Exactly!

By Kathy Myrkle

Exactly! is a book of short essays which talk about the variety of ways that God helps us. Some of them are humorous, some fascinating, some difficult, some joyful, and some challenging...but all insightful. God loves each one of us exactly as we are in this exact moment. Through this book you will find moments of despair...of hope...of sadness...of wonder...of joy. You will find moments of challenge where God reached out, in both small and great ways, and simply loved us exactly where we were. His words were given for us to share with others, but in the writing and in the sharing, God touched our souls in incredible ways. He met us exactly as we were each time. May he meet you exactly where you need him today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098043971

Book preview

The Impossible

Mary Lynn Knapp

December 10, 2013

I’ve been thinking, lately, about just how should we pray for someone. What should we pray for? The Holy Spirit has been speaking to me about how I pray, and I was getting a little offended. What’s wrong with my prayer? At least I am praying, right?

Well, friend, not so fast. God has created our natural body to heal itself from most things—surgery…the flu…a cold. He has provided doctors with knowledge and manufacturers with medications to aid our bodies. Can we ask Jesus to heal? Sure. Will the body heal anyway? Probably. There are instances of unexpected and seemingly impossible healings that occur. When those supernatural healings happen, I should be carrying on like the fans of whoever won the Super Bowl last week.

Not everyone wants prayer for healing. Some just want to go home. I need to think about that when I begin to pray for someone. What do they want? It’s a hard question to ask someone but a good question. I most probably may be praying for just the opposite of what they want.

One of the reasons I’m told to pray is to bring glory to God. I can do that in a number of ways. The first and easiest is to thank him. When I humbly and publicly thank him for his answer to my prayer, I am giving him glory and also testifying to others of his glory. Another thing I can do is to pray for what seems completely impossible in our eyes: something that would never happen on its own. When I do that and the Holy Spirit brings it to pass, I can say that the glory and praise for that answer belongs totally to him.

Often, I don’t pray for something because I think it is too small…or…it’s too big and I’m afraid I will pray and it will never come to pass. I better just pray for what is safe. A friend of mine had a lifelong debilitating disease. It affected her ability to live, to work, and to have relationships with people. I asked, Have you ever prayed for healing? My friend said, No. When I asked why, the answer was: What if he doesn’t? I don’t know if I could trust him again. I told my friend that at least I could pray. So we sat together, and I prayed for complete and total healing of her disease. God did not let that prayer go unanswered. My friend was healed in a remarkable way. This was almost four years ago, and there is no return of any symptoms of the disease. Nothing is too much for God, and nothing is too little.

The Holy Spirit has taught me to pray for more than what will just happen naturally, to publicly thank him when he does answer, to pray for people the way they want to be prayed for, and to pray for the impossible. It is with the impossible that God’s glory will shine through.

Truth

Kathy Anne Myrkle

June 22, 2014

Have you ever wondered whether God does miracles anymore? Do you have the courage to believe that he does?

I went on a mission trip for ten days to Guatemala. Our chief focus was on building an orphanage, but we held tent meetings every few nights in different villages. During the meetings, the gospel of Jesus Christ was preached, and the hearers had an opportunity to accept Jesus as Lord. At every meeting, people streamed to the front as their lives changed forever. And then one night, when the speaker gave an invitation for people to come who wanted God to heal them, they came in droves. Since I was one of the ten people on the ministry team, I was blessed to be able to pray for people. I neglected to tell you that the service was bilingual. My Spanish was respectable, but the people spoke Spanish with an Indian dialect. I could understand most of what they said, as long as they spoke slowly.

A woman came forward for prayer. I laid hands on her and said, "En el Nombre de Jesus! (When translated, it means In the Name of Jesus!") The lady immediately lifted her hands, and tears poured out of her eyes. She began to speak rapidamente (rapidly), and I could not follow what she was saying. I asked one of the interpreters to come over, and he listened to her. He said, She is praising God. She was blind and now she sees. Truth.

Depression

Kathy Anne Myrkle

August 17, 2014

Depression: How can a church family help those suffering from depression?

Many times, those with depression (or any mental illness) have encountered condemnation and judgment from their church family and friends. In truth, a supportive church is vital to their ability to walk close to the Lord. Those with depression need a place where they can be accepted and loved.

Depression is misunderstood by many because there are so many things that can trigger it. Chemical imbalances in the brain, unpleasant life events, certain drugs or combinations of drugs, and chronic stress or illness are just a few of the triggers.

There are some practical things we can do to help those who are suffering. They are similar to what you would do to help physically ill people.

Be there. Simply sit with them, and if they wish, pray with them. Bring a meal and dine with them. Go for a walk with them. Take them grocery shopping. Tell them how important they are to you. Tell them you care for them just as much when their emotions are down as when they are up.

Give them positive statements to place in different places throughout their home so they are reminded about how much God and others care about them.

Try not to judge or criticize by implying that they can make themselves better if they just tried harder.

Avoid offering advice; instead ask, What can we do to help you feel better? This gives them an opportunity to ask for what they need.

Be patient. When you are patient, you are letting them know that it doesn’t matter how long this is going to take, because you will be there. This patience has a powerful result. With patience comes hope. When someone has depression, hope can be hard to come by.

This is Christlike giving at its best. This kind of care gives comfort.

Sunday Comes, Sunday Goes

Kathy Anne Myrkle

August 31, 2014

Sunday comes; Sunday goes. Frequently, we walk out of church with some level of commitment to apply the scriptures and ideas we heard. Let us become more aware, more sensitive to the moving of the Holy Spirit. He gives us power to do more than just preach the gospel. He gives us the power to meet people right where they are, in that exact moment, and the privilege of delivering the gifts of comfort, joy, peace, hope, and fellowship, with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to truly worship God with our entire being.

Run the Race

Kathy Anne Myrkle

November 30, 2014

When I was in high school and college, I was on the swim team. I remember getting up early before school…5:00 a.m.…to be in the pool for a workout at 6:00 a.m. The pool was cold…seventy-eight degrees, maybe eighty if we were really lucky. As we trained, we swam short distances as fast as we could and long-distance sets, pacing ourselves but as quickly as we could. We knew the distance and the number of times we would swim the length of the pool just moments before we had to push off. We strived to build our endurance both physically and mentally. I remember: Stroke, stroke, and breathe. Stroke, stroke, and breathe. Flip the turn at the end and do it all over again.

Oh, the excitement, the adrenaline, the anxiety—all mixed together with my practices, to provide the foundation for my particular event.

The difference between my life now and then is that I’m still racing, but the race includes working out in spiritual, physical, and mental ways. It’s easy to see how we can keep fit physically through exercise and good nutrition. This is very important as the other areas of our lives are better or worse depending on how well we take care of our bodies.

The spiritual development becomes a bit more challenging because it demands a great deal of time and intentional living to make your spirit grow. Do you pray? Do you know how to pray? Do you worship? Do you have good music to worship with? What about study and application of the Bible? Do you attend church regularly and participate in a ministry? Do you listen and wait for direction from the Holy Spirit?

Mental health is most difficult to maintain, and we must work out to achieve balance. We must mind the ways we are thinking; am I all or nothing thinking? Am I thinking that the worst will happen? These are two ways of stinkin’ thinkin’ that can bring discouragement, anxiety, and depression to our lives.

Run the race, my friends! Equip yourself body, spirit, and soul as you run toward the Lord, as fast as you can!

He’s Always Been Faithful

Kathy Anne Myrkle

December 7, 2014

It was the dead of winter, with blistering cold, so cold that the snow crackled when you walked on it and tree branches fell from the deadness of their weight. It was two in the morning, and I was somewhere in Germany on top of a mountain, freezing.

I was in the Army, and we were out on another two-week field maneuver. I hadn’t had a shower in four days…four days of sweating, freezing, and sweating again and again as we constantly moved our equipment over the two-week exercise. We hadn’t had a hot meal for over four days.

How many hardships can one face at a time? When in the midst of them, I try to make myself believe I am able to endure them by thinking of others in worse situations. I may complain less; but I’m still freezing cold, filthy dirty, and hungry for something hot to eat. Hot coffee would be like having a Thanksgiving meal. What I do remember is that I got through those times by repeatedly saying to myself The joy of the Lord is my strength and knowing that my hardship was time limited.

When I survey my hardships now, I still feel challenged to rise to the occasion, to conjure up a faith I don’t feel. I keep telling the Lord, You said that you were my provider. Please continue to do this for me. Thank you, Lord. How much faith I am able to summon depends on a lot of different things…the weather, my emotions, my intimacy with the Lord, and the unknown length of time I will have to endure the hardship.

How do I get through these hard times now? I get up every day…yes, sometimes it’s hard to get out of bed…but I get up and take courage. God is on my side. I don’t ask questions like Why is this happening to me? or Why isn’t God answering my prayers? Instead, I ask, What can I do in spite of this need I have while I am waiting for the Lord to provide?

It takes practice to exercise spiritual muscles, and sometimes the wait for fulfillment can be daunting or even painful. Worry is an ever-present enemy.

And so I stand. I wait. I do what I can. I give. Yes, I give. I can’t out-give God, but I know he takes pleasure in our giving. I give whatever I can find to give. I give, I suppose, to encourage myself to stand on God’s Word. He will supply all my needs. He will. I never know when, but he has always, always been faithful.

Predictable Path

Mary Lynn Knapp

December 29, 2014

As Christians, our lives often follow a predictable path. We attend Sunday school and church. We go to prayer meetings. We help in children’s ministries. We belong to small groups. We speak of ways to witness to others of our Christianity. We read our Bible, often all the way through in a year. We listen to our pastor’s messages and even take notes. We live our lives with people who are just like us—they believe like us and they behave like us. We pray for those who are not like us. We are in dismay and shake our heads over their sin. We talk about their sin, we talk about our love for them, and we pray for their salvation.

Then one day one of our own has become one of them. One of our own has sinned in a grievous manner. Surely, they must never have been one of us. Where is God? Where is the One whom we have served? Where is the One who has promised to care for us? How could we not have seen this coming? What are we going to do now? How are we going to pick ourselves up and move on? How are we going to look at that one with the love we once had? How are we going to pray for that one? They knew the way, they studied the scriptures with us, they prayed with us, and they worked alongside us in ministry. How can we ever forgive them? They knew the way, and yet they didn’t follow it.

What if that person we are speaking of is me? Something has come from behind, has picked me up, and has thrown me against a brick wall with the force of a tornado. As I lie against the wall, broken, dirty, bleeding, and bruised, I look around and wonder what has happened. I cry out to God, What happened? How do I ever get past this?

In your brokenness, look in Galatians. Paul said, "Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day is out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived" (Galatians 6:1–3, the Message [MSG]).

May we forgive.

May we forgive with our whole hearts.

May we even extend that forgiveness to ourselves.

Father in heaven, give us your grace to forgive.

Peace

Kathy Anne Myrkle

January 11, 2015

Istood near the screen door with my hand curled around the cold steel of my bunk bed frame. Eight other girls were laughing and throwing things at one another. Many of us have been there—summer camp. I was thirteen years old; and it had become, for me, the time of many great wars—wars because I belonged nowhere. I was too old to find my place among children, but too young to find company with the adults. I was a tweener before the term even existed.

In a lonely moment, I turned my back upon my cabinmates—for I did not share their feelings of hilarity—and banged out the screen door to find a place as solitary as my soul. I stopped when I arrived. Time told the story of the travel of my hand from cold steel to the prickly sensation of tree bark and the petaled comfort of a leafy sky.

You see, I didn’t fit. My young, old soul yearned for the heart of God. I knew no one who had felt thusly. As I squatted inside the forest of swaying trees, my heart beat with wretched fury. What would lay my soul to rest? What would cause me to trade the joyous camaraderie of those my age for the sway of a gentle tree?

Times were dangerous then. You could have plucked my soul from my body and given me relief. But as I stilled my body—and waited—the Holy Spirit came and touched my soul. It was then he released the pain in my heart and took it straight to the throne of God.

Breathe in. Breathe out. My thundering heart began to slow to a tremble, and I became still. It was the first time in my memory that I came to understand what people meant when they said, The peace that passes all understanding.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6–7)

Welcome, Holy Spirit

Kathy Anne Myrkle

January 11, 2015

From deep within the heart of the church comes a prayer—a single voice…echoing from the walls of the sanctuary…now joined by many. Holy Spirit, you are welcome in this place! The Holy Spirit comes and descends upon us, just like he did with Mary. She became pregnant with Jesus. We, who make the call and throw the mat, become pregnant with hope, with joy, with peace, and with unity. With one voice, we pray and lift the glorious name of Jesus. We hail God as the Almighty, Creator, Beginning, and End. We yearn for the move of the Holy Spirit, for his fiery, outpouring power that heals us and makes us united in will and in hope of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Join us in prayer, if you can. Release your heart to call upon the name of the Lord and see what he has intended for you!

Ministry Event

Kathy Anne Myrkle

March 1, 2015

We have come to know the people of the church better and to