weeks, months, even years later to recall God’s goodness in the situation, or any situation. It’s good to keep remembering what God has done for us.
  5. Keep praying for the situation or person. “Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Now that things have changed, ask God to help you not make the same mistakes, to keep walking in His light, continue to pray for the person or situation that the person will grow spiritually and the situation will remain stable.

We have to trust God when we are praying for changes in others and in situations. We can’t know how God will work things out, other than He will work them out according to His plan for our good and His glory and that can and will look totally different than what we imagine. That’s dangerous prayer, are we bold enough to pray dangerously?

art

Introducing – New Series: Design for Life

The Kedge Anchor

Our Heavenly Father is the master artist. He is the creator of all things. Only God can create something out of nothing. He has a purpose and plan for everything He created, from the tiniest single cell sea creature that keeps the ecosystem alive to the Blue whale, the largest among it’s species, God created it and created it out of nothing. John 1:1-3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” Everything we use to create art has already been created by God. The pigments used in paint come from the earth, paper is from the trees, all that God has created. We are “fearfully and wonderfully made”, Psalm 139:14. God created Adam from the earth, like Adam, we are created from dust with the breath of God in us giving us life. He is the potter and we are the clay and not one of us is the same. We are all unique, one of a kind, precious in His eyes.

God’s plan for us was to live in perfection here on earth until Adam and Eve fell to sin.
But before God created anything, He knew Adam and Eve would sin. He already had a plan in place. He had a plan of redemption and sent His Son to die and rise again on the third day. He provided a way for us to be free from the penalty of sin so that we could live with Him in perfection for all eternity.
Just as He created the universe and humans He had a plan and purpose, a design for life.

In this Design for Life series, we will see how the design principles of design can be applied to our journey walking with Jesus not just to our art. Design principles are guidelines to follow if you want to create visuals that are effective. God gives us principles and commands to live by to help set ourselves apart from the world. There is a scene in The Chosen where Jesus is sending out the twelve and gives them instructions as to what they can and cannot bring with them. Jesus wanted them to be distinguished from the cynic philosophers. So I had to ask myself, what am I doing to stand out, to be distinguished from the rest of the world, what am I doing to live in contrast to the world?

In this new series, here on The Kedge Anchor, I’ll give a short devotional how you can apply design principles to your walk with God then join me on Caryn’s Corner YouTube Channel where I will talk more about these Design for Life posts and teach you brush lettering. Lessons will include free downloadable worksheets to practice your brush lettering.

I am excited to share with you how these design principles can be applied to our walk with God. So please, subscribe, like and share these posts and be sure to visit Caryn’s Corner Btq on YouTube.

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Devotionals

The Kedge Anchor
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Reading God’s Word daily is essential to the Christian life. It’s our lifeline. Reading the God breathed words in the Bible is one way God communicates to us. Praying is talking to God and without prayer and daily communication with God… how does that relationship survive? How do we cope?

Our quiet time, devotionals, Bible study, time with God, whatever you call it looks different for everyone. Some are morning people, some are before bed people, some mid day people. I don’t think it really matters what time of day, just that we “get away often” as Jesus did. Luke 5:16 “But Jesus often went away to be by himself and pray.” The Bible doesn’t say what time of day or for how long, just often.

Now my point here is if you are in the habit daily of getting away and setting time for God, how many times have you said, or heard someone say, “my day just doesn’t go right if I don’t start my day with my devotional” or perhaps something similar. Well, what about the just before bed people? Does that carry over into the day for them? Will their sleep not go well? What about the morning people, will their sleep not go well?

Often times when we get up and hit the floor running, we sometimes don’t have time for a devotional and the day gets away from us and the day seems to go sideways, the car breaks down, sick kid at school, boss got crazy, lose your keys, computer crashes and you think, “see, I didn’t do my devotional.” Well, have you had days when you did your devotional and the day still went bad? I know I have countless times. And here is where I think the difference is; regardless what time of day we choose to spend time with God, life is going to happen. The car will break down, the kids, will get sick, the day can go sideways regardless. God is not punishing us by making the day hard and things braking down because we didn’t spend time with Him. He may use those things to remind us or use them in some way for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28). But I know there have been days I have spent time reading and praying and the day still sideways.

So, often it’s easy for me to attach a superstition to this and that’s just another subtle tactic of Satan to get us to feel guilty, like we are a bad Christian, or his popular lie, you’re a failure. God sees your heart. He’s not ready to beat you down with a bad day if you skip or miss time with Him. He never leaves us or forsakes us, (there are many verses about God always being with us, Google it) He is always waiting for us to come to Him. Sure you’re likely to feel a void or an emptiness because you’ve been out of synch but being aware and just having thoughts of God on your mind can be worship. Because think about it, when we worry and have a problem occupying or hearts weighing us down, thought churning in our heads, we are worshipping the problem. God has thought about us, Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” (KJV). The difference is, when we spend time with God, no matter what time, when the car breaks down, when the kids are sick, when the day goes sideways, we handle it better. We have been armed with God’s Word (Ephesians 6:11-15). We deal with problems differently. God’s mercies are new each morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). Your day is going to go the way it’s going to go. God sees it, no surprise to Him. Just try and make it a priority. Priority just means it gets done, not necessarily first, but done. Keep the lines of communication and worship open when your quiet time looks a little different, sing, think about God, think about getting away with Him and then do it.

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

The Kedge Anchor

©CARYNSCORNERBTQ 2022

Thank you to all who have followed me over the past two years! Wow, two years, where has time gone? 2022 is almost done! As we welcome a new year we also welcome changes. I personally don’t like change but I hope the coming changes to the Kedge Anchor will inspire others to continue to walk closer to God and continue to offer hope.

This will be the last post until 2023!! Wow 2023!! God is our only hope for the new year. That is one thing that will never change. Our God is a big God and He is the same yesterday, today and forever. We never need to worry about Him changing.

So just a few changes that you will see, the coloring pages and Memorize Mondays are going away, maybe for awhile, maybe come back looking different, I dunno, haven’t decided. I have decided to combine my art – Caryn’s Corner and The Kedge Anchor. The two are just merging and to make my life simple and hoping to make a bigger impact combing the two made sense. Weekly devotional blogs will stay.

There is some really cool content coming up so please stay tuned. And thank you again to all my followers. Stay anchored in Hope!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Coloring Page

December 12, 2022 – Psalm 69:30

The Kedge Anchor

Praise the name of God with song!!!!



December-12-2022Download
Coloring Page

November 28, 2022 – John 6:11

The Kedge Anchor

Jesus gave those who were seated as much as they wanted. We have a generous God. He gave us His Son, He gave His Son’s life for us and He gives us so much today that we I don’t think we are even aware.

November-28-2022Download
Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

The Kedge Anchor

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Happy Thanksgiving !

Praying everyone has a safe, healthy and blessed holiday! The past few years have been challenging to say the least. Praying that as we gather we can put differences aside and enjoy those gathered around us.

So who is putting up the tree today? 🙂

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good…

Pslam 107:1

Coloring Page

November 21, 2022 – Psalm 104:4

The Kedge Anchor

Every day is a new day and God gives us every day new! What are you thankful for today? Please join us on Facebook for our 30 day Gratitude Challenge!!! There’s still time!

Please be sure to like and share this post. Thank you 🙂

november-21-2022-1Download
Gratitude

Can We Know God’s Mind?

The Kedge Anchor
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Can we know God’s mind?

“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.” For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For “who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:9-16 NASB).

Romans 11:34 “For who can know the LORD’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give him advice?”

For me, as I see it, in our humanness we are limited. Especially when it comes to understanding ALL that God has for us, i.e. His plan for us, how He works ALL things together for our good and His glory. We will never know and understand everything in the Bible this side of Heaven. John 21:25 “Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.” (NLT). I believe ALL that He IS the whole world could not contain the books that would be written (not to add to scripture). Y’know that saying separate your who from your do? What you do isn’t who you are. I think God is the only one who is what He does. God is love. He loves everyone, but not everyone will accept Him. His who is is His do. No?

We may not know or understand God’s mind fully or how He operates. But we can know what pleases Him. And knowing what pleases Him, we can have some understanding about Him. If we are in Christ, verse 14 -16 of 1 Corinthians says, “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For “who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” “Mind of” being the operative words. We can have Christ like thoughts.

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18. Not only do we learn that we are given the instruction to give thanks it also God’s will for us. So if you’re wondering what God’s will is for your life, start with giving thanks to God. Finding God’s will for us, for our lives, is a journey, it can take time, so here’s a good place to start just by giving thanks.

With the month of November being noted for Thanksgiving, we can take the opportunity to grow our minds like Christ by giving thanks and we are doing His will. Sounds so simple and it is and there is more to this with offering sacrifices and being obedient. Perhaps that’s another post.

Join us on the new Facebook page for a 30 day gratitude challenge. It’s not too late, it’s always a good time to give thanks.

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New Facebook Page

The Kedge Anchor

The new Facebook page is active. Please be sure to visit, like and share. I started reading The Grumbler’s Guide to Giving Thanks. At the back of the book it has a gratitude challenge and for the month of November to kick off the new Facebook page I will be posting five things for which I am grateful .

If you aren’t on Facebook that’s ok, you can post what you are grateful for here. I am thankful for all who support this blog by following and sharing. Thank you ❤️🍁