2 - february // a woman of prayer

John 14:13-14
You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!




When Jesus returns and I get to stand in front of my sweet Savior, I want him to look at me and say 

"Alyssa, thank you for trusting me with your prayers. Thank you for coming to me and asking things of me."

I want to become a woman of prayer. A prayer warrior. 

So, this month of February - potentially a tricky month, for various reasons - my days will be spent in prayer. The purpose of this is not to be recognized for something I did as I get to talk with Jesus when I later stand in front of him, but to spend my lifetime growing closer to Jesus, asking and expecting big things of a big God, and learning the power of prayer.

I think that and I've been told that prayer is a big part of our walk with God. It's literally a conversation with him. But I want to understand (as much as I can) how significant that is. I want to spend my whole day conversing with the Lord. I want to constantly be taking him into consideration, asking him how he would respond to whatever situation, requesting his presence, and getting to know his righteousness, love, and sovereignty. I want not only my life to be affected by prayer, but the lives of those around me as well. I want to pray for the people I love more than I have before. I want to know God at a depth that is deeper than I've been before. I want to understand the beauty and privilege of having God living inside of me - of what it means to be able to pray to a God that loves me and listens to me and is always present.

I'm not sure how to put this desire into words, really, because I don't understand prayer very much. But I'm looking forward to this month of getting to know my God better and looking forward to this life of pursuing a very communicative and intimate relationship with Him.



Praising Jesus that he's helping me recognize the need for prayer and the need for him.


xoxox


James 4:7-8

So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to god, and God will come close to you.

Romans 8:26-28
And the Holy Spirits helps us in our darkness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groan sings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for he Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

John 14:13-14
You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!

Matthew 7:7-8
Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. You parents-if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to hose who ask him.

James 5:13-18
Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. ... Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.

Ephesians 3:14-21
When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

Romans 3:22

We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

Love love love,
Alyssa

Want to challenge me? Ask me how it's going! Or send me your prayer requests!

2017, welcome

the more I search for God, the more thirsty for Him I become.

This month starts a twelve-month [and life-long] journey of searching for the Lord in a way I've never done before. Of pressing into Him, of praising Him, of needing Him, and of exploring His infinince as he reveals more and more of his infinite, beautiful characteristics. 

I'm aching for God in a new way. This past semester I've learned some of what it's like to rely on a sovereign God because nothing else is certain. I've learned some of what it means to turn to a faithful God when I have no idea where I am. I've learned that my relationship with the Lord is the most important and the most satisfying relationship I will ever have. And with that, I've come to a point where I'm literally aching for him. 

So specifically for these next twelve months I am going to prayerfully develop a theme for each month. An area that I desire to grow in, all the while seeking the Lord, coming to know him more, and relying purely on him to bring enduring change. 

This month (1 - January), I am asking God to help me understand more of who I am created to be. Of what it means to be a 'daughter of the King' [like the title of this blog], of the gifts he's given me, and how he desires me to live my life because of my identity in Christ. But really, this understanding will only start from understanding who my God is. Each month, my theme will come out of the desire to get to know God better. Of learning who He is so I can learn more about myself and about his world. 

I'm praying that God helps me be faithful and consistent in my pursuit of him. I'm praying that he teaches me to be humble yet bold in what I learn. I'm praying that I am continuously growing in my understanding of him. I am praying that my whole life is a pursuit of his love.

Keep your eye out for posts of what God's teaching me these twelve months. I'm expecting big things from a big God and I can't wait to share them with you! 


In Him,
Alyssa Anne

1 Timothy 4:12-16

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

1 Peter 1:13-25

So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”

And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as “temporary residents.” For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake.

Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory.

You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.

For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. As the Scriptures say, 

“People are like grass;
    their beauty is like a flower in the field.
The grass withers and the flower fades.
     But the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.

1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 18

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit... But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it.

1 Peter 4:10-11

God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.

Pressing in

Duluth is finally starting to feel like a home.

I've been a student here for six semesters and the first five I consistently wanted to be elsewhere - primarily at my home in the cities, but there were many a time when I asked myself how different my college experience would have been if I'd gone somewhere else or if I transferred instead of continuing in Duluth. I was experiencing a lot of loneliness but I didn't realize the urgency of finding more friends until I got home from Chile this past August.

When I spent nearly six months in South America, I experienced community like I'd never known it before. I spent close to six out of every seven days with Abby and was so amazed at the quickness of our friendship and the depth it reached in such a short time. The types of conversations we had about how God was working in our lives and where we struggling and where we wanted to grow were conversations I'd never consistently had with anyone. It was inspiring. And not only did I experience this community with Abby, but with the Chilean Cru students and the youth group at my church as well. They were all so intentional and so caring and so interested in hearing about God's role in my life. I really never knew that level of intimacy before - I never knew what it meant to have brothers and sisters in Christ. These kids (and staff) loved on me so much and so well that when I got back to Minnesota, I craved and ached for that community again.

So this fall God prompted me to start praying for this.

"Lord, thank you for these experiences with these people in Chile. God, you have revealed to me how incredible community is and how important it is to my walk of faith. Will you provide that here in Duluth? Will you give me some girls that I can have real, deep friendships with?"

And you know what happened? I found them.

Sweet, sweet Lauryn started hugging me every time I saw her. (& you know what I thought? "Why is this girl hugging me? I don't even know her!") And her hugging caught on and I knew we would be friends.

AlyZZa (haha - love you!) was challenging me in the one-on-one Bible studies we were doing. How was it that this little freshman was so mature and so wise and wanted to grow so much? How was it that our lives were so similar (beyond our first and middle names;)? I wanted this charming girl to feel connected and loved during her first year, but I mostly just wanted her as my friend.

Tori somehow just showed up. I knew her and admired her from afar and I don't know how she weaved herself into my life, but here she is. Her spunk and caring heart are some of her prime characteristics and watching her grow these past two months has been so encouraging.

There are so many other people that have made impressions on my heart this semester - like Gloria and Becca and Sabrina and Abi and Aleah and Michelle and Kenna and Haydn - and there are a few that have so lovingly and enduringly been with me since the beginning: like Melissa, Marissa, Courtney.

I'm so blessed to have these sweet hearts up north here with me and am finding my own heart intertwined with these lives in this area. I'm learning to press in to where I am, to enjoy the moments I have with each of these friends, and to understand that Duluth is where I'm meant to be, for now, with these people.

Thank you, friends, for pulling me into your lives and for making Duluth feel like home.

God's Story of Chile [in my little life]

Since my sister studied abroad five years ago, I knew that I wanted to do the same. At that time, I was in ninth grade and in my third year of Spanish. I was in love with it. Spain was my country of choice but then, I also chose knee-high socks, hot pink highlights, and sequin-covered tennis shoes. Nevertheless, I was excited about the point in my future where I would get to experience a whole new world and create my own memories.

Fast forward a few years to my senior year of high school.

I was in my sixth year of Spanish and continued to enjoy every minute of it. I was so fortunate to have only six kids in our class, so I got all the one-on-one attention that I needed, which really helped my Spanish. I was more “Alyssa” at this point and knew that studying in Spain wasn’t for me. I didn’t want to follow the crowd and only knew of one person who had studied in South America (my ninth grade Spanish teacher – funny, huh?) so decided that was the place for me. Chile was about an 80% random choice between that and Argentina and the other 20% was because it’s a coastal country.  I’d made my decision.

Jump ahead one more year to my first year at college and involvement in Cru.

I went into college knowing I wanted a better relationship with God. I’d seen the way He had transformed the life of my sister, and I wanted him to do the same to me. I was learning and growing and so excited to be sure that God loved me. As I grew stronger in my faith and in my understanding of how important fellowship is and as the end of my first semester grew near, I started questioning my desire to study abroad. I was coming to the conclusion that being away from a strong faith community for an entire semester would not do me good, so, I began to pray. Where should I go? Do I stay home? Am I even ready?

Over winter break, I went to Cru’s winter conference and was thinking more and more about studying abroad versus going on a summer-long mission trip with Cru. At the conference, I gave up the decision to God and later that night, I found a brochure on the ground for Cru Abroad. Reading over the brochure, I noticed that 1) Cru only had about six locations to study abroad and 2) the only Spanish-speaking country was Chile. Boom. There was my answer.

God revealed himself and his plan for me in that obvious way but he continues to reveal himself in so many others. God is faithful and he loves to answer our prayers when they align with his will. Even if our prayers don’t align, he listens. He’s using Chile in my life to teach me a billion things and I can’t wait to try to figure it all out. 

Stick around this next semester as I reflect on my adventures, my findings, and my relationship with the King while studying in Chile!



Therefore,
Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.
And be sure of this:
I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Matthew 28:19-20