Prayer
Conversation in an Intimate Relationship with our Creator & Redeemer
Conversation in an Intimate Relationship with our Creator & Redeemer
"The Lord is inviting you and me to come home, to come home to where we belong, to come home to that for which we were created. His arms are stretched out wide to receive us. His heart is enlarged to take us in. For too long we have been in the far country; a country of noise and hurry and crowds, a country of climb and push and shove; a country of frustration and fear and intimidation And he welcomes us home; home to serenity and peace and joy, home to friendship and fellowship and openness, home to intimacy and acceptance and affirmation." Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding Your Heart's True Home
Friendship
Oh the comfort - the inexpressible comfort - of feeling safe with a person
Having neither to weigh thoughts,
Nor measure words - but pouring them all right out - just as they are
Chaff and grain together
Certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them
Keep what is worth keeping
And with the breath of kindness
Blow the rest away.
... Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
Having neither to weigh thoughts,
Nor measure words - but pouring them all right out - just as they are
Chaff and grain together
Certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them
Keep what is worth keeping
And with the breath of kindness
Blow the rest away.
... Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
"Prayer is conversation with God, not magic. Prayer is not some magical formula through which we hope to entice an apathetic God to act in a way which pleases us. Our prayer is the worshipful recognition that God is continually acting in the world and the signifying of our desire to be a part of that activity." William Willimon
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Scripture Study
1 Chronicles 29: 10-20 - Prayer of David
John 17 - Priestly Prayer of Jesus
1 Chronicles 29: 10-20 - Prayer of David
John 17 - Priestly Prayer of Jesus
Oh Lord, help us to turn and seek you; for you have not forsaken your creatures as we have forsaken you, our Creator. Let us turn and seek you, for we know you are here in our hearts, when we confess to you, when we cast ourselves upon you, and weep in your bosom, after all our rugged ways; and you gently wipe away all our tears, and we weep the more for joy; because you, Lord, who made us, do remake and comfort us. Prayer of St. Augustine, 4th-5th Centuries
6 comments:
Hi! from Suelinda, I'm beginning to check it all
out and read the verses. Looks good.
For those of you who got to your computers, and
made it to the blog site, and found the right spot
to click to see the Bible Study, but forgot to bring
your Bible where you sat down... and just want to
stay in your comfortable spot and read, but
this way cannot yet read the verses... may I make
a suggestion of going to www.crosswalk.com
and looking all the verses up in the translation
of your choosing! They have wonderful helper
in the right hand corner of the main home page
that will search and lead you to a second page
where there are more translations! Sooo helpful.
God bless... now I'll go back to reading too.
I'd like to add another comment. I hope others
write also. I just thought of these things when
reading the quote by William Willimon
"Prayer is conversation with God, not magic.
Prayer is not some magical formula through which
we hope to entice an apathetic God to act in a way which pleases us. Our prayer is the worshipful recognition that God is continually acting in the world and the signifying of our desire to be a part of that activity."
The part I most want to respond to is
"... not some magical formula through which
we hope to entice an apathetic God to act in a way which pleases us. "
My thoughts are: I believe that God cares, but part of the reason we are to pray so hard for things is not because it couldn't be answered by our caring God but because God is inspiring us to
to become the creations that care and love like Him through our prayer of Faith that love and healing could be happening in this troubled world.
Both the growth in love and faith can happen in Prayer... I amazed to discover personal these two things that have been told to me through
other believers in Christ are very true: 1. Prayer is creative. 2. We should remember what words we say in prayer. The first one about "prayer being creative" can mean we should even be detailed enough to specially ask for certain good
that we fully have our heart knowing is a wonderful thing in detail for someone
and discover that God loves that same detail enough to, of His own will, fill that request.
And the second one, that somehow I keep wanting to credit Donna for sharing
during her experience in the 100 days of prayer and what she said afterward about it... I don't remember for sure, Donna, but I think you told us this then or reminded us that We need to remember our prayers. Why? I think because of many reasons: God shows us what He has answered and what He has answered even better than asked and what He has shown up in high glory in doing lately. We stand in awe of Him more. We see more vision of His purpose in future things. We, by remembering our prayers,
experience a closeness to Him of similar way of someone we talk to often and are use to their words in our minds. We are told and inspired things through prayer that come out of our mouths in wonderings like a child asking their parent and God hears the wonderings. And have you ever been in awe of the wonderings
of a child? Their thoughts up towards their parents are like ours toward God...
they are truly "out of the mouth of babes" meaning out of smallness God can shine...
and if we hear even our words to God we might see some shining too! In P R A Y E R...
if we rely on Christ.
When I read John 17 I got a chill thinking about how marvelous it would have been to have heard the voice of Jesus praying. It seems that we spend a lot of time talking about "giving" as in giving back or giving of ourselves and very little time on the idea that God gave us to Jesus. Gave us to Jesus so that He could in turn give us insight into the purpose God has for our lives. Jesus was praying earnestly for us to know that He was sent by God and that the words He spoke were from God. That's pretty astounding when you think about it. He prayed even then for those of us that live now.
Hello Everyone,
Suelinda, I don't remimber what I said. If it was something good I'm sure it was the Lord talking through me.
In reading 1 Chronicles: David reminds us that everything we have has been given to us for safe keeping. We should use all we have to give God the Glory.
For example, when we eat (I love food metapors)remimber God has provided this food for us. Thank him for the gift of the food set before you. In the old testiment they sacrificed the best they had. (Animals, grain, wine, etc.) The smell of the food went up to heven and was pleasing to God. When we sit down to eat do we really think about what is set befrore us. The animal that died, the plants that were harvested, and the people it took to get the food to us. Just as in the Old Testiment the poople would sacrifice their food on the alter and cook it so do we today when we cook our food. We love the way it smells. It's pleasing to us and also to God. He is pleased we have food to eat.
So next time you put a bite in your mouth emimber where it came from and stop to enjoy and savor every bite as if God himself was hand feeding you.
Because he is.
Good afternoon all. As I was reading the scriptures the first verse struck me that Paul gave God Praise in front of the whole assembly. I am pretty good about giving God all the praise around church going people but am working on doing it around those in the world. I am trying to speak about God to others and give him praise and glory even when I know the other person isn't a christian. God gave us everything we have - how do we respond to that. Do we give back to God joyfully or do I really have to do that God?? I'm not talking about money but the time we spend with God, our relationship to Him. What if when we came to God he said "sorry, don't have time for you now. I'm busy". Well I find myself telling that to God more ofen than I should.( especially lately). It blows my mind that Jesus himself prayed(s) for me knowing that I would still be in the world after he was gone. There is nothing in this world like calling our to our all powerful, all knowing, majestic God who we can call Abba Father. I have so many words I want to say but will get better as I get used to typing my thoughts. Thanks for your patience. Debbie
Thank you for all your comments. I love trying to take in all the beautiful things you all have said.
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