Simple Prayer

“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans,

for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

Do not be like them,

for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

Matthew 6:7-8 NIV

I am so thankful for the model of The Lord’s Prayer because it is so simple. There are those who are eloquent in their prayers, but most of us aren’t. Most of us are just plain simple folks! In the above scripture Jesus suggests that less is more! In light of all of the prayers that God has to hear every moment, I can see why he would prefer simplicity.

As a child I learned very simple and to the point memorized prayers. Even though they were repeated day after day, they are sill in my memory bank. One example of this type of prayer is:

Thank you for the world so sweet,
Thank you for the food we eat,
Thank you for the birds that sing,
Thank you God for everything!

- Author unknown

As I grew older of course, my prayers changed. I learned that simple conversation with God throughout the day is very important. I would imagine that there are people who talk to their cats and dogs more than they talk to God. Candid conversation with God can still be respectful of God and casual at the same time. There is merit in that comfortable pattern of speaking free and easy to God. Tevye, in “Fiddler on the Roof” often spoke to God in that casual manner. Many of his prayers were questions. Living in an attitude of prayer is simply going about my day with an awareness of God’s presence in my life.

God is so approachable; there is nothing that I can’t say to God. There isn’t a question that I can’t ask. I can confess my sin; I can ask for anything, I can express my anger and frustrations. I can cry. I can tell him when I am afraid. I can tell God my good news; I can thank him for my blessings. I can tell him of my need. I can express my love for him. Yes, the privilege of simple prayer is indeed a blessing.

I am so glad that God is accessible. Unlike the president or the queen of England, I can have God’s full attention and I am welcome to come into his presence any time, any place, and for any reason.

Eloquent words, long prayers, and loud delivery of those prayers are not what we need to get God’s attention nor is it what will causes him to decide to answer prayers in our favor. God wants us to come to him as little children. Simple and to the point, private, personal prayer is the best way to approach God. What God loves the most is not what we ask or how we ask but that we come. God wants a relationship with us and that relationship is formed in prayer.

Questions:

What do you like the best about simple prayer?

Do you feel comfortable praying simple prayer?

How often do you find yourself praying?


Prayer:

Dear God,

Thank you for the privilege that I have of coming to you in prayer. Help me not to complicate my prayer life, but instead practice the habit of simple prayer throughout the day. Help me to know that you are both the Almighty God and my personal friend. This is a hard concept for me to understand, yet you are a being of multiple facets and that is exactly what makes you God! You are big enough to rule the universe, yet small enough to reside inside of me and relate to me in a very personal way. You are an amazing God!

In your Son’s Name I pray. Amen

Lord, Teach Us to Pray

“One day Jesus was praying
in a certain place.
When he finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
Lord, teach us to pray,”
Luke 11:1 NIV

Have you ever been baffled by prayer? I have. Evidently the disciples were as well. One day they asked Jesus to teach them to pray and he did. In the familiar Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught the disciples and us some very basic components of prayer.

Jesus indicates that we should enter the presence of the Father with respect. “Hallowed be your name.” I know there have been times when my children have entered my presence and began spouting out requests and demands without even so much as a hello. Were they clueless to the fact that I might like a friendly smile, a compliment, or a thank you for what had already been done for them? I’m sure that often that is exactly how I approach God. My own self centeredness allows me to completely rush into God's presence often skipping the offering of respect that is due the Almighty God when I enter his presence.

Jesus also seemed to think that His kingdom and His will were important and that we should acknowledge that as well. “Your kingdom, come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” When I pray those words I am in fact asking God to handle my affairs here on earth in the same manner that he would use in heaven. I have come to realize that there is a very good chance that my all knowing God will handle my request in a different way than I would and his ways are always better than my way.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus also invites us to ask God for what we need. “Give us this day our daily bread.” After thinking about this I began to notice that Jesus doesn’t say anything about weekly bread, monthly bread, or yearly bread. No, Jesus is specific, indicating that we should ask for our bread one day at a time. God uses this method as a tool to teach us to trust him for our daily needs. In all of the years that God has provided for his children, that approach of asking for God’s provision has not changed. “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. …’” Exodus 16:4

Jesus then says something I don’t much like. “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” We are to be forgiven by Jesus in the same manner that we have forgiven others. This part is bothersome because it leaves me without option. The fact is if I want Jesus’ forgiveness in my life I must forgive others.

Jesus encourages us to ask something very necessary, it is protection from Satan. “Deliver us from the evil one.” Jesus knows that Satan is no one to fool around with and that we will absolutely need God’s protection when Satan is around.

Jesus tells us that we are also to end our prayer with respect. “For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever,” a phrase that puts our prayer in perspective. We are a part of God’s kingdom but he is the one with the power, therefore all that he does in our behalf is to bring glory to him not us.

Lastly, a word that finalizes our spirit of humility before God, a word that means “so be it,” thy perfect will be done. "Amen."

Questions:

Have you discovered something new in Jesus’ teaching on prayer?

How will this change the way you pray?

What part of the Lord’s Prayer is frequently overlooked when you pray?

On whom does this prayer focus, God or you?


Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father,

I just want to tell you that I love you and thank you for being in my life. I am dependent upon you for my daily needs. Thank you for all of the many ways that you provide for me every day. God, you are holy and I humbly admit my need for you to help me to forgive others as you have forgiven me. Father, I know that I need to be submissive to your will because you alone are God and know what is best for me. I pray that your perfect will to be done in my life this day and every day. Father, please protect me from Satan and his deception in my life. God I pray that through my obedience, my life will bring glory to you.

In your Son’s Name I pray. Amen.

The Garden of Prayer

“My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.
All of the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

Psalm 139:15-16 NIV

This morning I am remembering how precious I am to my creator. Psalm 139 reminds me that even before I was born, even while my unformed body was being formed God had a plan for my life. Even before my body was formed my soul was there. My body simply became the shell for my precious soul. From the day I was conceived my soul began its eternal journey. This was the first day of my life, even before I was born. The truth is that my outer shell will die and return to dust, but my eternal soul will live on forever.

God’s message to me this morning is Paula, be careful! Take care of the precious cargo that lives inside of you. Nurture and protect your soul because it is everlasting. The choice you make regarding your soul is the most important choice you will ever make. That choice is more important than your career choice, and it is more important than choosing a spouse. It is more important than how much money you have or if you should continue your education. What you do with your soul is the most important choice you will ever make. What I do to nourish my soul is also important.

There are two choices regarding your soul. You will either choose to accept Jesus Christ or you will reject him. Acceptance will lead to eternal joy and rejection will lead to eternal punishment.

I’m going to assume that if you have continued to read my blogs that you are investigating Jesus Christ and Christianity, or that you are already a believer. Either way you have major responsibility. If you are not a believer your first responsibility is to choose to discover the wonderful plan that God has ordained for your soul before you were born. If you are a believer, your responsibility is to nourish your soul.

The garden of prayer is that place deep within your shell of a body where you will connect and communicate with God. Prayer is how you enter that garden and it is where your soul is nourished and cared for. Just as we care for a beautiful garden we must care for our soul. Meeting God in the garden is our part; his part is to care for the garden.

I have had amazing things transpire when I have been in the garden of prayer. This is an opportunity that you will never experience unless you are a believer who is seeking to know God more. God has promised us that if we will seek him we will find him. First of all we will find him as our personal Savior. In addition, we will find him and all of the gifts that he carries with him.

In the garden of prayer God has given me many sweet gifts. When I am discouraged God has given me the gifts of assurance and hope. God has also poured out his amazing gifts of grace and love when I have felt unloved and unlovable. Through prayer God has dried my tears and given me his gift of joy in times of great sadness. God has taken my disappointments and filled me with the gift of his peace even when I have experienced seeing my dreams fall apart. Many times God has taken my fear and replaced it with the gift of trust. In my prayer time God has called me to obedience and given me the power to obey. During prayer God has taken my anger and filled me with his mercy and compassion. When I have sought God in the garden of prayer I have found him. God has taken my broken heart and beautifully healed it and has used the brokenness to shape my character. In the garden of prayer God restores my soul! Every day when I pray God gives to me the exact gift that I need for that precise moment and situation.

Tonight when I close my eyes in sleep I will rest well knowing that tomorrow when I wake up, I can run straight to the garden, where Jesus is waiting for me. As I run to my prayer time I will be like a child on Christmas morning, wild with anticipation to unwrap the marvelous gift God has chosen for me today. One thing is certain, it will be exactly what I need. I don’t want to disappoint Him by not showing up!

Questions:

Are you taking care of and nurturing your heart?

What keeps you from taking care of your inner spirit?

Why is the garden of prayer necessary?

In the past, when you have been in prayer what gifts has God given you?


Prayer:

Dear God,

I am amazed that you have had a plan for my life even before one single earthly day began. Forgive my near sightedness! Why do I have so much trouble seeing the big picture? Your eternal plan for my soul is amazing. God, today I realize that my soul is a precious cargo inside of me. Help me to be responsible for what you are showing me this day regarding my eternal soul.

In Your Son’s Name I pray. Amen.

Sweet Peace is Found in the Garden

FOCUS ON GOD –

“You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast,

because he trusts in you.”
Isaiah 26:3 NIV

SEEK AND PURSUE THE PEACE OF GOD –

“…seek peace and pursue it.” Psalms 34:14b NIV

RESULT

“A heart at peace gives life to the body,…” Proverbs 14:30a NIV

Some days I feel overwhelmed with responsibility, I am mentally stressed to the limit, and physically exhausted as well. I have come to realized that all of this pressure is very real signs telling me that I must nonetheless; add one more thing to my already impossibly busy schedule. It is as though God has set up a speed bump on my path cautioning me to slow down!

I am learning that I must push to the top of the already busy list a block of time to go back to the garden of my heart and be still and know that God is God. I must find time to focus on his love and care for me. I must allow his angels to minister to my spirit. I must allow the Holy Spirit to comfort and direct me as I give God my schedule and allow him to set his priorities in all my days. When I am able to do this I do find that sweet peace is found in the garden.

How much time will I need? As long as it takes! When and where we meet God is up to each one of us individually. But I have learned from experience it is never good to try to simply squeeze God in between other activities. When I reach this level of stress and exhaustion I must cancel activities, make an appointment with God and keep the appointment! During times of stress, exhaustion, and overwhelming responsibility and need, Jesus separated himself from the duties of life and went deeper into the garden to pray. Sometimes he climbed a mountain to put distance between him and life. Other times he crossed the lake. The point is we MUST be spiritually refreshed if we are to be at our best and if we are to make good choices regarding our time. I challenge you to join me in making time for this wonderful refreshment. You will be glad you did.

As a little girl I learned a hymn that we sang regularly in our church. I have not heard that hymn sung for some time yet God’s Holy Spirit brought it to my mind as I entered the garden this morning. Here are the words to that beautiful hymn. There is really nothing else I can add today. The hymn says it all.

IN THE GARDEN

I come to the garden alone

While the dew is still on the roses

And the voice I hear falling on my ear

The Son of God discloses.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am His own;

And the joy we share as we tarry there,

None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice,

Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,

And the melody that He gave to me

Within my heart is ringing.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am His own;

And the joy we share as we tarry there,

None other has ever known.

I’d stay in the garden with Him

Though the night around me be falling,

But He bids me go; through the voice of woe

His voice to me is calling.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am His own;

And the joy we share as we tarry there,

None other has ever known.

“In The Garden” a hymn by C. Austin Miles, Written March 1912

Questions:

Have you experienced the great joy of being alone in the garden of your heart with Jesus?

When was the last time you were in the garden alone with Jesus?

What did you say?

What did Jesus say?

Did you spend silent time just listening for his voice?

Prayer:

Dear Jesus,

Today I come into your beautiful garden alone. I simply want to tell you I love you and that I thank you for all of my blessings and for your amazing love to me. Today I am concerned about ____________. What do you have to say to me today as I silently set here in the garden and wait for you to speak your words to me today? It may only be a soft whispering thought that you speak into my mind, my heart, but I don’t want to miss out on what you have to say to me this day. I pray that today I will have the patience to practice sitting still and listening for your voice.

In Your Name I pray. Amen.

The Promises of God

“I have set my rainbow in the clouds,

and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.”

Genesis 9:13 NIV

I remember that when my husband and I visited the beautiful state of Hawaii, we enjoyed a rainbow almost every day! When I saw the rainbow, I remembered that the rainbow is a very visible sign of God’s promises to mankind.

It has been said that there are more than thirty-seven thousand promises in the Bible. One day I realized that I only knew a precious few of those promises. It then occurred to me that if I was to trust God’s promises for me I must begin to read his promises. It made perfect sense to me that I could not trust in a promise that I did not know!

One of my favorite study tools is a small pocket size promise book that I purchased so that I could begin to become familiar with all that God has promised. Those precious promises are interwoven throughout the entire Bible. It is interesting that there are three types of promises in the Bible.

The first type of promises looks more like God’s “trusted principles.” These are the promises that we can know beyond a shadow of doubt what must and will happen. These are the principles that tell us how God provides for mankind simply because we are his creation. These promises are prophetic regarding the future of our world and the end of time. The tone of all of these promises is that God has spoken and he will not change his mind, not now or ever. An example of this is “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 NIV

The second type of promises can only to be claimed by believers. We see an example of this as Jesus spoke the following words to his disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive you to Myself: that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14: 3 NIV Make no mistake, this promise is only for believers.

The third type is the “conditional” promises. I had a gross misunderstanding of this type of promise because I always focused on what God would do for me, paying no mind to what was necessary for me to do first! God is not obliged to keep these promises to us unless we do our part first. God promises to do “this” if we will do “that.” If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” I John 1: 9 NIV My part is confession and God’s part is forgiveness.

Today I am thinking about the wonderful truth that God is not a God who makes a bunch of rules and puts them in a book and then tells us good luck with all that! No, God is relational. God and I both have a part in our relationship. It is both sad and amazing that mankind makes all kinds of promises to one another everyday, and everyday there is pain and devastation from broken promises. Our encouragement is this; God never breaks his promises to us. “All your words are true;” Psalm 119:160a NIV God’s promises are wonderfully true and marvelously unchangeable.

Questions:

What are some of the promises of God that you know?

Do you feel a need to know more of God’s precious promises to you?

Are you missing out on something that God has promised you because you are not even aware of his promise?

Are you missing out on a “conditional” promise because you have failed to do your part in that promise?

Prayer:

Dear God,

Oh my, there are so many promises in your Word. Help me to learn little by little everything you have promised me. God, I want to claim all of your promises for my life. I don’t want to miss out on a single promise. Give me strength to do my part in the “conditional” promises. Thank you for the comfort that comes to my heart as I pray back to you the very words that you have promised me. God it is such a privilege that I can remind you in prayer of what you have promised to me. I wait in expectation for the fulfillment of every promise that you have given me. As I wait, I take comfort in the knowledge that you cannot lie and that you are amazingly faithful in keeping all of your promises to those who love, trust, and obey you.

In Your Son’s Name I pray. Amen.

Clouds

“Sing to God, sing praise to his name, extol him who rides on the clouds –
his name is the LORD – and rejoice before him.

Psalm 68:4 NIV

The other day I was enjoying looking up at the clouds with my grandchildren. We were imagining what all of the different shapes reminded us of. Abigail saw a heart, Joshua saw a bear, and I saw a fluffy cone of cotton candy.

I then took the opportunity tell them that the Bible teaches us that we are to praise God because he is so mighty that instead of riding in cars and airplanes, God rides the clouds! I remind them that their Papa likes roller coasters but I imagine that riding clouds must be way more fun!

Clouds are important. Jesus left this earth in a cloud and we will see him coming a second time in the clouds. In fact, the Bible tells us that those who have died in Christ will rise first and those who are still living will be caught up in the clouds to meet our Savior, Jesus Christ.

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”

I Thessalonians 4:15 NIV

Yes, clouds are important. Sooner or later if you are a believer you will be riding the clouds with Jesus! Considering that I hate roller coasters, this adventure unnerves me just a bit! I am comforted by the fact that we are always eternally safe when we are with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ

From an earthly perspective some days the clouds are not so beautiful. Some days they are dark and dangerous looking. The clouds that cover our spirit can be the worst clouds of all. The sooner we are able to entrust Jesus with the darkness that tries to enter our mind the better off we will be. Remember, Satan uses times of discouragement and depression to squelch our spirit. Choose to fight negative thoughts with prayer. If you find that you are so discouraged and that you can’t pray, then ask someone to pray for you. Even in the darkest times of our lives, even in times that we feel God’s face is hidden in the dark gray clouds of life, our faith in our God brings us comfort.

After all, that is what faith is! Faith is believing in something or someone that we cannot see. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1 NIV We cannot see the wind, yet we know it is there. We cannot see electricity, yet we flip a switch believing that the light will come on. We cannot see the healing results of medication, yet we take it believing that we will feel better. Remember God rides all of the clouds. He is there in the beautiful white puffy clouds that reflect his sunshine and he also he is there in the dark clouds of life that hide his face. Praise God, our God rides the clouds! He is always there. God is only a prayer away!

Questions:

Is faith a difficult concept for you?

Do you fear that in believing in something you cannot see will make you look foolish?

Because the benefits of believing in God are so great, would you consider giving faith a chance?

Are there some things that you can trust God with and other things that you simply can’t believe?

What are those things?

Have you ever prayed that God would help your unbelief?


Prayer:

Dear God,

Today I pray that you will help my unbelief. God, make the question in my heart not be if you can, but rather if it will be your will to do so. With you God I do know that all things are possible, yet not all things happen the way I want them too. God forgive me for thinking that I don’t have enough faith to merit your help. I realize that I cannot drum up huge amounts of faith; I simply must express to you that I know you are able to do all things. I am so glad that all the faith that is needed on my part is the very small amount, faith the size of a mustard seed. Matthew 17:20.

In Your Son’s Name I pray. Amen