Author: Marie Fitts

The first words ever spoken
by our Creator above
Radiate through the darkness
A Father’s endless love…Let there be light

God’s word commands
And in one quantum leap
He split water and sky
From a twilight sleep…God said it was good

Water separates from ground
And life was premiered
Through His breath
Man clearly appeared…On the sixth day

God admired and marveled
The work of His own hands
And rested on the Sabbath
A Holy Day at His command…God blessed the seventh day

But God said it was NOT good
For man to be alone
So then Woman was formed
Flesh of flesh bone of bone

A helpmate to share
The life man was given
Enter Satan’s temptation
To sin they were driven

Now banished from the garden
Naked on their own
To work the land for food
Yet they were never alone

God’s watchful eye was on them
Their lives were in His hands
And we learn through their mistakes
To follow His commands

God made the light
He split night and day
Knowing You and I would follow
Adam and Eve along the way

To keep His light going
That is why we live
Examples of the Father’s love
We were created to give

Do you have trouble keeping your thoughts focused in prayer? Do you find your mind trailing off mid thought…from asking for God’s grace, to an item you left off your grocery list? This may sound irreverent but it does happen because the enemy is lurking at every corner trying to steal our thoughts. If Satan can steal our thought life he can keep us from praising and staying in communion with our Lord.

So, today I wanted to share with you a Prayer Model that I learned from a Youth Pastor many years ago. You may have heard this but it’s worth repeating.

Prayer is an ACT of obedience. Use the book of ACTS as an acronym, and model your prayer along this thought pattern.

A – Adoration

C – Confession

T – Thanksgiving

S – Supplication (Requests)

End with “I” – Intercession (“I” can pray for others)

Here’s how the model works: Begin your prayer to God with adoration, praising Him for Who He Is! Then, confess your sins before the Lord and ask for forgiveness. Believe in your heart that you have been forgiven, repent and do differently! Follow your confession with Thanksgiving for all the prayers He has already answered. Close with your requests and intercede, lifting up someone else before the Lord.

The enemy will have a much harder time trying to steal your thoughts if you keep focused on this acronym during your prayer.

Power Verse:
John 15:7 (NIV)
“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.”

Prayer for Today:
Father God,
We praise You for who You are and for what your Spirit living on the inside of us means! We praise You that we have a direct connection to You through The Holy Spirit.

We confess to You Father that we are sinners, and as hard as we try we fall short . Help us to learn the meaning of repentance…to go and sin no more.

We thank you Lord God for all that you have done and continue to do in our lives, even when we don’t see you at work, we are confident that you are behind the scenes, managing every infinite detail.

We ask you today Father to restore health to those who are sick, to give peace to those who are weary. We pray for comfort for those who have lost loved ones, and especially for those who were lost on foreign soil, fighting to keep our country safe.

We pray specifically for those orphaned by catastrophic events and those who find themselves widowed and alone. We lift up those who are impoverished Lord, those that live in the streets. Show us how we can help!

We pray for those who are held against their will and lift up those who are imprisoned Father and pray a hedge of protection to surround those who were sentenced for Christ’s sake. We pray for those who are imprisoned by actions of their own hand, that they will come to know You.

We pray Father for those who have lost their jobs, that they will not be discouraged by the problem, but focus on the promise!

We lift up those who need a word of encouragement today Lord, that you will plant a seed that speaks directly to them and they will know it came from You!

Finally Father we pray for all those who don’t know about You. Give believers confidence to speak our Faith to those who need to hear it the most. Guide our steps and guard our tongues! We ask all these things in the masterful name of Jesus our Lord. Amen!

If you are a Believer in Christ I’m certain you’ve asked these questions. I think I finally have some answers…

Why are we here? – To love and be loved
What is the meaning of life? – To love and be loved
Where do we go after we die? – To love and be loved

It’s just that simple
Yet so profound
The questions of life
An answer sound

To love and be loved
That is why we are here
Yet we search for answers
Year after year

The meaning of life
We still contemplate
Some die searching
But that is too late

The very breath of life
Was given in love
To all on this earth
From the Father above

And if you believe
In the one that He sent
Eternity is certain
With Love to be spent

My Dream and I
Seem miles apart
Yet with me always
Close to my heart

Not certain how
My dream will unfold
I Wait expectantly of
What is foretold

In Genesis 41:32
The doubling of dreams
Means God will
Make it come true

And I trust His word
And all that it says
Believing His book
The words written in red

This recurring dream
This vision of mine
Often in the background
But always on my mind

So I polish my dream
From time to time
Lavished with attention
Like a diamond it shines

I hold tight to God’s promise
And turn out the light
With a bittersweet kiss
I’ll say good night

To the dream
God painted on my heart
Cherishing until
We’re no longer apart

Thank You Father

– for the adversity in our lives, because it always brings us closer to You

– for your abundance of favor over our lives and over all those we love

– for restoring our health

_ for divine connections that will propel our dreams to completion

– for every good thing, because we know that it all comes from You

Will you join me today? Leave a reply here with your own Declarations of Faith. Let’s keep declaring God’s goodness and keep a positive focus on our thoughts and the words we speak over our own lives. Let’s make certain our words are a blessing and not a curse!

I’d love to hear from you.
Abundant Blessings,
Marie Fitts

On Valentine’s Day when I awoke
It really was a shock
To run out to the driveway
And find an empty mailbox

There should have been some candy and cards
For this sweet little girl to see
But when I looked inside for them
Not a single one was there for me

My sweetheart said it must have been
That Time when I was bad
He said I should have straightened up
Instead of staying mad

I wonder if I’m twice as good
Will Cupid’s arrow strike next year
And maybe I’ll get twice as much
For being such a Dear

If you follow my blog, my past several posts have been about following your “Dream” and this one falls right in line.

Anastasiya Kuzmina of Russia had a dream to win a Gold Medal in the Winter Olympics. This year she became the first woman to successfully defend her previous GOLD MEDAL in the 7.5km Biathlon Sprint title. When asked how she did it during her interview with NBC reporters, she replied,”I sleep with my dream!”

Do you sleep with your dream? Are you expecting your Dream to come to pass? Are you expecting Divine connections? Are you expecting to overcome every challenge along the way? Do you expect God’s favor over your life?

If we can’t answer these questions with a resounding “Yes” then we need to put our faith to work! Your dream may not have come to fruition yet, but become a prisoner of Hope…because God can make a dream happen over time or He can suddenly bring it to pass!

While we are waiting with expectancy, let’s pray bold prayers asking God to send His favor now! Let’s ask Him to send good breaks our way and to send divine connections, knowing that He is working behind the scenes, lining up every detail. If our prayers don’t seem to be answered in our time-table, let’s thank Him that we are one day closer to seeing the dream come to pass!

Do you sleep with your dream? Are you doing everything in your power to propel yourself toward reaching your goal? If not, begin working diligently today on anything you can do within your own power…and leave the rest in God’s hands and His timing.

Power Verse:
Psalm 5:3 “In the morning O Lord you hear my voice; In the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.”

Father God,
Thank you for your favor over our lives. Thank you that you are working behind the scenes to make our dreams come true; as we wait with expectancy for your goodness to rain down on us. Thank you that we are one day closer to living our dream, even when we don’t see it in our time table. We praise you for every good thing! It is in Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Hello!
Thanks for joining me today at Grafted In And Grateful. These are not my words today, but words of inspiration that came from our Senior Pastor at Hope Church, Rev. Rufus Smith. I wanted to share Pastor Smith’s message with anyone who has a God Inspired dream in their heart.

Rev Smith has been speaking from the book of Genesis, Chapters 37-41. His message this week entitled Right Place, Right Time tells the story of Joseph as a brother, slave, prisoner and visionary.

Rev Smith talked about the dreams of both Joseph and Pharoah; how they were placed there by God and revealed to them in God’s timing. He talked about the recurring dream in your heart that just won’t go away and that if it is inspired by God, He will see it through to completion as is stated in the book of Genesis: “The doubling or recurrence of Pharoah’s dream means this future is fixed by God and he will make it happen very soon.”Genesis 41:32 (VOICE)

Do you have a recurring dream, one that is God Inspired that you just can’t shake? Has this dream been a lifelong aspiration? Maybe you just need to be at THE RIGHT PLACE at THE RIGHT TIME like Joseph? Although, he had to go through some very difficult years, God used it for his good.

Rev Smith described the principles of being at the
Right Place, Right Time and I wanted to share them with you:

Right Place, Right Time
* The principle applies only to GOD INSPIRED dreams
* These dreams are lifelong ASPIRATIONS or desires planned by God in your heart, just as he did for Joseph
* God’s timing prepares you well to HUMBLY EXCEL on center stage
* God’s timing does NOT MEAN that dreams deferred are dreams DENIED
* God’s timing will bring well-rounded success and SATISFACTION in every major area of your life

My summary:
If you have a dream that is God Inspired, a dream that has been a lifelong desire, do not give up on that dream! Just because it hasn’t come to fruition does not mean the dream is denied. Stay focused, stay the course, continue to learn and to grow. Do not listen to the voice of the enemy. Step out in faith, take on new challenges, get involved in your local church, that just might give you the connections you need that will propel you forward and put you in THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME!

Pastor Smith ended his message with this quote and I’m claiming it as my new mantra:
“It’s always too soon to quit!”

The South has been in the deep freezer this winter; with much colder temperatures than those over the past several years. This morning we finally awoke to a powdery dusting of SNOW! Yes, we finally got some of the white stuff! It fell softly while we were asleep and kissed the ground with its delicate flakes overnight. It was beautiful for a moment but as the temperature rose above freezing during the day, it has since melted and left behind a slushy, muddy mess!

This transformation has reminded me of how I strive daily to let my character, my conduct and my conversation show others I am a child of God. Some days I succeed and I become a beautiful, untainted example of how Christ would want me to act and to respond to the circumstances of the day. I’m covered with a powdery dusting of snow-like flakes of purity. Other days I fall extremely short and end up in the murky, muddy mess of life, with polluted actions and responses that don’t reflect that I even know God, much less claim to be His child.

Do you fight this same battle? I believe we are all fighting Satan and his minions in some form or fashion. What a tragedy it is when Believers lose sight of our calling and bow to Satan’s schemes. He loves it when we lose self-control and jump into the mire with him.

If your like me, you don’t want to be a polluted well that spews a slushy, murky, muddied mess anymore. Let’s ask our Lord Jesus to help us fight the good fight and learn to call upon His Holy Spirit first, before we give way to Satan’s wicked schemes. We don’t want to lose the opportunities The Lord gives us to blanket others with the fruit of His Spirit.

Lord Jesus,
Thank you for your word that teaches us the error of our ways. Forgive us when we don’t act like we are your children. Cleanse our hearts with the purity of new fallen snow so that our character, our conduct and our conversation will always be pleasing in your sight. In Jesus Name we pray, Amen.

Power Verses
Proverbs 25:26 “Like a muddied spring or a polluted well, are the righteous who give way to the wicked.”

Galatians 5:22
“But the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”