Tag: prayer

Uncategorized

A Conversation with God

The Kedge Anchor

Photo by Yan Krukov on Pexels.com

Prayer is really just talking to God. It can be transforming and life changing. But we have to first listen. We need to be still before God. As much as God wants to bestow blessings on us, He is not a genie. Prayer is so much more than just asking God for things and to do things. Prayer is about communing with God not just communicating.

Prayer is our chance to invite God into a conversation with us, not just listen to a poetic monologue, Matthew 6:7.  He’s not impressed with “thee’s” and “thou’s” or how eloquent you speak. And even though He knows what’s on your mind and in your heart, He still wants to hear all about it. He loves us, He is patient with us so even if we keep coming back with the same story, Philippians 4:6 -“…but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” He hears you and He is God and will answer according to His will. Psalm 66:19 -“But certainly God has heard me; He has attended to the voice of my prayer.” (NKJV)

Have you ever been angry at God? I have. And I have gone to Him in prayer about it, with reverence. He knows what’s on my heart and why so why would I try to hide it? Have you ever been so happy and excited about something that you had to tell someone? Tell God. He wants to hear or joys and sorrows. He is our provider and blesses us. And remember to thank Him.

Sometimes I don’t know what to pray. And that’s ok. It’s ok to sit in silence with God. Just mediate on His words, pray back scripture to Him, recite the Lord’s prayer slowly and think about each word, each line. Breath in on a line and breath out on the next. Communication is a two way street and God needs a little time to get a word in.

When was the last time you just poured out your heart to God? Let it all out? He won’t be shocked or surprised, nothing goes unnoticed Hebrew 4:13 -“Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (NIV).

It’s ok to talk to God like you were talking to a person of flesh and blood. Jesus was flesh and blood once, He walked as a human on His earth, He understands, He knows, He knows all. Invite God into you day, into your heart, let His words transform you.

Uncategorized

When You Can’t Find Comfort, Even in Scripture.

The Kedge Anchor
Photo by Saliha on Pexels.com

Has this happened to you? You have been so distraught nothing is comforting? You try everything, listening to Christian music, worship music, listening to a podcast or a sermon online and nothing seems to stick. Not even just reading scripture? It’s ok it happens. We are human.

If there was ever a person who knew anxiety it was Jesus. In the Garden of Gethsemane – Matthew 26:36-36 – Jesus was about to be crucified, on a cross, separated from His Father in Heaven, v.38 – “My anguish is so great that I feel as if I’m dying. Wait here, and stay awake with me.” He knows anxiety. He experienced every emotion we, His creation has felt, feels and will feel. But noticed He asked for His friends to be stay with Him. (there’s more on that).

So what is one to do? Well first, for myself, I try to realize that God sees my heart and nothing goes unnoticed by Him. “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” – Hebrews 4:13. Whether or not I feel this or believe it at the time, this is truth. It’s in the Bible, the Bible is infallible, it’s timeless and I know I can trust it. I can choose to believe it or not, I can have the faith of a mustard seed or not but the fact remains, God sees me, I am known by Him. “Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” – Like 12:7. He created me and formed me in my mother’s womb, – Psalm 139:13. He will never leave me nor forsake me, – Deuteronomy 31:6. Truth!

It also helps me if I can count my blessings, I know that can sound so cliché. There are days I am thankful for being able to get out of bed and put my two feet on the floor. Some days I am just thankful for being able to hold a pencil. Joni Eareckson Tada, she is paralyzed from the neck down and paints with a paintbrush between her teeth. She has an incredible story and ministry that God works through. Sometimes it helps to see how God has worked in other people’s lives. Bethany Hamilton survived a shark attack when she was 13. She’s not thankful she is missing her left arm, but she is thankful for where God has brought her spiritually. And as an athlete, she still surfs and competes with one arm. God had given her an amazing ministry encouraging others who are physically disabled. That difficult time in her life, God used for His glory. If you haven’t seen Soul Surfer, I highly recommend it. Nick Vujicic is another inspiration. He was born without limbs and God has worked amazing things in his life. The Bible tells us to give thanks in all things. – 1 Thessalonians 5:18 – “give thanks IN all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” We don’t necessarily have to be thankful FOR all things but thankful IN all things

Another thing I do is reach out to others for prayer. This is very humbling for me because it makes me feel weak. Know what? I am. I need God’s help. God sometimes provides that for us through friends. Jesus had His disciples/friends with Him in the Garden and in Exodus 17:12 – God provided Aaron and Hur to stand beside him with stones to put under his arms to keep them lifted up. We weren’t meant to do life alone. God has provided community through our churches, friends, family, support groups, we just need to reach out. Jesus had community, He had His disciples, followers, and His family.  

God still loves us even on the hard days when scripture doesn’t seem to be working. Remember to go with what you know, recall how God has provided in the past. Reach out to a friend for prayer. God is still in control, He sees you, He sees your heart. Be strong and courageous.

Uncategorized

Teach Us to Pray – Part 5

The Kedge Anchor

Prayer is a big subject. But it doesn’t have to be complicated. I think we humans tend to make it what it’s not and complicate it. What’s important is we talk to God and listen to His response. I do believe it is important to pray everyday. And that may look different for each of us.

For me the basics, praying daily to the Father as Jesus taught us in the Lord’s prayer and having a place everyday to pray away from everyone, alone as Jesus set that example for us. Luke 4:42 – “At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them.” Luke 11:1 -“He was praying in a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” Matthew 6:6-13 sums it up  – “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; …”

The time of day may not be early in the morning, it could be at noon or in the evening. Your quiet place may not be a mountain. It could be a prayer closet, a room, your car, or sitting outside under a tree in your yard. And it could change from time to time.

We don’t always have to have our heads bowed and hands folded. We can pray standing with our hands lifted or on our knees. We can pray while dancing or while walking and singing. God sees our heart. I like to have the heart of a child when I approach God, unabashed, with boldness. Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Sometimes kids don’t have filters. They just speak their minds. There is no hiding our feelings from God.

But don’t let these things, these ways, routines, think that God will only answer your prayer if you do these things and don’t miss a beat. Yes there is a way to pray and God hears your prayer and He will answer them according to His TIMING!! That’s the key, His timing. Trust His timing.

Keep it simple. “Pray without ceasing” – 1 Thessalonians 5:17

Uncategorized

Teach US to Pray – Part 4

The Kedge Anchor
Photo by Ben Mack on Pexels.com

Welcome to part four. If you have been following these posts on prayer, we looked at what prayer is and isn’t. Prayer is communicating with God and a form of meditation. God is not a genie and will only grant us what is best for us. He is our Heavenly Father and wants to bless us like a father would provide for his children.

Sometimes it appears God is silent. But it’s really us who need to stop and listen. Just because God is silent, doesn’t mean He is saying no, sometimes He is responding with a wait, not yet, in His time. He is sovereign and He has a plan for us. Philippians 4:6 tells us to “pray without ceasing,” “praying at all times,” Ephesians 6:8. God wants to hear it all. He wants us to pour our hearts out to him. Sometimes we don’t know what to pray but God has provided the Holy Spirit to hear the cries of our heart, the words we don’t know how to express and with groans, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” Romans 8:26

So, to whom do we pray? The Scriptures make it clear that we are to pray to the Father.

Matthew 6:6-13 – “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; …”

Philippians 4:6 – “...but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God …”

John 16:23-24 – “… Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. “

John 14:13-14 – “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”

In Matthew 6:6-13, Jesus tells us to pray directly to His Father. He tell us to send our requests no to Himself, the Holy Spirit or to dead saints, but to go directly to the Father, our Father with our prayers. Paul confirms this in Philippians 4:6. In John 16:23-24 and John 14:13-14 Jesus instructs us to not only pray to the Father but to pray in His name. We are to pray to the Father in Jesus’ name. By doing so we acknowledge that it through Jesus’ blood only that we have a direct connection to Him and the Father. We see this in John 14:6 – Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Jesus is the only way to eternal life and to our Heavenly Father.

I do believe there is a way to pray, but not to get our prayers answered. This is what Jesus is telling us is the best way to enter into prayer so that the Father will hear us. I see it as God’s love language. This is how we are to address our prayers to the Father. We all have a love language. Don’t know about you but I don’t like when people just bark orders at me. A “please,” “a would you do me a flavor, please.” And I certainly don’t appreciate attitude. But at the same time we can go to the Father in all reverence but still talk to Him as if we could see Him sitting next to us.

I have gone to God telling Him how I feel. There’s no hiding that I have been mad at Him, so for me to even try and cover that up, He KNOWS my heart, He sees my anger and it’s ok to be angry and express it to Him as long as we don’t sin. He understands our limited knowledge of our situation. And usually after I have expressed my anger, I not only feel better but I fell comforted knowing that God knows all and in time He just may reveal to me some or all details at some point.

There are some examples in the Bible of God’s people being mad at Him. Numbers 11:11,15 – “Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you treated with your servant so badly? Why haven’t I found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? . . . If you treat me this way, please kill me right now . . .” and Jonah 3:10-4:9 . “Therefore now, Lord, take, I beg you, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.” . . . “I am right to be angry, even to death. Anger is an emotion God gave us, He just wants us to express it wisely.

So go to the Father in the name of Jesus about everything at all times. No holding back. We have a big God, He can handle it. He knows our hearts.

Thank you for stopping by. If you liked this post, please like and share. If you have any comments or prayer requests please leave them in the comment section.

Uncategorized

Teach Us to Pray – Part 3

The Kedge Anchor

Welcome back again and thank you. Prayer is an important part of the Christian life. After all it is how we communicate with our Heavenly Father. “Never stop praying.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:17. The KJV says “Pray without ceasing.” The greek word for ceasing is adialeiptōs , translated –  incessantly. Makes me think of a pesky insect, like a fly continually landing on my food or buzzing around my face. It just doesn’t stop.

That’s what God is trying to tell us in Paul’s letter to Thessolanica, be pesky with prayer. Philippians 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” And Ephesians 6:18 – “Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.” Pray at all times and go to God about everything.

He wants to hear it all. The small things, like finding your lost keys, helping you with deciding where to go for dinner, He wants to be included in all you do. He wants to hear about how excited you are about finding something you lost, or how a memory makes you happy, and He wants to hear about your bad day, how a co-worker made you feel angry or how you messed up. Sometimes we don’t know what to pray. And the cool thing is, we don’t always have to talk. We just need to be present in His presence and listen. We can always find something for which to praise Him. Thank Him for all that He is doing, has done and will do because God is faithful. Thank Him when you get the perfect parking space, thank Him for finding a lost item, thank Him being able to tie your shoes and if you can’t thank Him for the person who could. Praise Him for His creation, for the song birds, the rain, the sun, praise Him for the small things and the big things. Thank Him for the person who delivers your pizza 🙂

So as you begin the weekend, be pesky in prayer, in all things, all the time and be present in His presence.

If you liked this post be sure to like and share. And please leave your thoughts, comments and prayer requests. Thank you

Uncategorized

Teach Us to Pray – Part 2

The Kedge Anchor
"Our Father"

Welcome back. If you were here last week we defined prayer as “an address (such as a petition) to God”… “a set order of words used in praying.” Prayer is a conversation with God. God created us to commune with Him. Not because He was lonely, but because He loves us and wants to be a part of His creation’s lives, to be a part of our lives. (That could be another post) After all He did create them, shouldn’t they get the chance to know their creator? God wants us to know Him, to know who He is and what He has for us as His creation.

But prayer isn’t a wish list. God isn’t a genie. That isn’t His purpose to prayer. He wants to hear from us, He wants us to tell Him every detail about our day, how we are feeling, what we have going on, the good, the bad, the ugly, all of it. And by now you may be saying “But He knows all about us and knows everything why do we need to tell Him?” Because God is love. God loves us, He wants His children to talk to Him. Yes, He knows. Don’t you want to hear from the people you love? For those of you who have friends, family that you are really close to, or are married you are so close, you can finish each other’s sentences. You know what they will say next, but you still want to hear from them, right? You want your children to ask you for help, you want to give them the things they want and you provide for them the things they need. So it is with our Father.

Our Father will provide what we need and He does want to bless us. Maybe not necessarily with material things, although He does grant us those things sometimes according to His will. He provides when we don’t know what we need sometimes we don’t have to ask. Like salvation. God knew before He created the world that man would need to be restored. He knew man would fall and all His creation would become sinful. But He had a plan long before the Garden of Eden. All we need to do is ask. He provides salvation, He freely offers it, we just need to ask and receive it.

James 4:2 says “You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.” The people James was speaking to were asking for thing for the wrong reasons. God will judge our motives and only give us what He sees will benefit us and glorify Him. So it is through prayer, communicating with our Father that we can align our will and hearts with His so that those things our hearts truly desire.

We pray to listen to what our Father has to say to us. He does respond, just sometimes not right away, and sometimes not the way we expect and sometimes right away. Sometimes we need to be patient. When there’s a silence sometimes I think He’s preparing me for what He has to say about something. It may be something to correct me so He’s lovingly giving me time to be receptive to His words. I just may not be ready yet. “The teacher is usually silent during a test.” It’s during those silent moments that God may be teaching me something before He tells me something. : )

Thank you for stopping by. Please stay tuned and if you liked this post please leave a comment about your thoughts, prayer requests and be sure to like and share this post.

Free Stock photos by Vecteezyvecteezy.com

Uncategorized

“Teach Us to Pray”- Luke 11:1 Part 1

The Kedge Anchor
Photo by Yaroslav Shuraev on Pexels.com

Prayer can sometimes be a little daunting. We so often don’t know what to say. We have no words to express how we feel or what we want to see happen. We can feel inadequate, sometimes unworthy. We often feel uncomfortable praying in front of others and worse asked to pray on the spot. We can feel lost and start to question our faith when our prayers go unanswered.

We wonder, is God hearing me? Where is He? Why aren’t my prayers being answered? I’ve been praying for ______ fill in the blank, for years, what’s taking so long? We ask, “where are you God?” These are normal responses. We are after all human. We don’t have all the answers to anything. We don’t have infinite knowledege. We were not present when God created the universe.

So, let’s find out and dig a little deeper into what prayer is and isn’t. Let define prayer, practice it, share it. I am no expert on prayer. I have probably just as many if not more questions than you do about prayer.

Jesus gave a perfect model of prayer in Luke 11:1 and in Matthew 6:5-15. And that is just what it is a model prayer. It illustrates how to pray rather than dictating the necessary words to use. Even as a model prayer I still find myself praying it from time to time when I am at a loss for words, sometimes I pray it to calm my mind. I do believe God still hears my words, my unspoken words.

When writing about something, in some cases I was taught to start by defining what it is about I am writing. So let’s define prayer.

The Merriam – Webster Dictionary defines prayer as:

1a(1): an address (such as a petition) to God or a god in word or thoughtsaid a prayer for the success of the voyage

(2): a set order of words used in prayingb: an earnest request or wish

2: the act or practice of praying to God or a godkneeling in prayer

3: a religious service consisting chiefly of prayers  —often used in plural

4: something prayed for

5: a slight chancehaven’t got a prayer

In Biblical terms, prayer can be defined as a conversation with God. However, I do believe that God has a love language and we need to know what that is. Just like your spouse or your family members, friends, boss, co-workers, anyone in who you have a realtionship with has a love language and to communicate best with them, learning their love language can make a difference. But, I still believe that God hear us when we can seem to find the words. Romans 8:26 – “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.“

So you maybe asking, “why pray?” Stay tuned as we try to gain some insight to prayer. Please like and share and if you have any comments please share them.

Uncategorized

“…let words of prayer be on our lips.”

The Kedge Anchor

Nothing, nothing surprises God. There is nothing new under the sun. A new administration has begun in our government and some citizens are feeling disappointment whiles others maybe celebrating. One thing holds true and remains the same, God still sits on the throne. He knew before the foundations of the world how this election was going to play out and He knows the future. Daniel 2:21 – “He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.” God is in control.

Now, whether or not we agree with the outcome, we have a new president. We don’t have to agree on anything and we don’t have to resort to violence or name bashing and tearing other people down. What we need to do as Christians is pray for our leaders. The Bible tells us in 1 Timothy 2:1-2 – “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.” And in Romans 13:1 – “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.” We need to pray for our leaders. As hard as that may be, we need to pray for them.

When authorities begin to cause us to go against scripture and disobey God that’s when we need to resolve who we are worshipping. Who will we obey? As Daniel resolved to do when King Darius ordered that everyone worship him, if anyone was caught praying to any other god or man beside Darius, they would be thrown in the lion’s den. Daniel had been getting down on his knees praising and worshipping God three times a day and he resolved that nothing was going to change that. It cost him a night in the lion’s den, but God protected him and shut the lion’s mouth. The next morning, King Darius saw no harm was done to Daniel. He recognized that the God Daniel worshipped was indeed God.

Philippians 4:8-9 – “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.’ ” When we think bad of others, we are dishonoring God. We are to take every thought captive. – 2 Corinthians 10:5. Will you resolve with me to think good of others and pray for our leaders? We won’t be perfect at it, we will have days. But God is gracious, just and willing to forgive us. – 1 John 1:9

God still sits on the throne, He is in control and He is sovereign.