Forever Changed....

September Reading Plan: Psalm 31-60

September Memory Verse: Psalm 34:1
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As I thought about our next prayer focus this week, I knew I had to ask my friend Erin Davis to post.

Erin is one of the girls in my prayer circle group. We text or talk to each other daily. Erin has taught me so much through her walk with Jesus. So much.

The thing Erin has taught me the most is how to pray. I mean, like, really pray. 

Erin has the gift of prayer. Like you have NEVER seen. 

She will kill me for telling  y'all this...BUT! Erin will go into the bathroom at her work, HIT HER KNEES, and pray. I am not joking. 

She has taught me so much! If you don't have a friend that will hit her knees to pray for you, start praying for one today. I am not kidding! Pray, today. 

Be blessed by her words today. God is doing some awesome things in her life. 

Forever Changed

by: Erin Davis

Give me Your eyes for just one second

Give me Your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me Your love for humanity

Give me Your arms for the broken-hearted

The ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten

Give me Your eyes so I can see

This song was my heart’s prayer during all of 2013. This is also the year that we started on a journey known as foster care.

The Lord called our family very specifically to love these foster children. I was beyond excited and ready to begin this journey with Him.

I wanted to be His hands and feet. I desired to help the hurting, mend their wounds, and love the “least of these” in my community.

I envisioned ministering to these children, teaching them about Jesus, and witnessing to their parents.

We became an approved Foster home at 4:30 pm on March 20th, 2014. The first foster child walked through our door at 6:30pm that same day.

And in the blink of an eye…my eyes were open….reality hit…and it tore me apart!

I was overwhelmed!!!!

Were these things really happening to children in my own backyard?

How did I not know?

Why aren’t people outraged about these things?

Why had no one told me?

I realized that I had been living in a bubble. I chose not to see past my own nose.

I paid no attention to the strange faces staring back at me at the store, at the local park, or even in the pews of my own church.

My eyes were not open to the pain and darkness surrounding me…or maybe…I did not care enough to see it

Chad and I have had the privilege of loving 8 children so far through the adventure called foster care.

Despite the darkness of their situation, these babies are a LIGHT that SHINES so brightly in my world.

They are DAILY reminders of God’s unending LOVE, GRACE, and MERCY in a fallen world.

They have done more for me then I could ever do for them. They are precious and we are beyond grateful that He allowed our family to be a part of their story.

I am FOREVER changed.

One thing I know for sure…

I can never go back to the way I was.

My eyes have been opened.

The need is too great.

I can promise you this…

An adventure waits for anyone willing to partner with Jesus!

Begin with simply asking Jesus to open your eyes!  Get on your knees and pray for your neighbors! Open your heart to the unlovable, the outcasts, and the broken. And then wait and watch as God does the rest!

Your life will NEVER be the same!

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9

Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Hebrews 13:20-21

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Colossians 2:6-7

Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act. Proverbs 3:27

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun. Psalm 37:5-6