{"id":6538,"date":"2015-05-28T02:44:01","date_gmt":"2015-05-28T02:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6538"},"modified":"2015-05-28T10:28:49","modified_gmt":"2015-05-28T10:28:49","slug":"personal-victories-as-memorial-stones-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6538","title":{"rendered":"Personal victories as memorial stones"},"content":{"rendered":"

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. <\/em>2 Corinthians 2:14<\/p>\n

More than once I\u2019ve arrived at a point in my life in which everything seemed to be falling apart or spinning out of control. More than a few times I have felt the dull leaden mantle of oppression or defeat clamp down on me like a coffin. And many of those times, I was absolutely on my own or surrounded by those who knew little and cared less about spiritual warfare\u2014or me.<\/p>\n

Joyce Meyer has said that at times such as those, you and I have a choice to make\u2014to get bitter or get better. There is no in-between.<\/p>\n

Even if you are surrounded by a loving family or friends who care as deeply about you as they do their own kin, when it comes to your own attitudinal choices, as President Harry S Truman said, \u201cThe buck stops here\u201d\u2014with you<\/em>. There\u2019s no getting around it. Whether you grab onto victory or not doesn\u2019t depend upon your pastor, your spouse (or lack thereof), or whoever else you may know. Your victory hinges upon two relationships only\u2014the one you have with the Lord Jesus Christ, and the one you have with yourself.<\/p>\n

I had never heard of memorial stones, and I knew very little about encouraging myself in the Lord, so I stumbled upon this quite by accident. It happened sometime in my thirties when I had been under a prolonged assault against my joy. I was getting tired of fighting. Like one preacher said, I had rebuked the devil until my rebuker was sore, but I wasn\u2019t ready to wave the white flag of surrender, either. In my exhaustion, I did something different\u2014something just to get my mind off of the attack.<\/p>\n

I started talking out loud to the Lord about how I got saved. I went into detail, telling it to Him as if He didn’t know the story. And then I told Him about my water baptism and how He filled me with the Holy Ghost. I told Him about the various people I\u2019d witnessed to; I told Him some of my tales of miraculous deliverance; I told Him how He led me by His Spirit to find my first apartment, and how He had opened the door for me to my different jobs.<\/p>\n

You probably know what happened next. Instead of\u00a0merely diverting my attention away from the attack\u00a0momentarily, the last thing I ever expected\u00a0transpired. I felt strength and life from God pour into my heart, my mind, and my body. The lid blew off of that depression, and when it did, the entire mummifying encasement constricting me flew off with it. I was free!<\/p>\n

Joshua commanded, \u201cLet this be a sign among you<\/em>\u201d (Joshua 3:10a). I am challenging you today\u2014especially if you are under some kind of attack\u2014let your past victories and triumphs be a sign to you.<\/em> Rehearse them\u2014each and every one of them\u2014aloud before God. Tell Him all about them in vivid detail, and believe me\u2014His strength and life will ooze into you and build you up and overpower the forces of darkness that have been attempting to take you captive.<\/p>\n

Your victories are just as significant for you as the twelve stones from the riverbed were for Israel. You just need to haul those personal memorial stones up and out of the river bottom of your memory and memorialize them\u00a0by retelling them and marveling before God at His wonderful intervention for you.<\/p>\n

I believe that as you practice rehearsing and gazing at your own personal triumphs, the effect on your attitude and life will be far more profound than the best anti-depressants money can buy.<\/p>\n

Psalm 37:3b states, \u201c\u2026dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness<\/em>\u201d (NKJV). What better way to feed on His faithfulness than by recalling His amazing tales of faithfulness to you?<\/p>\n

What are you waiting for? Go to that river and pull out your memorial stones!<\/p>\n

Dorothy<\/p>\n

This I recall to my mind, <\/em>therefore I have hope. The <\/em>Lord\u2019s<\/em> lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail.<\/em>\u00a0Lamentations 3:21-22<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2015 Dorothy Frick<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. 2 Corinthians 2:14 More than once I\u2019ve arrived at a point in my life in which everything seemed to be falling apart or spinning out of control. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[68,154,155],"class_list":["post-6538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memorials","tag-memorial-stones","tag-personal-testimonies","tag-thanks-be-to-god-who-always-leads-us-in-triumph"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6538"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6547,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6538\/revisions\/6547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}