PRAY WITHOUT CEASING

March 25th, 2013 | By admin

by Katt AndersonThis is a devotional I receive each day from Tyndale House Publishing. Tyndale House publishes inspirational fiction and non-fiction. I have enjoyed these devotionals and thought this one was very interesting. I do not know the author, but the story is very good.Ephesians 6:18 ESV “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,”.

When I reach the end of the list of God’s armor (Eph. 6:10-18), I also reach a moment of truth. First, will I put on the armor? Second, once I have put on the armor, what will I actually do? Note what Pauls “marching orders” turn out to be: pray. I struggled for a long time with this idea of what it means to pray “at all times and on every occasion.” Then I began to observe how my wife’s mind works. She taught me a valuable lesson. When I look at this entire passage, I realize that prayer isn’t just work. Prayer is war.Prayer isn’t time out from the battle. In fact, prayer can be full-on engagement in the fray. If I think of prayer as work, it becomes an issue of lifestyle and convenience. If I think of prayer as warfare, it takes on life-and-death importance.Paul told the Thessalonians, “Never stop praying” (1 Thess. 5:17). Words like these are both challenging and puzzling–particularly for me as a man. Since it seems like I can only do one thing at a time, how can I pray and get anything else done? That’s when I noticed an amazing thing about my wife. My wife does certain things all the time. I mean, she never stops. For example, she thinks about me and about each of our children constantly. If I approach her at any moment and ask, “What were you just thinking about Nathan (one of our kids)?” she can tell me. If I ask her, “What’s Katherine (our daughter) doing right now?” my wife knows or was wondering. Both of these are grown and married kids. What my wife considers important, she thinks about “at all times and on every occasion.” To compare it to computer structures, my mind is a program with various files that I can only open one at a time. My wife’s mind is like RAM (Random Access Memory) on a computer–at any moment, everything is on her mind. Both of us know that prayer needs to be our default setting. No matter what else may occupy our minds at any moment, we want to learn to have an attitude of prayer running in the background. She reminds me that it can be done. 2013 © Tyndale House Publishers 351 Executive Drive Carol Stream Illinois 60188

IF YOU COULD PRAY FOR ANYTHING…

January 30th, 2013 | By admin

By Aunt Mary

If you could pray for anything, what would you pray for? This is a little test I did with the girls in my Wednesday night Bible Class. The catch was it had to be something they thought God would answer. They answered a variety of things. Some were very good and considerate, like the health of her father. Others were more worldly centered, like  to meet Taylor Swift.

This is a good exercise to do to help you in your prayer- life. We all pray for things we don’t need, or can do without, but we need to think about what we pray for. Remember, God hears all of our prayers. We are told in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, to “Pray without ceasing.” That means you should always be in a prayerful attitude. Always ready to pray.

A friend and I were talking about prayer yesterday. We were discussing how at times, we don’t pray as we should. Everyone goes through this at times in their life. We can all use a good dose of prayer. Things get in our way, we forget, we get busy with life, and a million other things interrupt our prayer-life. When we feel these things pulling us away from prayer stop and say a quick prayer right then.

Another way to help your prayer life is to study more of God’s word. Get up earlier in the mornings and study the Bible. Get organized with a time and a place to study and talk to God. If you have to, make a schedule and decide what you want to do during that time. You may want to read the Bible through in a year. That takes from 30 minutes to an hour a day to do that. Take time during that time of study to pray.

God wants us to pray. He is our father, and as we would ask an earthly father for something, we should ask our heavenly Father for things. That makes us stronger and closer to God. Pray without ceasing. That’s a good thing. It’s hard, but a good thing to learn to do.

Start a prayer journal. Write down who and what you want to remember in prayer. It’s not a sin to look at that journal when you pray to remember who you need to ask blessings for. We need to remember those people.

One thing I have noticed through my years is how much nicer a person is who prays a lot. How can you tell? They are concerned for you. They care about you. Prayer makes a person more in tune with others around them. Do you have to bow your head, get down on your knees, or make some other outward gesture to pray? I don’t think so. You don’t want to make your praying a show for others to see. You can stand in line at the grocery store and pray when you remember someone. No one knows you are praying and you feel better about yourself.

Prayer is good. Remembering to pray is better.

PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING

November 23rd, 2011 | By admin

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WHERE IS GOD?

June 8th, 2011 | By admin

by Katt Anderson

In 2009, my husband and I took a trip we had dreamed about for years. We went to Scotland. It was a trip of a lifetime and we enjoyed the people, the scenery, and being with family.

We attended a small congregation in America and I taught a class of two boys, ages six and nine. The first thing they wanted to know was how I got there. I told them we flew. The next question was how high did you go? I told them forty thousand feet. The youngest boy had been silent and had a very serious look on his face. He looked at me and asked, “Did you see God?” I told him no that we didn’t go that far and asked why he asked that question. Still in the serious mode, he looked up toward the ceiling and pointed. “He’s up there,” he replied.

The little fellow probably thought I was pretty dumb to not know God was “up there.” We always associate God with Heaven, and every story about heaven tells us Heaven is “up there.” If the Word of God is with you, God is with you. No, we can’t see Him like these boys thought I could if I flew high enough, but we know right from wrong and that is influence from God.

David said in Psalm 18:30 that “God’s way is perfect.” Yes, it is. It is perfect as long as we obey God’s Word. We need to study the Bible, teach others His Word, and live a life that shows respect to him. Sometimes we are put in positions where it is hard to do what we know is right. When we do sin, we can ask for forgiveness. God is right there to hear our prayers.