A Life of Prayer

1Thessalonians 5:16-17
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Paul exhorted the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing.  Is this possible?  Let us consider what prayer is.

Prayer may be oral or mental, occasional or constant.  It may be formal or in the form of an outburst. It may be offered in secret or in public.  It may be a personal solicitation or it may be intercessory.

Prayer presupposes a belief in a God who wants to hear from us and wants to extend His perfect control over our lives.  Prayer is offered in reverence with a humble sense of inadequacy and unworthiness as we bow before the holy and righteous God of heaven.  Prayer is offered in thanksgiving for everything we already have been provided and are currently experiencing.  Prayer is rejoicing in every moment as we recognize the presence of Our Savior and the fullness of what He has done for us. 

If Jesus Christ is the foundation of our lives, prayer is as natural as breathing.  Indeed, we can pray without ceasing.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we praise You for who You are.  We thank You for all that You have provided and continue to provide.  We submit to Your control over our lives.  We pray that You will teach us how to make prayer to You as normal and as regular as breathing.  May our lives be a continuous flow of our reverent acknowledgement of Your presence and power in our lives.  

Wake Up

Revelation 3:2
Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.

The message to the church of Sardis in the book of Revelation was, “You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”  They were urged to wakeup and strengthen what remains or they would see their relationship with God disappear.

Today we are often guilty of sitting back and watching as the enemy tries to destroy our marriages, our homes and our extended families.  These institutions were created by Almighty God.  These institutions should be the bedrock of our lives.  The enemy knows this well and does everything possible to “divide and conquer”.  

Divide and conquer can be very subtle…at least at first.  Divide and conquer appears as meals eaten alone because the family is so busy.  Divide and conquer is going to bed angry with a spouse.  Divide and conquer is skipping the family reunion because of some prior squabble.

We cannot be passive.  We must wake up and be constantly on guard to protect our relationships.  Our marriages, our homes and our extended families are treasures.  When conflicts occur, we need to move swiftly to repair the damages and rebuild what the enemy is trying to destroy.  We must be proactive in nurturing activities that keep the relationships alive.

Prayer,
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the treasures in life that You have provided through our marriages, our homes and our extended families.  We pray that You will provide us with the armor that we need to fight against the enemy that seeks to take away our treasures.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will guide us to make Jesus Christ the foundation of our lives so that we can build indestructible walls of protection around our treasures.

Fear Not Ever Again

Revelation 1:17-18
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

Once we have felt the power of God in our lives, we have no reason to fear anything.  Why would we?

When we have a relationship with the God who created the universe and still controls every minute detail of its existence, how could we lack the confidence that He will overcome any person or evil in the universe that comes to harm us.  It just does not make sense to question His power and sovereign rule.  Fear not!

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we fall at Your feet in utter awe of who You are.  We proclaim Your Name above all other names.  We praise You and we surrender to Your power in our lives.  We pray that You will show us Your power in the struggles that we are currently experiencing.  May we find joy in our circumstances knowing that You have already settled the matters for our good for all eternity.

Enter Into the Joy of Your Master

Matthew 25:21
His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to join Our Master as He walks along side us in our journey toward sanctification.  We can be certain that we will encounter the following along the way.
  • Jesus will set our hearts to burning for Him as He opens the scriptures to us, just as he did for the two disciples when He joined them as they were walking on the road to Emmaus.
  • The Holy Spirit will reveal to us who we are without Jesus in our lives.
  • The Holy Spirit will convict us of the darkness in our lives and urge us to be obedient in changing our ways and helping others to change their ways.
  • Satan will attack us all along the way.  As we grow in Christ, the intensity of the attacks will increase.

We can be just as certain that the victory is ours if we rely on the One who died for our sins.  We will enter into the joy of Our Master for all eternity.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we praise You and thank You for loving us so much that You gave us Your Son to redeem us from our sins and You provided Your Holy Spirit to guide us along our path of preparation for receiving our place in heaven for all eternity.  May Your countenance shine up us.  May Your grace be with us always.  May You protect us from harm and evil.  May You protect us from the evil one and all of His temptations.  May You raise us up to be instruments of Your good work and vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness.  May we stand before You one day and hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

One with Jesus Christ

John 17:20
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
John 17:24
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

These scriptures were part of the prayer that Jesus prayed to the Father on behalf of His disciples prior to His eminent death and resurrection.  Jesus was confirming with the Father that His disciples and all of the new believers in the good news of the salvation story who followed in discipleship would join Him in glory for all eternity.

Jesus reveals in His prayer to the Father the final chapter in the lives of all of His disciples.  All of the disciples of Jesus Christ will join Him at the right hand of the Father for all eternity.

Have you ever watched a taped version of a sporting event in which you knew the result of the game in advance…a victory for the home team?  Didn’t knowing the final score make it easier to absorb the anguish of the bad calls by the officials, the mistakes by the players and the bonehead decisions of the head coach?  Jesus’ confirmation provides us with the strength that we need to endure all that comes against us in life because we know there will be the ultimate victory in the end.  To paraphrase 2 Cor 4:8-9, we may be afflicted in every way, but not crushed; we may be perplexed, but not driven to despair; we may be persecuted, but not forsaken; we may be struck down, but not destroyed because we are one with Jesus Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we come to You in the name of Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Our Master and Our King.  We thank You Father that we may be one with Jesus as He is one with You.  We praise You as we receive in faith all of the promises that come with being a disciple of Your Son.  May the Holy Spirit keep us steadfast in all aspects of our discipleship.











Kingdom Living

Matthew 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

We have been raised in a world where performance/results are everything.  We feel measured by the things we have and the things that we have accomplished.  We have been trained to be independent and self-reliant.  This is absolutely upside down from the kingdom of God.

God promises us that He will provide all that we need and all the desires of our hearts.  We must realize that these promises are conditional.  We must seek His kingdom first and we must seek the righteousness that living in His kingdom requires.  Then all of these things will be given to us.

Our great efforts in life should be directed toward putting our relationship with God first.  Everything else should be second.  The truly abundant life awaits.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the abundant life that awaits us when we seek You first.  We bring You all the honor and glory for being Our Provider.  We ask Your forgiveness for seeking the things of the world before You.  Teach us, Lord, how to prioritize our lives according to the principles of Your kingdom.  May the Holy Spirit enlighten us so that we may live in Christ and not in the world.


Finding Joy in All Things

2 Corinthians 12:10
For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

When we are weak and near defeat, perhaps even near death, we run to Jesus.  He promises to be our strength in every one of our times of weakness or trial.  It is during these times that we feel His presence so clearly.  It is during these times of pain that we experience the fullness of His love.  It becomes a blessing to have tribulation in our lives. 

Unfortunately without trial, we tend to lean away from God.  We tend to move out of His presence.  We tend to let the joy of life overshadow the true and perfect joy that is available to us.

Prayer,
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your promise to perfect Your strength in our weakness.  We thank you for the comfort of knowing that You are always there.  We praise You for providing Your Son, Jesus, so that through Him and in Him we can experience the fullness of Your love.  Help us, Father, to find contentment in all things as we seek to live in Your shadow and not under the influence of the world.
  

Our Lives Proclaim His Handiwork

Psalm 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky aboveproclaims his handiwork.

Just as the Lord declares His glory through the display of His handiwork in the heavens, He also declares His glory through His children.  He seeks to show His Holy Spirit to the world through every single child that He has created.  

The Lord uses powerful men of God to deliver His messages, but He does not use them alone.  He chooses to use everyone of His children – of every age and every time – to declare His perfect love and forgiveness.

He does not need any of us to accomplish anything, but He loves to use all of us to reveal Himself to those who are in our everyday lives.  We are the instruments of God’s perfect love.

Prayer,
Heavenly Father, we thank You and praise You for the magnificent universe that You have created.  We proclaim Your glory in all that we see before us.  Father, we pray that You will use us as instruments of Your good work.  May the world see the magnificence of who You are through our living testimony.  May we be daily expressions of Your perfect love and forgiveness.

The Ascension of Our High Priest

Luke 24:51
While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.

In the old testament, each person needed a priest to represent him or her before the throne of God.  Through their high priest and the accompanying sacrifices, each person’s sins were atoned for.  Without the intercession of the high priest, the individual person had no hope for salvation nor for their prayers to be answered.

Jesus changed it all.  Each one of us can receive our salvation through Jesus and can go directly to the throne of God with our prayers because His shed blood cleansed us and because He stands at the right hand of the Father in intercession for us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that You allowed Your Son to return to earth after His resurrection to confirm the victory over sin and death that we, who have received Him as Our Savior, partake in.  We thank You that you allowed Your Son to ascend back into heaven to sit at Your right side and stand in intercession for all of us that call Him Lord.  May we receive the fullness of His blessings as Our High Priest.  May we share those blessings with those people who You place around us.

Partakers of the Divine Nature

2 Peter 1:3-4
By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

Whether our faith be weak or strong right now, we can find hope in claiming what has already been granted to us.  Through Our Savior, Jesus Christ, we have been granted all things that pertain to life and godliness.  And just in case that is not enough to store hope within us, we have been granted His precious and very great promises that allow us to become partakers of the divine nature.

What does it matter if times are tough?  We know the tough times will end.  We know the King of the Universe dwells within us, preparing us to spend the rest of eternity with Him, partaking in His divine nature.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing Our Blessed Hope and Assurance, Jesus Christ.  We praise You, worship You and exalt Your Name for all that You have set aside for us.  We pray that You teach us how to submit to Our Lord, Our Master and Our King, Jesus so that we may be fully prepared to receive our eternal inheritance.  May Your majesty, Your grace and Your power be manifested in us here on earth as it is in heaven.  May it all be for Your glory and the gain of the kingdom.