3 posts tagged “god”

Matthew 6:5-13

   And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray in the synagogues the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. (5)

   But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to they Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. (6)

   But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do:for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. (7)

   Be ye not therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him. (8)

   After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. (9)

   Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. (10_

   Give us this day our daily bread. (11)

   And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. (12)

   And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. (13) 

                                                        The King James Bible

   How many of us pray this way? Jesus is very specific in his definition of prayer. How many of us, when in the company of others, wax eloquent, and pray longer and longer, the fancier the words the better? Are we praying to the Lord, or are we praying for the benefit of others? The Lord knows the difference, and He is not the one you would like to wax eloquent for. When you pray, how do you pray? Do you pray as the Bible reads? Do you try to put on airs? Do you pray the same thing over and over, maybe changing the words a little to throw off the other people around you? You aren't throwing God off. He knows exactly what you are doing and He isn't pleased. Do we start off praising Him as Jesus says you should? Praising the Lord is the first thing you should do. He deserves our praise, our honor, our glory, our blessings. He created the world. He created everything in it. He created you and I to love Him, and He wants your love. But He gave us free will, so a lot of people just kind of forget to pray at all. How can you grow in your Christian walk if you spend no time with the one who died for you? Don't just pray and then sit there until you feel that you have sat there long enough to make everyone happy. Pray--sing--read His Word--and of course LISTEN. How will you know what He wants you to do or what His Will is if you don't listen? Be still--listen for that still small voice to speak to you. Read His Word and listen to what His Word is saying to you. He uses His Word to let us know what He wants of us, what He wants us to do, where He wants us to go, how to use our talents for His Glory, how to not only talk the talk, but walk the walk. Let others see Christ in you. But how can you do that if you don't know who He is, His character, His love for us, all the good things He wants for us? When you pray, pray His Word. When you praise Him, and then ask Him to provide for us for that day. Don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself. Do you not believe the Lord will give you all you need? He loves us with a love that we have no idea how strong and giving, and how He initially created this world for us and it was perfect until sin came into the world. When you pray, if you are a Christian, you are speaking with your Father, your best friend, the one who knows you inside and outside. You have to spend time with Him to know what His plans are for you while you are in this world. You cannot expect to know anyone, especially God, if you don't spend time with them. He loves the time we spend with Him and He will spend time with you anytime you have time for Him. If you love Him, it should not be a chore to spend time with Him. You should pray without ceasing. That means staying in an attitude of prayer, so if anything comes up that you need to talk to Him about, you are already talking with and spending time with Him. That is one of the most precious things you can do. Stay in an attitude of prayer, pray for your family, friends, your pastor, your lost friends and family, the lost everywhere, that you will allow the Holy Spirit to work through you so that others see the Lord in you. That is one of the best ways to witness. To let others see Christ in you. How can you do that if you don't know Christ? How can you know Christ if you don't read the story of His life and talk to Him in prayer---not the way the hypocrites do. Their prayers don't go any farther than the ceiling. How can you talk to someone who you don't know and more importantly doesn't know you? Please spend time in His Word--please spend time in fellowship with other Christians--and most of all, please spend time with Him in prayer. Prayer is a privilege, an honor. It is not guarenteed to everyone, especially those who only go to Him when they need something special. it is an honor to be able to talk to the Lord of Lord and King of Kings, the I AM, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. After all is said and done, He is able to be trusted, believed, honored, and praised. He deserves your time in prayer, He wants to spend time with us--what an Honor!!

    God's love is perfect. He loves you no matter what you have done, what you have said, who you have hurt, what you have stolen, what you have trashed, who you have killed, how many children you have that you don't provide financial support for, who you have raped, who you have beaten and left for dead, how many drugs you have taken. how much booze you have poured into your mouth, the parents who's hearts you have broken, no matter what.

     He loves you because He created you to have fellowship with, to love and for you to love him. He gave man a perfect place to live and only asked one thing, that he not partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But satan came to call and he convinced Eve to partake of the fruit and she saw it was good, so she took some to Adam and he ate as well. As soon as that happened they looked down and saw that they were naked, and hurried to make clothes to cover themselves.

     You see, he had given Adam and Eve free will. He did not want to control us. He wanted us to come to Him of our own free will. And because of the sin that took place in the Garden of Eden, men no longer were able to speak to God face to face, or walk in the Garden with Him. When God came he could not find Adam and Eve and asked them where they were. They said they were ashamed because they were naked. God knew they would've only been ashamed if they had partaken of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

      And that is why a lot of people don't come to the Lord today. They are ashamed because they are naked--they have done something that they are not proud of, and they don't want God to know, but He knows everything. And He loves us just the same. All He wants us to do of our own free will is to come to Him, and, knowing that we are a sinner, ask forgiveness for our sins and really mean it. Repent of them--promise not to do these things again--and ask Jesus to come into your heart and become your Lord and Savior. Let him abide inside you, let him use you for His Glory. He will fill you with joy, a joy that no one can take from you. This joy will be there in good times and bad. Not everything will magically be wonderful, because a Christian is in the world, but not of the world. We will still face things that everyone faces, but we will have something not everyone has. A Lord and Savior that loves us and wants the best for us. He will get us through every hard time, every disaster. He will be there for us to lean on, to pray to, to cry out to, to trust in, and in every situation, whether it turns out the way we want it to or not, we will know that God's Will was done. And we will have a peace that defies all understanding. That is how much He loves us.

 I AM IN LOVE WITH THE MOST WONDERFUL MAN THAT I HAVE EVER MET. HE IS THE MOST DEVOUT CHRISTIAN I HAVE EVER MET AND I HAVE PRAYED MY ENTIRE LIFE FOR GOD TO SEND ME A GODLY MAN. I WAITED 51 YEARS AND WE FINALLY MET--THROUGH eHARMONY NO LESS!! I HAD ALMOST GIVEN UP HOPE BUT I GOT A PROFILE OF A MAN THAT WANTED GUIDED COMMUNICATION--WHICH IS SUPPOSED TO BE SLOW AND CAREFUL. BUT THIS MAN BREEZED THROUGH IT IN TWO DAYS, AND AS SOON AS I GOT A RESPONSE FROM HIM I SENT MY RESPONSE RIGHT BACK. SO IN A LITTLE OVER TWO DAYS WE WERE IN OPEN COMMUNICATION, WHERE WE WERE SUPPOSED TO E-MAIL EACH OTHER. THERE WAS ANOTHER OPTION--SECURE CALL. WHEN YOU REQUEST A SECURE CALL THE OTHER PERSON CAN EITHER ACCEPT IT OR DENY IT. HE BOTH SENT ME HIS E-MAIL ADDRESS, WHICH HE SAID HE NEVER DID THIS EARLY, BUT HE FELT IN HIS SPIRIT IT WAS OKAY THIS TIME, AND HE AGREED TO THE SECURE CALL. HE SAID THAT A PHONE CALL WOULD BE BETTER WHEN HE SENT HIS ADDRESS, BUT HE WANTED TO GIVE ME THE OTHER OPTION. SO I CALLED AND WHEN WE STARTED TALKING I KNEW THIS WAS THE MAN I WANTED TO SPEND THE REST OF MY LIFE WITH. HE IS ALL I HAVE EVER WANTED. HE LOVES THE LORD WITH HIS WHOLE HEART, MIND, AND SOUL. HE HAS THE CLOSEST WALK WITH THE LORD I HAVE EVER SEEN IN SOMEONE THAT ISN'T CLERGY. HE IS SO KNOWLEDGEABLE OF THE BIBLE THAT HE CAN QUOTE VERSE AND REFERENCE FOR ANYTHING YOU CAN THINK TO TALK ABOUT. HE IS SO HUMBLE, SO KIND, SO CARING, SO LOVING, THAT I CAN'T SEE THE REST OF MY LIFE WITHOUT HIM. HE SUPPORTS ME IN EVERYTHING I DO OR SAY. HE PRAYS FOR ME ALL THE TIME, AND TELLS ME THAT I AM THE FIRST THING HE THINKS OF WHEN HE WAKES UP IN THE MORNING, THAT HE THINKS ABOUT ME ALL DAY, AND THAT I AM THE LAST THING HE THINKS ABOUT WHEN HE GOES TO SLEEP AT NIGHT. HE TELLS ME THAT HE DOESN'T DESERVE ME AND IT'S THE OTHER WAY AROUND--I DON'T DESERVE HIM, BUT I LOVE HIM WITH ALL OF MY HEART. AND THE ONLY WAY WE EVER COULD HAVE MET IS THAT GOD IS IN IT. WE LIVE ACROSS THE COUNTRY FROM EACH OTHER. HE WAS FED UP WITH DATING SITES NOT MATCHING HIM WITH REAL CHRISTIAN WOMEN AND I WAS FED UP NOT MEETING ANY REAL CHRISTIAN MEN. WE WERE BOTH ABOUT TO THROW IN THE TOWEL AND WE BOTH LOOKED AT THAT LAST PROFILE. AND THAT IS ALL IT TOOK. HE IS THE LOVE OF MY LIFE AND I WANT TO SPEND THE REST OF MINE WITH HIM. AND HE FEELS THE SAME THINIG ABOUT ME. NOW ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS GET TOGETHER. HE IMMEDIATELY TOLD ME THAT HE HAD BEEN PRAYING ABOUT LEAVING THE STATE HE NOW LIVES IN TO WORK IN ANOTHER STATE DOING SOMETHING THAT HE SOUNDED REALLY UPBEAT ABOUT. NOW, THINGS AREN'T MOVING ALONG FAST ENOUGH FOR EITHER OF US, SO HE IS GOING TO RELOCATE TO WHERE I LIVE, AND THAT CAN'T HAPPEN SOON ENOUGH FOR EITHER OF US. HE HAS A LOT OF PLANNING TO DO, AND WE WANT TO BE TOGETHER SO BAD--WE BOTH HAVE TO REMEMBER THAT THIS RELATIONSHIP IS OF THE LORD, AND HE WILL MAKE THINGS HAPPEN IN HIS TIMING. WE ARE PLANNING ON GETTING MARRIED, BUT HE IS GOING TO PROPERLY ASK ME WHEN WE ARE FACE TO FACE. AND I CAN HARDLY WAIT, AND HE FEELS THE SAME WAY. SO PLEASE PRAY FOR US THAT THINGS WILL WORK OUT IN GOD'S TIMING AND THAT IT IS SOON, AND THAT WE GET THE MONEY TO DO THIS RIGHT. GOD BLESS!!!