Wisdom to Build!

Proverbs 14:1-“The wise woman builds her house. But the foolish pulls it down with her hands.”

I have always known and watched with great earnest the ‘how to’s of a project…what goes on ‘behind the scenes’…how was that vision, that building, that dream that you have….how was that constructed? I have watched for years how God will take a person and will construct and then ‘re-construct’ him/her into His very image. I came across this line and I want to pass it on to you.

“You develop during the framework, what will hold God’s plan!”

How crucial to develop the proper framework! It must have within its very fibers, the wisdom of God, in order for it to last. We see in Proverbs 14:1, that a wise woman builds her house. Within its very framework, we see ‘wisdom’. Hmmmm….Wisdom-how does she obtain such wisdom? I have highlighted 5 special bullets from the Proverbs 31 woman that gives us insight.
1. The fear of the Lord-Proverbs 1:7 says that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Ahhh…..there is the origin of that much needed wisdom….”the fear of the Lord”…in a nutshell, when one has a healthy ‘fear of the Lord’, he/she does not treat something ‘holy’ as common…he/she hears the truth from the Scriptures and it produces the proper change…it is not filtered or watered down through one’s own culturally influenced thinking…please note, that at the end of Proverbs 31:30 it states, “but a woman who ‘fears the Lord’….,in the beginning and at the end of this wise woman’s life, is the building block of ‘the fear of the Lord’.
2. Trust-Proverbs 31:11-The heart of her husband safely trusts her;…Trust is another critical building block as this woman builds. What builds trust?
3. Preparedness-Proverbs 31:15-She also rises early enough to be prepared to meet needs. V. 21-She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household is clothed with scarlet. She is prepared!
4. Heart and Tongue filled with love-Proverbs 31:26-She opens her mouth with wisdom and on her tongue is the law of kindness. Talk about critical building blocks as we build our framework!
5. She smiles at her future!-Wow! What a beautiful statement! I want you to smile at your future! Please know that most commentaries agree, that these ‘building blocks’ as I call them, transpired over a long, long period of time. But we can begin now! One author states, “Having a right understanding of God is what enables her to smile at her future.
What do you think? We would love your comments!
I will be doing this message in its entirety this Friday night, May 25th and next Thursday morning, May 31st on the Northshore…please check the website for times and addresses…I would LOVE to have you join us!
Love,
Anna

Soul Stretches! Hate the pain but gotta love the results!

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. Hebrews 12:1-2, KJV

Run with patience! Or as T.D. Jakes would say, “Relax while you run!” Hmmmm….Easy to say and write about, but I must admit that at times this is very hard to do, especially if your long, beautiful, gaited strides, are met with a brick wall that just doesn’t seem to move! Ahhh…T.D. Jakes calls those times, ‘soul stretches’…he describes it this way: “As stretching is essential to muscle so that it can conquer the demands of the race, so, too, does the soul need to be stretched to successfully meet the demands of life. Like the runner leaning against the wall to give his muscles resistance training, we have all had to push against immovable forces. Every so often, your soul will hit a wall. No amount of strength, no amount of pressing, will move the problem. This is a ‘soul stretch’.
Have you been stretched yet? Jakes continues, “God never allows a person to run for Him or with Him who hasn’t been stretched in his thinking, stretched in his faith, and stretched in his ability to live and love.
Soul stretches are prerequisites for winning the race. It is the ‘stretching of the soul’ (or the ‘not getting your own way’ all the time!) that enables us to face situations that we think will kill us but don’t, endure times when we think we won’t make it but do. We all will face difficult times, but they are just the deep knee bends of life. They stretch and challenge the soul and enable us to get lose enough to perform successfully.”
I have learned that it is during these ‘soul stretches’ that I learn patience…yes…once again! Jakes says that “patience is the balm that God rubs into the aching muscles when the soul is being stretched and the race must still be run.” (Do you just love that!) He adds, “God knows when to stretch what. In the days to come, a greater agility will result from this stretching. The muscle will become stronger. No one becomes a great runner without being stretched beyond what they think they can handle.”
The spectators that sit in the stands will not know of this stretching. They will see the swift limbs, the flailing arms, and stomping feet that lurch across the finish line. They will comment on the quick gait and strong legs, but they will not know that the runner can leap over hurdles and hurl himself down the track because he was hit hard and has endured the painful private ‘stretching of the soul’. As the old gospel song declares, he has come this far by faith.”
1. Embrace the stretching-you are getting stronger
2. Stay on track-the path is dark, narrow, and steep at times, but He provides enough light to let us see the next step before us.
3. Trust that God will provide us with strength and endurance beyond what we can imagine.

God would never tell us to ‘run with patience’ if it weren’t possible…with every ‘stretching of the soul’, patience comes…we are still in the race…in fact, it will be this ‘stretching’ that will enable us to persevere until the end….to ‘finish strong’ and with ‘joy’ as the Apostle Paul did…to do what we are on the earth to do, as our Lord Jesus did…
Running with you all,
Anna

Thursday, May 10, 2007
Awesome Runner for God!
Hey precious ones!This is a response from someone who has written in responding to our most recent entry, "Come Up Higher" and "See"!
Tillie writes: Thank you for sharing that beautiful message. Anna, I am finally beginning to get the picture that Jesus really does love me and is my constant aid in this life. It's about time... I am turning 60 onMother's Day. And I know that you will get a kick out of this, so heregoes:
I am going to Nova Scotia to run my 30th. Marathon to celebrate my 60th. birthday. Only with Jesus could I be doing such a thing.
All my love,Tillie
I got one of my doctor friends to write out in French, "I run for the Lord", It is, "Je cours peu le Bon Dieu" I will wear it in Nova Scotia.Take care,Til

Way to go Tillie! I hope you will be able to hear us cheering you on all the way from New Orleans! Anna
Posted by Anna at 11:20 AM
Wednesday, May 9, 2007

"Come Up Higher" and See!
In preparing for some upcoming messages, I came across this quote that I had saved in my files….Boy does this bring back some warm warm memories of when God encouraged me through some rough times! May it comfort you today!This quote is in reference to John, the writer of the ‘Gospel of John’ as well as the writer of the three epistles in the New Testament. He is nearing 80 years old, and is shipped to an Isle called Patmos as a result of persecution and punishment for his defense of the Word of God and its truths. The people tried to boil him in oil and that didn’t work, so they thought that they would just get rid of him. I guess they figured that if they shipped him to ‘nowhere land’, that he would be out of sight, and would no longer be a threat. He was shipped to the Isle with the command to do hard labor, chipping the stones from the stone quarry in which he sat. Brothers and sisters, it was on this very Isle, away from all of humanity, left alone to die, that the Lord Jesus Himself appears to John!

In Revelation 1:10, it says, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice….” This reference, “I was in the Spirit”, means “I came to be in the Spirit”….he didn’t start out that way! Remember, he was bound by earth’s borders. But God would not be limited by earth’s borders and He bypassed everything just to get to John! Then, one of my favorite Scriptures is in Revelation 4:1, where God says to John, “Come up here, and I will show you….” It was at this very place (Patmos) that the Book of Revelation was given.

Here is the quote: John was limited by borders, but, “It was fitting that when forbidden to go beyond certain bounds of the earth’s lands, he was permitted to penetrate the secrets of heaven.” “Your life is hidden with Christ in God!”

Wow! Brothers and sisters! ‘Come up higher’ and SEE your life and its situations through God’s perspectives…Just when you think you have exhausted all of your resources, (no more money in the bank…he said, she said, and I have said, and it still isn’t working!.....the doctors have said this and that and they stare at me as if I have four heads…..nobody really understands what I am going through….does God really care?....does God really listen to me?...am I really forgiven?...you get the picture….)….climb up into the realm of the Spirit, where God is, and go beyond this earth’s borders…you too, can penetrate the secrets of heaven and SEE things you never thought possible!
How? Just ask God to show you your situation from His perspective. It won’t look quite so huge when being viewed from heaven’s realm.
Love,Anna
http://www.annadonahueministries.com/
Posted by Anna at 3:20 PM
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Oops! Still learning!
Hey precious ones!Well, we have had our blog up and running for one week...in an attempt to edit a comment that I didn't want on there, and an effort to save the several with whom I did want on there, I ended up editing the entire thing!Ugh!
Well, if you know me well, you know that I am not a quitter! We will try this again! I am so sorry if you have taken the time to log on and leave a comment, only to find that it has been deleted!Please, please leave a comment again. The past comments were so very very encouraging! And that is what this blog site is all about!
Love to all,Anna
Posted by Anna at 3:03 PM
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