Easter Prayer

Gracious God, Christ is the Lord of life raised up on this blessed morn. Alleluia!  Jesus, the light of the world shines in the darkness leading men, women and children into the life that knows no end. Blessed be the name of the Lord!!  This is Your day to tell the world that Christ alone conquers death.  Christ alone is eternal.  Christ alone reigns forever and ever.  Christ alone is worthy of all glory, honor and praise. For You, Jesus, having walked the way of suffering and crucifixion,  call us to suffer and  die to self. Almighty God, because of The Cross and Your ultimate sacrifice for us, we may rise again to new life.  Through Jesus, our Master, Good shepherd & our Brother, we are a kingdom of priests offering our unending praise to the King of Glory, the one true, Living God! We call upon the amazing  Resurrection power that dwells in those who claim You as Lord and Savior to grant us the ability to love deeply, live richly and share the Good News of our Risen Savior.  Heal our land! Heal our world! Bless You, Praise You. Thank You, Living Redeemer, Deliverer, Forever Friend.   In  Jesus' incomparable name we pray, Amen. 

Maundy Thursday Meditation

Heavenly Father,  Lord of All,  We worship in response to your holiness.  Thank you that prayer and praise are vehicles to express our love and adoration for The Great I AM -  the One, True, Living God.  Sweet Savior, we confess that we often fail to practice genuine love for others, especially in sharing personal warmth and in meeting needs.  Many of us admit to having a very low mercy factor. Help us to  remember that Jesus’ plans changed constantly to accommodate someone else. He taught us humility and the ministry of interruption.  Forgive us when we attempt to justify ourselves to You and others for falling short in Christian character. 

You ask us to love You with everything we have - heart, mind, soul, strength -  and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. You know that the moment we start stapling exceptions to Your second great commandment,  we are not committed to obeying it. Thus, we quench the Holy Spirit. Forgive us, Mighty God, for diminishing the power Your Spirit gives to any and all who claim You as Lord and Savior. Teach us to love as You love.   Your love is the spontaneous overflow of a heart that forgets itself in the face of human need. Your love stirs us up to respond with grace for we have experienced the forgiveness and  compassion of God through the Cross of Jesus Christ. How blessed we are to gaze now upon Your beautiful cross, the symbol of our hope & salvation.  

When I survey the wondrous Cross
On which the Prince of Glory died
My richest gain, I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride

See from His head, His hands, His feet
Sorrow and love flow mingled down
Did ever such love and sorrow meet?
Or thorns compose, so rich a crown

Oh the wonderful Cross, oh the wonderful Cross
Bids me come and die and find that I may truly live
Oh the wonderful Cross, oh the wonderful Cross
All who gather here by grace, draw near and bless Your name

Were the whole realm of nature mine
That were an offering far too small
Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all

Oh the wonderful Cross, oh the wonderful Cross
Bids me come and die and find that I may truly live
Oh the wonderful Cross, oh the wonderful Cross
All who gather here by grace, draw near and bless Your name. 

(Chris Tomlin) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylihJUH0gP4

Heal this land, O Mighty God. Heal our world. 

In Jesus' name, Amen

Signs of Suffering

Today I am totally distracted by tragic news regarding a dear, longtime friend. As I think of my loved one hanging by a thread to this earthly life after a massive stroke and brain bleed,  my thoughts turn to the multitudes of loved ones around the world struggling to survive and overcome the brutal CoronaVirus along with a myriad of health complications.  I think of the separation from loved ones and sufferings of both. We know suffering has countless aspects. This is Holy Week and believers in Jesus Christ are mindful of His sufferings - inevitable persecution, pain, trauma and death by crucifixion. Jesus knew His mission was to redeem the world.  Jesus was committed to carrying out the plan of salvation that was formed before the foundations of the earth. He knew He would suffer for The Plan. 

In  The Radical Cross , A. W. Tozer  writes, "God will cover the eyes of all Christians when the time comes – they will never see death. The Christian stops breathing and there is a burial, but he does not see death for he already died in Christ when Christ died and he arose with Christ when Christ arose!"

What deep comfort it is to think of Tozer's words in that God will cover one's eyes when death of the earthly body approaches. There is further comfort to think that after we draw our last breath, He will uncover our eyes and we will see Him,  face-to-face. As far as I can find,  there is no scriptural basis for Tozer's words and it is  not a peek-a-boo with God kinda thing either.  It's a beautiful thought, isn't it?  Because of what Jesus Christ did for the world two thousand years ago,  we know death is swallowed up in victory - then, now and always. 

Thus, we know what is scripturally sound truth is Christ's blessed assurance of Eternity.  There are many passages of God's  promises about our sureness to not experience death when we are in Him. The Apostle John wrote of Jesus' promises repeatedly. 

John 10:28-29   ...and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

1 John 5:13.   These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

John 3:16.    For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
John 10:28     ...and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.

John 10:29.   My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

John 6:39

              This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.

Those are just John's writings. There are many more scriptures of the same security written by David, Paul, Peter and the unknown author of Hebrews. 

My friend is a cradle-Christian having believed in Jesus from early childhood and raised by loving parents in a Christian home.  She is very sure of her eternal security, even in her present state. I am sure of it, too. I am praying for a miracle from God in her recovery for I'd love to see her alive and well with us for many more years.  I also know if God chooses to take her home, I trust Him for the ultimate healing and perfect peace that is in Christ alone. 

Let us stand on the promises of  Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 5:8   We are confident, yes, well-pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.  

What more could I want for her?! What more could we want for someone we love or  for others suffering - for whatever reason - in this sick and broken world?! 

    Lord, Uncover Donna's eyes.  

  You have much more in store 

  for her, be it with us or with You. 

  We trust that either way, it is good! 

In Jesus' Name, Amen.   

Tending the Garden of My Heart

A few years ago, it was an honor to host Christian author Paula Reinhart as keynote speaker at an annual women's event.  Paula is a seasoned writer, speaker, and counselor who focuses on helping women live fully in all God has for them.  I love her book, Strong-Women-Soft-Hearts and have shared it with many study groups and book clubs. In the book, Paula describes the heart as a garden: "The heart is something of a garden that requires tending. Many things might have occasion to grow there. A root of bitterness is so potent it will invade other people’s gardens and worst of all, it will choke the grace of God in my life. I will miss what I want most."

I don't have a green thumb, brown thumb nor the gift of gardening. For years, I have repeatedly planted,  watered and fertilized in attempts to grow plants, vegetables, shrubs, seedlings and trees with little success.  My sweet hubby has labored and salvaged my half-done gardening efforts for years. He is good with dirt!  I can report one rare and winning horticultural attempt in Kentucky with mint. Shortly after being planted, mint will flourish and propagate. It seems to thrive in any type of soil. In fact, our mint patch was so successful, Bob and I invited neighbors to cut as much as they wanted. There was plenty to share and the word spread quickly that the Battoe mint patch was open to the public.  In our native Kentucky, early May is the wonderful Derby season and that's when mint is a precious commodity! Southerners enjoy any number of mint garnished beverages, hot or cold. In fact, Kentucky is well-known worldwide for one particular mint drink!

Through experience, I learned that a fruitful, yielding mint garden can quickly evolve into an unruly, leggy, unsightly, invasive plot when left unattended.  Mint quickly spreads and can choke out and interfere with the growth and development of nearby healthy plants.  As with many plants, without pruning and attention,  mint often goes from lovely, enjoyable and useful to ugly, disruptive and undesirable.At the point of becoming a nuisance, one knows when it is clearly time to pull up the mint plant, roots and all. What is so amazing is that when a mint bed looks to be totally cleared, the aromatic, green sprouts will magically reappear the next spring!  It seems it is never totally eradicated. Thus, the whole mint life cycle begins again: sprouts-to-good-to-great-to excessive-to disgusting-to-rooted out. Mint needs ongoing attention to flourish as it begins as a blessing to enjoy and share then, left to its own means, evolves to a cursed, overbearing presence in the garden.  

My 💗 heart issues are much the same as mint in my garden. Seedling thoughts and motives that appear to be harmless -  even healthy  - sprout in my 💗 heart and quickly begin to grow. Desirable, benign traits can readily evolve into more serious, unacceptable behaviors that take root and spread. I know when it is time to weed my  💗 heart bed and  tend to unacceptable growth before such tendencies take over and choke out the goodness and grace of God.  I must be diligent, too, and regularly cut back, weed and uproot whatever tendency may separate me from Christ. Otherwise, the same issues sprout up again and again! 

For me, effective, productive  💗 heart gardening practices include worship, prayer and meditation, Bible study,  journaling (which includes blogging),  engaging in Christian community, fellowship and service Maybe I don't implement all these practices at the same time, albeit that would be wonderful. In truth, there are seasons when I focus on one or two habits more than others. I may pray more for a few weeks or journal daily for a time then lean into deep Bible study.  Time devoted to serving others may take precedence over study for a while. This regenerated blog is a perfect example of my waxing and waning spiritual disciplines. Oh, to balance an array of spiritual disciplines simultaneously. That would be holy all over, but I fear that is  a goal that may not be achieved until Glory Days!! So, I continue to do my best, give my best and all the while,  'tend' my  💗 heart garden.

I thank God for Bob who not only salvages and saves my feeble efforts of working with dirt, he also enhances my prayer life /our prayer life by our commitment to pray together everyday.   Early on in our marriage, we began a daily prayer time and I cherish the time spent in uniting our  💕💗💕 hearts in thought, word and need to the Lord.  This one consistent practice is now cherished, set apart, shared communion with each other and the central presence of God.  Praying together softens, refreshes and renews perspectives while sustaining our oneness with each other and oneness in Christ. Praying together permits us to taste the salt of one another's tears. Maybe we need to discuss how we will maintain a shared prayer time when Jesus takes one of us home to live with Him?! 
Ah, we need to pray about that!

John 15:2 says, "Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. " (ESV)  

Heavenly Father, There is none like You! You are the God who works miraculously & makes known Your strength among the peoples. Your power redeems us.  Praise You, Sovereign Lord.  In view of what you have done through Jesus Christ for us, we respond with attitudes & behaviors that say we belong to You. Your undeserved favor deems us the objects of an incomprehensible love that leaves us forever changed.  In the midst of this quiet, stay in place time, it is perfect timing to yield to Your pruning. Master Gardener, tend the gardens of our  💗💗💗 hearts and minds so that we are fruitful,  beautiful and useful in Your world. We are a  marked people with a remarkable God whose supernatural, all-powerful Spirit is poured over us & into us to create fruitful agents to make us one in the bond of Your love and grace.  Thank you for oneness in You and oneness with one another. Lord God, heal our land and heal our world. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.  

March 30 2020 

HAVE I FORGOTTEN THIS IS THE LENTEN SEASON OF 2020?  

I am sad that my preoccupation with Coronavirus and a seriously modified lifestyle is edging out the Lenten season of 2020. What's really interesting is that Lent asks us to slow down and so does prevention of CoVid-19! In fact, to prevent the spread of CoVid-19 we are advised to not just slow down, but to halt! Right now, there is a global plea to stay at home, practice social-distancing, to do one's part to flatten the curve, to lockdown or to quarantine. Whatever term you choose to use, most of us are halting routine schedules and behaviors. Ironically, now is an ideal time to observe Lent and assess one's personal walk with Jesus Christ. 

In her book, Following at a Distance, Kimberly Dunnam Reisman writes, "Each year, Lent is an opportunity to choose, again and again, how we will follow Christ – whether it will be in the shadows or in the light, at a distance or by Jesus’ side. …Jesus invites us to follow with abandon to selfish ambition."  
  
Do I have the guts to admit what am I doing well and where I fall short in following Christ?! Do I have the grit to make permanent changes that allow me to live in truth and transparency for Christ and others? A beloved friend says she's using this self-isolation time as a hard-reset for her life and the lives of her family.  A hard reset or hardware reset is a computer term applied to a system as a hardware operation that re-initializes the core hardware components, thus ending all current software operations in the system. A hard reset for me means a fresh start - old stuff gone and a clean hard drive awaiting new input and information. It means eliminating the insignificant junk and clutter while saving the good stuff and making room for new action and input. 

For years it has been easy for me to use the scriptural words, "Walk in the light" to any number of circumstances. I confess that  "Walk in the Light"  rolls off my tongue in judgment, in back-handed criticism or in feeble, sanctimonious attempts to get a laugh.  Friends have heard me use the words time and again!  In my heart, I know there is a presence of God in those who walk in the light even if the 'light walkers' aren’t always aware of the light. Christ followers  strive to be like Jesus so that like Him,  God's light is evident in how we speak, act, and think about life, work, loved ones, ministry and faith. The light that is within all believers exposes and drives out the darkness as we are living reflections of Christ. 


“For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life” (Psalm 56:13).

“Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, Lord” (Psalm 89:15).

“Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord” (Isaiah 2:5)

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned” (Isaiah 9:2)

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12)

“You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light” (John 12:35-36)

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7)

God's first act in creation was to define light.  Genesis 1:1-4 says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.

Of course Light is a big deal to God! Light is Jesus Christ!! Yep, I am hard resetting to be a Light Walker!  Mark Atteberry gives all of us wanna-be Light Walkers further perspective in his book, Walking with God on the Road You Never Wanted to Travel:

"There are lots of transparent people who seem oblivious to the Light. 

There are countless translucent people who make the Light very confusing. 

There are even more opaque people who are dead set against the Light. 

But Praise God, there are a few mirror-like people who reflect the Light." 

Lord God, Help us to be Light Walkers and reflections of the Christ that lives in each of us. Shine Your light on every crack and crevice of our lives. Expose any dark places that are not pleasing and acceptable in Your sight.  Holy Light, flood our hearts, minds and lives with Your grace, mercy and love til it spills over on the prevailing darkness of this sick and broken world.  Heal our land, Lord. Heal our world. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen 

March 26 2020

SHE HAS ARRIVED!!                                                                        

Miss Maisel Vera Battoe ("Maisy") made her grand debut into God's world on Monday, March 23  2020.  God knows we needed her and in His always perfect timing, she brings light and life to this family in the Lion-and-Lamb month of March.  As Maisy launches into life, I am re-launching this blog which our son, Chip, began some time ago. For several years, our children were living far away and I began emailing them my thoughts and prayers.  In a surprise to me, our older son, Chip, created a blog to share "Mom's Prayers."  He, along with my husband, Bob, and younger son, Marc, have bugged me for months to blog again.  Since retiring in November 2017, they all regularly plead with me to share my prayers, thoughts and journalings. So, "For such a time as this" I dedicate this humble blog to our sweet baby girl, Maisy.  Baby Maisy has no clue how much she is already loved.  In the present state of our country battling the invisible enemy, Coronavirus, we don't know when we will be together to meet her, face-to-face. Until then, we thank God for technology that keeps us connected and able to share the details of life with loved ones.  Maisy has already inspired me to step out in faith in this Reflections with Robbie informal narrative.

Bob and I married on March 31, 1973.  Seems silly now that we wanted to wake up together on the day after our wedding and shout, "April Fool!" Our love and laughter have prevailed all these years. We both know that we have stayed together because of our faithful Lord and our mutual love and devotion to Jesus Christ. That love in this three-stranded cord,  has grown and matured over the years.  Jesus' life-giving, powerful spirit has sustained us, individually and together, through an array of triumphs and storms.   For several years, our wedding anniversary celebration paled in the deaths of both my precious parents in March. Dad passed in 1974 and Mom ("Tucky") in 2005. On March 31, 2013, our 40th wedding anniversary and Easter Sunday, Chip (Maisy's Daddy) was leaving church in downtown Chicago when the motor scooter he was driving was struck by an oncoming van carrying a family also traveling to Easter worship service. Chip sustained a devastating spinal cord injury which left him paralyzed from the waist down. So, yes indeed, Miss Maisel,  God brought you into our lives in His perfect timing and specifically in the month of March. We celebrate you, Maisy Girl for your arrival is full of promises and potential,  just as Ecclesiastes 3:11 promises, "He hath made everything beautiful in His time."  

I have journaled for years and confess to being inconsistent in this discipline.  Lately, I have been verse mapping passages about conception and birth since we first learned of Rebecca's pregnancy. Verse mapping is a method of studying the Bible in a way that unpacks the scriptures using word origins, historical context, definitions, maps and prayer to help find deeper meaning in God's Word and apply it to life. Of course, thanks to Godly parenting and a lifetime commitment to the church, prayer has been a daily habit since childhood. I plan to share new perspectives of v-mapping, journaling and prayer in future blogs.   

We pray because God's giving deserves our thanksgiving.  Dag Hammarsjkold wrote "For all that has been thank you, for all that will be, Yes!"  Yes in Christ!  There it is again! He says, "Yes" when we align our will with His Will. What more could we ask?  


Friends,  selecting a name for this blog has been a tedious process.  Something unique and not already claimed on the web was next to impossible.  Hubs Bob said, "Just use your name so people will know!!" Thus, I did as he suggested rather than indefinitely delay the posting. BTW,  don't expect future postings to be this long.  I got carried away which is what I do so well.

We cannot thank our kids enough for sharing the conception early on so we could cover Rebecca, Chip and the pregnancy in prayer.  I will never forget how we learned we would have a granddaughter.  Bob and I were on our dream trip to Israel. While standing on a balcony overlooking the city of Jerusalem, Chip and Rebecca called to share that the baby was a girl!! At long last, a Battoe girl in our little clan!!

I've read in multiple books that "prayer is simply a wish of the heart directed heavenward - that it's potency lies in the depth of the desire."  It is true, of course,  but prayer is more than that. Prayer is beyond wishing.   It is an opportunity provided to humans to communicate with the Creator and Designer of the world. Our God knew the desires we all had for this baby to come into the world. So, we prayed for Miss Maisy,  the fulfillment of God's promise. We will continue to pray for this child as long as we have breath.  She is a rainbow baby; a baby born subsequent to miscarriage, vanishing, stillbirth, or the death of an infant from natural causes,  Maisy is God's promise made and God's promise kept and our hearts of full of thanks and praise

We love II Corinthians 1:20-21: "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.  Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."  He says YES in Christ! He says AMEN or let it be! He says His Glory is demonstrated in His promise-keeping! The Apostle Paul authored these words in his letter to the church of Corinth. In it, Paul makes clear reference to The Trinity:  God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Together, The Trinity  communicates Its divine power at work in us and for us: establishing us, anointing us, sealing us and making us His very own. He promises and I believe His promises are guaranteed in Christ.

We pray for this child because "God’s promises are specific, concrete examples of His grace. He was under no legal bondage to be true to His work. His promises are gracious offers which He will not renege upon for He cannot deny His own goodness, faithfulness and love." - Jack Hayford.  We pray because we have experienced the power of prayer countless times - in great and small ways, in immediate responses or answers that took years to be accomplished, but always in the assurance of a powerful outcome.  Friends, prayer to God and prayer answered by God directly reveals  Himself to us. Prayer is God making Himself known in all our circumstances. We pray because God is good and we have come to depend upon His goodness. He wants us to trust and depend on Him. Prayer gives us the opportunity to grow our trust and dependence on Him.  

Heavenly Father we praise You for new beginnings -  for the birth of our Maisy and for rebirth in each of us upon another day of life. You have blown a fresh wind into our souls with the arrival of this darling babe.  We do not ignore the travail that is upon our nation and our world at this time. Yet, we can declare this is Your day and we rejoice and are glad in it. We praise You for daily provision to sustain us. We praise You for spiritual provision that keeps us secure from now and into eternity. We praise You for the healing of our land and our world that is to come. “You open Your hand & satisfy the desires of every living thing.”  Praise You for power of health & strength; for friends & family for “they are a heritage from you, how you reward us.”  We worship You, confess our errors & ask forgiveness to enter into full communion with You.  O God of Every Generation, our God of promise, of hope and a future,  open our hearts & inspire our minds to grasp truth.  May OUR MEANS be YOUR MEANS. May YOUR MEANS be OUR MEANS.  May we minister, serve & build a Kingdom that will not perish. You are eternal and everything about You is eternal, including your own. We seek Your face and ask that You heal our land.   Bless this child for whom we prayed and of whom You said, "YES!"  Praise You, thank You and bless You, sweet Savior. In Jesus' name I pray with the certainty to someday meet you face-to-face.  Amen.