Just Us: 3/23 Manna

DYSMAS CONDUIT

FREE FOOD

(Isa 55:1)

TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 2010

Question for the day:

Do you know anyone who is addicted to others’ approval?

What can we pray with YOU about today?

Good morning,

This is just a reminder that every day, while we are studying God’s Word to add to our website, someone from our ministry, Dysmas Conduit, is holding you up before the Lord in prayer. May He greatly bless you today as you pursue His will and He is glorified through you.

God’s blessings, our love,

George & Sidney Granger

CURRENT PRAYER REQUESTS:

Please pray for Mike Brommer as he spreads the Lord’s Seed and witnesses to His glory while on the road today. Please pray also that the Lord will lead him to Kingdom-profitable loads to carry, and that He grants Mike safe passage today.

Please hold up before the Lord a dear friend, Ann Long, who is to undergo cancer surgery on March 29. Also please ask for strength for her family, especially her husband, Dennis.

Kriss Allen is having surgery today in Ann Arbor . Please pray that God’s hand would guide the surgeons and that the family would feel His peace during this long procedure. Jackie

Pratt Family – prayers for help and hope for a family member who is struggling financially

Loree Family – prayer for important decisions about our future

Melanie Martin – friend Ron who is in the hospital

Coppens Family – Carolyn Young and her family as she fights her battle with cancer

Roth Family – George Lockwood

Gorney Family – Prayers for health, employment, building our marriage and parenting

Judy Getgood – That God’s will be done in a decision I need to make

Burkhard Family – continued prayer for our house search, putting in an offer on Monday

Greg Beck – Praise and thanks for getting a job and his son Cameron is here today!

Tracy and Mike Young – Carolyn Young family, peace and strength

Fort Family – continued prayer for our son and daughter-in-law, looking for employment and living in our home

Stephen Hayes – God’s will be done

Jill and Charlie Breedlove – Carolyn Young and her family

Nancy Vance – daughter Beth Harrison diagnosed with stage 3 hodgekins lymphoma. They have a 9 month old daughter

Kelly Hirschman – Dale Brown, leukemia; Roger Clare, kidney failure; Juliah Heft (5) praying to be adopted

Bornheimer family – pray for healing for John Sr, Gina, John Jr, Brittney and Dash. Thank the Lord for answered prayers

Sirrine Family – Thomas is free of his cancer! My grandpa because his wife died last Easter and it will be a sad day for him

Mindy McLaughlin – continued healing of Dasia Brown from her bone marrow transplant

Jennie Czachaurski and Martha Barringer – Anxiety, family in Iraq

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR TODAY

March 23, 2010

Approval Addiction

Shari Braendel

"Each of you should look not only to your own interests,

but also to the interests of others."

Philippians 2:4 (NIV)

Devotion:

One day I got tired of hearing myself talk.

During a time when everything seemed to be going well, I found myself in a whirlwind where God revealed to me that my life was actually out of control. I knew I was walking the path He had laid out for me and it lined up with my passion for helping others. The problem was that I had become so good at it I didn't feel the need to call on God's help anymore.

What I did come to need, however, was others to tell me I was doing a good job. In fact, if someone didn't pat me on the back, I would tell them about my good deeds!

Everywhere I went people told me how skilled I was at doing this particular thing. I had become so adept at it that I figured there was no need to consult God anymore. I stopped praying much about it and would just "do." In the middle of my doing, however, I would make sure and ask others if I was doing it okay.

One day I was talking to someone and God allowed me to see myself, almost like I was listening as an outsider. I hated what I had become. Who was this person? Why was she talking so much? Who cared that she did this or that? Oh my goodness, what had become of me?!

I decided that day to stop talking about myself. I decided to quit depending on other people's thoughts about what I was doing, or how I was doing it. I decided that the only One I needed to impress was God. I knew that it wasn't going to happen without thought and planning. This desire for approval was not going to go away by itself.

First, I sat down and had a good cry. Then I consulted God and prayed. I made a decision to be quiet about myself for 30 days. Whenever I talked to someone, I would not mention "me" at all. I would not recount my accomplishments, my breakthroughs, or my shortcomings. Nothing. I decided to begin listening to others as if hearing them for the first time. If they asked about me, I would simply answer, "I'm doing great, thank you." That's it. No more information. I wanted to turn outward and begin to invest in other people's lives.

Well, 30 days turned into 60 days, and then into 90. I will tell you…I'm different now. My friends would probably agree, but I can honestly say I don't desire their approval anymore. It's funny how when we turn attention away from ourselves, we end up feeling more complete in the end. Because truly, the only thing that completes us is God.

Dear Lord, forgive me for seeking approval from anyone but You. Teach me to be silent so I can hear others and most importantly, hear You. Bring to my attention, in a way that only You can, times when I am becoming self-absorbed during conversations. Thank You for loving me enough to help me grow, in Jesus' Name, amen.

Application Steps:

Spend some time in prayer and sit silently. What is God telling you?

If we practice sitting quietly and listening to our heavenly Father we are sure to become a better friend to those around us. Pray to become a great listener and decide to encourage others in what they are doing well instead of telling them about your good deeds or the good deeds of someone else you know.

Reflections:

When a friend tells me something that's happened to her, do I have to recount a situation that's happened to me or someone else I know? Why not let her tell her story and just listen?

Do I need to set aside some time to be silent and practice listening?

What would I observe if I stepped outside my conversations and looked in? Would I see an encourager or someone who talks a lot about herself or others?

Power Verses:

James 1:19, "My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry." (NIV)

1 Samuel 2:3, "Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed." (NIV)

Jeremiah 9:24, "'But let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,' declares the LORD." (NIV)

…and…

Taking a trip on the Bible Bus

1 Peter 1:17-25

And if you address as Father the One who judges impartially based on each one's work, you are to conduct yourselves in reverence during this time of temporary residence. For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from the fathers, not with perishable things, like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the times for you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. By obedience to the truth, having purified yourselves for sincere love of the brothers, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again-not of perishable seed but of imperishable-through the living and enduring word of God. For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like a flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower drops off, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word that was preached as the gospel to you.