“I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.” Romans 15:30 NIV
“All we can do now is pray…” I don’t know how many times I have heard this said. What a sad reflection of the unbelief in a person’s heart. It’s as if we say, “I’ve tried everything on my own to fix it… now I’ll ask God to help.” How we undervalue our greatest privilege! How we doubt the God who not only listens to us when we pray, but answers us!
Paul was fighting a spiritual battle. He urged the Romans to join him in his battle. He didn’t ask them to battle by talking to each other about how big the problems were. He didn’t ask them to send positive thoughts towards him. He URGED them to join him in his struggle by praying!
Prayer is not our “all we can do now…” options. Prayer is our “we get to” option. WE GET TO talk to the God who holds all power, is in control, has our best interest in His heart towards us, complete in love, complete in wisdom, etc… the list goes on and on. We get to come to Him and tell Him about the struggle and the battle. We get to ask Him to help us in time of need. We get to ask Him to provide our every need. We get to do that for ourselves. We get to pray for each other.
Do you and I value our connection to God in prayer? It is my prayer that we do! The truth is we cannot do anything on our own. Our very breath is a gift from God. Why would we think that we should turn to Him only at a moment of desperate need? We need Him every moment of every day!
The people God has surrounded us with, who we are doing life with need us to join them in their battles with our prayer! God hears us when we pray to Him. He loves to answer us when we pray!
“Join me in my struggle by praying to God for me!”
“…The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” James 5:16 NIV
Today is James 5.
“I guess all I can do now is pray…” I don’t know how many times I have heard that statement. Sadly, I don’t know how many times I have made that statement…
“All I can do now?!?!” How sad it is that we undervalue prayer!
James 5:13-18 speaks of how important prayer is. If we are in trouble, we need to pray. If we are happy, our prayer should be praise. If we are sick, have the elders of the church pray and anoint us with oil for healing. If we sin, pray for each other so we may be healed.
I would venture to say that prayer IS the most important thing we can do. Prayer is connection to our Heavenly Father. The Holy Spirit will help us pray. Jesus paid the price for us to be able to come boldly before God in prayer. Yet we relegate prayer to quoting the Lord’s Prayer, praying a short blessing over our meals, and possibly a quick, “Now I lay me down to sleep…” prayer at night.
Of all the great works we an do, prayer is the greatest. It is in prayer that we come to God: We acknowledge our total dependence on Him; We surrender our will and our ways; We listen for Him to speak; We are given the power to obey.
As we pray God’s Word over our situations and circumstances, we will know God and will experience Him. We will be assured that He is working all things out for our good!
Prayer isn’t a small part of the work God has called us to. Prayer is the work. May our hearts be attentive to prayer continuously throughout our days!
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” 1 John 5:14 NIV
Sixteen years ago, my husband and I moved our family to our current home out in the country. We loved everything about where we lived except for one thing. It did not have a swimming pool. My husband and I talked about our desire for a pool often. My oldest daughter Laura had been paying attention to our discussions. So, after a year of listening to us she decided to go ahead and ask. When I wasn’t paying attention, my 11-year-old daughter went to the computer and created a printout that she took and hung on my bedroom door with a piece of tape. It read, “Dear Mom and Dad, the four kids that you brought into the world would like a pool. Please buy one from Walmart. Thank you.” Her request was quickly met. My husband and I went to Walmart and bought the biggest above ground pool that they had. Our kids had nine years of enjoyment in that pool as they grew up. I have treasured that printout she made for several years. Each time that I see it, I smile and think about how our sweet girl, had the confidence to ask Rich and I for her desire.
Our verses this month at WOW have been about prayer. Prayer is communing with God and communicating with Him. It is our lifeline and connection to God through faith. Prayer is our invitation from God into a deep love relationship of oneness – us being closely attached, connected, inseparable, and indivisible with Him. Prayer is a lifestyle not an activity. This lifestyle is a conscious awareness of God’s presence at all times. It is experiencing everything with reference to Him.
This week’s verse is a precious promise that God gives us regarding a lifestyle of prayer. He assures us that we can have “confidence” in “approaching” Him. We can “ask anything according to His will”, and He will hear us. In a small way, it is how my daughter Laura approached my husband and me 15 years ago. As our daughter, she lived with us in a close and intimate relationship. She spent her days with us, listening to our words, and talking to us. She told us about her thoughts, wants, and desires. She knew that we loved her, and she loved us very much. So, confidence to make her request came easily. God desires that kind of relationship with us. He wants us to listen to Him through His Word. He wants us to communicate and commune with Him. As we do this, we will understand what to pray about. As we surrender our will to God and obey Him, we will understand what God desires and we can ask Him in “confidence.” Laura knew that my husband and I wanted to buy a pool. She had heard our conversations. She also knew that it would be our joy for her to ask. It is God’s joy when we come to Him in prayer that is prompted by the Holy Spirit, according to His Word, and born out of our deep love for Him that desires to do His will.
As we have talked about prayer the past few weeks, have you felt a desire to deepen your relationship with your heavenly Father? He desires for us to approach Him in “confidence.” He longs for us to know that He has promised that “He hears us.” He loves it when we come close to Him in prayer. May our days be spent in prayer – conversing and communing with Him!
This week’s song is once again “Draw Me Nearer” by Meredith Andrews. As we listen, may our desire to be closely attached to our heavenly Father in a relationship of oneness grow. We are His and He longs for us to experience Him intimately in a relationship of prayer.
“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” Ephesians 6:18 NIV
My mother-in-law, Evelyn, was a woman of prayer. Her example has left a huge mark on my life. She would tell me frequently of the hours she had spent talking to God. Her entire day was spent with her being conscience of His presence with her. She would talk to Him while she worked around her house, drove her car, or walked around her yard. She loved to talk to Him about the beautiful flowers she enjoyed. She asked Him to bless her meals as she cooked them, asking Him to help them to turn out good. She told Him about the things that made her happy. She poured out her sorrows to Him. I knew that her life revolved around her time spent with God. Several times during the week she called me. Her bright cheery voice came through my phone, “This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. Janet, I’ve been talking to Jesus this morning. I’ve been praying for you…” At the time, I wasn’t as appreciative of her sunshiny optimism. But now I can see how blessed I was. She modeled to me the very thing that I needed the most, an intimate relationship with God that was cultivated in her lifestyle of prayer.
This month our verses at WOW have been about prayer. Prayer is communing with God and communicating with Him. It is our lifeline and connection to Him through faith. It is a conscious awareness of God’s presence at all times. Prayer is knowing that EVERYTHING in our lives is something we communicate with God about. Our verse this week encourages us to pray “on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” God loves to hear us praise Him for who He is. He loves to hear us thank Him for what He has done. He loves to hear us ask Him for guidance along our way. He desires us to tell Him the very things that cause our hearts to ache. He wants us to come to Him with everything!
The beauty of this lifestyle of prayer is that our God not only desires for us to pray, but He also helps us to pray. The Holy Spirit prompts us, enables us, and empowers us in prayer. As we “pray in the Spirit”, our prayers are moved and guided by Him. Evelyn prayed this way. Many times, she would tell me how she felt like the Holy Spirit had prompted her to pray for a loved one. She didn’t know what was going on, but she was sure that He had directed her to pray. Later she would hear testimony of how God stepped into the circumstance that person had experienced. This confirmed to her that the Holy Spirit had led her to pray.
These memories of my praying mother-in-law have stirred in me a desire. It is a desire to live my life experiencing God moment by moment in prayer. Perhaps as you read this, the desire is growing in you? God has given us this desire. He tells us to pray because He knows that a lifestyle of prayer is what is the very best for us. It ensures that our connection with God is close and intimate. This is what we were created for. He wants us to know Him through prayer and to make Him known by displaying our relationship of oneness to God with everyone we encounter.
This week’s song is “Draw Me Nearer” by Meredith Andrews. As we listen to the words, may the Holy Spirit awaken a desire within us to experience a close and intimate relationship with Him through prayer.
“The end of all things is near. Therefore, be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.” 1 Peter 4:7 NIV
When I was little, I was a daddy’s girl. There was nothing that I loved more than spending time with my dad. I have fond memories of sitting out in his garage watching him work on our family’s car while I would sit there and talk away to him telling him all about my 6-year-old life. I LOVED being with my dad. However, time went on and life changes happened. I still loved him, but I became busy with my friends, my activities, and my life. After high school, I moved to a different town. My time with my dad became less and less as well as our conversations. Truth be told I forgot what a joy it was to be with him. The past year things have been different in our relationship. Dad is now 86 and I am 53, our relationship has matured and deepened. Lately, we have engaged in the most wonderful conversations. I’ve asked him questions about his younger years and discovered things about him that I never knew. We’ve talked about memories, both good and bad. We’ve made plans for the future as well. Once again, this daddy’s girl has found what she needed, time with her dad in a close relationship.
This month the verses at WOW are about prayer. Prayer is our connection to God through faith. Prayer is our invitation from God into a deep love relationship of oneness closely attached, connected, inseparable, and indivisible with Him. Prayer develops our relationship with God demonstrating our trust and utter dependence upon Him. You and I are our heavenly Father’s “Daddy’s girl”. God longs for us to spend time with Him, lots of it. Prayer is us spending time with Him engaging in conversation not just occasionally, but throughout our entire day, month, year, and life.
Our WOW verse for this week speaks of the need to “be alert and of sober mind so that you can pray.” Our world around us holds so many distractions that pull us away from relating to God in a life of prayer. Our enemy would like nothing better for us than to focus on all these distractions so that we would not live in a close and intimate relationship with God. His desire is for us to be disconnected from our heavenly Father. He wants to render us useless and to keep us from living fully in that relationship for which we were created. This is why we must be spiritually alert and watchful as we live our daily lives. It is easy to drift away from a close and vibrant relationship with God, as I drifted from the close relationship I had with my earthly dad as a little girl. It is easy to lose focus of why God has invited us to be closely connected with Him in prayer. Especially if we come to God with our thoughts, our wants, our desires, and our ways in mind. If our lives are filled with the self-centeredness of an uncircumcised heart, we will not experience the close relationship of oneness that God desires us to have through prayer. This is why we must “be alert and of sober mind so that ‘we’ may pray.”
As you are reading these words, do you feel the pushing and pulling of the world’s influences trying to keep you from that intimate time of relationship with your heavenly Father as His “Daddy’s girl”? God’s desire is for us to focus attentively on Him and Him alone moment by moment throughout our day. He wants us to experience Him more fully in a living relationship of prayer. May we fix our hearts and our minds on Him so that we can truly be “alert and of sober mind.” May we guard our hearts from anything that would try to influence us and draw us away from God’s life-giving connection to Him, our relationship of oneness with Him through prayer.
This week’s song speaks of a deep and intimate relationship with God that is developed in a lifestyle of prayer. It is “Heart of the Father” by Ryan Ellis. May we know His closeness and love as we experience more and more of Him!
“When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” Luke 19:45-46 NIV
Two years ago, the youngest of our four children graduated from High School. This signaled the beginning of my husband and I gradually becoming empty nesters. For 26 years, our lives had revolved around our kids. Many of those years consisted of my husband working long hours and sharing the weekends together with me and the kids. We rarely had time alone together. Suddenly, we found ourselves, alone, sitting side by side in our living room recliners with nothing to do. At times, I resented our new way of life. I liked having my time with our kids. I did things my way, after my own plans that centered around their activities. I was used to my independence and being in control. However, my husband desired for this new season in our lives to be a time that our relationship of oneness would deepen and grow. Every time he had a day off from work, he would wake up and ask me, “what are we going to do today?” I did not understand that this was his invitation to participate in a closer relationship. I didn’t realize I needed to drop my plans and my independent ways. Thankfully, I am changing and once again I am enjoying the gift that God gave to me 32 years ago when he and I were dating, our one-on-one relationship spending time together.
This month our weekly verses at WOW are about prayer. Prayer is our lifeline and connection to God through faith — totally relying on, being fully assured of, and strictly adhering to God and His Word. Faith gives birth to prayer. Prayer is absolutely dependent upon faith. Prayer is our invitation from God into a deep love relationship of oneness closely attached, connected, inseparable, and indivisible with Him. Prayer develops our relationship with God demonstrating our trust and utter dependence upon Him.
God deeply desires that we have a close and intimate relationship of oneness with Him. Jesus came to our world to make this possible. Our verses this week are an account of when Jesus came to the temple, a place of communion with God. When He arrived, He saw that the people had made the temple into a place of business instead. He began to drive out those who had turned His house into something other than its design, “a house of prayer.” Those people were used to doing things their way and after their plans, but Jesus came to introduce a “new and living way” (Hebrews 10:20) of a relationship of oneness. Jesus wanted His temple, His dwelling place, to be “a house of prayer.”
Jesus wants our lives to be one with His as well. He desires us to be “a house of prayer” or communion with Him. However, we have hindrances, sin, that need to be cleaned out in order for us to fully realize the depths of a relationship of oneness He desires. These keep us from being closely connected to God by faith through prayer. This is why we must allow God to cut the sin away through His circumcision of our hearts.
Two years ago, my husband longed for a closer relationship, and I realized I needed to repent of my independent ways. As I have, our time together is becoming beautiful. Jesus comes to us the same way. He is offering to cut away the things that separate us from Him. They leave our lives nothing more than a “den of robbers”, trapped in death, darkness, and destruction. How will we respond? May we respond, “Yes, anything that is not of You, cut away, clean it out. I want a relationship of intimacy communing with You, God, through prayer!”
Click this link to access our song this week: Kim Walker-Smith – Make Room (Lyrics) (youtube.com). May we desire to be free of all the sins that keep us from a close relationship of oneness with our Heavenly Father. Let us make room for Him. So, we may experience Him through a life of prayer.
Jesus came so we could know God in an intimate relationship with Him. He has given us all we need to have that relationship.
He taught us to pray.
”He said to them, “When you pray, say: “ ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation. ’ ”“
Luke 11:2-4 NIV
He encourages us to ask our Father in heaven to give us the Holy Spirit to live within us and fill us to overflowing.
”If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”“
Luke 11:13 NIV
He tells us we are “blessed” – happy- when we hear the word of God and obey it. Verse 28. Because He knows our obedience to His Word will keep us free from the sin that separates us from Him.
God wants us to be close to Him. We can choose to be close to God in an intimate relationship that gives us freedom, joy, and peace. Jesus provided a way for us to experience this through His death, burial, and resurrection.
Or we can choose to live apart from Him — Never seeking Him in prayer or in His Word, no relationship with the Holy Spirit, following our own desires.
He loves us so and offers us His life for our own good! We get the choice to go His way or ours.
A few months ago, I was praying. I heard the Holy Spirit tell me, “Janet, do you know that Satan uses noise warfare?” Since the term “noise warfare” was not exactly on my mind, I decided to do a google search. When I did, I found an article about Manuel Noriega. The implications of his story have been eye opening to me as one who has been subject to “noise warfare” for most of my life.
US Soldiers blaring rock and roll music in 1989
On Christmas Day 1989, The United States decided it was time to arrest and bring to justice General Manuel Noriega, the dictator of Panama. Indicted for drug trafficking charges, Mr. Noriega had holed himself up in the embassy of the Vatican in Panama. The US forces did not want to destroy buildings in order to accomplish a surrender of the surrounded General. So, they engaged in “noise warfare”. They surrounded the Embassy and with a flight of Humvees that were mounted with loudspeakers from which they blasted rock in roll music, nonstop for three days. Noriega, who loved classical music surrendered shortly after. As I read the news report of the events surrounding Noriega’s surrender, the truth set in. This is the exact type of spiritual warfare I have been engaged in most of my life.
Make no doubt about it. Our enemy, Satan, is a liar. Not only is he a liar, he takes great pleasure in repeating lies in our ears over and over and over again. His voice does not tire from spewing lies 24/7 that lead us to choose anxiety, anger, depression, hatred, bitterness, envy, selfishness, jealousy, etc. However, we do not have to be subject to the noise warfare going on within our heads.
About three years ago, I contacted my friend from college. In our conversation, I revealed to her that I was suffering from horrible anxiety. She told me something that to this day rings true, “Janet, you have the Holy Spirit living within you. You know His voice. All you have to do is listen.” It occurred to me that moment that I had listened to the lies of the enemy so long that I had forgotten what it was like to listen for the “still small voice” of the Holy Spirit. I had allowed Satan to shout in my ears and I had been internalizing his lies. It was time to draw a line in the sand and FIGHT!
Do you know that God has a victory plan for the “noise warfare” of our enemy? It is the praise of our glorious God! It silences Satan!
“Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens. Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. “ Psalm 8:1-2 NIV
We must make a determined effort to use this weapon we have graciously been given. Satan knows this is true. So he once again will shout his lies, “That won’t work! You look like an idiot praising when you are who you are!” May I encourage you, tell him to “shut it!” and then get your praise on!
Even if the praise you struggle to get out starts with a feeble, “I praise you God, because you are good.” Build on those words with more and more praise. He cannot continue to blare his noise when the praises start! The truth of who God is as you praise Him with His Word will prevail! So, praise and then listen. You will hear His voice. It has been gently speaking all along. In Him is the Victory!
I have rediscovered the past few years how beautiful the sound of God’s voice is! I love it! What I did not know as I listened to the noise of the enemy is that God’s voice was speaking the whole time. Praise helped me to turn the channel of what was being broadcasted in my head. God’s voice is loving. His voice is peace. It is gentle, kind, patient, and good. And best of all, it can be heard! In fact, God longs for us to hear it! He wants us to know His voice and follow no other! Because He loves us and wants what is best for us!
We do not have to live under the constant barrage of the enemy’s lies and his “noise warfare”! We must immerse ourselves in the truth- God’s Word, the Bible, and lift up our voices in praise! Our God still breaks the chains of torment off of the minds of His children! Believe it is so!
Life begins with a seed whether a plant in a garden or a baby in the womb. Life starts when the seed is placed in an environment where it can grow. The New Life of Jesus begins with a seed as well. The seed that begins the New Life is the Word of God and the environment it grows is within our hearts.
“Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.”James 1:21 NIV
Our role is to receive or “accept the word planted” in us. The Word is supposed to grow there just as an earthly seed grows in the environment it is implanted in and fills it up completely. The Word is supposed to fill up the entirety of our Heart.
When we say to a person, “I have you in my heart.” We are saying that we hold them dear to us. We think of them often. We want to spend time with them. When we receive Jesus, the Word, into our hearts, we hold Him dear to us. We think of Him often, we want to spend time with Him. This seed of God’s Word implanted in our hearts becomes the focus of our lives. The more God’s Word grows in us the more of the New Life becomes our entire life.
God’s desire is to plant the seed of the Word in our hearts so it may grow. He wants His Word to fill us! Because He knows this is the only life that will truly satisfy us giving us His love, peace, and joy. So He comes to us asking for us to let Him fill our hearts with His Word so His New Life grows abundantly in us. The question is will we allow Him to?
May our desire be as King David’s.
“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Psalms 119:11 NIV
Today’s reading is Luke 11. Jesus loved to pray. It was his regular practice to go to a secluded place and spend time with His Heavenly Father. The ones closest to Jesus had seen Him take time to do this often.
Could you imagine being there when Jesus spoke to His Heavenly Father? Hearing Him talk to God, not in a formal religious formula, but in a close and intimate conversation? Watching Jesus and His time of communion with God the Father was enough to spark curiosity within one of the disciples, probably more than just curiosity, a hunger. “Lord, teach us to pray…” (verse 1). Jesus then gave His disciples the model prayer, what we often call, “The Lord’s Prayer” or some call, “The Our Father.” This prayer was meant to be an outline of prayer for His disciples to follow: worship, prayer for needs, repentance and forgiveness, prayers for guidance, etc.
Today what is highlighted to me in our reading is the section of verses following it. Jesus told another parable- a short story with a spiritual point or application. This story tells of the interaction of a man in need and his friend who was reluctant to help. This “friend” did not want to be bothered with the needs of his friend who came to him at midnight needing three loaves of bread to feed his surprise visitor. But the friend with the need persists. He keeps knocking and asking until the man in bed gets up and gives the man in need the bread he needed. Jesus goes on to talk about a son asking his dad for a fish to eat. Would the dad give him a snake to eat? Or instead of an egg, a scorpion? (Verses 11-12). Then Jesus says something profound, ““If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”” (Verse 13)
How often the disciples had watched the religious leaders of their time approach God with rigidness! God was spoken to with formula prayers and He was viewed as unapproachable, perhaps even, aggravated, as the man in the parable was , that the people had come. But Jesus told His disciples, His Father was not that way! He longed to give “good gifts.” And the most precious gift of all the gift of the Holy Spirit living within them! All that was required of them was to come and to ask!
Our God is the same today, yesterday, and forever! He isn’t a God hidden from us, only accessible through formula prayers and religious rituals. He isn’t irritated when we come to Him with our needs. He so desires us to come! He desires to give us the gift of the Holy Spirit living within us. He eagerly waits for us to do just what Jesus modeled in this chapter, spend time with Him in prayer. He longs for us to come to Him and to ask!
God displayed the lengths He would go to be a part of our lives so we would “come.”The Christmas story displays this all so well. God broke the silence when He sent an Angel to Mary to tell her she would conceive and give birth, by the Holy Spirit, God’s Son, God with us!
Once again God longs to break the silence in our lives! He longs to give us another gift just as He did at the first Christmas, the Holy Spirit- God living within us! May we come to Him and ask!
Your Love 