Natasha’s Daily Scripture, Prayer, and Reflection for 7.31.17

July 31, 2017Natasha Leave a comment

Scripture

Psalms 112:7

Prayer

Father I’m trying to turn my back on fear, choosing instead to focus my mind on You. Comfort me, strengthen me, steady me. In Jesus’ name I pray for confidence. Amen.

Reflection

When we put our trust in God we don’t fear the unknowns, we don’t fear what others can do to us, and we definitely don’t fear receiving bad news—for all of our goodness comes from God, and any setbacks that we perceive are merely setups for something greater. God has already figured out, mapped out, and seen what will be for our future.

It’s not if bad news comes, it’s how we respond to the news—confidently or sheer panic—the former is rooted in a conviction that God has and is the answer. The latter has roots of fear choking the life out of them.

Can we trust Him to be there for us, to catch us when we fall, and to place us in our rightful place? I’m working on it. I’m working on pushing fear to the side and trusting instead in God. I’m working on focusing only to His voice and not the loud voices that try to plant the seeds of doubt and insecurity. I’m trying my best to walk by faith and not by fear. How about you?
Questions of the Day

1. What would you like to add to today’s prayer and/or reflection?

2. What are your thoughts about today’s message?

3. What issues are you fighting to protect from the enemy’s attack?

4. What cares, worries, and fears are you ready to turn over to God?

5. Who would you like to pray for today?

6. Do you have a testimony that you would like to share? Please do.

Feel free to share your answers, prayers, comments, and reflections in the comment section below.

You can also send me an email at: breakingbreadwithnatasha@gmail.com

Please also feel free to share this post with others. We’re never quite sure who needs to hear and see what, and when! It would be awesome if whenever you run across a prayer, message, or scripture that moves you, you would kindly share it with the rest of us. You can post it on this blog or send me an email.

Love always,

Natasha

Copyright 2013-2017. Natasha Foreman Bryant. Some Rights Reserved. All Prayers and Reflections are Copyright Protected by Natasha Foreman Bryant, unless otherwise noted. Prior posts from 2009-2013 are copyrighted under the name Natasha L. Foreman. breakingbreadwithnatasha.com

Scripture taken from the Common English Bible®, CEB® Copyright © 2010, 2011 by Common English Bible.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. The “CEB” and “Common English Bible” trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Common. English Bible. Use of either trademark requires the permission of Common English Bible.

Scripture quotations marked HCSB are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Natasha’s Daily Scripture, Prayer, and Reflection for 7.25.17

July 25, 2017Natasha Leave a comment

Scripture

John 18:4-6

Prayer

Father thank You for today, another day and I’m humbly grateful. Father I pray for discernment to see clearly all that You want me to see and to hear Your voice above others, even in the midst of chaos. I pray that through this discernment I act according to Your direction, in obedience to You. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Reflection

Jesus knew what was about to happen. He knew Judas had betrayed Him. He knew what He would have to endure, and He stood and spoke with a conviction and clarity that clearly overpowered the armed soldiers that were brought to arrest Him—because they stepped back and fell to the ground. They were up against an unarmed man, in one regard, but clearly Jesus was extremely armed–by God. That’s the power of God. That’s knowing the power of God and not wavering even under direct threat.

Imagine walking each day with this level of conviction and confidence. Even a small amount would send energy waves through the atmosphere.

Let’s begin to practice this walk each day and see how it unfolds.

Questions of the Day
1. What would you like to add to today’s prayer and/or reflection?

2. What are your thoughts about today’s message?

3. What issues are you fighting to protect from the enemy’s attack?

4. What cares, worries, and fears are you ready to turn over to God?

5. Who would you like to pray for today?

6. Do you have a testimony that you would like to share? Please do.

Feel free to share your answers, prayers, comments, and reflections in the comment section below.

You can also send me an email at: breakingbreadwithnatasha@gmail.com

Love always,

Natasha

Natasha’s Daily Scripture, Prayer, and Reflection for 7.24.17

July 24, 2017Natasha Leave a comment

Scripture

Matthew 26:52-54

Prayer

Please keep me focused and protected Father. Amen.

Reflection

We oftentimes lose focus, get easily distracted, which causes us to stumble and fall. To reach what God has in store for us we can’t risk taking our eyes and mind off of the big picture.

We must tell those around us to not sweat the small stuff, because God has bigger and better in store. We must learn to pick our battles because some small, insignificant wins may lead to the loss of the actual war. Don’t let others drag you into mess. Stay focused and stay prayed up.

Questions of the Day

1. What would you like to add to today’s prayer and/or reflection?

2. What are your thoughts about today’s message?

3. What issues are you fighting to protect from the enemy’s attack?

4. What cares, worries, and fears are you ready to turn over to God?

5. Who would you like to pray for today?

6. Do you have a testimony that you would like to share? Please do.

Feel free to share your answers, prayers, comments, and reflections in the comment section below.

You can also send me an email at: breakingbreadwithnatasha@gmail.com

Love always,

Natasha

Natasha’s Daily Scripture, Prayer, and Reflection for 7.21.17

July 21, 2017Natasha Leave a comment

Scripture

Matthew 26:39

Prayer

Father thank You for today. I pray to build the confidence to stay out of my way, to let go of the things I can’t control and the things that You keep reminding me are not for me. I pray that whatever is Your will I won’t interfere with and the things that I desire are provided by Your will and not my force or manipulation. I know that I can be hard headed Father. You know that it is my fear. Help me to fear less and trust You more. In Jesus’ name I pray to You. Amen.

Reflection

Jesus was ready to move on, cut His losses, but He prayed to God and declared that He would give up, walk away to never carry that burden again—but only if that’s what God wanted from Him. If however God wanted Him to continue as initially instructed, He would obey.

That is the epitome of love, commitment, obedience, faith and conviction. Doing something you really don’t want to do, that you’ve grown tired of doing, but pressing forward anyway if told to do so. That’s what we say we strive to be as Christians, as believers, as servants of God.

But how many of us bail when the going gets tough? How many of us sabotage things so it can quickly end? How many of us manipulate the circumstances in our favor? If you’re honest with yourself you’re nodding your head in agreement. I can admit that I’m guilty of all three scenarios I just presented. It’s tough to remain committed to the end especially if you can see that the end may be bitter. It’s easier to “jump ship” and say “maybe next time“.

There are some things that I’m currently facing that I know my options are limited to:

Follow through to the end and know that there’s victory, but the journey getting there won’t be easy—it may be downright grueling during certain stages, or I can
Bail at some point during the journey and always wonder

I’m praying for the courage to see things through, to not get fearful and run or quit, and not sabotage so I can convince myself (through lies) that it “wasn’t meant to be“. I don’t know about you but I don’t like the feeling of being a coward. You’re always left with this ill feeling that lingers and pesters you. I would rather try and have my eyes closed (like I do sometimes on roller coasters and in horror movies) than to keep experiencing this same merry-go-round ride that I’ve been on for many years.

We will know if it’s God’s will or our manipulation. God’s will comes without doubt, confusion, chaos, or drama. God’s will is straight to the point. Our manipulation looks like these phony reality tv shows, and the longer we engage in the foolishness the more dysfunctional it becomes.

Let’s breathe as we take this next step. Let’s be specific about what we ask God for, and let’s remember that “being more like Jesus” isn’t just a catch-phrase, it’s a way of life, our walk, our way, our experience. Let’s stop playing around with it like it’s a hashtag campaign.

Questions of the Day

1. What would you like to add to today’s prayer and/or reflection?

2. What are your thoughts about today’s message?

3. What issues are you fighting to protect from the enemy’s attack?

4. What cares, worries, and fears are you ready to turn over to God?

5. Who would you like to pray for today?

6. Do you have a testimony that you would like to share? Please do.

Feel free to share your answers, prayers, comments, and reflections in the comment section below.

You can also send me an email at: breakingbreadwithnatasha@gmail.com

Love always,

Natasha

Natasha’s Daily Scripture, Prayer, and Reflection for 7.20.17

July 20, 2017Natasha Leave a comment

Scripture

John 17:9

Prayer

Father thank You for another day. Thank You for protecting me, loving me, guiding me, motivating me, and empowering me. Thank You for Your Truth and Light. Thank You for forgiving me, blessing me with grace and mercy when I didn’t deserve it, and for giving me countless chances to do the work that You tasked me to do. I love You Father. I humbly pray to You, praising You, today and every day. Amen.

Reflection

This verse is an interesting one. Jesus proclaimed to God that He was only praying for those that God had given Him, not the world, just those who God had selected for Jesus to guide and save. There are many who do not believe. There are many who are not aligned. There are many who are not called to serve in any capacity. There are some who are self-appointed and God will always make examples of them. But if you look at the verse and those that follow, Jesus also never prayed against “the world”—He could have easily cursed the world and told God to send down a ball of fire to burn up everything and everyone that was not God’s. It was not His place. God determined and determines who belongs to Him, whom He will spare and whom He will save, and which individuals He will call on to do what and when.

There are lessons to be learned here. Our minds and the words we speak for and against ourselves and others is powerful.

Do not pray against those who you, in your limited mind and capability, determine to be unworthy. You should never pray against anyone no matter what their beliefs, thoughts, words, or actions. God handles all of His creations as He sees fit. It is not your place to question or judge what happens on this level of existence, or those walking in it. You have your assignment and you don’t know how long you will have to complete it. Be loving, kind, compassionate, honest, forgiving, understanding, inclusive, and faithful—to everyone, not just to those you deem deserving—or you may find out the hard way that you’re actually the undeserving one.

Questions of the Day

1. What would you like to add to today’s prayer and/or reflection?

2. What are your thoughts about today’s message?

3. What issues are you fighting to protect from the enemy’s attack?

4. What cares, worries, and fears are you ready to turn over to God?

5. Who would you like to pray for today?

6. Do you have a testimony that you would like to share? Please do.

Feel free to share your answers, prayers, comments, and reflections in the comment section below.

You can also send me an email at: breakingbreadwithnatasha@gmail.com

Love always,

Natasha

Natasha’s Daily Scripture, Prayer, and Reflection for 7.19.17

July 19, 2017Natasha 2 Comments

Scripture

John 17:4-5

Prayer

Father thank You for this day. I accept today’s assignment. I will do my best to do my best in honor of You. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Reflection

We glorify God not by what we say but by how we live our lives, and how we walk on the path that He set before us. God has given us assignments, missions, life projects to complete. We glorify Him through each completion. We glorify Him by walking the walk, not talking the talk. You can say whatever you want, sing whatever you want, scream and shout and fall out however you want—but all God truly cares about is whether or not you completed the work He told you to do.

Questions of the Day

1. What would you like to add to today’s prayer and/or reflection?

2. What are your thoughts about today’s message?

3. What issues are you fighting to protect from the enemy’s attack?

4. What cares, worries, and fears are you ready to turn over to God?

5. Who would you like to pray for today?

6. Do you have a testimony that you would like to share? Please do.

Feel free to share your answers, prayers, comments, and reflections in the comment section below.

You can also send me an email at: breakingbreadwithnatasha@gmail.com

Love always,

Natasha

Natasha’s Daily Scripture, Prayer, and Reflection for 7.18.17

July 18, 2017Natasha Leave a comment

Scripture

John 17:3

Prayer

Thank You Father for this day, another day, a fresh start. You know my prayers, dreams, and desires. You know how much I want to live the life that You have before me. I want to be a better person, a better me, a better reflection of Your goodness and greatness. Help me to think broadly before I speak. Help me to listen intently to what others say. Help me to feel deeper before I react. Help me to shine brighter as a testimony to Your blessings so that if by chance a non-believer sees me then he or she will feel Your Love and Light through me, and be comforted. Father I want to be a better person, a better Christian, to help build Your Kingdom. Let hope and love build what doubt and fear destroys. Amen.

Reflection

For Christians, Jesus is our Lord and Savior, sent here by God to save us from ourselves. The mind is powerful and easily manipulated if not protected.

The Bible encompasses many stories told and written by men about great men and women during a time when there was no social media, electronic technology, Internet, and the like. There were no airplanes, buses, trains, and fast automobiles. These stories and historical accounts have been translated, edited, and published in numerous languages and versions—but the spiritual context is the same, no matter your denomination or intellect.

When we read the Bible through a spiritual lens and not limit ourselves to the physical, we see and better understand the ways in which Jesus taught through parables and why so many during His time and even now struggle with the spiritual correlations He was making through physical examples. You stop focusing on the literal translation which is finite and you open yourself to the spiritual interpretation which is infinite. You remember the context in which Jesus spoke and remember to whom He directed many of His instructions and commands, His disciples, not the common man and woman. His chastisement was directed to the religious “leaders” who were supposed to know and act better, but chose to live by their own twisted standards and place themselves upon self-imposed pedestals rather than humble themselves as servants to the least of these.

The Bible has become a powerful tool for good and evil, to free and to enslave, to empower and to derail.

We’re supposed to take these words and ingest the spiritual inflections and messages to make them the essence of who we are and how we walk. We’re supposed to see the examples of leadership, love, sacrifice, humility and humbleness, and commit ourselves to doing better for self, family, and community in the name of God as followers of Christ. In our spiritual knowing, believing, and living we then see, feel, and live life eternally.

The Good Book as we call it is for us to dig deeper within ourselves, to be read and used to be better students and to grow closer to God as His servants. It is not to be used against others. It is not to be used to separate. Jesus spoke of inclusivity, acceptance, building bridges not walls, forgiveness, love, and healing. As Christians, if we aren’t doing the same then how can we honestly call ourselves Christians, believers and followers of Christ, and servants of the Lord?

Questions of the Day

1. What would you like to add to today’s prayer and/or reflection?

2. What are your thoughts about today’s message?

3. What issues are you fighting to protect from the enemy’s attack?

4. What cares, worries, and fears are you ready to turn over to God?

5. Who would you like to pray for today?

6. Do you have a testimony that you would like to share? Please do.

Feel free to share your answers, prayers, comments, and reflections in the comment section below.

You can also send me an email at: breakingbreadwithnatasha@gmail.com

Love always,

Natasha

Natasha’s Daily Scripture, Prayer, and Reflection for 7.17.17

July 17, 2017Natasha Leave a comment

Scripture

John 17: 1-12

Prayer

Father I know that You answer my prayers as specifically as I say them. I thank You. Today I give thanks and pray that You would touch my heart to be loving and respectful even to those whose hearts are hardening or hardened. Help me to walk even when I feel weak, hear through the chaos, see through the darkness, and speak even when I’m afraid. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Reflection

Jesus was sent here to do a job, to provide the Way, the Light, and the Truth for those who were walking aimlessly. He educated and empowered His disciples to spread the gospel as He shared it, and once His time here was running short, He told God that He was ready for what was next in the plans. The vast majority of us are not prepared and mature enough to say “next” to God, because we’re too busy trying to say “I still need more time” or we’re paralyzed by fear, with no forward progression whatsoever.

I will admit that there are plenty of things that I have not accomplished, ideas, things and projects that I started yet never finished—because I got in the way—I allowed fear and doubt to creep in and grind me to a halt. The most successful people are the ones who continue to press forward despite the pain, the loss, the humiliation, and the fear. They persevere anyway. The transition from okay to good to great to excellent is all determined by the amount of time, effort, and force that we invest in pressing forward despite the odds that are seemingly stacked against us.

Imagine the “mountain” that Jesus faced, yet he still pressed forward. You can do it. I can do it. We can do it. Let’s keep walking, keep climbing, keep getting up. God is waiting!

Questions of the Day

1. What would you like to add to today’s prayer and/or reflection?

2. What are your thoughts about today’s message?

3. What issues are you fighting to protect from the enemy’s attack?

4. What cares, worries, and fears are you ready to turn over to God?

5. Who would you like to pray for today?

6. Do you have a testimony that you would like to share? Please do.

Feel free to share your answers, prayers, comments, and reflections in the comment section below.

You can also send me an email at: breakingbreadwithnatasha@gmail.com

Love always,

Natasha

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Month: July 2017

Natasha’s Daily Scripture, Prayer, and Reflection for 7.31.17

Natasha’s Daily Scripture, Prayer, and Reflection for 7.25.17

Natasha’s Daily Scripture, Prayer, and Reflection for 7.24.17

Natasha’s Daily Scripture, Prayer, and Reflection for 7.21.17

Natasha’s Daily Scripture, Prayer, and Reflection for 7.20.17

Natasha’s Daily Scripture, Prayer, and Reflection for 7.19.17

Natasha’s Daily Scripture, Prayer, and Reflection for 7.18.17

Natasha’s Daily Scripture, Prayer, and Reflection for 7.17.17

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