Episode 63: Revelation 2:29
Transcription
Before we pray today, I want to read you some more reviews of my book: Yes, Father: A Daughter’s Journey to Forgiveness.
Juli takes us into such raw places with grace and skill to the destination of release and forgiveness. Her story never feels candy-coated while she also respects all the people involved. I enjoyed the format of alternating childhood and adulthood, past and more present. Well done telling such a vulnerable story. I was deeply moved.
Juli has such a gift with words, that I felt incapable of putting this memoir down! She beautifully describes the difficult journey of caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s, but goes beyond to share the grief of a pained relationship between a father and daughter.
I was personally touched by the sibling bond through the years, and the thread of healing from codependency. A very raw picture at learning to trust God with your family members faith, emotions and healing journey.
I read this moving memoir about her father’s care from onset of dementia through his passing. Juli’s honest grappling with how to love her father well encourages us to turn to the God who sees, hears and understands.
I love the cover art, gold-filled cracks as pictures of Juli’s heart fissures filled by obedience and love.
Well done, Juli!
These and other reviews have left me with such a heart of gratitude. I hope they have helped you understand what the book is about, and if you’ve read it and haven’t left a review, I am hoping that you will take the time to do it. Reviews are what help me share this story with people who need to hear it, so I treasure each one. The book is on Amazon or Goodreads if you feel led to do so. And if you haven’t picked up your own copy yet, head on over to my website at www.ja-sellers.com and find the link there.
Okay, now on to our prayer!
Today’s verse is Revelation 2:29
“Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches.”
Let’s pray together.
Today my thoughts are random, much like words heard on the wind. I have questions: Can my ears be sentient? What keeps my ears asleep? Can I even hear at all? Wind words feel hard to hear and though the blowing may remove the debris that blocks my way to You, I must strain to hear the words. I want to pay attention to the right things, the right voice. I don’t want to be lazy, drowsy, yearning to hear, but in the wrong direction.
Help me to remember that it’s Holy Spirit who revives. He speaks, pleading for me to listen, to hear. He speaks not just to me, but to all His body, urging us to be revived, in revival, reviving. The bodies of the body need to move, to be free, to cast off the constraint of fear or awkwardness or judgment, and use every cell to be in worship and to be in relationship and to be ever open to His call, His wisdom, His healing.
As the wind buffets my spirit, let it cause shaking, disruption, and may all complacency drop away. Let the wind bring the cleanness, freedom, and new beginnings it always promises. Help me to listen in the chaos, giving in to the Spirit’s work, not impeding Him, but just listening. Renew hope in me, so I am alert, not afraid, attuned to Your words spoken amidst the noise of this world and my own desires. Help me to listen.
You are here, Holy Spirit. You are here to bring us back to life. We have been asleep for too long, too afraid of causing trouble, too afraid of being judged and persecuted, too conscious of the restrictions placed on us by others, and too unaware of the power we yield because of You. So wake us up, send us out, instill courage in our very bones. Unify us as a force mightier than any we face. Help us not to quarrel amongst ourselves, but to lift each other up and to fight alongside our brothers and sisters. And when the distractions gather and overwhelm, be our shield, a wall of air, where silence is broken only by Your golden authority. Speak to us, enable us to hear You. Wipe away each individual barrier, grow us into Wind Speakers, Truth Tellers, Listening Hearts.
I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
