Monica wrote the email letter below.

Things here are going pretty well. As I said briefly the other night when you were on IM (which was way cool), I prayed about the circumstances here. I prayed for God to change my heart. I forget who taught that it isn't always your surroundings that you should be praying change for, but yourself first. God will change your heart and those same things will not affect you in the same way. Hey, what do you know? It is working. AND it is a lot less stressful that way. I still have (well, God has it) some things to work on, but I am getting there.

God is getting me ready! I am not going to fight it. When he says change, I want to change. No going round and round the same old mountains (Joyce Meyer). Why fight God and what will essentially be sooner or later? We might as well make it sooner and get on with the show, right? :-) Here I come world, ready or not. Devil back on up. I just read some awesome verses about not letting the devil get to you!

These are some verses I sent to Jessie. They all went together so well. :-) Well, duh...guess they would. God put them together. Anyway...

1 Corinthians 14:33-"God is not a God of confusion but a God of peace." YES, LORD! You are a God of peace. When I become confused, that is not from you. It is from the devil trying to trip me up. Be gone! My God will clear up the confusion and in its place give me lasting peace.

Hebrews 10:35-36-"So do not lose the courage you had in the past, which has a great reward. You must hold on, so you can do what God wants and receive what he has promised." I really like this verse. When God gives me peace about something, and I live it, the devil does not like it one bit. He sees that I am closer to God's will and pulls out some new tricks to put upon me. I pray, Lord, that I don't lose the courage or anything you give to me, but that I hold onto it and receive all you have for me. No trip ups from the evil one! Our God has great plans for us, and we are not about to let the devil trick us out of all those wonderful things!

James 4:7-"So give yourselves completely to God. Stand against the devil, and the devil will run from you." AMEN!!! Run devil. RUN. I am standing against you. You have no...none...zero...authority over me. Thank you, Jesus.

I was watching Paula White yesterday. She did a sermon on the shovel that God gives you. Basically she was saying that there are times in our lives when we may feel as if we are being buried alive. Dirt keeps piling up from all sides. God has given us what we need to prevail. In this illustration it is a shovel. When the devil tries to pile it on thick, we shovel. We dig! DIG!! DIG!! Keep on digging. We have what it takes. We can't let the devil trick us into thinking that we are no better than he is or that we are to walk with him. NO! We are better. We are the heirs of God the Father, co-heirs of Jesus Christ. We are the righteous and through Jesus Christ have rights to all that he had with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Jessie and I send this type of stuff back and forth, prayers about all kinds of stuff and encouragement! We share things we want to pray about together. It is really cool. I like this new level of friendship we have come to. :-)

Love ya,

Monica <><