Praying God’s Promises

I recently read a book by this title. Praying God’s Promises, The Life-changing Power of Praying the Scriptures by Linda Evans Shepherd. The author makes the case for active prayer. It’s not a hard pitch to make. If there’s life-changing power to be had, I’m in! Citing personal experience and stories of friends, Shepherd reminds her readers of their need for life-changing power in the real-life-circumstances we each face then stacks applicable verse upon verse for the reader to pray.

I’m certain this will become a well-thumbed reference for me. It’s logically laid out and I can see it have ongoing impact for me as circumstances and needs change.

I am a strong believer in praying scripture. Sometimes life is so …much.. whether good or bad. Sometimes the feels are just too overwhelming to put into words. It seems to me that is the perfect time to turn to The Bible to put words to our joy or suffering, celebration or confusion. One caution comes to mind in the midst of this praise though. I think it is crucial that we consider the fuller context of the original scripture. It’s tempting to cherry-pick promises without thinking through the circumstances of the original listener(s). While I believe God’s Word is for the ages and comes from Him who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, I also believe that the thinking Christ-follower must also understand the culture, history, and relationship of the key players to whom the promises were made.

This book will be significant as a reference or a devotional and I plan to keep mine handy!

What’s for Dinner {This Week}

I’m a little more on top of my game (for today.) So here’s the plan for this week…

Monday: I’m getting my hair done tonight after work. Let’s all take a minute to be pleased about that. Because that means that I won’t get to the actual starting of dinner until pretty late we’re going to try this recipe, only with the shredded beef from the balsamic beef. Cath’ makes these and says they’re yummy. Don’t really see how they can be bad! Oven Baked Beef Tacos

We’ll pair it with a stone-fruit salad. Love this season!

Tuesday: Chicken Pesto Pasta…pretty much I’m just planning to use most of the same delicious ingredients but serve them over pasta instead of salad greens.

Wednesday: I’m still trying to deplete my stock of smoked sausage. (I was buying it every time it was on sale and didn’t realize how much I had!) So this week we’ll try this recipe. Red Beans, Smoked Sausage, and Rice

Thursday: We’ve got dinner-out-with-friends plans so poor dad will be stuck home with leftovers.

Friday: My go-to, I’m-not-feeling-creative meal: breakfast. We’ll have scrambled eggs and bacon and whatever else we can figure out.

Not too exciting this week. We’ve got some trips coming up that will mean even less excitement in the home-cooking scene but right after that the tomatoes should start ripening up and we’ll be all tomatoes all the time!

What about you? Are you making something we should try?