Tag: thekedgeanchor

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

July 5, 2021 – John 8:36

The Kedge Anchor

 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed

John 8:36

Download the image to your phone or electronic device as wallpaper or print it out to keep in front of you to help you memorize scripture.

To download, click on the image, click file, click save. Save anywhere on your device and go into your wallpaper settings on your device it’s that easy. : )

Uncategorized

June 28, 2021 – John 14:6

The Kedge Anchor

Memorize Monday

Download the image to your phone or electronic device as wallpaper or print it out to keep in front of you to help you memorize scripture.

To download, click on the image, click file, click save. Save anywhere on your device and go into your wallpaper settings on your device it’s that easy. : )

Uncategorized

“You Are More Than the Choices You Make…”

The Kedge Anchor

“You are more than you the choices you make, you are more than the sum of yor past misktakes… you’ve been remade… “

Just some lyrics from the song “You Are More” by Tenth Ave North. We are more. The choices we made, the problems we create for ourselves, wherever our brokenness brings us, we can give it to God and He will remake us.

Be blessed.

Uncategorized

June 21, 2021 – Galatians 4:6

The Kedge Anchor

Memorize Monday

Download the image to your phone or electronic device as wallpaper or print it out to keep in front of you to help you memorize scripture.

To download, click on the image, click file, click save. Save anywhere on your device and go into your wallpaper settings on your device it’s that easy. : )


If you like this wallpaper, please be sure to click the like button and share on social media with your friends and family, thank you.

Uncategorized

All Things Work Together, Even our Brokenness – Part 3

The Kedge Anchor
Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

Welcome back. In the last few weeks we saw how a broken pots could be restored and used again. Either by returning to its former function or by a transformation for a different purpose. Last week the pot broke to the point where it could not be repaired and used as it once was to hold water for flowers. One piece had broken into tiny pieces that could not be put back together.

But that didn’t stop the potter from restoring it. The potter left that peice out creating a hole that was big enough to allow light to shine through when a candle ws placed inside. This light also allowed the potter to clean out corners of the house that were cluttered.

A few days later, the potter decided to make another pot. This one would be shorter and wider to hold some tools. After completing the entire process of kneading, sculpting forming and firing, the potter decided he would use this pot to hold some of his tools and placed it on his work table. Until one day it was accidentally knocked over. This pot fell hard and from way up high. It was smashed into a million pieces unable to be put back together. But the potter was resourceful. He didn’t want to throw away the broken pieces, he like to restore and repurpose his work. So he took the fallen, crushed pieces and ground them down to a smooth, fine, silky sand.

He had an old wooden tray that he found in the corner he cleaned out. He took it out and filled it with the newly ground piece of pottery. He went out to his garden and picked  five smooth stones to place in the sand to make a rock garden. He picked up some twigs and smoothed them out to make a small rake. Now he had something to calm his mind on stressful days. 

All these three pots had a specific purpose. After they were broken one was restored and able to be used as it once was, to hold flowers. One was broken but once restored it had a different purpose to shine light, the last one even though the peices we shatered beyond repair it was transformed for an entirely different use, to calm and bring peace.

Can you relate to the brokenness of these pots? Do you identify with the brokenness? How has your brokenness transformed you. Were you once so broken you couldn’t function like you used to? God can work through your brokenness and restore you to full capacity and more beautiful. Sometimes He uses our brokenness to help others, to help shine His light through the holes in our lives so that others will know Him. Sometimes we think our brokenness is so far gone that we could never be used again for anything. But God can work ALL things together for good for those who love Him – Romans 8:28.

The brokenness hurts, the tranformation can hurt as God molds us and restores us. But we were created by Him, for Him to glorify Him and God can use anyone and anything to restore us so that we can shine His light in this lost world. Invite God into your brokenness allow Him to restore you. He is our HOPE!

Uncategorized

June 14, 2021 – Ephesians 4:6

The Kedge Anchor

Memorize Monday

Download the image to your phone or electronic device as wallpaper or print it out to keep in front of you to help you memorize scripture.

To download, click on the image, click file, click save. Save anywhere on your device and go into your wallpaper settings on your device it’s that easy. : )

Uncategorized

All Things Work Together, Even our Brokenness – Part 2

The Kedge Anchor
Photo by Ahmed Aqtai on Pexels.com

Where has your brokenness brought you? Are you seeking to heal? Maybe you are in the process of healing. Healing can look different for everyone. We all heal differently and at our own pace, there are no time limits. It takes time.

Last week we saw how the potter formed a pot to hold flowers. And as life goes, accidents happen. The pot fell and broke. But the potter still had plans for the broken pot. After putting it back together the cracks had formed an interesting pattern. The potter painted those cracks to create a beautiful design to compliment the pot’s structure and the pot was able to function again holding water for beautiful flowers.

The potter decided that he wanted another pot. And so he started the process over again. Pounding and kneading the clay to get all the air out. His plan for this pot was to be bigger and taller to accommodate the flowers bursting from his garden and to compliment the first pot and add more contrast to the room. And so he began to form the clay on the potter’s wheel, adding pressure and water to cool the surface.

After the pot was completed, the potter added some water and fresh flowers and placed it on  a window sill. One day, the pot accidentally fell onto the floor. Broken into pieces the potter bent down to gently pick up the pieces. There was one piece that broke into tiny pieces he could just not put together. But he continued anyway. That one piece left a hole right in the middle of the pot. The edges were asymmetrical and rough so the potter got some sand paper and smoothed out the edges and made the hole a little more symmetrical.

The potter had some candles that had been burnt down, making them the perfect fit for inside the pot. He placed the candle on a shelf in a dark corner of the room, illuminating the the house. Things seemed brighter and he realized how often he has stumbled in that corner of the room. But now he could see clearly and he saw the clutter in that part of the room that made him stumble so he cleared it out. The room is more beatiful now with the light from the candle, the decorated pots and now the clutter is gone.

Can you relate to these pots? Has your life been broken into pieces? Do you need light shed on the dark corners of your heart where you stumble and sin? Do you need restoration? Do you need healing and restoration? Stay tuned for next week, there’s more to this story.