Fifteen Reasons to Praise the Lord

Posted on March 17, 2019 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Those dancers look very happy.

Prodigal: They are happy.

Me: Well, I am happy about the Lord.

This is from the book Finding Peace for Your Heart by Stormie Omartian

15 reasons to Praise the Lord

To enthrone God and acknowledge His greatness (Psalm 95:1-5)

To increase our awareness of God’s presence (Psalm 103)

To acknowledge God’s hand in every area of our lives (Psalm 91)

To release God’s power into our situations (Psalm 144)

To know God better (Psalm 50:23)

To break our chains of bondage and bring deliverance (Psalm 50:14-15)

To be under His covering of safety and protection (Psalm 95:6-7)

To strengthen the soul and be transformed (Psalm 138:1-3)

To receive guidance and establish God’s purposes in our lives (Psalm 16:7-11)

To thwart the devil’s plans for our destruction (Psalm 92)

To dissipate doubt and increase faith (Psalm 27)

To be delivered from fear (Psalm 34)

To bring a fresh flow of His Holy Spirit in us (Psalm 40)

To possess all God has promised for us (Psalm 147)

I delight to do Your will, O my God.

Psalm 40:8

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

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Every Thing is Fine or Is It?

Posted on March 15, 2019 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: I like the point you made.

Prodigal: Thank you.

Me: I wanted to add just one thing to it.

This is from the book A Man of Grace and Grit: Paul by Charles Swindoll

Our problem is that we are blinded in our perspective. We see ourselves as resourceful, talented, articulate, responsible, efficient. So why pause? Why take a break? We have important matters to attend to, meetings to hold, numbers to crunch, programs to launch, and children to rear and on and on and on it goes. It’s downright remarkable what we are able to accomplish drawing from our own well of human ingenuity.

Everything’s fine….until the well runs dry. At that point, we start to “gut it out.” We continue to run on empty until finally our lives fracture deep within. At that point we begin to sputter, clog and chunk, and finally grind to a complete stop. That’s when the truth comes out: Ministries fold, marriages crumble, children wander from the Lord unattended, and our character weakens to the point of blowout. Those painful experiences demonstrate that the dangers are real. We’re not nearly as resourceful as we think.

Don’t run on empty and don’t think you can handle it all with out taking a break. Take some time with the Lord. It will make a difference.

Proverbs 11:30-31

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise. If the righteous is repaid on earth, how much more the wicked and the sinner!

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Women Lovin’ Jesus

Posted on March 14, 2019 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Sometimes we can get distracted by what is around us.

Prodigal: Yes, and I need to focus.

Me: Maybe this video will help.

Click here to watch another video

Proverbs 2:10

For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.com

Fringe Benefits

Posted on March 13, 2019 by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: I’m all alone right now.

Me: You know God is around.

Prodigal: Yes, I have to remember that.

This comes from the book Facing Loneliness: The Starting Point of a New Journey by J. Oswald Sanders

Far from being an unwelcome liability, solitude confers many fringe benefits. It is in the place of quietness that creativity flourishes, not in the hubbub of modern life. We are so constituted that while we crave intimacy with other human beings, there are times when solitude becomes imperative, especially the silence of aloneness with God, when other voices have died away. It is then we have the unique gentle stillness.” The enrichment that follows cannot be exaggerated for the communion with the eternal God is the most potent medium of inner fulfillment.

My God and My Savior how I need your peace and fulfillment today. The time with you can give me energy and strength that is needed for this week. I love you Lord and need to be reminded of how great you are.

Mark 13:31

Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Secret to True Freedom

Posted on March 11, 2019 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: How are we to start our day?

Prodigal: Something with the word of God.

Me: The word of God?

Prodigal: Yes, it can change your spirit.

This is from the book Reaching for the Invisible God by Philip Yancey

Merton found the secret to true freedom: If we live to please God alone, we set ourselves free from the cares and worries that press in on us. So many of my own cares trace back to concern over other people: whether I measure up to their expectations, whether they find me desirable. Living for God alone involves a radical reorientation, a stripping away of anything that might lure me from the primary goal of pleasing God. Living in faith involves me pleasing God, far more than God pleasing me.

WE may be tired as we start our day. It seems that we have too much to do today. I know. There was a time when your schedule was not as demanding. For now there is joy in all you do, remember this even if it is tiresome at times.

And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.

Leviticus 20:26

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Unless He is God

Posted on March 9, 2019 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: I am glad we got to spend this time together.

Prodigal: Me too!

Me: We might as well discuss a little about Jesus too.

This is from C.S. Lewis

Now unless the speaker is God, (forgiving sin) is really so preposterous as to be comic. We can all understand how a man forgives offences against himself. You tread on my toe and I forgive you, you steal my money and I forgive you. But what should we make of a man, himself unrobbed and untrodden on, who announced that he forgave you for treading on another man’s toes and stealing other men’s money? Asinine fatuity is the kindest description we should give of his conduct. Yet this is what Jesus did. He told people that their sins were forgiven, and never waited to consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly injured. He unhesitatingly behaved as if He was the party chiefly concerned, the person chiefly offended in all offences. This makes sense only if He really was God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. In the mouth of any speaker who is not God, these words would imply what I can only regard as a silliness and conceit unrivalled by any other character in history.

1 John 5:9

If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Blessing in Having Nothing

Posted on March 7, 2019 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: You sure look like you gotta a lot of nothing!

Prodigal: Yes, but I am still blessed!

This is from A.W. Tozer in The Pursuit of God

Father, I want to know Thee, but my cowardly heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there without a rival. Then shalt Thou make the place of Thy feet glorious. Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for Thyself wilt be the light of it, and there shall be no night there.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.

Jeremiah 51:16

Jennifer Van Allen

wwwtheprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Life is Like That

Posted on March 5, 2019 by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: How do I look?

Me: That mustache is making you look like someone who is slicker than a boiled onion.

Prodigal: Maybe I should do without.

This is from the book With Christ in the Garden by Lynn James Radcliffe

Life is like that. We wouldn’t choose the hard pathway, but when we have been through it, we find that we have been disciplined and refined and strengthened. If we can look into the cup of present suffering with the determination to wrestle from it something glorious and enduring, we have begun to learn how to follow humbly but sincerely along the path which Jesus trod in the Garden. None of us will ever perfectly answer the question “Why?” but instinctively every one of us knows the way in which we can answer the question “How?” We do not know fully why we suffer, but we do know how we should meet pain when it comes. Courageous fortitude is the only attitude worthy of a Christian and a man.

Lamentations

3:23

They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

He Is

Posted on March 2, 2019 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Today feels like a long climb.

Prodigal: I understand, I really do.

He is ahead of you………….as your shepherd.

He is behind you…………….as your rearguard.

He is above you………………as your covering.

He is beneath you…………..as your foundation.

He is beside you……………..as your friend.

He is within you……………..as your life.

Author Unknown.

Luke 9:26

For whososever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s and of the holy angels.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org