Thoughts

Sometimes prayer is not so easy. We ask, we seek, we wait, we hope, and we yearn to hear from God. Yet, many times, what we ask for does not come to pass and our prayers seem to be spoken into the void. But, that can be quite good. Have there ever been prayers that you are glad were not answered? Sometimes our short sightedness causes us to pray outside the will of God, and that is the problem. What would be a good prayer? We must primarily ask for #1God's will to be accomplished, not ours. This means that we must enter prayer by faith and accept, in advance, that what we are requesting may not be answered the way we hope it will. We must look to God as the wise counselor, the all-knowing Lord who loves us deeply and who hears our prayers, but has a divine plan and purpose (Jeremiah 29:11)for His creation that God will carry out. Therefore, we must not only pray for others, for forgiveness, for healing, etc., but we must also pray that we are moved into the will of God in every area of our lives so that our prayers might more accurately reflect the will of God.

Furthermore, we must ask the Lord to reveal to us anything that we are doing that prevents our prayers from being heard and prevents us from being in His will. We must seek forgiveness for our sins and conformity to God's purpose and plan. Then, our prayers will be more frequently answered. #2: Submission. When Jesus was praying in Luke 22:42, in the Garden of Gethsemane, He asked the Father, "Father, if Thou art willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Thine be done." Jesus did not want to go through the ordeal of the crucifixion and He asked the Father for a way out. His prayer was not answered the way Jesus requested. Nevertheless, He submitted His will to the will of the Father, and that is the key to prayer.
I must tell you that the words in this blog are meant as a part of my own personal healing in the hopes that I might help someone else. Until I submit to His will and learn from the situations He places me in, I will continue to experience the same cyclical and harmful life patterns.

We must learn to use the powerful tool we have: The Tongue. We need to be speaking those things that are not as though they were. I went back to my favorite (The Message Bible) and found this written: "We call Abraham "father" not because he got God's attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn't that what we've always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, "I set you up as father of many peoples"? Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, "You're going to have a big family, Abraham!" (Romans 4:17) I love that with a word, He can make something out of nothing. Is that a testimony or what? Even better, He gave me the same power! WHAT?!! YAY!

#3: Praise. God is awesome! We hear this, but do we KNOW this? I have experienced both sides of the spectrum, and I know that I have power to "speak those things." I am very careful with my heart now because of this very principle. Proverbs 4:23-27 tells us “Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that's where life starts. Don't talk out of both sides of your mouth; avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip. Keep your eyes straight ahead; ignore all sideshow distractions. Watch your step, and the road will stretch out smooth before you (A PROMISE!!!). Look neither right nor left; leave evil in the dust (A COMMAND!!!).” #4:PURGE!!! Take inventory of your lives and hearts and leave anything behind that is outside of His will. Relationships especially will hinder progress--no matter what kind they are.

I love you all, and I can't stop thanking the Lord for allowing me to share with you!