Many of us have been blessed with close, personal friends. Imagine, if you can, what it would be like if we never spent time with these people but instead just thought and talked about how wonderful these special people are to us. Wouldn't that be foolish behavior? What reward is there in that? Yet some of us ... as Christians ... do just that. Many of us spend hours and hours acquiring a vast knowledge about God and the Bible, but we miss out on having a deep, rich fellowship with the Father who is the best Friend anyone could ever have. Any study we undertake should be for the sole purpose of meeting God Himself and not simply a time of information gathering.
It's quite easily possible to fill our lives to the full with all kinds of spiritual information and activities ... all of which are good ... but fail to develop a close, personal relationship with the Lord. Stop and take a quick inventory to see if this might be true of you: Do you attend church only out of a sense of duty or as a habit? Do you pray with artificial enthusiasm with lofty or repetitive words rather than speaking to God from the depths of your heart? Do you serve your church, and if you do, do you serve out of a sense of obligation? These are questions that only we can answer ourselves but they are questions that we should stop and ask ourselves periodically.
We read in Scripture about many people whose personal encounter with the Lord was energizing and life-altering. Abraham, Moses, Peter, and Paul were just a few believers who spoke one-on-one with God. We probably don't expect the dramatic "burning bush" experiences around our prayers today yet I cannot help but wonder why not? Why is it that we don't anticipate great things to happen when we pray? Why is it that we fail to ask for great things? But it doesn't matter if our bushes are burning or not, all believers should still, at the very least, have precious, intimate times spent alone with God. Whenever we open the Bible and read His Word, inviting the Holy Spirit to illuminate its meaning, we can hear directly from our Father in heaven.
Scripture tells us to "draw near to God and He will draw near to [us]" (James 4:8). Walking closely with the Lord requires discipline, time and commitment. If we aren't already, let us start now by dedicating a portion of our day to meeting with our best Friend for He desires this very act. God is a relational being and as such He deeply desires to commune with us. I once asked God to teach me to pray, for I had just learned that God exists in a Triune form, and His answer was simple: "Just tell me about your day; just talk with me." And that is all it takes to meet God at the beginning of every Day. When we start off our day in prayer to the Father we're boosting our day with heavenly power for God longs to fellowship with us and we know that whatever it is that we ask for He is eager to give. Never let a day go by without spending time in prayer. And prayer isn't just a time of asking and receiving. No, it is a time of fellowshipping, spending time with the Lord, sharing our plans and activities, discussing our joys and our sorrows, it is a time of individual worship, that one-on-one time that the Saints have had down through all of history. We need to remind ourselves that before there was "history" there was God. He was before all things and we have the unbelievable privilege of having His full attention for as long as we want it. Prayer is so much more than asking and receiving. Let's build strong habits of daily praise and worship for our Maker. Let's meet God daily.
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I have a busy day planned out so I will keep today's blog down to a minimum. Last night's meeting went along fine and I even came out of my gloomy mood I was in all day. I hate it when I have days like that but I think it must be because we are human and humans are very complex creations. And we just get through the days and the moods the best way we know how. They can make us appreciate all our good days. My phone has been busy this morning. This is the day to call Marj I guess. First call this morning was from our associate pastor asking me to give a prayer during the service Sunday. I told him I would find someone who would do it as I just know I would freeze up and there would be nothing but stuttering and stammering if it were left up to me. So then I had to call around to find a deacon willing to do it and finally! I found somebody. Yea! If she had said no I would have had to do it even with all my fear and trembling. Then I got a call that small group is starting up again on Monday. We're going to be looking at a video series of Matthew that I bought years ago from Guideposts. They are such wonderful tapes. It is word-for-word out of the NIV translation. The actor who portrays Jesus does just a wonderful job of portraying Jesus as a joyful Christ. When he heals the sick it fills him with happiness and joy and I do believe our Savior was full of joy. I don't think he was a somber person at all. People were attracted to him because of his personality and nothing attracts quite like joy. So now I have to watch the first video and come up with some discussion questions. I will be the facilitator because they are my tapes I guess. Anyway it's been a busy morning and, oh yeah, I had to talk with Joann about meeting with Ken to go over the membership rolls and get them updated and usable and now I have to call Ken and let him know that the three of us will get together after he gets back from his trip. Just a lot of little odds and ends that I'm so happy didn't come in yesterday because in the mood I was in. I wouldn't have been able to do even these simple things. Yesterday all I could do was simply exist. I don't like days like yesterday at all but somehow, someway they must accomplish something. My days are all ordained by my Creator and He plots out my life. Maybe that's just a way of recharging us for better days. What do you think? Do you have bad days like that where you just exist? Depressed? Sad? Uninterested? Blah? What do you think it means and are we to work to get out of that mood or just resign ourselves to the fact and move on?
Well, I've got a lot to do so I'm going to let this be it for my blog today. I will probably not blog before Monday but who knows? The urge to blog has been known to strike me out of the blue. Do take care and stay close with the Lord. Let your daily meetings with God be filled with Joy and love. I'm a nighttime pray-er but I'm going to work on forming the habit of turning to God first thing in the morning because what better way could I start my day? I think it's worth the effort of trying to form a new habit first thing in the morning. If you aren't a morning pray-er would you be willing to join me in forming this great new habit? And if you already have this habit, could you share your experiences with me? How do you do it every morning? Do you have a sit-down with the Lord or do you just kind of do it on the run? What did you do to get into the habit? Have you found anything special, any little tricks to remind yourself? I mean, I have been wanting to have a morning prayer time for years and years but it takes me so long to wake up in the mornings and there's always so much confusion in the house first thing that by the time things are squared away it's noon so if you have any tips on forming this habit I'd love to hear from you. So until next time ... stay close to the Lord ...
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8 comments:
Don't think I can get all the way to your side of the US to do your bookshelves. I bet you can do it, though!
I was inspired by an article I saw in "Real Simple", suggesting sorting your books by color. Very simple & soothing. Doesn't help me find books quicker (unless I can remember what color it is), but it sure looks nicer!
I try to pray first thing in the morning every day. On my bad days I can almost always trace the problem back to forgeting to pray first thing.
Wonderful, thanks Ginny, I can use the encouragement. My biggest problem is just remembering to do it. But starting tomorrow I'm going to give it a try. It's like this email that came through about praying for our country for one minute every day at 6:00pm (our time - it's a national campaign) and I said I was going to do it and I mean to do it but I'll be if I haven't forgotten every single night since I resolved to do it. I frustrate myself so much that way!! I'm so forgetful. I used to write myself notes and hang them in the kitchen but then I did that so often that they no longer stand out to me and it may take me all day to notice the note! I think I'm a hopeless case. Thanks for the encouragement and thanks for the comment!
Marj
Marg,
This was a great and challenging post! You are so right when you say so often we spend all kinds of time learning ABOUT the Lord and yet if we don't spend time WITH the Lord, we are so missing out on building an amazing fellowship with our Creator!
Sounds silly and this could be "too much information" but since one of the first things I do every morning is take a shower and get ready for work, that has become a special time of prayer for me. I've been reading a chronological Bible since January 1 as well. On the days when I don't read my Bible first thing in the morning, I read on my bus ride home from work. Also, I actually look forward to mundane, repetitious type chores because those are great prayers times, too.
Hope that is a help and encouragement to you! Hope you're having a wonderful weekend!
Blessings,
Tracy = )
Thanks for stopping by and for your encouragment. Please check out my Sabbath site.
http://holysabbath.blogspot.com/
what a very nice post. I agree we need to spend more time getting to Know God-having a relationship with Him.
I am a night person but I do my praying in the morning. Some mornigns I start in the shower and I usually confess in the shower. I don't always remember to do this but a few times a week I remember. But I have my coffee and quiet moments with God each morning. I start with a devotional and than prayer. Usally this takes about 15-20 minutes. If for some reason I don't get the prayer time I will pray in the car on the way to work. Usually my coffee time prayer will go to the car with me. Some mornings I play music while getting dress and this will keep me focused on God.
Your house sound much busier than mine in the mornings I have a 12 year old but she knows I have my morning prayer and she respects this and gets ready with little help fromme. If she walks in while I am in prayer she keeps very quiet. This time is usually very important and vital for me becasue I have said I will try to pray throughout my day but once work kicks in I find this very hard.
I suggest you just begin to pray at some point in the morning. I read somewhere can't remember who it was but she suggested that committ to praying for a person each time you do an activity so I tried this whenever I have to iron clothes for work in the moring I pray for my nephew and this has lead to me praying for the young perople in my life and church. I would like to do this with more activities but so far have only been able to incorporate it when I iron- sometimes I forget but most of the time I remember. Try saying a prayer while engaging in a daily morning activity until it becomes a part of the routine. Check out extravagant grace she has a June 8 activity going on I have decided to committ to praying on my knees each night at bedtime for 8 days as this is where I have fallen short. there was a time in my life when I did this every night and I want to get back to it. there is a link on my Broken vessels blog. I hope this helps and thanks for dropping by Sabbath Rest- Your comments on Worship appears to go with my thoughts and goal there. the Holy Spirit is glorious.
June 8, 2008 11:20 PM
I used to be a very dedicated morning devotional person. I would do different things...sometimes I read my K-love (Christian radio) daily devotional and then just read in my Bible and pray. Sometimes, I would do parts of a Bible study (usually from Sunday School), a devotional, and prayer. Sometimes I wrote my prayers for more focus, sometimes spoke them.
I have long since gotten out of the habit of morning devo time. Mine tends to be on the run and throughout the day. Then I usually read the Word or do Bible studies in the evening.
I have decided to ease my way back into at least a mini devo time in the morning. In recent years, I have a very hard time sleeping, that is falling asleep and then I am so tired in the morning. I would love to be a person who could get up a couple hours before work and exercise, devo time and get ready all before work. Well, since God comes first, I am going to try a devo mini time. I am going to get Streams in the Desert, a daily devotional that I can count MANY people who have it. Actually, two people Tracy my cup runneth over and Robin, Be Still and Know both did a posting on their blog regarding the entry on last Friday. I had been introduced to it a couple months ago. Had my hands on it and look through it at the Christian bookstore but was too cheap and thought I wouldn't have time for yet another book or another thing to discipline myself to read. But no more. I am buying it and will attempt to read it every morning. It's only two small pages per day.
Good luck on your devo time.
I used to be a very dedicated morning devotional person. I would do different things...sometimes I read my K-love (Christian radio) daily devotional and then just read in my Bible and pray. Sometimes, I would do parts of a Bible study (usually from Sunday School), a devotional, and prayer. Sometimes I wrote my prayers for more focus, sometimes spoke them.
I have long since gotten out of the habit of morning devo time. Mine tends to be on the run and throughout the day. Then I usually read the Word or do Bible studies in the evening.
I have decided to ease my way back into at least a mini devo time in the morning. In recent years, I have a very hard time sleeping, that is falling asleep and then I am so tired in the morning. I would love to be a person who could get up a couple hours before work and exercise, devo time and get ready all before work. Well, since God comes first, I am going to try a devo mini time. I am going to get Streams in the Desert, a daily devotional that I can count MANY people who have it. Actually, two people Tracy my cup runneth over and Robin, Be Still and Know both did a posting on their blog regarding the entry on last Friday. I had been introduced to it a couple months ago. Had my hands on it and look through it at the Christian bookstore but was too cheap and thought I wouldn't have time for yet another book or another thing to discipline myself to read. But no more. I am buying it and will attempt to read it every morning. It's only two small pages per day.
Good luck on your devo time.
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