Good evening, Family!👩🍳
This week, we praise God for:🥳
• The Suri Family and their good news! Baby Boy Suri is growing healthy and his parents are about to close on his first home! May God keep working in their lives! 🏡
• Armando's miraculous healing and for every day he is well and not in the hospital. Keep praying for a complete healing from his cancer. 🔬
• The many ways God has taken care of the Vega Family! John and Pat are so thankful for their daughter, Angelica, and how she is taking care of her parents during this difficult time. 💝
• Both Gladys and Darlene, for whom Vasthi had requested prayer, and are doing much better! ☝🏽
• The Romano Family's care. The grandma is very weak and recovering slowly, but praise God, everyone is negative! Also, maternal grandma, Robin, has seen a steady improvement in her platelet numbers! 🩸
• For the positive changes happening in Skylar. 🥰 There is still a need for prayer, but we acknowledge God for His goodness! ✝️
This week, we are praying for:🙏🏽
• Our brother, Vishal, as he is about to make some work decisions, and he is seeking God's guidance and direction throughout the process.☝🏽Let's keep Vishal and this process in prayer!
• Our Beloved Guzman Family, as they walk through the grieving process. May each of them see, hear, smell, feel and taste the presence of the Lord as He walks with them every minute, because we know He is close to the brokenhearted, and saves those whose Spirit is crushed.💔 Let's claim that promise on their behalf!
• Our little brother, Alex. May the Lord assign him a heavenly security detail on the road. 🚙 May He also help Alex to surrender every worry and anxiety to Him. 🧎🏽
• Charen's cousin, Elkie, who is battling cancer. May God infuse her body with His healing and surround her with His presence! 🕊
• Traveling mercies for our sister, Maria, while in Aruba and as she travels back. ✈️
• Virginia and Erick, their marriage, and their children. May the Lord help them to draw closer to Him and each other, and may they see real change in their family. 🏠
• Awilda, Peter's mom, throughout her recovery. Please keep her in prayer. 💗
• Our beloved SETH, that God would continue to shield and protect him while at school. Keep praying for his legs and for the braces he needs to wear; may the Lord work out this issue for him. 🦵
• Jordan Gonzalez while he's away from home pursuing his ⚾️ career.
• Michael, Angelica's boyfriend, that the Lord will help him to find a job.
• Connor's grandmother, who fell in her yard and is in the hospital. May everything continue to go well as far as her tests and may she fully recover from her injury. 🏥
• All of the families who are grieving, including: Wanda's family, Mr. Bouchard and his family, Timmy's family, John's family.😢
• Lynn, as she bravely battles stage 4 cancer. Cancer treatment #44 is underway! 🥺
• Antoinette, also diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. May the Lord intervene on her behalf and extend a miracle, if it is His will. 🧎🏻♀️
• Skylar. We continue to ask the Lord for a healing of heart and mind, that she may come to accept and believe in the love God has for her and offers her through family. In that vein, keep her family in your prayers: Doris, Jackie, Heaven Lee, Amanda, Dorian, Zaire and Amir.🧎🏻♀️
• Nelson's son, Santi, and his family as he seeks the Lord and His influence in their lives. 👨👩👦
• Carole. She's been fighting this custody battle the only way she can: on her knees. May God strengthen her as she continues to lead her family in prayer for her grandson, Elijah, and his custody battle. May He also bless Baby Brianna! 🎀
Today's delectable Devotional, submitted by Vanessa Guerrero, will be quite the treat for your spiritual senses!🥰 You’re going to want to pull up a seat to the table for this! 🍽 Thank you, Nessa, for such a robust and hearty lesson! 🥘
Isn’t it strange to realize that we will be entering November in just 9 days? I know many of you are feeling like March never ended and I’m definitely with you! One thing I’ve noticed is that these past few months have been filled with test after test after test. Yes, I am a college student who takes a lot of tests and quizzes throughout the week, but those aren’t the kind of tests to which I'm referring.
I feel as though God has been testing me a lot lately. Anytime I feel impatient or anxious about why things aren’t working out as fast or as smoothly as I’d like them to, I remind myself that God sometimes puts us through testing periods while seemingly being quiet. You’ve heard that saying, “The teacher is always silent during the test”. But it’s really hard to apply that truth in the midst of those tests in our everyday lives. We have goals and we have expectations, so when they are not met, we get impatient! We are, by nature, impatient beings. Especially living in this world of greed and ambition, we are programmed to always want the next best thing and we want it as soon as possible.
But I want you to pause for a moment and think about how God wants to change you from the inside out. He may place us in seasons of waiting. He may be testing and molding our characters so that He can transform us into who he wants us to be. So today, I want to assure you that if you are being tested, THIS IS A TEST OF YOUR SPIRITUAL PREPAREDNESS.
I’ll be completely honest with you, I have no idea what you’re going through right now and I may never know. I don’t know who said something to hurt you today. I don’t know what discouraged you at work today. I don’t know what financial, health, family, or other interpersonal struggles, you’re dealing with at this moment. But I know one thing to be true, no matter the situation or trial: In times of testing, we are being prepared for greater things that are yet to come! If you don’t believe me, just look at some of the many examples God gives us in His word. Noah waited 120 years before the predicted rain. Abraham waited 25 years for a promised son! Joseph waited 14 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Job waited perhaps a lifetime for God to bless and to double His favor over his life! 🙇🏻♂️
My family and I recently implemented "Slow Cooker Sundays", where each of us take a turn being responsible for cooking a new recipe for Sunday dinner in the slow cooker. From my first experience with a Crock-pot last week, I learned that great things take extra time. And maybe, just maybe, God uses the same principle of a slow-cooker.
He prepares us with all the right ingredients. He controls the protective environment we are in. He makes sure the heat is ALWAYS just right...so that we are never overcome by the heat or burned. He tests and tastes and adjusts as needed. He gives us EVERYTHING we need to become the BEST VERSIONS of ourselves, but the most important thing He gives us is TIME. He takes his time...and sometimes that means we have to wait, but it is only because He wants us to become His MASTERPIECE! He knows that what He sees in us, what He knows we can become could never be achieved with the FAST and QUICK results that we so desperately desire!⏲
Maybe God wants to show us that He is in control and that His timeframe is perfect! So the next time you feel frustrated and impatient when you enter a SEASON OF WAITING OR TESTING IN THE FIRE, please remember that God's recipe for you is PERFECT! From the ingredients He adds, to the time you need in the situation, to how hot it gets...GREAT THINGS TAKE TIME! Trust Him!☝🏽
As he promises in Isaiah 43:2: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”🔥
May God grant you each an extra pinch of faith, and an extra dash of peace as he stirs, adjusts and times your situation to PERFECTION! 👌🏽👨🍳
Beautiful ❤️❤️❤️