Tag: prayer

What Are The Three Things You Can Do While Waiting?

I think this matter could have many different answers depending on what you’re waiting for. Are you patient or impatient? What is the benefit of waiting? When I think about waiting on something or someone it stirs in me thoughts of ‘what do I do while I wait.’ These are questions we will answer.

So, let’s see the word wait, it means “stay where one is or delay action until a particular time or until something else happens,” That is kind of a general definition. Depends on what you are waiting for such as finishing a task or degree, buying a house, etc. These are events that have a time schedule but what if you’re waiting on something you don’t know when it will happen such as a major change in life or a healing. How then do you wait without giving up hope?

The first thing to do while you wait is Pray. Prayer is communication with God. There are times of prayer that we ask, seek, and knock and other times we sit still and listen. I choose to give God every situation because He knows all aspects of my situations and I do not. Prayer is petitions, intercessions and worship, believing God hears and answers our requests. I heard Joyce Meyer say these words, “Simple believing faith.” I liked that explanation because it made it practical for me. Instead of long oratorical prayers try simple believing prayers that are direct to the point. God already knows what we are thinking, and He is not judging how elegant our prayers are He’s looking on the faith connection in prayers.

The second thing to do while waiting is put your Trust in God. If you prayed about it know God heard, you. When you are a child of God, He hears your prayers. Answers do not always come instantly but God does not forget like humans do. He is completely trustworthy because God cannot lie. I choose to speak the word of God to my situations it builds my faith. Reading the Word of God daily builds our faith. As your trusting God you may get tempted to be frustrated or anxious in your wait. But choose instead to be thinking on things that are good, lovely and a good report Philippians 4:6-7 is a reassuring scripture of what we are to do. Verse 6) “Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be made know to God; 7) and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

 The third thing to do while you are waiting is Praise. You can praise God any time of the day. Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, Rejoice!” Rejoice does not mean ‘thank him for the problem’ but thank him in the waiting by rejoicing in His goodness, sing unto the Lord a new song. Make melody in heart towards the Lord. The more you praise the lighter you will feel. I choose to cast my care unto God and remind myself He loves me and is taking care of me.

Everyone’s wait will be different but we all could wait with His grace. His grace is sufficient for each one of us. The advantage in waiting is learning to lean on Him for his strength & grace. If you fight impatience, then repent and ask for the grace to wait. Waiting is a time of growth. Enjoy your wait through prayer, trust and praise.

Blessings,

Dr. Annette

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“How To Avoid Being Weary” The Waiting Game…

What Are Three Things Prayer Provides?

How important is prayer to you? What types of prayers do you pray? Why does God want us to pray? These are a few questions we will look at. What are three things that prayer provides us with?

To me prayer is important because it is time spent with God. It is a time to ask and listen. So often we can pray and then walk away as if God doesn’t speak but He does. He wants to be heard just like we want to be heard. To me prayer is more than petitions and requests it is a time of fellowship with praise and thanksgiving, a time to meditate and listen, and petition and intercede for others and ourselves.

I know that we can sometimes make our prayer time a ritual, but it doesn’t have to be. Having communication and communion with God through fellowship and reading His Word is also about our prayer life. God’s Word is alive and active. It penetrates to the dividing of our soul and spirit. When we read His Word with a hungry heart for our own lives it is an exchange of His Word for our weaknesses. I like to ask the Holy Spirit to quicken His Word to me. We all need a fresh Word from the Lord. Even if it’s a correction it still produces life.

First, prayer provides us with answers and help from Almighty God through what Christ Jesus did for us in crucifixion, death and resurrection. The shed blood of Christ enables us to go before the throne of God with our requests and receive mercy and grace in our times of need.

Second, prayer provides connection with God in understanding His ways according to His Word. His ways are greater than our ways. Through prayer and reading the Word of God we discover what we really think and believe. The Word of God prayerfully read will uncover right where the heart of the matter lays.

Three prayer provides us with His fellowship. God created mankind to have a relationship with Him. He wants that relationship, and He supplied the way for that relationship. God longs to spend time with you. When you surrender your life to Jesus and receive forgiveness for your sins you become a child of God. He is our Heavenly Father, and He wants to hear from you.

There are many benefits to prayer these are just three things prayer provides. Be encouraged today to seek God in prayer.

Are You Stressed Out?

What does it mean to be stressed? How do you deal with stress? In my blog post How To Handle Stress And Anxiety I discussed the meaning of stress and anxiety in a practical way.  But are you feeling stressed out? These are some of the questions I have been pondering for days. I’m normally not stressed out but if you add enough stress to anyone you can become stressed out. It’s how we deal with stress and what we do to prevent it from consuming us is exactly what we will be discussing.

I have like everybody else been affected one way or another by Covid19. It has changed our routine, caused hesitation and at times isolation. Any one of these three items can cause a person to feel stress but adding all three can cause high anxiety, fear and feelings of overwhelming uncertainty.

As I write this, we had a high stressed week of dealing with a medical provider who no longer accepts our insurance. This caused us a lot of stress. Since my husband just had open-heart surgery and six days later a pacemaker put in it is not the time to change medical insurance. I have told you this so that when you are reading this you will understand I am speaking from my experiences too.

Let us only add to this week’s stress Saturday evening at nine pm we discovered our furnace was not working. And the company we usually call was not answering but in their defense I did not have their emergency number. Thankfully my daughter knew of Petit Home Services which came out to work on our furnace.

Life is funny no matter how you look at it, life throws curve balls, such as the insurance, furnace etc. Stress isn’t always a bad thing it can motivate us to get things done. How you look, think or feel about your situations can increase or decrease your stress levels.

We can help ourselves when situations are stressful by practicing breathing techniques such as breathe in deeply and slowly releasing the air through your mouth. This gives your brain, body and emotions time to calm when you are feeling overwhelmed.

I wrote in the article ‘How to handle stress and anxiety’ about knowing your anxiety and stress symptoms. If your heart is racing calming yourself through breathing and helpful self-talk will decrease your symptoms in a stressful situation.

I hope by using our weeks stresses it will be beneficial to you. In the first place just getting a major operation is one of life’s biggest stressors. So being in stress now and getting the news about the provider no longer accepts our insurance proved to be a major stressor for us. Our first reply was shock and anger that the heart doctor’s office (owned by a corporation network) is now refusing our insurance.

But then I decided to stop and think ok who should I talk to? I called and asked questions. Note: Stopping to think through options of who, what and where helps to collect your thoughts. I believe I did take a few deep breaths. Because there was conflicting information coming from the Dr. office and the physicians billing department. I did back and forth calling for three days to get correct information.

Plus, I called our insurance company. Then I called Northwestern Memorial and we switched my husband’s care back with them until we can find a new cardiologist in our area. This is just a brief example of how I dealt with a stressful situation this week.

For some people that would not be stressful for us it was since my husband is still on restrictions from surgery. Why am I telling the world our situation because I know that how I have learned to handle and go through stressful situations can help someone else.

I started this article with are you stressed out. This is an important question. Our bodies system has been designed to cope with stress if stress is not managed our physical body goes into overload and eventually other health symptoms will occur. Dealing with stress means you actively recognize your stress symptoms and are coping with your stress in healthy ways i.e., prayer, journaling, releasing emotions, breathing techniques, mediation, humor, exercise etc.

Repressing stress is not dealing with it and that causes more stress. So, if you’re under a lot of stress and we all are with covid19 restrictions do yourself a favor and find healthy ways to release your stress. Peace in the storm…

What Is A Prayer request?

Prayer requests constitute the petitions to God. The bible tells us to ask God and to be thankful. Philippians 4:6 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God…” It is telling us to be anxious for nothing and present your request unto God with thankfulness. I do not think it means be thankful for the issue but be thankful along with the issue because God is with us and has been working on our behalf and everyone else.

My husband’s open-heart surgery is tomorrow, and we are grateful he can have his heart repaired and that he does have God going into the operating room with him.

I am requesting a prayer for him that the surgeon has wisdom and that all areas of need are met with favor. I believe it honors God to ask for prayer and it shows our faith in him.

I appreciate your prayers for Roger, and I. Thank you,

Dr. Annette

How To Handle Stress And Anxiety

What is stress and anxiety? Is there any difference between stress and anxiety? What are the symptoms of both, and can you identify as your starting to experience the symptoms? Why are these questions important to know?

My interpretation of stress is the physical and emotional reaction to an event in life that produces a fight or flight response. Also, any event which causes you to feel frustration, anger nervousness. Gary R. Collins Ph.D. wrote in his book ‘Christian Counseling.’ “Anxiety is an inner feeling of apprehensions, uneasiness, concern, worry, and/or dread that is accompanied by heightened physical arousal.” Anxiety also triggers a fight or flight response. There is a normal quantity of stress or anxiety that has the potential to motivate one to carry out tasks or avoid dangerous situations. This kind of stress is useful to understand and allow it to motivate you.

Learning how to manage stress and anxiety by recognizing the signs and symptoms helps one to decrease the symptoms from progressing. This helps to calm ones physical and emotional responses.

Both stress and anxiety have similar symptoms and have been used interchangeable. Therefore, I will give a brief list of symptoms on stress which can be used interchangeably with anxiety. You can find many good articles on both symptoms and definitions.  Physical Symptoms of stress can be but not limited to increased heart rate, sweaty palms, frequent urination, digestive issues, jaw tightness, headaches, sleeplessness, fatigue. Emotional symptoms can be but not limited to anger, sleeplessness, irritability, racing thoughts, memory problems or depression.

Knowing your stress and/or anxiety symptoms will help to decrease the progression of symptoms and help you to diffuse the fight or flight reactions.

I too am experiencing stress and anxiety we are facing my husband having heart surgery for the second time. We have been in a holding pattern for months waiting on tests and results, with medical appointments as well as Covid19 restrictions at hospitals etc… I can safely say the whole world has been in a stressful experience for many months effecting all our lives.

Dr. Collins states, “Anxiety arises from threat, conflict, fear, unmet needs, physiology, and individual differences.” This article is to provide us with a brief and practical applications to help cope with stress and moderate anxiety. If you are experiencing long term anxiety, I recommend you try to find medical and therapeutic help. Mental health is extremely important and the stigma of looking for help should no longer keep anyone away from seeking help. God gives wisdom to doctors, psychiatrists, therapists, and counselors to help individuals get the help they need.   

How do you handle stress and anxiety? I choose to self-talk with positive statements of scripture, I also pray and depend on Gods character to care for me. I use breathing techniques, mediating on the goodness of Jesus and journaling. I have been taught through the years when you understand your symptoms you can begin to apply these useful tools to reduce your stress or anxiety symptoms.

Here are a few helpful suggestions in dealing with stress. Exercise, breath in deeply though your nose and slowing expel the air out your mouth, meditate, meditation is biblical if you are unaware how to meditate it is simple. To mediate simply sit quietly think on a positive thought or scripture and repeat it 3-4xs. I speak slowly and say Jesus is light, Jesus is Truth, Jesus is Peace 3-4xs, speak positive self-talk, prayer is beneficial in all situations, speaking scripture out loud, and journaling is just some helpful suggestions.

Another wonderful technique is to ask yourself questions about the thoughts you are thinking. Dr. Daniel Amen founder of Amen Clinics has an excellent tool called “Learn to kill the ANTS” ‘Automatic Negative Thinking’ questions “1) Ask yourself is it true? 2)Is it absolutely true with 100% certainty? 3) How do I feel when I believe this thought? 4)How would I feel if I couldn’t have the thought? 5)Turn the thought around to its exact opposite.” I saw him on a PBS fundraiser many years ago and wrote down notes on this technique applied it to my life and it truly made a difference in stressful situations. After asking yourself these questions you will begin to defuse the automatic negative thoughts that stir up anxiety.

I pray that this article provides you some practical applications to assist in dealing with stress and anxiety.