Tag Archives: Prayer

A Quote To Meditate On….

For those of us who have had a passing thought on the quality of their prayer life, and of wondering how to know the will of God as most of us have or do from time to time I’d like to share this.

“Doing God’s will, and having His Word abiding in us, is an imperative of effectual praying. But, it may be asked, how are we to know what God’s will is? The answer is, by studying His Word, by hiding it in our hearts, and by letting the Word dwell in us richly. “The entrance of Thy word, giveth light.”

To know God’s will in prayer, we must be filled with God’s Spirit, who maketh intercession for the saints, and in the saints, according to the will of God. To be filled with God’s Spirit, to be filled with God’s Word, is to know God’s will. It is to be put in such a frame of mind, to be found in such a state of heart, as will enable us to read and interpret aright the purposes of the Infinite. Such filling of the heart, with the Word and the Spirit, gives us an insight into the will of the Father, and enables us to rightly discern His will, and puts within us, a disposition of mind and heart to make it the guide and compass of our lives.

Epaphras prayed that the Colossians might stand “perfect and complete in all the will of God.” This is proof positive that, not only may we know the will of God, but that we may know all the will of God. And not only may we know all the will of God, but we may do all the will of God. We may, moreover, do all the will of God, not occasionally, or by a mere impulse, but with a settled habit of conduct. Still further, it shows us that we may not only do the will of God externally, but from the heart, doing it cheerfully, without reluctance, or secret disinclination, or any drawing or holding back from the intimate presence of the Lord.”

E.M. Bounds, (The Necessity of Prayer)

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Can You Find The Source of These Quotations?

If you like a challenge, try this. All these quotations are taken from the same source. Hint: I’ve mentioned before.

“God’s rules of action are immutable and therefore what He did to one company of His people He will do to others of them. God is Sovereign but yet He acts according to His unchanging Nature so that from one of His proceedings we may infer the rest.”

“God gave you all Covenant blessings in Christ Jesus according as He chose you, in Him, from before the foundation of the world. God saw you in Christ as His elect, His Beloved, His redeemed and therefore for you He prepared a kingdom which you inherit through His Grace. If you have now the confidence to believe in Christ Jesus and to say, “My Beloved is mine, and I am His,” then you shall know that in grasping gracious blessings you do but come to your own!”

“Beloved, who among us knows all that is ours in Christ? He is a case which is all ours, but we do not open its doors and take out all its treasures! Our possessions in Christ are very wide but we need to be bid, like Abraham, to lift up our eyes to the north and to the south and to the east and to the west, that we may form a clearer idea of the goodly land which the Lord our God has given us! We see the blessings of the Covenant but do we feed on them as we might! Do we drink deep into them and is our soul satisfied as with marrow and fatness by them? I fear we do not”

” it is your high privilege to have access to the Mercy Seat—but do you use that access and come often and boldly to the Throne of Grace? Do you avail yourselves of your opportunities? Do you make the utmost use of prayer?”

In Our Rush to Help…

Sometimes I wish we, as human beings, had the capacity to hear our words through the ears of those who are in the midst of terrible suffering. No matter how well intended, how true, how comforting they may be to some, there are those who will be hurt even more by what we say. Are the words we use directed toward those who are suffering, or toward ourselves? I know and sympathize with those who want so badly to say something, anything, that might bring some solace if even for a moment, but how many times have I seen in the last few days well-meaning comments and references to a loving God in connection with people who just aren’t able to see this truth in the mist of such heart-rending sorrow. There is a time for truth, for acceptance, for talk about solutions, and whys and wherefores, but I can’t help thinking that maybe some of our attempts to put words to our thoughts and feelings, and our desires to help might be better echoed in our prayer closets rather than in public. Sometimes in our rush to help, to comfort, to make better, the intended benefactors of our desire are often the ones trampled in the process.

A Very Short Thought

It’s late so tonight’s post is going to be very short. I’ve been seeing a lot of negativity about our country lately, and it seems to be coming from everywhere. Everywhere I look, a lot of what I read, and hear is all about how bad our country is falling, and how we’re beyond hope, and that we’re doomed. What saddens me is that the majority of people I’m hearing this from are “Christians.”

The thing I want to say is this: what this country needs isn’t more wealth, more democrats, more liberals, more conservatives, more fairness, or more of anything we as people can give ourselves. What this country needs are great people of prayer, people who have a deep-down, soul-stirring, faith and trust in the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, who actually believe and live by what the word of God says.

If you’re praying, and you live and act as if what you’re praying for will not happen, then you’re wasting your time, and God’s. Please friends, take a little time, and give this a little thought. Are you a man or woman of great faith and great trust in God. Answering this question will answer this next one: are you a great man or woman of prayer?

From “The Selected Writings of Joseph Philpot”

“And this is my prayer — that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight (margin, sense).”Php_1:9 Love is especially the effect of knowledge; and love we know is a fruit of the blessed Spirit. As then the Lord the Spirit is pleased to open up the precious truth of God to the soul, love embraces what the Holy Spirit reveals. Thus there is a knowledge of the only true God by the teaching of the Spirit. But our love is to abound not only in knowledge, which is the foundation of it, because if there is no knowledge of the Lord there can be no love to the Lord or his people, but also in all feeling, in all sense, in all experience.

Spiritual knowledge, therefore, and experimental feeling are the two nourishers of Christian love; the two streams, as it were, that run side by side out of the very throne of the most High, and meet and melt into that boundless river, love. And it is by this union of knowledge and experience, of divine light and heavenly life, of the Spirit’s teaching and the Spirit’s testimony, of truth in the understanding and of feeling in the affections, that love is maintained in the soul, and flows out towards the Lord and his people.

This spiritual knowledge differs very widely from carnal, intellectual, barren head knowledge. The one is a flowing river, the other a stagnant pool; the one fertilizes the heart, and makes it fruitful in every good word and work; the other leaves it a barren swamp, in which creeps and crawls every hideous thing, and out of which ever rise miasma, disease, and death. Thus the union of knowledge and experience as sustaining love distinguishes the work of the Spirit from every imitation of it, and where there is the true work of the Spirit there will be gracious knowledge and experimental feeling.

This, then, is the peculiar blessedness of living experience that it goes hand in hand with gracious knowledge to sustain heavenly love; and that Christ is the end and object of both; the end and object of all saving knowledge, and the end and object of all true experience; for in this as in everything else he is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

From “The Word For You Today” by Bruce Christian

PRAYER (6)

In May 1996, ValuJet flight 592 crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing 110 passengers.  Navy experts tried using special technology to detect the plane’s black box, without success.  Holding a rope that kept them spaced three feet apart, searchers poked through every square foot of muck.  After fourteen days they had found nothing.  The physical conditions were unbearable.  The sun beat down upon them and temperatures hovered in the nineties.  Diesel fuel and caustic hydraulic fluid floated in the water, forcing searchers to wear several layers of protective rubber.  Fourteen days of that had left them exhausted, but they had to find the black box.  Sergeant Felix Jimeniz of Metro-Dade  Police was one of the searchers.  For fourteen days he’d prayed for the bereaved families and the safety of his fellow workers.  But on the fifteenth day as he took a break, suddenly he realized he’d failed to pray for one important thing: that God would help them find the black box. So he asked God for direction, resumed the search, and when he stuck his pole into the water he hit something metallic.  He pulled the object out of the muck.  It was the black box.  Jimeniz writes in Guideposts: “I thought of the many days we had spent searching for the recorder, how we must have tramped over it many times, and I wondered why its retrieval had taken so long.  Amid the low rustle of the sawgrass and the call of the wild heron, I seemed to hear the response: “Why did it take so long for you to ask?”

PRAY FOR AND WITH YOUR CHILDREN BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE TODAY! THIS IS SERIOUS!

PRAY FOR AND WITH YOUR CHILDREN BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE TODAY! THIS IS SERIOUS!.  All of us who are Christians should take it as a matter of course to pray for our children and for the children of others.  These are very dangerous times that we live in as countless stories on the news attest.  Prayer is our first line of defense, and who of us who has children wouldn’t want to do all we can to protect them.  Please make it a point to pray for the children of this country, and all countries.  It’s the least we can do.

Prayer for September 14, 2012

Our Father in Heaven
I come to You, Father, Knowing who You are.
You are the Eternal God
Who reigns Supreme over Heaven;
Over all the earth and it’s people.
You are the Everlasting God
Who has always been
And will always be.
You are the One and True God.
The God of Israel.

Blessed be Your name, O God.
May praise and worship be Yours,
And Yours alone, for only
You are worthy to receive
Worship, honor, and praise.
You are the God of Perfection,
Of justice and holiness.
You are the God of Love;
And there is none other.

Father, I ask that Your Kingdom come.
I know that it has come already
In the hearts and minds of Your children,
And yet it won’t be fully revealed
Until our Lord and Savior
Jesus is come to reign
As You have decreed.
Until then, Father, I pray
That we, Your children, will be
About the business You’ve called us to.
Touch our lives and our minds;
Open our eyes, and give us ears to hear
So that we might truly be able
To know and understand
All that You want us to be and do;
And to do it as willingly here on earth
As it is done in Heaven.

Father, I thank You for this day,
And for all the ones before,
And I pray Father, that You will help us all
To look at each day as Your gift to us;
As another opportunity to learn
Who we are to be, and how we’re to live,
And how we’re to love
Our neighbors, our friends, our families,
Our enemies, and You.
Father, God, I pray that You
Would show us all
That we’re to love the unlovable;
That we’re to serve those undeserving,
That we’re to support and encourage
And pray for those over us.

Father, God, I pray for those in the Middle East,
For all those people, those individuals, Your children
Who are suffering at the hands of those who hate.
Father, please don’t let us forget
That You love all people.
Help us to love those who are in the grip of evil;
Who are being used and manipulated
To bring harm and destruction
To the innocent, and
Those who have done them no harm.

Father, God,
I pray You place a hedge of protection over
All Your children.
Lead, guide and direct them, Father,
To a place of safety and shelter.
Stay the hand of those who wish
To persecute them, and send to them
Those who can bring them aid and relief
From the terrible trials
They’re enduring.

Heavenly Father,
I pray that You will be with Your people, Israel,
And I pray that You will strengthen them;
That You will give them wisdom, and courage;
And, that You will remind all nations
Of Your promise to bless those
Who bless them,
And curse those who curse them.
Father, I pray that You would use
Your children to remind
Our men and women in leadership
That to not stand with Israel
Is to stand against You.
Turn us from this path, Father,
And help us, Your children,
To restore our devotion to
Your chosen people, and to show them
Your love, and to reassure them
Of our commitment and willingness
To help and stand with them.

Father, I ask You to be with Your children
In this country You’ve blessed so much.
Father, You have blessed us, and
Made us a nation like no other.
You have made us great
As You have made Israel great,
But Father remind us
That our greatness
Came through our love and commitment
To You, and Your chosen people;
The nation of Israel.

I ask You, Father, to touch the lives
Of Your Servants in this country.
I pray Father, that You would create a fire
Within the hearts and minds of all
Those who preach and teach Your Holy Word.
Father, make us stand, and declare
Your Holy Word in all it’s truth.
Use the Godly men of this country, Father,
To remind Your children,
And the people of this nation that
You are Supreme;
That You are Sovereign, and
All powerful, and
That You are as much a God
Of justice and truth,
As You are a God of mercy and love.

Father, I ask You to please forgive me
Of my sins, and the sins of this nation.
We have sinned against You.
We have spit in Your face.
We have taken the blessings You’ve given us,
And laid claim to them as if
We gave them to ourselves.
We praise You with our lips,
But our hearts are far removed
From You, and Your Holy Word.
Father, God,
Have mercy upon us.
Restore us.
Do not let us go as those nations
Have gone who have
Come against You and Your people.

Father, God, we don’t deserve
All that You have given us.
We don’t deserve Your love.
We do deserve Your wrath;
Your anger.
For our denial,
For our refusal,
For our failure,
To stand for those things
That are precious in Your sight.
We have killed the unborn;
We have taken every form of
Wickedness and vice
And celebrate them, and promote them,
And call them entertainment.
We encourage greed
And self-worth,
And self-love,
And the growth of self
To the point where we can not
See beyond ourselves.

Father, forgive us.
Turn Your anger from us, and cleanse us.
Create in me, and our nation a new heart.
Teach us to follow You,
Teach us what it is to have faith and trust.
Show us that they are more
Than mere words,
But that they are actions
Which must be taken and shown,
And above all, lived.
Keep us from the temptations
That are all around us.
All the evil that beckons us
To turn our eyes from You,
And that stops up our ears
So that we can not
Hear Your voice.
Deliver us from the evil that
Threatens to overwhelm us.
Let us not be taken
In by clever lies,
And the praise of false lips,
And the promise of
Things that will never come.

Let us rejoice in You;
Let us glory in the fact that we
Know You, and that You
Are our Almighty God;
That Your Kingdom is even now
Being established,
And that You are and will forever
Be all Powerful,
And that Your Glory
Will one future day outshine the sun,
And we shall live in it’s light
Throughout Eternity.

In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.

Prayer for September 12, 2012

Heavenly Father,
I come to You, Father, in worship and praise.
You are the Eternal God.
You reign Supreme.
You are the Everlasting God.
The One and True God.
You are the Merciful and Compassionate
And Loving God.
You are Perfect and Just and Holy.

Heavenly Father,
I thank You for the way You’ve blessed my life.
I thank You for the people You’ve
Placed in my life.
I thank You for Your provision.
I thank You for Your Great and Abiding Love.
I thank You for Your Son, Jesus.
I thank You for Loving me so much
That You gave Him for me
So that I may live forever
In the light of Your Love,
Your mercy and Grace.

Heavenly Father
I come to You, Father,
And I ask You in the name
Of my Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ,
To forgive me of my sins.
Father, I ask You
To change me. Take from me
All that is ugly and evil.
Restore me, Father, and wash me
So that I might be whiter than snow.
Father, there are things
In my life
That I need to let go, that I need
To turn away from.
Help me, Father, to live the life
You’ve given me
In a way that will bring
Your love to others.

Heavenly Father,
I ask that You be with the leadership
Of this country.
That You will be with our President.
I ask You to give him wisdom,
Courage and strength.
I ask You Father to surround
Him with people who
Know You, and who will give
Him Your wisdom and
Who will help to guide
Him to do and to be that
Which this country’s people
Need.

Heavenly Father,
I pray that You would pour out
Your Holy Spirit on the
People of this nation,
And that You would lead Your children
To be bold, and to stand for Your truth.
Be with those who preach Your Word.
Fill them with a hunger;
A driving need to teach and to model
What it is to be Your child.

Heavenly Father,
I ask that You be with all those who suffer;
With all those who are in pain.
Father, I pray that You might comfort
Those who are mourning.
That You would give to those who
Are struggling to live
The courage and the strength
To keep going, to keep believing;
To keep putting
Their faith and their trust
In You. 

In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.