Get a drink!!!

What's wrong???

So back in the beginning of May, I told you all in my humor story, "When Your Best Friends with a Nurse" about how my wild imagination caused me to think I could possibly have a brain tumor because I kept feeling dizzy every time I stood up, when I told my lovely nurse friend my symptoms, she informed that most likely I was just DEHYDRATED and that I needed to just...GET A DRINK!!!

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 I had thought up all kinds of wild and crazy schemes and YET, nothing was really wrong with me, I just NEEDED TO GET A DRINK!!! It was the simplest thing, I had forgotten to get enough to drink. I had gotten out of my water routine and my body was letting me know that I needed to hydrate myself. Here in Arizona, one must not forget to hydrate and even more so during the desert. When drinking water, you have to take into consideration also where you are and the climate. I have to remember that I LIVE IN A DRY DESERT and that it's VERY HOT OUT!

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This happened to me AGAIN the day we had the picnic with our church. I was out all day, playing kick ball, throwing water around at each other in the water fight, I was continually pouring water over my head to cool off, buuuuuuut when I got home that night, I realized I was SO THIRSTY, I just guzzled down water. I remember thinking, it's kinda odd that I'm this thirsty, i'm sure I was drinking, I've been playing with the water ALL DAY long.

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BUUUUUT NO

Then it clicked, I had drank some YES, buuuuut most of the time I had just been around water! I had probably been emerged through out the day in at least 5 gallons of water, and yet, none of that really mattered to my body because I had only taken into my body about 1 bottle waters worth. I could be in my swimming pool ALL DAY LONG and STILL get dehydrated while fully emerged in water. BECAUSE,  It doesn't matter HOW much your in or around water if you don't consume it inside of you!

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SOMETIMES

Sometimes in life, in our spiritual lives we think that there is something wrong with us, we feel all weird and off and we begin to think of all the things that could possibly be wrong in our lives. Is there sin in my life? Is God punishing me for something? Has God abandoned me? Has God forgotten me? Is the devil attacking me? WHY IN THE WORLD AM A FEELING THIS WAY???

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What you need

What if it's something SO SIMPLE??? What if you just need to GET A DRINK??? Think about it, when was the last time you got a really good drink from that spiritual well? When was the last time you prayed through til you broke in your spirit? If your feeling like something is wrong with you, MAYBE YOU JUST NEED TO GET A DRINK!!!! 

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Are you spiritually dehydrated???

Oh but I could NEVER be spiritually dehydrated! I'm in church 3 days a week, twice on Sundays, I just got back from a conference 2 weeks ago and our church is in the middle of revival, HOW COULD I POSSIBLY BE SPIRITUALLY DEHYDRATED??? Allow me to tell you from personal experience, it doesn't matter HOW MUCH your around spiritual things, how many church services your in, how much preaching you hear, if it's NOT BEING CONSUMED INTO YOU!!! You can't just be around the spiritual water, you've got to consume it inside of you. You've got to pray until  you BREAK in the spirit.

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Consider your surroundings

Perhaps your thinking, well I don't understand, I AM PRAYING, yet I still feel this way. Sometimes we need to take into consideration where we are in life. Just like living in AZ or it being summer time is a cause for me to need to DRINK MORE WATER, Sometimes the environment we are in is a cause for us to spiritually need MORE WATER! If your living in an ungodly environment, that's like living in a spiritual desert, YES YOU CAN MAKE IT, buuuuuuuuuut your going to need to be drinking MORE WATER!!!

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There are have been seasons in my life that were like a long, hot DRY SUMMER and the only thing I could do to survive was to drink and drink and drink. It seemed like I just couldn't be in church enough, I was SOOOOOO thirsty I would look for opportunities to get more water. I just couldn't get enough, I would drink at church and then home and find preaching CD's to listen to and DRINK SOME MORE. There are seasons in our lives that we will need to remember to drink more. 

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Long Term Effects

Not having enough to drink won't kill you right away, BUT if you don't take care of it, DEHYDRATION WILL KILL YOU!!! Although being spiritually dry is not particularly a sin, spiritually dehydration can lead you into sin.  If not taken care of and repentance is not made, sin will ultimately lead you into a spiritual death.

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Have you gotten a drink yet today???

If NOT, go get one, right now!!! Then another one, and another and another. There's plenty, get some for yourself and pass some to a friend, there's plenty of water to go around. Let's stay hydrated my friends...

GO GET A DRINK!!!!  

"He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." (John 7:38)

♥Mary Frances :)

How to get stronger...

Have you ever tried to

physically become stronger?

 Although I'm not an expert, I have spent some time dabbling in woman's weight lifting. Physically speaking, I'm a pretty strong person to begin with, BUUUUUT, no matter HOW strong you may be, if you want to become stronger, you don't get there by starting with your goal. 

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In other words, when I was weight lifting, I started off with being able to press about 60 pounds over my head, with my person trainer spotting me for safety precautions. However, if my goal was to be able to bench press 100 pounds, I didn't get there by just picking up 100 pounds and start pressing it. I made small changes, adding on 2-5 pounds weekly, slowly but surely getting stronger with each weight added on to eventually reach my goal.

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Now for a woman, I am naturally stronger than most, but not as strong most men. Physically speaking, we are all made differently, men naturally have a tendency to be physically stronger than woman, but we ALL have the potential to become a physically stronger person, IF we work on it. 

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Spiritually speaking, it works THE SAME way. Some of us are naturally just a stronger person than others. One of the strongest people I know was my mom. She was such an emotionally strong person. When she decided that she was going to leave behind everything she had once religiously embraced, she never looked back. She didn't care what anyone thought or said about her, her mind was made up and that was that. No matter what came her way, she just gritted her teeth and kept walking, she was a VERY STRONG PERSON. 

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However, NOT all of us are naturally strong like my mom was. God made us all different. We are not all the same, some of us are just naturally a spiritually weaker person, YET, just because we have this tendency, does NOT mean that we don't have the potential to become a spiritually stronger person. Built inside each and everyone of us, is the capacity to become spiritually stronger.

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How can we spiritually become stronger?

Spiritual exercise is how we spiritually become stronger. Spiritual strength comes from seeking after God. We seek after God through prayer and studying His word. Yet, just like physical strength building, we don't get to our goal, by starting with our goal. We reach our big goals spiritually, by staying consistent with the small changes we make, working towards our ultimate goal. 

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At the Bible college I attended quite a few years ago, there was a class I took on prayer. Our instructor taught us that everything in life has a beginning and that includes our prayer lives. If you want to pray an hour a day, you don't have to start off with that goal, you can start with something small and add on. You can start off with praying for 5 minutes every day, CONSISTENTLY, for a month, then the next month add on another 5 minutes and start praying for 10 minutes a day. Slowly but surely, you will spiritually begin to have a strong prayer life.

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OR if you don't want to set the timer, you could turn on some good Christian music and say, ok, I'm going to start off with praying through one whole song on this CD, then if I get lost in the spirit and end up feeling to pray longer, I won't become distracted by a buzzing timer. The same thing goes with reading the Bible, you don't have to start off with reading THE WHOLE Bible in ONE DAY. But everyday, CONSISTENTLY read a little bit of your Bible and eventually you'll have read it all the way through. It doesn't matter where you start out spiritually, you have the potential to become stronger.

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EXCUSES

Well, I'm just not a strong person you say and that may be true, some of are just naturally emotionally and spiritually weaker individuals, BUT the question isn't, are you strong? The question is: ARE YOU DOING ANYTHING to make yourself stronger??? If your thinking, well I'll NEVER be as strong as So and so, that's ok, God is NOT expecting you to be as strong as them, BUUUUUUT, he is expecting you be the strongest person YOU can possibly be! 

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Don't be lazy, 

START YOUR SPIRITUAL

STRENGTH BUILDING TODAY!!! 

"And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.For if these things be in you, and abound, they make [you that ye shall] neither [be] barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1:5-8)

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♥Mary Frances :)