Encouragement

I was praying today about a certain thing in my life.  The answer didn't happen right away but this word came to me.  Elijah and the storm cloud.  The Father had closed up the heavens because of the
 sin and wickedness of the land.  He told Elijah that he was going to bring the rain but when Elijah prayed, nothing happened.    He had to pray numerous times.  At first, he couldn't see the cloud but then a small one appeared but it was far away on the horizon.   He prayed seven times in all.  If you are discouraged about your answer just remember Elijah.  Pray for a word and then you will be confident in the answer.  Elijah had already gotten a word that the rain would come, so he had no doubt that it would get there eventually.  He just persisted in prayer until the answer came.  The story of Elijah is here!  An amazing book called The Necessity of Prayer by E.M. Bounds is a super good read if you are interested in something that will help you build your faith.  I downloaded this book onto my kindle and I want to share some of what I gleaned from this book.  Hopefully, if you are facing some serious battles in your life right now you will consider buying this little gem.  Only Yahuah can move mountains, but faith and prayer move Yahuah.  The scripture for that is located here.  One thing I want to mention about this book is that it does use the name of Jesus.  There are many opinions about the use of this name.  I have a blog post about it all here.
Another scripture to go along with that is located in Mark 11:24 and can be found in that same scripture reading.  I urge you to get this book and spend time with the Father if you are going through a trial today.  Call out to him about everything and if you need to be saved then check my salvation post here.  How to get the Holy Spirit here.
This book also speaks that when our faith is where it is supposed to be, it stirs us to action.  Just like Elijah continued to pray, our faith will cause us to move.  Our faith is strengthened when it is tested especially with delays.
Faith grows by reading and meditating upon the Word and it thrives in an atmosphere of prayer.  Faith can be built up by fasting which brings you closer to our Father and gets rid of sin and by praying in the Holy Spirit.  This builds up your most holy faith.  You can read about that in scripture here.  I hadn't done any bible journaling for awhile because I have been babysitting my grandbaby a lot.  Today I almost tried a wave by my favorite bible journaler, but I decided to do some clouds and rain because it went along with the story of Elijah.  I don't remember ever trying to paint clouds and rain before so it was something new to me and was very fun.  I also took a picture of my new journaling bible that I absolutely love.  I love to write stuff in my Bibles.  I have always done that even before they invented these journaling bibles.  If you are looking for a great Bible to journal in or do art in, I use the Tyndale Journaling Bible.  It is the New Living Translation.  It was really crazy that I just happened to be studying about Tyndale one day and looked at my new Bible to see the name of it and couldn't believe that it was a Tyndale Bible.  If you have never studied about him you won't be disappointed.  I will leave a link to this Bible if I can find one.  The other Bible I use is the Max Lucado Bible.  It is called the Inspirational Study Bible.  I love both of my Bibles and still use both of them.  The Tyndale Bible has some really good prayers in it that really touch my heart and the Lucado Bible has amazing commentary that gives new depth to the stories.