Daughter of Increase

Happy Sunday Gems!!! I don't know about you, but as I'm sitting here writing this I feel like topling over. It's 4am EST as I type this. I have not been sleeping properly for the past two weeks. Granted, I always had a bad sleeping habit ( since middle school -- my school was TOUGH ), but now I'm just not getting much of any rest. I am looking forward to my son's spring break. Prayerfully I can get two days of pure sleep in -- LOL Today we are going to talk about praying for our family members. Just as I did yesterday, I'm just going to give you some ideas of what and who you can pray for: your spouse your children your parents your siblings other relatives healthy relationship be able to be a light to a family member family members that are believers family members that are unbelievers forgiveness for one another peace within the family healing fruits of the spirits focus Pretty simple list, but keep in mind you can get specific in your ...

Blessed Morning Gems!!! Yesterday we talked all about praying scripture when you don't know what to pray. Today we are focusing on praying for yourself. Praying for yourself sounds like common sense, but again, we get to that point of not knowing exactly what to pray for ourselves. One thing that's important to remember is that we need only be real and call out to God for ourselves: " The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. " - Psalm 145:18 Here are just a few areas that you can pray for in your own life: faith prayer life familial relationships romance ( either your spouse, your significant other or for your future spouse )  work future children hobbies talents dreams fruits of the spirits These are just a few things...you can definitely pray over any aspect of your life. You can also incorporate scripture in your prayers. Take time today and pray deeply for yourself. Journaling Prompt Please be as tru...

Happy Friday Gems!!! We are almost down to the wire! Finally starting week five! Only one more week to go before this challenge is completed. Now from start to finish we went through the "basics" and "foundational" points of prayer. This week we are diving into the different things we can pray. Have you ever had a moment where you were eager to pray, but once your prayer time came you sat and asked yourself what to pray? I've been there before ( plenty of times ). It can be a struggle to pinpoint something to pray. Throughout this week we will discuss six things you can pray for, almost like a "routine" of sorts. I pray this helps you! 1. Scripture The best way to pray when you don't know what to pray is by praying scripture . The Bible is God's Word. His Word never returns back to Him void ( Isaiah 55:11 ) and He can never lie ( Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18 ). Therefore, what better thing to pray than His Word. When pra...

Good morning Gems!!! We are at the end of week four. It's unbelievable to me! I pray you are all getting something out of this challenge. Gaining some new insight and a deeper look at your own prayer lives. This Thursday we are going to take it easy. I just want us to reflect on the Lord's Prayer today and really begin to pray it with a new outlook. I pray you have a blessed day! Journaling Prompt Please be as true to yourself as possible when answering the prompt to get the most out of this challenge. What have you learned about your prayer life this week? Scripture Today's scripture comes from  Hebrews 4:16 : Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Prayer Journaling Spend 3-7 minutes journaling your thoughts, feelings and emotions. Use the prompt. Verbal Prayer Take 3 minutes and verbally speak your written prayer. Pray out loud so that He can hear your voice. If your pra...

Good morning Gems!!! I pray you all had a beautiful day yesterday. I also pray that your morning runs smoothly as well. I've been enjoying this week and breaking down the Lord's Prayer because I'm personally taking so much from everything I'm writing in these posts and emails. Today we are going to finish our breakdown of the Lord's Prayer with verse thirteen. Verse thirteen is two sentences that ends the Lord's Prayer so let's get straight into it! " And do not lead us into temptation " - so after we have asked for daily provisions and forgiveness, we then ask Him to keep us from temptation. To understand this verse you would need to understand the Greek meaning of temptation. Greek word  peirasmos meaning an experiment, attempt, trial, proving. In the use of this verse we can see that temptation is used as a trial or test. Therefore, we are asking God to keep us from any testing or trial that is greater than what we can handle. God d...

Good Evening Gems!!! I pray you all had a fantastic day yesterday. Sorry for the late post and email. Found out a relative of mine passed away last night so dealing with that. Didn't think it would effect me as much but it hit me hard. Losing loved ones is never easy. I've lost about 4 people this year so far and it's ridiculous. Every time I think I have a moment to deal with one lost anther seems to come. However, on a good note I'm excited about being a Minister-Elect. This journey is going to be interesting. Today we are going to break down verse twelve of the Lord's Prayer. This is the portion of prayer in which we ask for forgiveness and in doing so we show mercy to others by in turn forgiving them. The scripture starts out by saying " and forgive us our debts " right after we ask for daily provisions. We are to always seek forgiveness from God for the sins we've committed, known and unknown. Let's do some quick word studies t...

Great Morning Gems!!! How was everyone's weekend? I'm extremely sleepy, but alas no rest for a while lol. I hope you are all enjoying this prayer challenge. It's a bit up and down for me, but I plan to re-do this challenge again on a more personal level with God. I think this challenge is awesome though. Continuing on with the Lord's Prayer, we are breaking down verse 11 which says " give us this day our daily bread. " This simply means we need to pray for God to give us our daily provisions. These provisions are not things we desire or want. Rather these are the things we truly need that only He can provide for us. Prayer is for our needs and not our greed. It's not to say that we can't pray for the things we desire and want, but our prayers should not be doused in our wants, material or fleeting things. One thing to keep in mind is that bread can be taken in its literal sense, but we should also look at figuratively. Time for a quick wo...

Blessed Morning Gems!!! I hope you're Sunday is going great. I'm still on the bus, five hours away from NY so my Sunday will be crazy to rush home and prepare for church. I would stay home and sleep, but after a great experience I'll make sure I get to church today. Yesterday we started diving into the well known, quoted and loved Lord's Prayer. We broke down verse nine and today we are going to go into verse ten. When we pray to God need to have passion in our prayers for the things of His heart and not of our own. The verse says " Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. " We need to pray for the things that will bring His kingdom and His will to earth. We need to pray for His power to come to earth. We need to pray for things to go according to His plan and not our own. His kingdom and His will should always have top priority in our prayer lives. Don't focus on promoting your wants and will. Focus on putting G...

Good evening Gems!!! Sorry for yet another late post and email! I'm currently on the bus on my way back to NYC. I had a blast in TN and got the chance to really sit down and talk with my ministry leaders ( Bishop and Pastor ) about things. I also got re-established as a minister-in-training during my time down in TN. Today we are going to begin breaking down the Lord's Prayer verse by verse. I think 95% of us know what the Lord's Prayer is, but if not let me tell you briefly. The Lord's Prayer is the prayer Jesus gave His disciples when they asked Him to teach them to pray. Though we've discussed how simple prayer is, we understand that we make it complex, so Jesus gave us a "starter" prayer that incorporates supplication, warfare, intercession, confession and praise into one. For further understanding study Matthew 6 , but the Lord's Prayer is specifically in Matthew 6:9-13 . The scripture starts out with " in this manner " which ...

Title : Sold Into Freedom Author : Carole Towriss Series : Planting Faith #1 Age : Adult Genres : Biblical Fiction, Christian Fiction, Historical Fiction Publication Date : December 12th 2018 Publisher : Four Diamonds Publishing Source : eBook (Kindle) Purchase : Paperback | Kindle   Synopsis : Taught to hear messages from the goddess from a young age, Elantia’s life is shattered when she is captured from her home in southwest Britannia and sold as a slave in Macedonia. She wants nothing more than to escape and return home—after she kills the man who took the only good thing left in her life.  Tossed aside by the Empire, wounded tribune Quintus Valerius ends up in sleepy Philippi to retire. Manipulated into becoming the prison keeper, he vows to return to Rome as soon as possible to reclaim his reputation and his life. He is intrigued by the quiet Jewish teacher who speaks of truth and peace, but is convinced he can never have either. ...

Good morning Gems!!! It's day two for me in TN and I'm enjoying myself. Today I want to apologize because I got ahead of myself yesterday with beginning week four. Today is the actual first day of week four -- lol. Being that I made a slight error, today is going to be considered a free a day in which you can simply pray freely to God about whatever is on your heart. There will be no set scripture or prompt. Make today about you and the Father. Keep in mind all the things we learned these last three weeks as you pray. Incorporate a prayer method and combine prayer types. This is personal so get vulnerable with Him today. Tomorrow we will begin diving into the Lord's Prayer. Blessings,

Blessed morning Gems!!! First, I want to say I am soooo tired and ready to get off this bus!! Only five more hours to go on this thing. I know I said nine hours yesterday, but I meant fourteen and a half hours. Thank God for hotspot connections with cellphones now-a-days. This is my first trip to TN and I'm low-key trying to plot a way to visit a LifeWay since I'll be in the area for about 3 days 😂😂😂. Anyways! Today begins week four of the 40 Day Prayer Challenge. This week we are going to focus on Jesus and His prayer life. We'll even dive into reading The Lord's Prayer as well. Today we are going to look at Jesus and His prayer life as a whole. He made it a daily habit to spend time with God early in the morning and in the evenings. Jesus didn't play when it came to prayer. He was serious about His prayer life ...so much so that the disciples asked Him to teach them. Jesus is who we should strive to have our prayer lives like. He never neglected pray...

Beautiful morning Gems!!! As I type this I am preparing for an interesting trip to TN with my Bishop, Pastor ( aka my First Lady ), my mother ( an Evangelist ) and two other amazing Pastors of my church. I am excited and nervous all at once. This is another door God has opened for me to push me to my calling. I'll be attending a consecration and doing some work while I'm out their for ministry. I leave later on tonight and arrive tomorrow morning. Nine hour bus ride, so I'll most likely get a lot of reading done. On the other hand, we are closing out another successful week of the prayer challenge! I can't believe we've completed three weeks so far. We are at the half way mark...twenty more days to go! To end this week I am going to share the last three types of prayer with an added one to make it four total. I know I said I had nine types of prayer, but there are really ten... 7. Consecration : " He went a little farther and fell on His face, and pray...

Good morning Gems!!! Back to my usual 5am post and emails! Today we are going to continue on with the different types of prayers that we are to do. Again, this post is not an extensive dive on each of the types. It's more of an intro in which I give you some general information and a scripture to read and maybe study for further understanding. I encourage you all to go and study these prayers for yourself! 4. Praise & Worship : " Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. " - Hebrews 13:15 These are prayers in which you praise God for who He is. You come and worship Him with your words in prayer. 5. Faith : " And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive. " - Matthew 21:22 This type of prayer brings to mind the book of James and the prophet Elijah. This type of prayer is believing God’s Word, taking hold of His covenant commitment to it, ...

Good evening Gems!!! I know it's late and not the usual 5am post or email, but Sunday was such a phenomenal day for me. We successfully had our Proverbs 31 Woman Part 3 service and I was more involved this time doing photos, dancing, administrative duties, finances and enjoying the service myself. It was so amazing so I apologize for this late post and email. Today we are going to discuss three types of prayers. In total I have about nine types to share with you all. This is going to be a basic post and not something in depth so you can definitely look into them on your own time. I want these next three days to be a sort of "intro" to these types of prayers. 1. Thanksgiving : " in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. " -  1 Thessalonians 5:18 These are prayers that are seen all throughout the Bible. From David to the disciples. Every person prayed thanking God for who He is, what He's done and the life He has...

Glorious morning Gems!!! Happy Sunday my loves! I pray those who are going to church will have an amazing time. I'll be attending to services today and my church is having a women's service called "Shade of a Proverbs 31 Woman Part 3" and I can't wait! Today we are diving into the different methods of prayer. These are just ways that can help you pray without getting overwhelmed with your prayers. I found that these helped me out when I was getting into prayer more seriously. I'm going to share the four methods I've come across and prayerfully they are helpful to you. PRAY P raise God and pour out your heart ( Psalms 150, Heb 13:15 ) R epent and realize God will hear you ( 2 Peter 3:9 ) A sk and always believe He will answer you ( Matthew 7:7, John 14:13 ) Y ield to what God tells you ( Romans 12:1-2 ) ACTS A doration. Praise God for who He is ( Psalms 48:1 ) C onfession. Confess sins and ask for forgiveness ( 1 John 1:9 ) T hanksgiving...