Praying for My Beloved Country

 

Gail-Friends, please join me in prayer for America.  You can add your prayers AND praises in the comments below. It's important to know the truth about what's going on, so please see my posts about alternative news outlets.  We are in a war between good and evil.  There is violence in our streets.  Our leaders and law-makers need our prayers and support - President Trump and his cabinet, the congress, courts, city, county, and state officials. Our peace-keepers need our prayers and our support - police, state troopers, sheriffs, military, national guard, and especially ICE.

We believers are called to fight in this war, too.  Please see my previous posts about our spiritual weapons: FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT.

Dear Heavenly Father – We praise You and give You all glory, honor, and praise. Even when things look dark and hopeless, we cling to You, our Rock! As we watch the demonic chaos in the streets of Minneapolis and other cities, we REMEMBER to cast down imaginations, and every thought that exalts itself against Your Truth. Blessed are You, oh Lord our God, King of the Universe, Creator of all and Master of all. You are in control no matter how dark things seem. You hear our prayers, and we know that You have not given us a spirit of fear...but of peace, and love, and power through Your Holy Spirit. HALELUYAH!

We praise and thank You for the good things we’ve seen over the past week:

The truths that are coming out about paid protesters in Minneapolis and other cities, and for the work of independent journalists who are boldly going where the mainstream media will not go. God, we pray for their protection.

For the gift of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Trump by Venezuala’s Maria Corina Machado for his "unique commitment" to Venezuela's freedom and his actions in support of their cause (following U.S. involvement in the ousting of Nicolás Maduro). HALELUYAH! He is a man of peace, having helped to end eight wars over the past year.

Thank You, Father, that President Trump was able to influence Iran not to kill 800 anti-government protesters. We pray for peace in Iran.

HALELUYAH! America’s economy is improving: gas prices and mortgage rates dropped, and the trade deficit hit a 16-year low, attributed to President Trump’s trade policies.

Thank You, Father, that changes are being made related to children’s vaccines, costs of medicines, and healthy diet /food guidelines. We pray for President’s new health care plan to be favored and passed by the Congress.

We give You glory, Father!

Lord, I pray along with everyone here for accountability for those who have tried to steal, kill, and destroy our beloved country. We pray for these traitors to be prosecuted and brought to justice. It is time, Father, for the TRUTH to be told.

We pray for our Supreme Court judges as they hear oral arguments related to transgender athlete bans - to make a wise, common sense, scientific, and Biblical decision. And I pray for every judge that makes any decisions that are against Your Word, Will, and Ways to be removed – from the highest to the lowest court.

We pray about the elections coming in the months ahead… for godly, righteous  men and women to run and be elected to office.

We pray for all election fraud to be revealed and prosecuted.

Father as I watch the news, I ponder how many people there are who fight against what President Trump is doing to save our country. You spoke this to my heart :

They cannot see or hear spiritually. They never will see and hear what you see and understand – UNLESS AND UNTIL they (like the prodigal son) come to their senses. They see through the eyes of pride – wanting and doing their own will and ways...just as you once did...until you were humbled. Just like the prodigal son when he woke up in a pig pen and covered with their waste. He came to his senses and said to himself, I will go to my fathers house. You did the same.

Yes, Father, thank You for Your patience with me and for You bringing me to my senses. So I pray for blinded eyes, deaf ears, and foolish or evil hearts to be humbled – for them to come to their senses, repent (turn to Your Laws, Will, and Ways), and to recognize Yeshua as our only payment for turning our backs on you. You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life – and I pray for a burning fire in myself and everyone here to share this truth. Give us divine appointments to share the Torah and Yeshua.

I pray this blessing over my Gail-Friends:

The Lord bless you and keep you; 

the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; 

the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

Pray for America

 

God laid this prayer on my heart last week as I watched the insanity in Minnesota**:

 

No matter how dark the day, GOD'S light shines through. He encourages us to see from a heavenly perspective, with HOPE.

 

Father, we call for Your warring angels to come between the violent demonic forces and our ICE agents to protect and defend them.

 

We pray for the demonic mission to steal, kill, and destroy to be defeated in every state.

 

We pray for the eyes of the blind to SEE - our beloved America is turning away from "lawlessness" to "lawfulness" - not only civil law, but Your holy, righteous law.

 

May Your Word, Your Will, and Your Ways reign in America, and may the Golden Era be the bright and and shining way of holiness.

 

Today, I read of  a national call to prayer from Franklin Graham:

If you think our nation is in trouble now, just wait… As our streets boil over with hate, anger, crime, drugs, and just sheer hopelessness, is there something we can do? You bet there is.

 

I would like to call for a time of prayer and repentance this Wednesday, January 14, at 12:00 noon.

As a nation, our sins are so great. We have increasingly turned our backs on God and His commands, embracing godless secularism. We need to ask His forgiveness and seek His face.

 

Pray for our leaders, and pray that God would bring calm to our streets.

 

There are many who would like to stir things up—there are even those who would like to destroy this great country. Pray that these efforts would be thwarted and their plans would be brought into confusion.

 

Ask God to use His Church to be His instruments of peace in this time of great uncertainty.

 

Remember, this Wednesday at noon, please stop and pray. Millions of people remembering our sins and asking for forgiveness, repenting, and seeking His face will make a difference.

 

Let’s humble ourselves. Let’s give God the glory for this great nation and thank Him for His hand of blessing, protection, and mercy.

 

~~~~~~

** Please watch this news from independent journalist Nick Shirley on YouTube:  

 This is a much bigger scandal than Watergate, and it's being brushed under the rug by the news media. I believe the protests against ICE are paid for by evil people who are intent on destroying our country. Also, I believe they are to deflect attention from the scandal exposed by the Nick Shirley video.  That scandal is only the tip of the iceberg of fraud and abuse in other states, which is in the billions of dollars.  

 

 If you don't follow the national news, or if you only watch the alphabet news outlets (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN) you won't see what's really happening.  I recommend FOX, Right Side Broadcasting, and other conservative outlets on "X" (formerly Twitter).   Please read this post about alternative outlets

Golden Cottage Update

 

Today is January 11, and December is a blur, Gail-Friends.  I hope your holidays were happy, peace-full, and blessed.  Ours were "different" . . .  busy, but blessed.  Jem was sick for about two weeks, and our daughter's family was sick for over three weeks - coughs, sneezing, fevers, chills - all the things that go along with flu season.  They are all well now, Praise the Lord!  And I praise the Lord that I never came down with any of it.

But, let's back up, y'all.  Here are a few pics from the months of November and December that show what's been happening at Golden Cottage:

In November, our daughter Amanda was part of an musical variety show called a Brown Bag Concert.  She joined the ten-piece Bucket List Band in an amazing concert.  The venue was very nice - at a local Elks Lodge.  It was called "brown bag" because everybody brought their own dinner meal.  Many brought homemade food while others brought pizza, subs, and other restaurant meals.   

Amanda is the singer on the left.  She, and all of them, put on a fantastic show.  The songs were an entertaining mixture of oldies through current popular songs.  The venue has a nice dance floor, so Jem and I enjoyed both the music and dancing together.  Places / venues like this are rare in this area, so we thoroughly enjoyed the evening out and hope there will be more events like this.  

During November and December, we have what we call "Florida snow" in our area.  It's so beautiful, y'all, and we dearly love it. 

Oh, before I forget, Gail-Friends, I have to tell you about a wonderful restaurant we visited - it's Palm Shores Bistro in Melbourne, Florida.  We like to lunch there when we visit the Base Commissary and Mama Jo's Herbals in Indian Harbor Beach (I'll have to do a separate post about that wonderful place later).  The bistro is on the river, with a beautiful river view, and the food is ALL good.  But I had to show you the desserts.  We didn't indulge, but they are so beautiful, I had to take pictures for you:

 The cinnamon buns are HUGE and smell so good!  And the six-layer carrot cakes and red velvet cakes are gorgeous works of art.  

So tempting, but thankfully, I was able to resist all of that. (except the stollen and jingle-jangle - but more about that later, LOL). I'm still focused on more healthy sweet treats. 

This is a homemade sugar-free keto tiramisu that is really good.

 

and some pretty and satisfying pumpkin muffins I made.

We did get to go to our oldest grandson's music concert before all of the sickness hit.  He attends a musical arts school and we enjoyed his chorus presentation, but didn't make it for the band concert.  He is a part of the percussion section and was invited to be a part of a local college concert during the holidays.  My photos of the concerts didn't turn out, so that's sad.  He's a very talented musician and singer, and a member of a local STEM program.  We're thankful that his parents home school him and his brother.  He gets his scientific/engineering smarts from his father, and his musical abilities from his mother.  What a delightful blend, right? (oh that box he's holding has a funny story with it - but later, Gail-Friends.

 

We had a good "after the holidays" visit with them last week.  Thankfully, they were all well and able to be around us old folks.  Our youngest grandson is a busy little boy and we didn't get our usual family picture.  He was way too busy and excited about his new toys - and Gigi's apples.  He loves to play with them and I have to do a search after they leave to find where he's hidden them.  (JOY!)  I'm really falling down in taking pictures lately.  I just get absorbed in the moment - enjoying being with my loves, right?

Our Hanukkah celebration was lonely but good due to the sickness.   I did some decorating in the house and we did the nightly prayers and candle-lighting.  There's a song I love to sing each year at this time, even though it's not really a Hanukkah song.  It speaks of how Adonai has brought us to this season again.  Here's the link:  It begins with Hebrew, so hang in there - and pay close attention to the provided lyrics.   Shehekiyanu by Ted Pierce.

It is always good to pause during Hanukkah and think back to the past year - about how He has blessed us, guided us, protected us, and provided for us.  I can tell you, Gail-Friends, 2025 was a blessed year for us, and we praise Him whole-heartedly for all He's done and we rededicate our lives to our mission:  to take the Torah and Yeshua to those around us.

 

Here are a few shots of Golden Cottage during the holidays:

I decorated the back porch table with a lighted JOY sign. (more about that later) .  Jem and I made latkes and fried donuts. The pretty pillow was a gift from my friend, Betty, my son-in-love's mother.  

 

For Christmas, we enjoyed meet-ups with dear friends and a party at the air museum where Jem volunteers.  We watched some beautiful worship-full Christmas music concerts on tv AND our favorite holiday movies: A Christmas Story and White Christmas.  I played Christmas music videos on Pandora and YouTube for weeks and sang all of the Christmas songs that I never tire of singing - the hymns/songs about Jesus, y'all.  How wonderful that His name is lifted up and that our country pauses to REMEMBER. May it always be so in America.

 

We did a ride-through of a nearby neighborhood to look at holiday lights. No photos, though, because the traffic was very heavy and we had to pay attention to cars and people walking around.  The neighborhood also does luminaries, which I love so much, and we enjoyed seeing the neighbors sitting around fire pits in their driveways.  There were some awesome digital displays this year, too. 

 

 Jem and I enjoy giving food gifts to our neighbors every year, so we made homemade peanut butter cookies and went door to door delivering them.  FUN! 

  

Well, Gail-Friends, this is getting long, so I'll share more in my next post.  Blessings and love to you all, from me and my Jem.