I love this book.

Monday morning. On Friday our family went and saw Kung Fu Panda. Jack had it marked on the calendar and was counting down the days for the last 2 weeks. It was cute, had a good message, alot of action. I generally have a hard time staying awake for animated movies in the theatre, the last movie I slept in was Horton Hears a Who. I slept through about half of Kung Fu, so the half that I saw I can review.

Third installment on the book club (Walking With God by John Eldredge) last night. The discussion was amazing and so insightful. It is so cool to see how God is using this book to bring us closer to him. Last night we talked alot about spiritual warfare and how satan is an opportunist and is always on the prowl. If we are aware of the battles around us then we can pray through them and be victorious with the power of Jesus. I am living proof, as I walk and breathe, that if I don't arm myself every day with God's word and prayer my flesh is so weak that I am easily had by the manipulations of darkness. Whatever your battles are this week, don't fight them alone, go to Jesus in prayer and open His word and let God give you the battle gear necessary to be victorious.

We already know who won the war but satan made it his greatest desire to take down the precious sons and daughters of the King while we walk the earth. He is just hoping we wont notice or look up to see who is behind it all. If satan can take our eyes away from God for a day or a week we don't know where that ripple effect will lead. As a mom it affects my kids, my husband, my family...my friends. I choose to cling to the power of the Cross.

Here is a quote from the book we talked about last night.

"If you walk with God, you will find yourself called up to the real thing. Intense battle. Authentic joy. The battle will find you. But you have to be intentional about the joy."

We also discussed generational sin...here is a quote.

"...Because somewhere along the line, the leader of that family let it in, through sins and agreements, and it passes down the line until someone takes a stand against it."

This is something that is a big deal to me. So much baggage, so much garbage that I have toted on my back for years, whether I am in the garbage or not, if I don't stop it here I will send it on to future generations for them to deal with. I loved when one of the Book Club gals remembered the scriptures in the Old Testament where it talks about one of the kings turning away from God and how it affected generation after generation, each generation more evil than the previous, each more messed up, until finally one king took a stand and said, "it stops here." No more, we are bring God back into our city, and then through that there were blessings of peace and goodness.

Then one last quote that I really loved, regarding praying for physical healing.

"But you have to be so careful with your heart and your faith when it comes to healing prayer. It's so important to know what God is up to...This is crucial - hearing God requires surrender, giving all things over into His hands. Not abandoning your desires, but yielding them to God...we have to be careful that our earnest hope and desire don't cause us to claim a promise God has not given. Sometimes well-meaning people will do this on your behalf. Out of their love for you, desperate to offer encouragement, they will come to believe that their desire is what God is promising. A lot of mistaken prophetic words come from this desire."

Because I lived through the struggle over the last 3 years of what to believe through what people were telling me and reading through scripture day in and day out to make sure I was on the same page as God. As a parent of a child with a brain tumor and I would guess this would apply to most parents of sick children, I was always searching God in this. I had several people over the course of 3 years tell me my faith wasn't strong enough and that is why God wasn't healing my son, that never seemed right to me. God requires faith, it is through our faith we are saved, in fact it is through our faith that we are made righteous, it is our faith that pleases God, but I can't make myself have more faith, I was seeking it and being molded by the Father and I was praying for faith, I was believing in His goodness and mercy and his faithfulness that sticks with me even when mine is in question. The only place I found peace in all of this searching was when I said, You are my God, I will love you no matter what happens, I am clinging to you for your strength and mercy. The times that I expected God to heal Jack because of my faith, I could tell my heart was not in alignment with God's will for me. And that was when I would feel like if I really took that stand, if I gave my heart over to it completely, I would have put that as an idol before God, testing Him, and if He didn't come through then my heart would have been broken. When I yielded my desires to God there was His peace. What is better than having peace when your child is ill? With peace you can find joy and blessings in every day. Where there is worry and discontent it is hard to even open your eyes wide enough to see the goodness around you, and I would have missed thousand of blessings along the way.

Have I mentioned I love this book?