Tag Archives: prayer
The Daily Prompt And Hindsight
The Daily Prompt has given us what I consider a huge challenge today!
Now that you’ve got some blogging experience under your belt, re-write your very first post.
Holy Cow! That was four and a half years and a whole different blog ago. Still I suppose certain truths are timeless even if most words are momentary. I am choosing to rewrite my second blog since that was actually about something other than my personal story.
I remember the first piece of blogging advice I ever got. It was from my daughter… “Dad be brief.”
So in brief here it is:
Hearing And Listening:
God doesn’t listen to everyone. Does that shock you? I have to admit it jars me a little. No matter how disconcerting it might be, though, it is the truth.
There are some people who think that as long as we pray to any god, rock, tree bush or lightbulb the real God will somehow hear and answer by proxy…. BUT… The whole idea that it doesn’t matter who you believe in, only that you believe in something, is absolute drivel.
I do believe that God does hear every prayer that goes up from the mouths of humans. But there is a grand bit of difference between His hearing and His listening. You don’t have to look very far in Scripture to find this truth:
God said these words to the prophet Jeremiah when the children of Israel had sinned grievously against Him. “Do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their distress.” Jeremiah 11:14 NIV
AND
Peter warned the men of his day that there was a condition of heart which would stop their prayers dead cold. “Husbands in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.” I Peter 3:7
More examples could be given but in this short space let me just say that God Hears every prayer but He only Listens to some of them. According to Scripture, the way you live affects how effective your prayer life is.
Now that is shocking!
Gosh I was a little flame thrower back then. Even edited this is a little “Ravenhillesque”. I am not sure I would write this piece today and honestly I cannot decide whether that is good or bad thing. It certainly has me thinking.
To view hindsight through other eyes go to:
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/hindsight/
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Prophetical Priestly Quotes 15
” In prayer we find the ultimate space in which to practice obedience to truth, the space created by the Spirit who keeps troth with us all.” Parker Palmer
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Prophetical- Priestly Quotes 14
“Sincere prayer changes the one who prays before it changes the world for which one prays.”
Darius L Salter
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Prophetical Priestly Quotes 13
“One of the purposes of prayer is to allow its participants to transcend the nagging particulars of life that normally preoccupy us. Prayer allows ordinary people to become players in much larger stakes; Washington, the United Nations, Bosnia, Afghanistan, and the totality of the world. There is a time for prayer to address immediate and local problems, even Uncle Larry’s lumbago and Aunt Gertrude’s gout. Prayer can petition God to cure many of our aches and pains. But I suspect that what prayer really needs to do is displace our self-serving agendas with more critical concerns.” Darius L. Salter
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Caddo’s Seven Word Sunday: 8-10-14
When It All Seems Like Too Much, Pray!
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Heaven Pt. 128
I started writing the “Heaven” posts on my previous blog in December of 2011. My goal was to look at every verse in the Bible that used the word Heaven and to bring forth a commentary on the place where God’s throne resides. In the last two years we have made much of Heaven together, dear readers. I have to admit it is not just Heaven I understand a bit better through these meditations but the God of Heaven as well. If you would like to read past “Heaven” posts you can find them under the Heaven page by clicking on the Pastor Wrinkles icon above.
The king asked, “Well, how can I help you?” With a prayer to the God of heaven, I replied, “If it please the king, and if you are pleased with me, your servant, send me to Judah to rebuild the city where my ancestors are buried.” Neh. 2:4,5
As I started writing this morning I did what I usually do. I sat down at my computer looked at the next item on my list to write about and began ploughing into the subject. Then I read this Scripture and had to stop. I realized I was doing things backwards. You see, after my pattern, I make my plans, set them in motion and then I ask God to bless them.
As I read this morning I realized that is not what Nehemiah did. He was burdened with a God idea but when his opportunity came He didn’t just charge ahead in his own strength trying to accomplish the things of God . He first sent out an appeal for blessing from the God of Heaven. It may not have been anything more than a breath prayer but it was enough to cause Him to be cast upon the mercies of God for His future rather than upon his own weak arm of flesh.
It’s a lesson I have learned before and forgotten, apparently. We cannot work first and then pray. We must pray first and then work. This latter method is the key to gaining the Lord’s favor before we launch and therefore His direction and success in the project. The former is a chasing after wind and a sure method of ending up with only scatter shot victory.
Tell me about a time you sought the Lord before a project and He directed you to success.
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Pastor Wrinkles: What Are You Not Praying For?
7 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the late crops were coming up. 2 When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, “SovereignLord, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”
3 So the Lord relented.
“This will not happen,” the Lord said.
4 This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: The Sovereign Lord was calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the great deep and devoured the land. 5 Then I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”
6 So the Lord relented.
“This will not happen either,” the Sovereign Lord said.
7 This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb,[a] with a plumb line[b]in his hand. 8 And the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?”
“A plumb line,” I replied.
Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
9 “The high places of Isaac will be destroyed
and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined;
with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.” Amos 7:1-9
I was meditating this morning on the power of prayer. In Amos chapter 7 prayer was even able to push-off a sovereign judgment (that is a HUGE DEAL in case you are wondering).Prayer does change things but not because it is intrinsically powerful. Prayer changes things because it moves the heart of God. Maybe it would be better to say, God changes things because His people pray.
However you choose to relay the message it must be noted that prayer is a necessary part of the work of God in the world. We must pray because for whatever reason God has tied His movement in our world to our prayers. When we pray in faith God moves. When we don’t pray in faith God limits His movement.
Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” MA. 21: 21, 22 NIV
“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. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” James 4:2,3 NIV
So let me ask you, “What are you not praying for?”
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Pastor Wrinkles: The Lenten Journey Pt. 4
In all our hearts lies a longing for a Sacred Romance Brent Curtiss
I am so grateful for what Jesus has showed me these last few days! My Scripture reading this morning was from Hebrews chapter 3:
7 That is why the Holy Spirit says,
“Today when you hear his voice,
8 don’t harden your hearts
as Israel did when they rebelled,
when they tested me in the wilderness.
9 There your ancestors tested and tried my patience,
even though they saw my miracles for forty years.
10 So I was angry with them, and I said,
‘Their hearts always turn away from me.
They refuse to do what I tell them.’
11 So in my anger I took an oath:
‘They will never enter my place of rest.’”
12 Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. 13 You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. 14 For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.”
I want to start by thanking those of you who have prayed for me. I have spent the last couple of days afraid of moving forward just like the Israelites. The Sacred Romance has been calling but I have been afraid to embrace it for a couple of reasons:
1. Inadequacy. I feel I am not equal to the road that lies ahead.
2. Fear of rejection. I am realizing that one of the reasons I am afraid to walk this road is because I am afraid I will discover God doesn’t want me.
3. Fear of disappointing others. If I fully go after God then I may incur the disappointment of others (because I am not doing their will for my life). Then if God rejects me who will I have?
I know! I know! These things look silly when they are written down on computer screen; But these are the things that have been hidden in my heart that I was not even aware of. These are the reasons I have not boldly shared Christ with people on the streets. These are the reasons I waited so long to send my book out. These are the reasons I have skipped my scheduled writing sessions at night. These are the reasons I have not done more travelling. The list goes on.
As I have prayed these last two days God has revealed these are three things He is healing in me. Today I realized they are nothing more than unbelief and hardness of heart.
Sooo…I have left these attitudes behind and I confess:
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
” I am accepted in the Beloved.”
“The Lord is my light and my salvation. The Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid.”
Now forward into the Sacred Romance!
What Scriptural confessions do you need to cling to in order to walk into God’s promises? Continue reading
Lillie-Put 