My Prayer Journal

My devotional 8/7/17 How to Handle Rejection by Shana Schutte Excerpt Have you noticed sometimes God will allow us to be exposed to the very thing that frightens us so we will realize we are not victims, but instead can be victors? This is how it was for me with rejection.   Twenty-five years ago possible rejection was the relational difficulty that terrified me, whether with a romantic interest or friend, so I tried to avoid it at all costs by people pleasing—which of course, didn’t work. Much to my horror, God didn’t shield me from rejection like I hoped.  Instead, it seemed like someone was tossing me aside every time I turned a corner.  It wasn’t fun! One day I woke up and realized what I thought would destroy me, hadn’t! The result was what I believe God had in mind:  freedom from the fear of rejection. I have struggled with this my entire life as well. I put up a brave and tough front and I think over the years I have probably bec...

My Devotional 8/8/17 Is God Calling You to Plant a New Field? By Shana Schutte Excerpt Imagine a farmer is growing beans.  The beans are growing well in the same field where the farmer has planted them for the last few years.  One day God calls him to plant a new crop in a new field, but there’s a problem. Growing the beans is already taking all the farmer’s financial and physical resources and he doesn’t feel confident about taking the risk to make a change. If he wants to grow the new crop God has assigned, the farmer will have to resist fear.  But imagine that instead the farmer says, “I can’t plant and grow a new crop because it’s going to be too hard.  I don’t have the money; I’ll have to buy another piece of land.  There’s too much risk involved.” When God says, “Stop what you are doing.  I want you to leave that field and come plant in this one over here,” and we allow fear to dictate our response, we may refuse to leave our “fi...