Let Him Overshadow Me

Posted on July 14, 2016 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Are you feeding the ducks?

Prodigal: Yep, just feeding the ducks here and having some quiet time.

Me: I was just reading some thoughts that I would like to share.

Charles Spurgeon shares in his book Joy In Christ’s Presence

I am very weak, but He is strong, and His strength overshadows my feebleness. I am very poor, but He has all the riches of the universe, and His riches overshadow my poverty. I am most unworthy, but He is so worthy that if I use His name I will receive as much as if I were worthy. Indeed, His worthiness overshadows my unworthiness.

It is very precious to put this truth another way and say, “If there is anything good in me, it is not good when I compare myself with Him, for His goodness quite eclipses and overshadows it.”Can I say I love Him? I do, but I hardly are to call it love, for His love overshadows it. do I think that I serve Him? I want to, but my poor service is not worth mentioning in comparison with what He has done for me. Have I thought that I had any degree of holiness? I must not deny what His Spirit works in me, but when I think of His immaculate life and all His divine perfections, where am I? What am I?

Have you not sometimes felt this? have you not been so overshadowed by your Lord and hidden in Him that you became as nothing? I myself know what it is to feel that if I die in a poorhouse, it does not matter, as long as my Lord is glorified. Mortals may slander me, if they like, but what difference does it make, since His dear name will one day be written in stars across the sky? Let Him overshadow me; I delight that it should be so.

Luke 6:22

Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

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Working

Posted on July 10, 2016 by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: It is a hot day today but the fields will not plow themselves and I have to get this done before it gets dark.

Me: Much of what we do everyday is work and sometimes it can discourage us.

Prodigal: Yeah, I felt discouraged this morning.

Me: Let me share with you somethings that God says about our work.

Chuck Swindoll shares this in his book Start Where You Are.

Someone once counted every biblical promise and came up with an amazing figure of almost 7,500. Servants can claim many of those promises even today. Believe me, there are times when the only thing that keeps me going is a promise from God that my work is not in vain.

When we have done what was needed but were ignored, misunderstood, or forgotten, we can be sure our labor was not in vain.

When we did what was right, with the right motive, but received no credit, no acknowledgment, not even a “thank you”…we have God’s promise that “we shall reap.”

When any servant has served and given and sacrificed and then willingly stepped aside for God to receive glory, our heavenly Father promises he will “receive back.”

Among our temporal rewards is the quiet awareness that the life of Christ is being modeled. I know of few more satisfying and encouraging rewards than to realize that our actions can become visible expressions of Christ to others.

Someone is not asking you about Christ. They are watching you to learn who Christ is. This is not too pressure you but to remind you that what you are doing does matter. What you are doing does show Christ to others. Keep at the work and you shall reap!

1 John 3:21-22

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

Jennifer Van Allen,

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

This Is Not By Chance

Posted on July 7, 2016 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: I like your corn hole game board!

Prodigal: Yeah, it is pirate style 🙂

Me: How is the game going?

Prodigal: Not well, I just can’t seem to make the right throw.

Me: Before the next game starts let me share something that I just read.

This is found in the book Turning Toward Joy by David Jeremiah. I woman who name was not mentioned wrote this poem.

The things that happen unto me

Are not by chance, I know,

But because my Father’s wisdom

Has willed to have it so.

For the “furtherance of the gospel”

As a part of His great plan,

God can use our disappointments

And the weaknesses of man.

Give me faith to meet them bravely,

Trials I do not understand,

To let God work His will in me–

To trust His guiding hand.

Help me to shine, a clear bright light,

And not to live in vain-

Help me hold forth the Word of life

In triumph over pain.

Philippians 1:30

For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

The Windy Paths of God’s Directions

Posted on July 5, 2016 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Prodigal, I like that tree. It has so many different branches but at the same time is going in the same direction.

Prodigal: Yeah, I started climbing this tree and not sure what direction to go.

Me: While you try to decide let me share an encouraging story.

This is a story from Windows into Heaven by Stacy & Michelle Tetschner. This is a story of Cathi Hoffman.

On October 12, 1993, I prematurely delivered Jessica Erin who weighed 3 lbs. 3 oz. I was so scared, but little did I know that I was witnessing my first miracle. After a 24-day stay at LSU Medical Center, Shreveport, LA., I brought Jessica home with me to Texas.

I conceived again when Jessica was 3 1/2 years old. Soon after learning of this pregnancy, my husband and I discovered that the fetus was in my fallopian tube. I lost the baby and my chances of conceiving children in the future were reduced by 75 percent.

We resigned ourselves to the fact that Jessica would be our only child, so we focused our energy on making her a very happy little girl. Between 1997 and 2000, I had two more miscarriages. We were absolutely convinced that having another child was not an option. But shortly after Jessica’s seventh birthday, I conceived again. My doctor closely monitored the pregnancy during the first trimester to gauge the baby’s growth. Our due date was July 23, 2001.

The first four months were happily uneventful, but then I started to dilate at 23 weeks–way too early for a baby to be born. After six days of hard labor, Jacob Edward was born on April 10, 2001, weighing 1 lb. 12 oz. Although Jacob had only a 22 percent change of survival with major complications, he surprised the doctors, sailed through the NICU, and was released after only two months at Christus Schumpert Medical Center in Shreveport, La. This was my second miracle.

My husband and I agreed this was the stopping point. We were blessed with a daughter and son, who survived against the odds. To prevent any future complicated pregnancies, I had a tubal ligation in June 2001.

Three months later I had some concerns and went to see the doctor. I left his office speechless after three pregnancy tests and an ultrasound confirmed I was three months pregnant. (This means I conceived right before the surgery.) I was not convinced that my health would allow me to carry another child. What were the odds of having another survivor?

I was determined to have a successful pregnancy, and I did everything I possibly could do to make this pregnancy longer and healthier. On Feb. 16, 2002, I gave birth to Julia Elise, my third miracle.

This is not the normal straight path of raising a family. God has a plan for everyone. He has a plan for how we are born. No doctors, no complications and man’s plan will stop what God wants to happen. So do not be discouraged if your situation is not the “normal” situation. It probably just means that God is planning things so that his name will among the story when you tell others.

1 Corinthians 15:58

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Trust

Posted on July 3, 2016 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: It seems to be another day and another dollar.

Prodigal: Very true, I have a break, why don’t to tell me what you have been learning about lately.

Me: I have been reading and it has been helping with some of the Hebrew roots. Let me share.

Active Spirituality by Charles Swindoll is a book that breaks down the word Trust

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

Trust. At the root of the original Hebrew term is the idea of throwing oneself down, lying extended on the ground-casting all hopes for the present and the future upon another, finding shelter and security there.

Are you trusting God after breaking down the definition of Trust? Some of you have not submitted yourself completely because you are still standing before the Lord trying to hold on to your present. God will not begin giving you the future until you are extended on the ground in completely submission with all trust.

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org