Man, It was such a wonderful time at the Women's Retreat. I really enjoyed getting to know so many different ladies in our church. The speakers were wonderful (I'll talk about them shortly). The door prizes were not only abundant, but NICE - and great that I won one too!! The decorations were great - and the center pieces were beautiful. It was also great that we had a silent auction for them and that I won one - but of course my bidding tactics worked!! and the bud vases are already on my desk at work. The food was great, the rooms were great, bunco was great - I couldn't have asked for a better time.
Of course all this was good, but the best part was that the theme of the retreat, "Revive My Heart", was more than appropriate. God did such wonderful things in my life this weekend through the speakers and the women to really start the revival process.
One of the first speakers was Joy Weaver - an etiquette expert. She shared some etiquette tips with us - some I knew, some I did not. But she also talked about how as she grew up - she never thought the Lord would use her for such great things as He does. She spoke of how she grew up in the church and knew the Lord, but when she got out on her own, she began to live as though she just had a ticket to Heaven. Man, can I identify with that. Her testimony was so encouraging and inspiring to really trust God in His plan for your life - to follow Him. She also spoke of the power of prayer - and how it is especially important to pray with others. Joy challenged us to take whatever time we spend in prayer now and add 10 minutes. In addition to that - she challenged us to pray BIG! Pray for something that you know when you see it happen that you will have no reason not to believe it was the work of the Lord. It reminds me of James 1:6-8 - that when you ask, you should ask and believe - not doubt. How many times do my prayers just become a conversation of me merely reporting what is going on in my life - perhaps with a measly "please help me Lord" at the end. Yes, I know, sometimes these prayers are appropriate but when it becomes the only thing in your prayer life, I think it becomes detrimental to your walk with God. I believe this because I think you are not really giving your concerns to God, asking for specific things, and trusting (and believing) that God will provide. I have really taken a hard look at my prayer life and have to admit it lacks faith.
Another blessing the Lord brought to the retreat was the prayer and praise led by our very own Toni Alexander! She gave us little bits to think about as she led the worship (and she picked some good songs!). One that sticks with me is about evaluating your life and relationship with God. To become closer to God and to revive your heart - sometimes you have to have some of yourself die (deny yourself) and sometimes you need to wake up other parts of yourself. The entails a big part of evaluating your priorities - and some of mine are very out of whack. I have begun to realign them.
Donna Germany - another wonderful lady from our church - also spoke to us about prayer. She was so sweet to share some of the prayers she has written in her journals - prayers near and dear to her heart. She talked about the importance of journaling your prayers. I do from time to time - and she too said that some years she journals more than others. I am very encouraged by her and plan to journal prayers again (though, this blog sorta counts). I am also thankful that she gave us some different prayer tips. I am not going to call them methods because I know that I struggle with making the method more important than the Lord I pray to. I am also coming to terms with this struggle - and have given it to the Lord. (and my Sunday night prayer team has been wonderful about this - I love you guys!! --- "You guys" I sound like a yankee! --- I love YA'LL!!)
I really look forward to seeing what the Lord is going to do through my revived prayer life (and my life in general). Its only been 2 days since the retreat and I can already see revival in my heart and in my life. Thanks so much to all the ladies that worked so hard on putting together the retreat - ya'll did a wonderful job! And thanks so much, Lord, for showing up and revealing yourself - not only to me, but to each one of us there. Thanks!
