I Prayed For In You What I Craved For In Me – Kayla Murphy

 

The Lord has been teaching the deepest parts of me what you just read above. I’ll come back to that thought in a moment!

 

Oh, how selfish and self-consumed my thoughts and prayers can be sometimes. Over the last year or so I’ve become the most aware I’ve ever been of my lack in this area specifically. I find these words often leaving my lips and being thrown towards Heaven lately, “Oh, Lord, let me love the world like you love me. Make me gentle and kind and give me eyes to see beyond my own world.” These cries come often, because more times than I would care to admit publicly, I do not prefer you over myself. BUT I WANT TOO!!! Jesus, I want too.

 

Back to the top…I prayed for in you what I craved for in me. If you don’t know these two in this picture it probably won’t move you as significantly. So, I’ll tell you. Both men have Parkinson’s. The one being prayed over has had it for a long time now, and the one praying had just received the diagnosis not long before the photo was taken. Now look at the photo again. LET. IT. MOVE. YOU.

 

Tears literally waterfalled down my face as I watched this unfold a month or two ago. I practically ran to the stage to take a picture when it happened. WOW. It convicted me. It freed me. It encouraged me. You see, Mr. Billy was praying over Mr. James the very thing he himself needed. He needed healing, but he was praying for healing for someone else. When was the last time your pain moved you to pray for someone else’s? It’s okay if you feel as convicted as I do here – let it work itself out in you! Let’s let Jesus work our selfishness out of us!

 

What are you craving from the Lord today?

What pain hits the depths of you?

What sickness is demanding strength from your body?

What thoughts are you wrestling? What sorrow do you feel?

What circumstance is overwhelming?

 

Whatever those answers are I encourage you to allow the Holy Spirit to take those things you are feeling and put them to use for Heaven’s sake and Jesus’ glory…in others! Think about people in your own life who are in the very battle you’re in. Pray for them! Beseech Heaven for them! Ask the Lord to move in you on their behalf. Pray for them as if you’re praying for yourself.

 

Please don’t misunderstand my encouragement. I still pray for my battles often. I love Jesus for desiring us to come to Him, but in realizing some of the selfishness tied with it it’s increased my love for YOU. This thought has transformed my prayer life and it has made walking in victory over my own struggles so much easier! Sometimes the easiest way to preach to and encourage yourself is to pray for in them what you crave for in you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dirty feet. Pure heart. That’s my Jesus! – Kayla Murphy

 

I often think on the life of Jesus as he walked the earth. Read that again. HE WALKED THE EARTH! His feet touched the same dirt yours and mine are touching today. Isn’t there a comfort in that beautiful truth? Isn’t there a comfort in knowing He knows because He’s done it? He’s been here…whatever “here” we are in. What a Savior. What a friend! What a model to follow after. He graced our world so we could gracefully enter His. Hallelujah!

 

He was God, but He was as human as you and me. He walked the earth. He got lunch with His friends. He visited family. He worked as a carpenter. He got tired. His hair grew and had to be cut. He had to trim His nails. He had to shower and get clean. He had to eat and drink. His feet got dirty! He had put together people around him. He had disaster, nasty people around him. Jesus….His feet were filled with the dust of earth because He did life here, but the beauty was that He was a supernatural wonder in the everyday mundane! Dirty feet. Pure heart. He knew carpenter moments of today would be the building blocks of the Kingdom of Heaven tomorrow. He knew that every moment, no matter how seemingly insignificant, was a moment purposed by the Father. He knew that being with the unworthy would give them a gateway to be clean. I’m so thankful for that! Isn’t it incredible that because He lives in us that we can be a supernatural wonder in the everyday mundane too?

 

Y’all. He. Had. Dirty. Feet. He didn’t shield Himself from our nasty – He walked in it to pull us out of it. He spoke to prostitutes and tax collectors and liars and cheats. He touched lepers and hugged losers. Dirty feet, but a pure heart! Are we like Him? Do we run to the outcast and give them the hope of Jesus? Do we shuffle through the mundane moments of life or do we live supernaturally in them knowing that He is working in us and out of us even then? I want to live like that.  

 

I pray we remember these two things today: He’s in our mundane moments and willing to use them powerfully if we’ll let him! Don’t run from others dirt floors to keep your feet clean – be Jesus to those around you and go after them!

 

 

 

 

SIX FEET ARE BETTER THAN TWO  – KAYLA MURPHY

 

Dear Believer, 

Six feet are better than two, AKA: I NEED YOU!!!   

I haven’t always understood the depth and value of that. I haven’t always appreciated gathering and doing life together and BEING the church like I value and see it now. Wow. It’s life changing. Literally. 

 

I believe the Word of God. I believe when He says one will chase a thousand and two will put ten thousand to flight that He means it. Do you understand that that is a ten time increase with the addition of ONE person??? What. The. World. I’m terrible at math, but I’d say one the the most foolish choices we could ever make would be to remain alone and isolated! 

 

Jesus clearly tell us, “In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer! [[[ I ]]] have overcome the world.”

 

Guess where [[[ I ]]] lives? 

 

In YOU! In ME! The overcomer lives in us. I need the Jesus in you. You need the Jesus in me. We have no time for church to be a check mark we place on our to do lists each week. Religion is stale and boring when we misinterpret the purpose of gathering together. Jesus didn’t create the church to stick us on church pews cold shouldering each other 2x a week. He created the church and weaponized us with the Holy Spirit and each other so that we could put every enemy to flight this side of Heaven. 

 

You think you have no value in the body? You think you’re too small? (Do you know how many times I’ve fought those questions?) My friend, you are ONE, and based on the math of the Bible you could make the church 10x more successful for the glory of God simply by being present and active. Think about that. Really. 

 

I pray you understand the value of being the church! 

 

Six feet are better than two. AKA: I NEED YOU!!!

 

Let’s go win some battles this side of Heaven… T O G E T H E R.

 

Jesus, the Rock That Holds the Chaos at Bay – Kayla Murphy

 

I had been to this spot before,  but this time was different. As I walked between the still and the chaos, my feet planted on the rock that stood between the two, the Lord began to speak to my heart. It was a life moment – one that leaves you positioned to look back upon and constantly learn from and appreciate. 

 

It was the same vast ocean I was watching. The left side. The right side. The same water, the same circumstance, the same air breathing into it, but something was vastly different between the two sides. One rushed and waved and splashed and carried chaotically on and one was stilled and peaceful and full of calm.

 

The difference: the ROCK that stood between.

 

Have you ever been so wrapped up in a hug by someone that you felt like the world could only get to you if it came through them first? That’s what this was a picture of to me. It was Jesus, my Rock, taking the beating, taking the waves of life, taking the splashes, while He let me rest in the shelter of His protection – the shelter of His embrace. Jesus, all encompassing, moved with compassion, saving, redeeming hug around my life. 

 

You see, I’m not immune to circumstance or the reality that pain is all around just because I’m saved. The same waves, the same pandemics, the same hurts, the same struggles, the same sickness, the same everything that hits the world come at me as well. 

 

BUT GOD! 

 

The difference between me and the world is there is a Rock that took/takes the hit so I can live at peace in ALL things. How amazing!

 

I pray you know Him! I pray you are cheerful, not because the world is reeling, but because He has overcome the world – He’s the Rock that takes the hits so we can live at peace when it makes no sense to be able to do so! 

 

 

 

The Joys of Believing! In all seasons.

 

Ashes can find beauty.

Dry bones can be given life again.

The grave doesn’t have to stay occupied.

Fear doesn’t have to remain.

Sickness doesn’t have to have the last word.

Hopelessness doesn’t have to steal the show.

Sin doesn’t have to wear the crown.

The pit of despair doesn’t have the lock and key.

 

Who else in the world can say these things but the believer? Oh, my friends, there is such joy in believing. There is such joy in being His. I pray you know it. I’m not saying we pretend the grave, sickness, sin, hopelessness, etc. don’t war against us, but I am saying and encouraging us to see them in their rightful place – under the redemption of Jesus!

 

I know the hard days are real. I’ve tasted them personally. Like David I know what the dirt in the pit of despair feels like beneath my feet, but like David as well I know what the arms of my Savior feel like as He carries me through and out! There is JOY in BELIEVING! 

 

Jesus never promised a heartache free life this side of heaven the moment we said, “I do” to His invitation. Why would we need a Comforter if there were no situations we would find ourselves needing deep comfort? Why would we need repentance and forgiveness if sin were to never creep in? Why would we need a Healer if sickness were to never show its face? He tells us these things plainly and plants hope in John 16:33 

 

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! (There is joy in believing!) I have overcome the world.” 

 

Trouble shouldn’t come as a shock to us, but even so a comfort because what He said is true and He will never leave us or forsake us in it. I pray that thought sparks a fire or joy in us! We. Are. Not. Alone. 

 

Believer, believe! There is such joys in believing. I imagine myself an ear in hearing distance of Paul and Silas’ lyrics that flew off their lips in that prison cell at midnight. Joy! Joy not in the situation, but in their Savior who was bigger than it. I can almost hear Paul say, “You can keep me in a jail cell, but my worship won’t stay bound to the circumstance that these four walls cater to!”

 

Church, I pray in this time and always we find ourselves believing and joying in the fact that we aren’t bound up by the same things the world is! We are in the world, but not of it – joy in the one who bought that liberty for you.

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Kayla Murphy