Tag Archives: prayer

Christian faith, General, Nature, The Arts

Earth And Sea And Sky

4 Comments

IMG_1010

My shell art is almost complete.

It took me almost a year to collect enough shells from the bay. You craft-wise people would probably ask, “Why didn’t you simply go to the craft store to get your shells?”

I looked at those bags of shells in the store, and told myself, no. I want shells that represent my new locale. So I went down to the bay every week and searched for just the right shells.

Bruce is not into home-made art. He tolerates my need to occasionally paint, or sew, or construct something…

IMG_0668

So my “art” will hang in my office. The walls are getting crowded, and the only reasonable space left is behind the computer.

Which is good, because my shell art will remind me of the sea, how I prayed for forty (yes, literally) years before God answered my prayer to live by the ocean again, how the waves and the wind and the salt air settle my mind on the greatness of my God…

how He has established nature’s rhythms: light and dark, high tide and low tide, the arc of the sun, of the moon, the currents of air and the drifting of clouds,

IMG_0956

and below, the swell of the deep.

IMG_0771

Never mind that the art is not perfect. It’s there to say, “You are where you’ve always dreamed about. God brought you here.”

Christian faith

Ten Reasons We Pray

5 Comments

IMG_0573

Prayer is perhaps the most worshipful thing we do.

It says to God:

  1. “I look to You because I am Your child.”
  2. “I recognize that I am spiritually poor, unable to make a change in my heart, or the heart of another.”
  3. “I recognize my human physical frailty.”
  4. “You are the God who cares.”
  5. “You are great and good.”
  6. “You are all powerful, much more powerful than my enemies.”
  7. “You have a plan that is eternal, Your thoughts are higher than my thoughts.
  8. “I trust  You.”
  9. “I can approach You with my intercessions because of what Jesus did for me on the cross.”
  10. “I love You.”

We can depend on our Heavenly Father for His …

Provision

Protection

Power

Plan

IMG_0754

I love the Psalms. Many of them, written by King David, begin with a complaint or a plea for God’s help.

I love the Psalmist’s honesty. He does not couch his words with false piety. He states his problem, then calls on God to bring about justice.

I hope you read the following Psalm and reflect on it today. The key phrase for Psalm 43 is “put your hope in God.”

Psalm 43 (from the NIV Bible):

“Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; rescue me from deceitful and wicked men. You are God my stronghold. Have You rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, 0ppressed by the enemy?

Send forth Your light and Your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You dwell. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight.

I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God. Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed with me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.”

If that’s not worship, I don’t know what is!

Christian faith, Healthy Relationships

Keep on Prayin’

3 Comments
32nd wedding anniv 121
my son and in-laws praying

Next Tuesday morning I will begin leading a group of women in prayer.

I won’t be a teacher, or a lecturer, or preacher.

I won’t even be an expert on prayer. Gosh, I am only a kindergartner in the K-12 educational process of learning about prayer.

I know that, through prayer, my loving Father has done these things for me:

provided and protected,

taught and encouraged,

counseled,

answered,

comforted and assured,

confirmed and affirmed

moved

demonstrated,

healed,

saved,

empowered,

communicated.

 

I hope that, when you pray, you don’t just pray all by yourself. That’s great. But we need to join together with other Christians to pray. Not just on Sunday. Any time you can.

I am hoping that the women who come next week to our hour of prayer continue to come, week by week. Jesus told a parable about persevering in prayer. (Luke 18: 1-8)

I can’t remember who said it—I think it was Martin Luther—but the quote stuck in my mind: “Prayer is not the preparation for the work. Prayer is the work.”

Prayer is not something we throw out to the winds, hoping God will catch our drift.

Prayer is an intimate and mighty exercise of our deepest yearnings for our Father’s intervention.

I have seen God’s answers to short-term prayers.

And the Lord has graciously answered prayers I prayed for forty or more years.

Some of God’s answers have been hard to take: a death rather than a physical healing; a divorce rather than restoration; a lost job rather than a promotion.

But we know that God is good. That He does indeed have a plan for us, individually, and for the world. That his plan involved the death of His Son.

IMG_3165

And that His plan for us is eternal life.

IMG_0817

In my research of materials for our prayer meeting, I came across some wonderful quotes from great people of faith on the subject of prayer.

I hope the following words encourage you:

“We can do nothing without prayer. All things can be done by importunate prayer. It surmounts or removes all obstacles, overcomes every resisting force—and gains its end in the face of invisible hindrances.” (E.M. Bounds)

“When human reason has exhausted every possibility, the children can go to their Father and receive all they need. For only when you have become utterly dependent upon prayer and faith, only when all human possibilities have been exhausted, can you begin to reckon that God will intervene and work His miracles.” Basilea Schlink

“Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayer and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. (Ephesians 6:18 NIV Bible)

Keep on prayin’!

 

 

 

Christian faith, Healthy Relationships

Walk

4 Comments

 

Spring 2010 064This is one of my favorite Bible verses:

“And Enoch walked with God.” (Gen. 5:24)

A short, simple verse, impossible not to memorize. So short that I do not even have to write a musical jingle to remember it.

But there’s a whole lot of significance in these five words.

I’ve read this verse many, many times. Simply glossed over it in the boring recitation of who begat who and how long each descendant of Adam lived.

But one day this verse stood out in my mind. As though God had stopped me to point out the power of “walk.”

What does it mean to walk with God? I wondered what Enoch must have been like. Was he a particularly spiritual man, a philosopher, a thinker, a nature man, a dreamer?

Or maybe he was a practical man, most likely a man who worked with his hands. A hunter, gatherer, planter, harvester. Like the the shepherd king, David, whatever his work entailed gave him time for reflection and communication with God.

But I also think that God, in His sovereignty, had chosen Enoch for this special “walk.”

I think Enoch talked to God about everything. And beyond talking, he liked to listen for God’s response. He delighted in hearing God’s voice. He prioritized listening to God’s voice. Over all the other voices clamoring for his attention: his wife and children, his friends, the urgent needs of the day.

I once read a short quote which has stuck in mind. “You’re too busy not to pray.”

If Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, why do we think we can separate ourselves, even for a short time, from our vine?

So, I think that is the key to Enoch’s “walk.”

Enoch understood the importance of that branch-to-vine connection, walking close to his God. Talking, listening, explaining, pleading, praising, surrendering, obeying, having the consciousness of God’s presence at all times. And when it was time for Enoch’s life to be over on earth, God simply took him to heaven. Amazing and precious.

Oh, I would love to be like Enoch.

 

Christian faith, General, Healthy Relationships

Only Prayer

1 Comment

As I watch the news lately, I can hardly believe all the horrible things that are happening throughout the world. Innocent children used as pawns at the border crossing. Children and other civilians used as human shields in Gaza. The horror of war. The desperation of Israel, just trying to exist while surrounded by people who hate them so much that they want every Jewish person annihilated. And then there’s the religious persecution of Christians.

What can we do? The needs are endless. My resources are few.

I can send money. But then, what?

I can make these needs known in my small corner of the world.

I can blog about it. Perhaps my words will move someone else to do what they can to bring attention and aid to these poor suffering people.

Sometimes I forget my most powerful weapon: PRAYER.

Jesus left us the perfect example of the man or woman who walks closely with God. He went off to a quiet place each day to talk to His God. I hope we also do that daily, not only for our own spiritual sustenance, but to entreat Him for mercy and provision for the victims of evil.

Yesterday I was reading in the book of Revelation. In Revelation chapter five, the Lamb: Jesus Christ, is worthy to take the scroll from God. As He does so, twenty-four elders fall down before Him. They are holding harps (for musical worship) and vials filled with incense (containing the prayers of the saints.)

The prayers of the saints.

Never think that our worship and our intercession for others is insignificant to God. If they are mentioned in heaven, then they have indeed reached Jesus, who intercedes for His saints.

I was struck by this mention of our prayers. They are precious to our Lord.

The Lord listens to the prayers of His saints. The Word of God promises it.

Lets pray and pray and pray for the world, for those who are victims of horrible, hateful religious fanatics, and for those who hate God and want to throw off His yoke—however righteous and gracious it is— forever.

Pray for Israel.

But also pray for those who hate Israel.

Pray for the persecuted and those who are being used.

But also pray for the haters and those who only value their own profit and power even at the cost of many innocent lives.

Lets fall on our faces before our precious Savior and intercede for the whole world. Lets pray every day and as often as we hear of more trouble.

“Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open.”( Ephesians 6: 23 The Message)