3 verses to remember while our men are away!

By: Jacqui Butler

Keep these verses in a safe place to reference during training camp, preseason and beyond!

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer" -Romans 12:12

This is my favorite verse for this season of our lives because it covers all the bases! Maintaining a positive outlook for our men is imperative. Our patience when the conversations are short or when frustration sets in is huge. Above all -Prayer, Prayer, Prayer! -is needed, faithfully covering their bodies, minds and spirits.

"Each of you should use whatever gift you have to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms." -1 Peter 4:10

As a busy wife and mom, sometimes it feels like I serve others all day long! But this verse reminds me to REALLY serve them; it pushes me to make sure I’m remembering to personally demonstrate things like faith and forgiveness every day. Whether you have children or don’t, whatever you’re doing, whatever your talents are, God can use it to encourage someone, inspire them or at the very least spark curiosity about God’s hand on their lives!

"The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down." -Proverbs 14:1

This is a reminder that you have such POWER!! There is power in your actions, attitudes, and your words. Make sure you are building up your men, building up your children, and don’t forget to build up yourself!

Committed to the Cause

Luke 14: 28, “For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?” 2 Chronicles 15:7,” But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.”

Known for many things, women are definitely supporters, nurturers and builders. On a daily basis, you are building relationships, family, businesses, yourselves, community, and most importantly the men God entrusted you with to support. Training camp can be a very stressful time for any NFL family and it seems to come around extremely fast year after year.

As your men are out on the gridiron laying foundations that bring safety nets for your family that will ultimately build an incredible legacy, build alongside him and help him in every area that he may be lacking. God has graced you and gifted you with incredible insight, strategies, wisdom, knowledge and understanding, which are assets and keys to building solid foundations. Many of you are mothers or preparing to become mothers and are trying to ensure that your children are well cared for and safe. Ask God to give you all strength and power to run your household, take care of your children, maintain all of your business affairs and support your husbands, boyfriends and fiancés through the toughest time of the season.

For every builder must count the cost of building a great future and I know each of you counted the cost and examined all of the sacrifices that would come along with being a part of the NFL. You are helping to build something that will benefit generations to come. Every day that you feel tired, frustrated, lonely and ready to give up, know that God is your ultimate contractor and He has all of the plans, details, materials, resources and support workers (called angels) to ensure that your building is completed.No one knows the strength that each of you hold, the grace and the stability that you exercise daily to keep everything together. God has given you a team of co-laborers (other WAGS) that are working alongside of you to encourage you, push you, and give you some extra support to help you and your mate complete your “tower”. Remain committed to the cause and watch God’s commitment to you bring joy, peace, patience and rest.

Hebrews 13:5 says, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” God is committed to you in every way. He is there for whatever you need when you need it. Call on Him day or night!

Let’s Pray…

Father, I thank you for the women who are committed to the cause. Give them everything that is necessary to build alongside the men you have given them to help. As they are building, allow them not to become weary in their well doing. Strengthen for the cause, grant unto them peace, understanding, long-suffering, joy and sustainability. Surround them with support, encouragement and arm-lifters when they are tired. Provide them with resources, knowledge and materials that are necessary to complete every task.

Allow them to feel loved and allow them to give love. While in the building process, allow them to remain patient and have great expectation for their desired outcome. Hold their men accountable to your word and instruction and let these women follow their men as they follow Christ. Release peace in their homes and allow them to remain blessed in their coming and in their going. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Game Changers 180 offers prayer and counseling services to NFL families, for more information please email [email protected]

God is in CONTROL

God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?Numbers 23:19 NLT In preparation for training camp and this upcoming football season, I couldn’t help but share a word that SPEAKS for itself! And in fact, after reading this scripture multiple times, I’m led to believe that maybe the title of this blog is a little misleading, because God is not only in control…but He is in “complete” control. We may not have all the answers for our future, and we may not have any idea whatsoever of what is going to happen, but what we do have is a promise from God that He cannot lie, that He does not change His mind, that He has never failed to act, and that He has never failed to carry through!!!!!

***PRAISE BREAK***

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You see… God isn’t trying to figure this thing out as he goes. He is not oblivious to what is about to happen. He knows! God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.

There is an unspoken level of peace that develops on the inside of us when we are sure of who God is, and we are familiar with His nature. So, I want to take some time to address the nature of our God, in hopes of you getting the revelation during this specific season that God is in “complete” CONTROL despite the uncertainty of our situations.

1. God is omniscient- omniscient simply means all knowing, to have an infinite level of understanding. Therefore, God knows all and understands all things. When we worry, God knows it…that’s why He commands us to not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its ownMatthew 6:34NIV. So take this season by having enough faith that extends day by day…don’t worry about the provisions for tomorrow, because God already knows what tomorrow holds. He is so omniscient that even the very hairs of your head are numbered Matthew 10:30 NIV. I don’t know about you, but I can’t even count the number of hairs on my eye lashes nevertheless my head, so lets just trust God to give us His daily bread, because He is in “complete” CONTROL.

1. God is omnipotent- omnipotent means having unlimited power and able to do anything! WOW!!!! I just got speechless, no literally, I had to take a moment to get my words back together to finish this blog! God’s power is truly UNLIMITED!! That means God can do anything in any situation for anybody! I know you have heard and read this scripture a million times already, but it's true…with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible Matthew 19:26 NIV. Whatever you are believing God to do in this season you must know that you can’t do it without Him. Philippians 4:13 KJV says you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength. The key word here is “through” meaning you have to relinquish whatever hold and control you think you have over your situation, and let the Lord get right in the middle of what looks absolutely impossible. God is in “complete” CONTROL.

1. God is omnipresent- omnipresent means to be present everywhere at the same time; it's widely and constantly encountered. The presence of God is with you always! And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age Matthew 28:20. How peaceful is this promise? That no matter what, Jesus promises to be with us always! He promises to be with us when we are confused and when we are sure, when we are hurt and when we are healed, when we are happy and when we are sad, when we lose and when we win…He is with us ALWAYS! So if we are certain that the Lord is with us constantly, then we know that He is in “complete” CONTROL at all times!

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It is my prayer that in spite of our current circumstances we know and we operate in this understanding that God is sovereign and He is in “complete” CONTROL. I pray that the emphasis of His control throughout this blog settles every impending thought that has brought -discouragement, worry, fear, doubt, uncertainty, and disbelief into our lives -be broken down, and that this word of hope takes root into our hearts and becomes the foundation for which we approach training camp and the rest of this football season. For we know that God is all knowing, God is all powerful, and God is always with us! I pray that from this point on, we will move forward in ridiculous faith knowing that regardless of whatever happens, God is still in “complete” CONTROL. Amen!

OPEN MY EYES THAT I MAY SEE

Ephesians 1:18, “I pray that the perception of your mind may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints,”

Psalms 148:8, “The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; The LORD raises up those who are bowed down; The LORD loves the righteous.”

I woke up the other morning in panic; my vision was very blurry. Then I realized that I had removed my contacts from the night before and just needed to put on my glasses. Wow, simple fix. Then God reminded me of how we see certain people, things, situations, and circumstances. We begin to panic when we cannot see how things are going to work out or how things are going to look. We tend to have an idea of how we want things to look or assume they will turn out the way we have pictured it.

I realized that once I placed my glasses on my face, my vision came into focus and everything was clear again. When God opens our eyes to see through His eyes and not our own, everything becomes a lot clearer. His perception is greater than ours will ever be. I sat and thought that my prayer should be, God, open my eyes so that I may see, as You would want me to see every situation and circumstance.

Sometimes we are “blind” and do not even know we are. I heard a pastor talk about a situation that happened in his family’s life. He lost his daughter to an asthma attack during one of the holiday seasons. He was an emotional wreck. A few years later, he talked about the complaint he had to God of how it seemed that as the years went by he felt as if he was losing the memories he had with his little girl, and that she was becoming further and further away from him. God gently spoke to him and told him that he was not getting further away from her; he was getting closer. God’s response slightly disturbed him. God told him the more he walked in the direction that He was pointing him into, the closer he was walking to destiny and one day his life in Heaven. This insight made him refocus and acknowledge the fact that every day he was living for God placed him closer and closer to his little girl and it totally opened his eyes to see a little differently. 

All of us see our situations and circumstances differently, but the key is to ask God to show you how He sees what is going on in your life. This will allow you to shift your perspective and grab a hold of what the Bible talks about as the “peace that surpasses your own understanding.”

My challenge to you is to ask God to open the eyes of your understanding when it comes to how you see the world, people, politics, business, family, career, motherhood, being a wife and the life you live in the arena of football. This will ultimately assist you with walking out your full purpose in God and through God.

Let’s Pray…

Father, I thank you for the awesome women who read this prayer. Cover them, lead them, guide them, and over shadow them with your love and grace. Show yourself strong in their lives. Give them eyes to see as you see and a heart that will love as you love.

Cover their families; cover their children and future children, and their husbands. Create peace in their homes and unity with their spouses. Calm their fears and give peace in their hearts with things that seem to try to overwhelm them. Grant unto them blessings beyond their asking or thinking. Provide unto them benefits that will keep them from lacking in anything or any area of their lives.

Where they need joy, fill them up, where they need peace, comfort them and where they need strength give them everything that is necessary to endure as a good soldier. Allow them to see that you are blessing them in the midst of trial and tribulation. Allow them to see that what the enemy meant for their bad; you are setting it up for their good.

Father, you have inclined your ear to hear our hearts cry as it is in heaven so shall it be on earth in Jesus name we pray, Amen!

Preparation for Today

 

Psalm 90:12, 17 - “ Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts." “Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us; establish for us the work of our hands- establish the work of our hands!”

Colossians 1:11 -“Being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the Kingdom of light.

Preparation is key to life as a woman, a mother, a wife, and a business owner. You need preparation for everything, especially if you want things to run like a well-oiled machine. John C. Maxwell outlined several things that preparation allows you to do:

1. Allows you to focus on today
2. Increases efficiency
3. Increases confidence
4. Saves money
5. Pays for tomorrow now
6. Takes you to a higher level

There was a man by the name of Moses. He began to pray to God on behalf of the children of Israel. Moses had seen a generation squander 40 years in the wilderness. He believed that if leaders could only gain a keen sense of the swift passage of time, and if they would work for something significant, they could die with a great sense of satisfaction. He wanted them to understand that leaders don’t kill time, they execute it.

Preparation and good use of time, otherwise known as time management, go hand and hand. When you waste time – you waste moments of preparation. As women that stand beside some of the world's greatest athletes, you know there is an allotted time during off-season to prepare for the next season.

Consider this your off-season time to prepare for the things that God has given you. Use this time to ensure that your house is together, that your business ideas are growing and prospering, that your children are supplied with the necessities of life and that you have all of your off-season plans together. This can include: moving, gearing up for a new team or preparing for a list of family activities that bring rest and relaxation after a long hard season.

This is your moment to showcase all of the gifts and talents that God has given you. This is your moment to display your superior skills and talent, confirm your maturity level, and show your leadership and problem-solving capabilities. You can prove you're as much of a team player as you are an individual player for the sake of your family. You can show that you're a go-getter, a follower of direction, a student of the game of life, and an avid listener.

The Game Changer (Take-away) - John C. Maxwell, says:

• Good Decision – Daily Discipline = A plan without a Payoff
• Daily Discipline – Good Decisions = Regimentation without Reward
• Good Decisions + Daily Discipline = A Masterpiece of Potential

This is your moment! Prepare for the greatness that is ahead of you! It’s your time! Every minute of every second counts. God has given you something that most people can only dream of. Make the most of your preparation time.

Let’s Pray

Lord, we honor You for being such a great God and for keeping and carrying us once again into a brand new season. We are grateful and we are thankful. Lord, I lift up these great women to You today and thank you for the strength, love, endurance and keen insight that you have placed within them. Give them even greater eyes to see, ears to hear and revelation as they walk beside their husbands for the remainder of the football season.

Lord, we know that all things are in your hands, under your supervision and in your control. You are the great Alpha and Omega and you are the one who leads, guides and directs every footstep that they make. Lord, show them where to put their footing as they make decisions concerning their family, household and business movements for this season. God, give them clarity and the words to speak over their husbands as they are preparing for the field each day and when they come home.

Lord, I pray a spirit of peace and clarity to fall upon their household and every member in it in the name of Jesus. Let there be no clouds of confusion, distraction or division this season. Remove the weights, barricades and blockages that would endeavor to hinder or stop the move and flow of God in their homes, life, husband, business and family. God lift the standard yet again and show Yourself strong in their lives, emotions, stance and home. Thank you God for a mindset of preparation and a spirit of excitement. It is in the mighty, matchless and holy name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

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Strength in Weakness

 

2 Corinthians 12:9-10, “And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest on me.”

Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

All too often as women we are reminded that we must remain strong; strong for our families, children, loved ones, friends, etc. We develop an ability to smile when we really want to cry, to push when we really want to stop, to carry what so many others would have dropped, to continue to nurture when we ourselves need to be nurtured…and let us not forget that we are to do it all and still be perfectly polished right?!

But let’s just take a moment to throw that thought process of being strong all the time out the window and realize that God never told us to be strong in our own ability. As a matter of fact, He said that it is His very strength within us that is made perfect in our weakness. We all have areas in our lives of weakness, and if we spend our life trying to cover, camouflage and conceal our weaknesses, then we never truly allow God to be great in or through our lives. If we never get to the point of recognizing, and embracing our weaknesses, we will never know and experience the fullness and the power of the strength of God in and through us.

The most powerful moments in life you will ever have will not be at the height of the mountain top or in the things that you were able to accomplish in your own might and strength. It will be in the times when you were at your weakest and looked up to an everlasting, ever loving, ever powerful God and said, “God I need you. I need Your strength. I can’t do it on my own and I don’t want to. Be the strength that I am not. God show Yourself strong.” When God said in Exodus 3:14 “I AM THAT I AM”, it meant that God would be everything that you would ever need Him to be, when you needed Him to be.

He will be your strength when you are weak, your cover when you are exposed, your comforter when you are lonely, He is your EVERYTHING and there is no area of weakness in your life that is too much for God. He wants to be your strength so allow Him! You don’t have to do it on your own and it’s okay to be weak. Those are really your strongest times!

Let’s Pray…

Lord, I thank you for your amazing strength that is made perfect in our every weakness. I thank you for showing us the blessing in the weak areas of our lives because it is in those places that we see your greatness. God, thank you for using the foolish things to confound the wise and the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

Thank You for allowing us to rest in you and to fall into your arms of love when we don’t know what to do. When we feel our weakness rise, I ask that You be the strength within us. Give us the peace to know that our weak areas do not make us fragile, they simply remind us that we are still in need of You. Lord, You are so great in all Your ways and for that we are forever grateful! In Jesus name. Amen

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Strength That Produces Peace

Psalm 28:7-8, “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. The LORD is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.”

Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”

Women were created to be nurturers, carriers, incubators and producers. We were created to help establish and carry out the vision for the family and the home. This is the reason that God called us to be helpmates in the book of Genesis. It's in that very purpose where we tend to wear a lot of different hats and face all types of challenges and obstacles. While enduring hardships, learning to juggle many hats, balancing life and walking through some painful situations, our peace can sometimes be shaken.

In the times of ups, downs and roundabouts your strength can become tested and the mental strain can sometimes can become unbearable; but thank God, He promises that He is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in the time of trouble. He promises us that He will provide a safe place for us to run to when we need it. When we run to Him that is where we find strength that produces peace.

There is something about the peace of God that surpasses all of our understanding. God’s peace will allow us to walk in the midst of storm with strength knowing that He has everything under control.

It’s time for you to tap into the power, strength and peace that God can provide to you. If you try to wear all of your hats and balance life on your own, you will burn out. Burn out always causes fatigue, lack of sleep and frustration which leads to anxiety and stress. The choice is yours, but I know you would rather relax in God knowing that He has it all under control and will provide the strength necessary to flood you with peace, clarity and direction for every area of your life.

Let’s Pray…

Father, I thank You that You thought of these women so much that you sacrificed Your life so that they would know what it was to find strength that produces peace. I thank You that Your peace surpasses all of their understanding and Your strength is made perfect in their weakness.

Lord, fill every lonely place, every dry place, breathe life into every place that seems dead in their lives. Reveal to them Your purpose and good pleasure for their lives. Strengthen them for the course and provide guidance and understanding so that may reach their full potential in You. Give them ideas and creativity for business, community development and kingdom building.

Father, grant unto them strategy to balance all of the hats they have to wear. Give unto them the grace to carry the weight and responsibility that You have given them. Allow them to know that You have a safe place for them at all times for every situation in Jesus name Amen!

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His Creation, His Image, My Mirror

2 Corinthians 10:12, “ For we don’t dare classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. But in measuring themselves to themselves, they lack understanding.”

Jeremiah 1:5, “ I chose you before I formed you in the womb; I set you apart before you were born.

William Shakespeare said it best, “This above all: to thine own self be true.” The power of success lies in true identity. Recognizing and knowing who you are has the power to propel you to fulfilling your purpose.

Identity is defined as “the fact of being who or what a person or thing is.” You can only be who you were created to be. When you operate as a counterfeit, you are no longer authentic and you have just lessened your value to become null and void. In order to find out who you were created to be you have to go to the source of your creation, the creator Himself, God.

God created us to be a representation, reflection, or mirror image of Him. It is amazing that through life we take the images, patterns, personalities and behaviors of everything and everybody that we come in contact with. We see all kinds of NFL wives images on television, in magazines, on social media, Internet and walking around us that sometimes causes a mental distortion in comparison. When we begin to take on those various distortions and they begin to cause us to lose our true identity and the very thing that God created us to be.

When we look in the mirror we should see ourselves as Christ does. Our reflection should be that of God. He created you in His image and in His likeness. Don’t let others opinions of you and what and who you should be conform you into what you were not created to be. Remind yourself daily that you are fearfully and wonderfully made!

Let’s Pray…

Lord, I thank you for your beautiful daughters. I thank You, that You made no mistake in their molding, shaping and creating. You have adopted them into the beloved and You chose them to call Your own.

Lord, I pray that You show them their true identity in You and that all false labels and life lies fall off their lives this day. I ask that You allow them to see their authentic reflection in You when they looks in the mirror and that their lives align with Your truth about who they are in You. I ask Lord that You shape their ways to be Your ways, their will to be Your will and their minds to be Your mind.

Let them no longer question who they truly are, or what their true purpose is, but show them clearly and give them the courage and the strength to walk out the fulfillment of it. Show them clearly the women that You have created them to be. Let their kingdom purpose be known and their lives be lived in the fullness of Your design in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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The Image of "I AM"

Genesis 1:26-27, "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Psalm 139:14, “I will praise You because I have been fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well.

So many of us have heard that we're "made in the image of God." The very idea is a nice thought to hold on to when we need a reminder of our value in life, relationships or difficult situations. But I want us to challenge ourselves a little further than to just think of this in the sense of a nice thought and truly grasp hold of the truth that God literally created the beauty, strength, stature, mind and everything that composes who you are in the very image of Himself.

Do you realize that when you feel like you are less than adequate or inferior or life is telling you that you are not good enough or enough, that God looks at you and says remember that everything I am you are! There is a beauty about you that is astonishing, it radiates from the heart, spirit and soul of who you are. You are the image of The I AM! Nothing about you is less than.

You are GOOD because God is GOOD! You possess everything that you will ever need to in order to accomplish everything that you will ever need to. The greatest blessing in knowing who we in the image of God is that God didn't make us "GOD"...He made us "godlike"...meaning that we have such an incredible strength and ability but even in that, when we face things that get tough we don't have to look to OURSELVES to have all the answers...we can look to the GREAT GOD that created us.

Let's Pray…

Lord I thank you for making this incredible woman in Your image and Your likeness. Lord always remind her of the greatness that is contained on the inside of her and the beauty and grace that she carries.

Give her peace in her mind and strength in her spirit to always see herself as You see her. May she never look to herself to be her own god, but always look to you as her Great and mighty God. Show her that she is indeed fearfully and wonderfully made.

When she questions her value, her position, her beauty or what she is made for, speak clearly Your word back over her that she is the image of I AM and in that she can stand boldly. In Jesus name we pray. Amen

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