Good Morning Everyone!
It has been a very busy week for me, but I hope everyone is well and has had a good week! This morning, the topic prayer keeps popping up in every thing that I have been reading today. It actually started yesterday evening, I was listening to the Collingsworth Family tell about one of the songs that they sing and lo and behold, it was called The Awesome Power of Prayer. Last night, the Lord spoke to my heart and said, "I want you to call unto Me so that I can show great and mighty things you don't know about." I realized that I wasn't being intentional in my prayer time. I decided last night that I want to change that and make my prayer time more meaningful, purposeful, be more diligent. So before we dive in, I hope you have your cup of coffee or tea with you!
As I said, last night I wanted to make a change and be more diligent in prayer life. The Lord has been teaching me over the last week or so about the power in prayer. Prayer changes things, it changes us, and we rely more and more upon God to help with our problems and circumstances. Jesus' disciples asked Him if He could teach them how to pray. How did they know that prayer was important, how did they know that they were supposed to pray? By watching our Lord and Savior pray. Jesus knew the importance of prayer, it was a lifeline between Him and the Father. They watched Jesus pray and they knew if it worked for Him, maybe it will work for them. They knew prayer was a responsibility and Jesus carried it well. So just as the Master prayed, we are called to pray, it's our responsibility.
I don't know about you, but when I finish praying, oh there is so much peace in my spirit and in my mind. I feel at ease and this is how I usually prepare my day. I try to pray first thing in the morning and before I go to bed. I learned that when we pray, God helps make decisions even the hard ones. Praying to Him keeps us from making foolish decisions because we are taking the time to seek Him and find out what He thinks is best. After all, He sees the entire picture whereas we only see a fragment. Also in prayer comes wisdom and understanding, I don't know about you, but I need His wisdom and understanding every moment of my life. It keeps my mind, my mouth, and my heart in right order.
Finally, prayer also opens the door to pray for others. We are called to pray for our enemies, those people that are hard to get along with, that doesn't like us for whatever reason. Most times they're usually not happy with their lives or themselves. When we pray for them, it paves the way for God to begin to work in their hearts. Now it doesn't usually happen overnight, it can take a while, but only God can work in people's hearts not us. Our job is to pray for them and His job is to start working in their lives. Also prayer changes us, it changes our hearts, our minds, our attitudes toward life and situations that aren't pleasant. I am so glad that He changes us, because I can say for myself that somedays I have a hard time getting along with myself. That may sound kind of funny, but it's true! This flesh is hard to live with some days, that's why Paul said, "I die daily."
We have to crucify the natural desires of this flesh. When someone is rude to me, my natural instinct is to be rude back, but God says, "I have a better way, be kind to those who persecute you." The flesh doesn't want to be nice, it wants to lash out and be rude. Do know why God calls us to act differently, talk differently, to be different? He knows that we are representing Him, we are called to be the salt of the earth, a light to the world. How can we do that if we aren't acting any different or being different than the world? How can the world see a difference if we act just like them? This is why God's way works better so that we can testify of what Jesus has done in our lives.
So my friends, with that being said, I want to encourage you to be more intentional about your prayer life with God. He loves you so much and He wants you to call upon Him so that He can show you great and mighty things that you don't know about. He wants you to rely more and more upon Him, if you draw near to God, He will draw nearer to you. I pray that the Lord helps you to develop a prayer life with Him, a rock solid relationship with Him and that you would come to Him more and more everyday. May God bless you and keep you. Until next time!
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