My book on prayer can be purchased on Amazon or Barnes & Noble websites, plus a Kindle version is also available from Amazon. IGNITING AN IMPASSIONED PRAYER LIFE – How to Develop the Energized, Extended, and Sustainable Life of Prayer You’ve Always Wanted. Do you wish...
Prayer, like most spiritual practices, is subject to a spectrum of opinion and conviction as to how it is best practiced. Prayer in a word, means different things to different people. Typically we associate prayer with some form of communication and personal encounter with God....
When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the LORD… Numbers 11:2 (NIV) Why is prayer often the great omission when it comes to discussion of spiritual leadership? In my humble estimation the topic of leadership is the most frequent focus of...
“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV
Choices! What we choose to focus upon as we face each new day, has the potential to make a God-sized difference in how we go through it.
Remembering and focusing upon God’s mercies instead of our miseries, transforms our day from living in fear to faith, regret to hope, hate to love, and defeat to victory.
🎶Great is Thy faithfulness, Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.🎶
“The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him.” Psalm 37:23 NIV
With every desire or goal, from fitness to financial freedom or that dream project to addiction recovery, you name it; there are always those prescribed, yet daunting steps, one must take to get there.
This promise, to those driven in pursuit of Godly goals and by a heart to please Him, offers great encouragement that each step before us however halting, will be strengthened and established by Him as we take them.
Keeping this in mind, and knowing that every journey begins and progresses just one step at a time, let us not hesitate to trust Him and take that step of faith before us that is beckoning.
However small that beginning may seem, we are told in Scriptures not to downplay it. When God is for us and helping us, it is a victory worth celebrating (Zechariah 4:10 & Romans 8:31).
“The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:14 NIV
All of us, when too quick to defend ourselves, our interests or opinions, have been drawn into battles we regret fighting that have escalated into seemingly no-win situations.
Whether confronted with a conflict or already in battle over our heads, the counsel here “only to be still” – literally to be deaf and dumb to our attackers – is both a huge relief, and a real test in trusting God.
Living a life of faith sometimes requires us to do nothing, which is so counterintuitive to the natural tendency to have our say and do something, but in this case as the old chorus declares:
“Victory oh victory it is mine.
Victory oh victory it is mine.
If I hold my peace, let the Lord fight my battles
Victory oh victory it is mine.”
“Blessed are those whose strength is in you. . . . As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs.” Psalm 84:5–6
It’s not what happens to us, but what we make of it that matters; and here we see that a person who wholly draws upon God for their strength can “make” a valley of weeping into a place refreshing.
Making something good out of something bad is at the heart of God’s redemptive nature, and He specializes in transforming our pressures into diamonds and irritations into pearls.
By God’s grace we rejoice therefore that we can make the best of our valleys since we know we are just passing through AND that God’s plans for us are to do us good in the end.
Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.” John 11:41 NIV
When confronted with situations that seem so overwhelming and hopeless we know not how to pray, we can take a cue from the prayer book of Jesus, standing before the tomb of Lazarus.
Like the despairing Hagar’s revelation of the “God who sees me” (Gen. 16) we have here Jesus revealing the “God who hears me.” And with this simple, yet powerful prayer of thanksgiving He acknowledges that fact.
And what did the Father hear? Upon closer examination it was nothing other than Jesus’ wordless groaning in spirit (v. 33) and weeping for His grieving friends (v. 35). This provides then a great encouragement for us all in believing God is a Father who has “heard me” as well.
Can you identify with such casting of care upon a Heavenly Father, who hears and sees even the inaudible cries of the heart for mercy and relief? If so why not pause now and offer up, like Jesus, this prayer of thanksgiving acknowledging the Father has heard you?
MY BOOK ON PRAYER! Available on Amazon, Kindle, Barnes & Noble, and from this Website. Go to Prayer Resources tab above for Info & Links to Order it!