All tagged prayer
How do you know when you have been praying in fervent prayer? Is it when you end your sentence with Amen, or is it when you unfold your hands, open your eyes, or get up off your knees? Those can all be indications of having prayed, but the real give away regarding fervent prayer is your heart; when the fingers of your soul begrudgingly let go of the hand of God, you return spiritually to your body... and language serves you once more.
How do we pray when we are broken? What do we pray for when we have nothing left, and our life is in total shambles? How do we lift our spirit high enough that we can face God with our desires? We are often embarrassed when we have completely failed in life; we are inclined to cover ourselves in leaves and hide as Adam and Eve did. Is that really what we should do? Is our faith that shallow? Has our God given us up to our despair? No, He comes to us even when our prayer is nothing but a quivering breath. Listen to what He says…
How is your life in Christ? Before you answer this question I would like you to answer another... "How often do I pray?" If we think that our life with Christ is robust because of the things we do, and yet we have not humbled ourselves before Him in prayer; then our relationship with the Lord isn’t robust at all… it is starving.
Are you prepared to pray? By this I mean, are you prepared to pray and receive the blessing for which you spoke with God? So often we come to the Lord unprepared; living one life and praying as if we were living another. I was reading a devotional writing by Pastor Oswald Chambers, and as I did so he wrote of a truth regarding this topic that might cut deep; it answered in part the question of why our prayers are not always answered.
Do you have a secret garden? You know, a secret place that you retreat to when you need to do some serious thinking? How about a quiet place where you can go to be alone with God? Is it a place that you can get to quickly and often? Is it away from all the hustle bustle and the noise of the world around you? Do you begin all your days there? Perhaps it is a closet, a quiet room you go to in the wee hours of morning, or maybe a secret garden that smells of fresh-turned earth and the scent of morning glories. Where is your refuge from the world where you can sit with God?
Living our lives with Jesus is more than attaching a series of disjointed moments that are separated by periods of time in which He has been absent from us into something we would like to call faith. God is never here and then gone but is with us always and in all things. Our Lord Jesus doesn't abandon us to our own devices only to return once we have royally screwed things up. God is with us always, and Jesus said that He would be with us until the end of the age. Are we with them too?
This morning, I read of God's provision and gifts to us in my devotional message. I was strengthening myself in the understanding that He is always there, always good, and always hears and answers my prayers. My confidence in these facts forms the basis for my expectation in Him and relieves me of doubt and worry.
Are we praying continuously and without ceasing? How can we possibly do this with all of the happenings in our lives every day? Yet this is precisely what Jesus is telling us to do and he never asks us to do anything we are incapable of. If we are of the right mind spiritually and are living our lives within the will of God, then we will find that every event we experience in our lives will be performed with Him in our minds. Prayer is communication with Jesus and God, and, in a life which is founded on our faith, this conversation is flowing at all times and in everything we do, say, or think. If our faith is as it should be, we will find that we can't possibly separate ourselves from prayer.
This morning, I am contemplating a rather convicting subject. I am asking myself a couple of questions regarding my ability to serve the Lord in obscurity. Can I do the work of my calling without a grand moment of inspiration from God? And, is my spiritual work dependent on His making a showing or announcement of my service?
Do we want to be great men and women of faith? Is our goal to be like Mother Teresa, Billy Graham, or Martin Luther King? Is working quietly in the trenches of faith unappealing to us? Did the first sentence of your prayer this morning contain "give me", "make me", or "let me?" Well, God sees no need for you to be great in the world unless it just so happens that by so doing it meets a necessity of His will. As a matter of fact, some of the biggest disappointments in the Bible have been great people (like Nebuchadnezzar and Delilah) but men like David became great despite themselves because God needed them for that purpose or as an example. Often (also like David) they were great without having sought greatness.
Is Jesus pleased with us as intercessors? Do we find it within ourselves to pray for sinners, or do we judge when we should actually be praying for them? Do we only want to intercede for the righteous and find that we are doing so at the expense of the sinner?
Are we making intercession for others? Do we even know how to pray in such a manner? I worry about this often as I watch us attempt to pray for one another. Are our hearts in worship as we lift up prayers for those in need? Is there anyone even attempting such prayer? There have been times throughout biblical history when there has been no true intercession. One of them is recorded in Isaiah, and we can read of it in this verse...
How do we reconcile our physical and spiritual selves so that they both mirror Jesus Christ? Sometimes we are so wrapped up in conforming our physical selves that we forget the spiritual side of who we are... or vice versa. Let’s look at this today and see if we can reach an understanding regarding who we really are, and why knowing this is important.
Today let’s contemplate how we can remain joyful in God’s promises while in the midst of our daily distresses. Let’s seek the source of our victory, certainty, and amazement during the trials and tribulations we face. Let’s try to understand how it is possible to feel comfort and joy in Jesus even when we are in the grips of struggling with our problems and the many crises we face.
I am sitting in my prayer chair sipping on a cup of Dark English Breakfast Tea in the pre-dawn grey; having prayed, read my morning devotional and scripture. The house is still, as am I, and the spirit is swirling about me with a sweet peacefulness. This is the time of day that I can hear the Lord without distraction. I just read Oswald Chambers as he discussed a verse regarding darkness, on which I remained obtuse for many years. Does God inhabit the night? Is there something special about the darkness when it comes to our relationship with God? We often fear the night... should we?