WAITING IN HIS LOVE

One of the most important though difficult facets of prayer is waiting. The greatest answers to prayer come through the patience of the petitioner. Abraham waited 25 years to become the father of a great nation. The disciples waited in despair after the Lord was crucified. In John ll:5,6 we read,

“Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

⁶ Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick,

he stayed where he was two more days. ^[1]

Are you tempted to give up on God because He is causing you to wait? God’s love for you is a settled matter. You can wait for Him because you are waiting in His love.

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^[1] The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1984 (Jn 11:5–6). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

PRAYING THE WORD

I wonder about believers who think the word of God is boring. I have heard people talk about disciplining themselves to read the Bible every day. I do encourage that discipline. But I also think we should approach it like we would a telephone. Your phone may be solid black with none of the applications your friends’ phones have. You cannot get excited about your phone. But you would be excited if someone could talk to you on it from heaven. What if it were God Himself calling your phone every day? That is of course the case with Scripture. Our Bible reading should be immersed in prayer as we carry on a conversation with God. In Psalm 119:18 David prayed,

“Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.”

As you open your Bible pray for God to open your heart to hear His voice as you read.

I cannot wait for next week. I am making videos for my 1 year old grandson. In my next blog I will tell you some of what I am encouraging him to pray.

PRAYING FOR THE SUPERNATURAL IN ME

In Luke 1:37 the Angel assured Mary that nothing is impossible with God. We clearly see Mary believing God would do what was absolutely impossible in her as well as on the earth and in history. We also need to pray for the impossible in our own lives.

I have a personal challenge right now that I know I am not strong enough to carry out. I do not have the courage. I will not be able to stand against people I love who do not agree with me. I do not see how it could be accomplished if I had enough backbone to carry it out. I believe this is definitely of God. So I am praying for God to do the impossible in me.

I want to remind you that the Kindle edition of my novel, IN THE WILDERNESS, is free this week, March 12-16, 2013. You can access it on my website, http://daveswatch.com/

PRAYER FROM IN THE WILDERNESS

This is a snatch from my novel, IN THE WILDERNESS. The book is not on prayer purse. But real prayer is a part of life.

If I had assumed the Captain would mellow out after the storm, I was mistaken. He never flogged me, but he threatened it repeatedly. I did learn more about sailing on this voyage, and I worked hard to do my duty. It did not take me any time to discover I had little or nothing in common with the other crewmen. And it did not hurt my feelings that they had all decided early on to shun me as much as possible. I started spending any time I had off duty in my hammock with my Bible. I devoured it, praying for God to explain everything I read. I discovered that I could read a passage over and over and God would speak new things to me every time I read it. The violent threats of Captain Daniels helped my praying. I know that sounds strange, but they did. I would go on duty where the Captain was demanding the impossible and threatening the unthinkable. I knew only God could help me. I began to cry out to God between my teeth, every moment I was on duty. I prayed when I felt weak or frustrated or terrified. That was most of the time. I was forced into the habit of praying. And I tried to keep it up, even when I did not have to pray to stay alive. Evidently my prayers were not quite as silent as I had thought. The other crew members seemed to notice. At first they made jokes about my praying. But when they saw I did not really care, they started avoiding me even more.

 Young, David (2013-02-25). IN THE WILDERNESS (pp. 41-42).  . Kindle Edition.

 

 

PRAYER FROM IN THE WILDERNESS

This is a snatch from my novel, IN THE WILDERNESS. The book is not on prayer purse. But real prayer is a part of life.

If I had assumed the Captain would mellow out after the storm, I was mistaken. He never flogged me, but he threatened it repeatedly. I did learn more about sailing on this voyage, and I worked hard to do my duty. It did not take me any time to discover I had little or nothing in common with the other crewmen. And it did not hurt my feelings that they had all decided early on to shun me as much as possible. I started spending any time I had off duty in my hammock with my Bible. I devoured it, praying for God to explain everything I read. I discovered that I could read a passage over and over and God would speak new things to me every time I read it. The violent threats of Captain Daniels helped my praying. I know that sounds strange, but they did. I would go on duty where the Captain was demanding the impossible and threatening the unthinkable. I knew only God could help me. I began to cry out to God between my teeth, every moment I was on duty. I prayed when I felt weak or frustrated or terrified. That was most of the time. I was forced into the habit of praying. And I tried to keep it up, even when I did not have to pray to stay alive. Evidently my prayers were not quite as silent as I had thought. The other crew members seemed to notice. At first they made jokes about my praying. But when they saw I did not really care, they started avoiding me even more.

 

Young, David (2013-02-25). IN THE WILDERNESS (pp. 41-42).  . Kindle Edition.

 

 

NEEDY IN PRAYER

In Luke 13 Jesus told a parable that may not have been exactly a parable. Luke calls this a parable. But the story Jesus tells sounds like something that must have happened. 

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’”

Jesus concluded for us that the tax collector went up to his house right with God.

The attitude that Jesus calls us to here is not simply humility. It is awareness of need. We desperately need Him in every area of our lives. We need His mercy in our prayer lives. “Lord give me the hunger and discipline to pray more than I do.” “Lord, show me what to pray.” We need mercy in our morality. “Lord, if you do not intervene in my heart, I will not resist this sin.” “Lord give me Your vision, Your love, Your devotion, Your faithfulness.”