I sat down to just set up a devotional thought for this blog and looked at the praying hand bookends that my wife inherited from her grandmother. My wife's grandmother was a woman of prayer. She knew how to pray, what to pray, when to pray, and usually the results of her prayers have reached deeply into my life. She is with Jesus now, so she no longer prays since she has no needs, and is at peace with God's will. When I consider her prayer life, it makes me wonder what truths about prayer she understood that made her a spiritual giant of intercession? How can we pray like that?
I have read the Prayer of Jabez and am working on The Power of a Praying Husband. I have studied the Scripture in prayer and I still have a lot to learn, but I have learned a few things. So here are some thoughts for you to consider for your own prayer life.
1. God is not interested in your eloquence, He is interested in your heart. When you read through the Psalms, you see raw emotion invested into the prayers that were recorded there. Psalm 83 opens with a plead to God to respond immediately (just one of many in the Psalms). The language of the prayers in the Psalms is sometimes desperate, sometimes angry, sometimes despairing, yet always honest. When you set yourself to speak with the God of the Universe, just remember that He knows every inch of you (Psalm 139:1-2). He just wants you to keep it real with Him... He is interested in your heart.
2. The posture of prayer is not as important as the posture of your heart. People need to stop thinking that God listens to the prayers of those who kneel, who bow their face to the dirt, who stand with heads bowed and eyes closed, etc. Again... God is looking at your heart. When confessing your sins, He desires a broken and contrite spirit. When making your requests known to God, He wants you to have faith in His will and be thankful for everything that He has done, is doing, and will do. Let the Spirit move you in prayer and your body will follow. The broken man will rarely have strength to stand, and the thankful man will sometimes be unable to remain bowed down... but the point is, be real with God and let your physical posture in prayer be a clear reflection of what God is doing in your spirit.
3. Prayer is a response to God, not an initiation of contact. When you take a request to the Lord, remember, He knows it already. Before a word is on your lips, He knows it. We so often get sucked up into this thinking that God is unaware or uncaring of the problems that we are facing. The reality, though, is that God is ready for every trial that we will face. There are several reasons that God seems distant from us: 1) we are going through the refining trial intended to make us stronger in our faith. 2) we are engaged in a sin that we refuse to let go for our relationship with God. 3) we simply have been neglecting our time with God each day.
Really, there are a lot more, but then this wouldn't be a devotional thought for the week or a discussion point. As we consider our prayer lives, let us remember that prayer is our half of our conversation with God. If we do not approach it properly, how can we expect it to have any effect? And worthless praying is simply insane babbling... like what other religions do. Think about it!
Dec 5, 2010
Nov 18, 2010
Time for a New Day
Did you ever sit down and look at your Bible and just think, I really don't feel like reading this right now? Do you have something more interesting you would like to be doing? Some people want to play video games, some people may want to spend time on facebook, some have shopping to do, etc. Maybe you just don't feel like trying to find something meaningful for your life. After all, it is not easy to make a personal life application out of every part of the Bible. Some of you reading this, though, are just lazy. Maybe life is going alright for you and you don't really need the extra spiritual guidance. You go to church every week, so you are getting your fill of the Word.
It is easy for us to find reasons to not have time for studying the Bible: busy work schedule, crazy family, interferes with your personal time to relax, out with friends, etc. There are hundreds of "reasons" that Bible study is inconvenient. The question then is this: who are we trying to convince? Do we really think that God accepts our reasoning. Imagine Him every day, "That's ok, I can see that you are very busy, perhaps you will find some time to talk with Me this weekend."
I didn't say talk to Him, since some of you are thinking: "but I pray every day." I meant talk with Him. A conversation always involves two people. When we spend time praying and praying without giving God His turn to speak, we make ourselves more important than Him. What He has to tell cannot possibly be as important as all the concerns that we have in our own lives. In essence, we are showing Him that we think of Him as our contracted help rather than the God for whom our lives are to be lived. We become more important than God.
Whoa! How did I jump to that conclusion... we're more important than God just because we don't study our Bibles every day. Isn't that be being a bit extreme? I really don't think so. You know, the most godly men and women that I have ever met in my life were all people who dug deep into the Word every day. It is not because their ritual of reading and studying the Bible that they are so in tune with God. Rather, I believe that they seek a deeper knowing of God in the Scriptures and they become "doers of the Word, not just hearers." Perhaps, they simply do it because they want to know how to respond to God in their lives each day.
Think about it. Do you live your life in reaction to the circumstances that you face or in response to the God who will carry you from valley to hilltop, from shame to joy, from desert to oasis? When you pray, is it to give God your spiritual laundry list, or are you responding to Him? In other words, do you give Him the option of leading the way in the various situations, or do you "suggest" what He should do?
2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." The good stuff is in there, you just have to be willing to let God have His say. It will help you know what to believe (doctrine), know what not to do (reproof), know what to change (correction), and know what to do (instruction in righteousness). The purpose of the Word is to gear us up to handle every situation in a manner that brings honor and glory to God. This is why we are told to do all things as though it's for the Lord and not for men (Col. 3:23). The Bible contains the living breath of God in it, don't miss out because it won't just change your life, it will show you life as you never dreamed it could truly be.
This area has been one that I have been working on in my own life. I have used the excuses, I have ignored the Word some days, and I have seen the ick that grows in my life, in my family, in my worship because of it. The reality is, I know that giving Him time to speak to me each day is the best way to keep me moving in a positive direction. When I skip it, I take the effectiveness out of my prayers, I am less focused in doing right at work, and I easily lose track of the priorities that should be in my life. Just this morning, I found myself being sucked into a stupid video game while my wife was rushing around to get things accomplished for the family. That's why this post is here... God tapped me on the shoulder, and I just wanted to share it with you all.
God Bless you.
It is easy for us to find reasons to not have time for studying the Bible: busy work schedule, crazy family, interferes with your personal time to relax, out with friends, etc. There are hundreds of "reasons" that Bible study is inconvenient. The question then is this: who are we trying to convince? Do we really think that God accepts our reasoning. Imagine Him every day, "That's ok, I can see that you are very busy, perhaps you will find some time to talk with Me this weekend."
I didn't say talk to Him, since some of you are thinking: "but I pray every day." I meant talk with Him. A conversation always involves two people. When we spend time praying and praying without giving God His turn to speak, we make ourselves more important than Him. What He has to tell cannot possibly be as important as all the concerns that we have in our own lives. In essence, we are showing Him that we think of Him as our contracted help rather than the God for whom our lives are to be lived. We become more important than God.
Whoa! How did I jump to that conclusion... we're more important than God just because we don't study our Bibles every day. Isn't that be being a bit extreme? I really don't think so. You know, the most godly men and women that I have ever met in my life were all people who dug deep into the Word every day. It is not because their ritual of reading and studying the Bible that they are so in tune with God. Rather, I believe that they seek a deeper knowing of God in the Scriptures and they become "doers of the Word, not just hearers." Perhaps, they simply do it because they want to know how to respond to God in their lives each day.
Think about it. Do you live your life in reaction to the circumstances that you face or in response to the God who will carry you from valley to hilltop, from shame to joy, from desert to oasis? When you pray, is it to give God your spiritual laundry list, or are you responding to Him? In other words, do you give Him the option of leading the way in the various situations, or do you "suggest" what He should do?
2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." The good stuff is in there, you just have to be willing to let God have His say. It will help you know what to believe (doctrine), know what not to do (reproof), know what to change (correction), and know what to do (instruction in righteousness). The purpose of the Word is to gear us up to handle every situation in a manner that brings honor and glory to God. This is why we are told to do all things as though it's for the Lord and not for men (Col. 3:23). The Bible contains the living breath of God in it, don't miss out because it won't just change your life, it will show you life as you never dreamed it could truly be.
This area has been one that I have been working on in my own life. I have used the excuses, I have ignored the Word some days, and I have seen the ick that grows in my life, in my family, in my worship because of it. The reality is, I know that giving Him time to speak to me each day is the best way to keep me moving in a positive direction. When I skip it, I take the effectiveness out of my prayers, I am less focused in doing right at work, and I easily lose track of the priorities that should be in my life. Just this morning, I found myself being sucked into a stupid video game while my wife was rushing around to get things accomplished for the family. That's why this post is here... God tapped me on the shoulder, and I just wanted to share it with you all.
God Bless you.