Into a Life of Prayer - A Journey, Part 1

Dear Friends, we are embarking on a journey.  Today is day one of our journey.  Into a life of prayer.

I have some homework for you:  

1. Add up all the minutes you've spent in prayer in the last week (you and God alone).  If you are satisfied with that amount, stop reading now and move on to another blog.

2.  Next, list the reasons you haven't prayed more. (company over, sick child, etc.) After you've made your list, consider this:  Do we fail to pray because we don't have time, or because we aren't close enough to God to want to pray?  I submit to you that it's the latter.  We have to pray to get close to God, so that we will want to pray--so that our hearts will urgently need to pray.

"We learn prayer's deepest depths in prayer, not from books.  We reach prayer's highest heights in prayer, not from sermons.  The only place to learn prayer, is in prayer, bent and broken on our knees." Dick Eastman

3.  Plan for a ten minute prayer time--just you and God in a room.  Commit to just ten minutes.  Today.

4.  Why should you commit to prayer?  First of all, God commands us to pray.  Read the six verses below.

5.  Next, read the quotes below from people who have contemplated what prayer is, and what prayer does.

That's all for today.  I'll meet you back here in a few days, to embark on day two.   

Matthew 26:41  “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Colossians 4:2

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;

Luke 18:1

Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart

1 Timothy 2:1

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men

Ephesians 6:18

With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints

Romans 12:12

rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer,

You'll find more prayer quotes here.


"I would rather train twenty men to pray, than a thousand to preach; A minister's highest mission ought to be to teach his people to pray." -H. MacGregor


Prayer does not fit us for the greater work, prayer is the greater work. --Oswald Chambers


There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God. --Brother Lawrence


Our ordinary views of prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer as a means for getting something for ourselves; the Bible idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself. --Oswald Chambers


Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one's heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell God your troubles, that God may comfort you; tell God your joys, that God may sober them; tell God your longings, that God may purify them; tell God your dislikes, that God may help you conquer them; talk to God of your temptations, that God may shield you from them: show God the wounds of your heart, that God may heal them. If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. Talk out of the abundance of the heart, without consideration say just what you think. Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved intercourse with God. --Francois Fenelon


Why is it so important that you are with God and God alone on the mountain top? It's important because it's the place in which you can listen to the voice of the One who calls you the beloved. To pray is to listen to the One who calls you "my beloved daughter," "my beloved son," "my beloved child." To pray is to let that voice speak to the center of your being, to your guts, and let that voice resound in your whole being. --Henri Nouwen


We hear it said that a man will suffer in his life is he does not pray; I question it. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God within him, which is nourished not by food but by prayer...Prayer is the way the life of God is nourished. --Oswald Chambers


The Church has not yet touched the fringe of the possibilities of intercessory prayer. Her largest victories will be witnessed when individual Christians everywhere come to recognize their priesthood unto God and day by day give themselves unto prayer. --John R. Mott


The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men…Men of prayer." --E. M. Bounds


We lean to our own understanding, or we bank on service and do away with prayer, and consequently by succeeding in the external we fail in the eternal, because in the eternal we succeed only by prevailing prayer. --Oswald Chambers


When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles. When he stops studying the Bible, the devil laughs. When he stops praying, the devil shouts for joy. --Corrie Ten Boom


Is the Son of God praying in me, or am I dictating to Him?....Prayer is not simply getting things from God, that is a most initial form of prayer; prayer is getting into perfect communion with God. If the Son of God is formed in us by regeneration, He will press forward in front of our common sense and change our attitude to the things about which we pray. --Oswald Chambers


Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?-- Corrie Ten Boom


I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had absolutely no other place to go. -- Abraham Lincoln


Some people pray just to pray and some people pray to know God. --Andrew Murray

My Gratitude List - Tuesday

- siblings building cozy blanket tents in the playroom on a rainy, 52-degree day

- baby squirrels running around, finally allowed out of the nest

- cinnamon toast at midnight

- oatmeal with raisins and blueberries on a cold morning

- Scripture filling hearts, minds with life-giving truth and hope

- seven-year-old Paul writing a story about horses that surprisingly become parents to two foals--after a two-day gestation period :)

- the return of cold nights.....to enjoy hot chocolate a few more times, before it becomes unappealing altogether

- my two year old waking in the night, just long enough to cuddle against me and stroke my cheek a few times

- my two year old waking in the night, just long enough to draw close and throw her leg around me

Matthew 18:1-3  At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

John 16:21  When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.

- the Book of James, so full of wisdom

- four precious ones, coming sleepy from their beds in the morning with cuddling on their minds....I think how blessed I am to give and receive this way.

Matthew 18:10  See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

Psalm 127: 3-5  Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

Psalm 139:13-16  For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

- an e-mail from my mom reminding me I will be sixty-one when Beth is twenty-one (actually I'll be sixty-two)....and are there any job prospects.....and I can't help laying awake at night and worrying about you.

Without my faith such an e-mail might send me into tears.  I think about the blessing of my faith......about the hope I receive through Christ.....about the willingness of my heart and mind to let go of details like this.  The reality is that, no, there are no job prospects.  Yes, I will be old when she is young but God designed a woman's womb to give life into the forties and who am I to say He made a mistake?  Does He only give life to older woman with fat retirement accounts?  Is He who owns it all....who gives it all....confined by the limits of bank accounts?

What does faith give?  Life, abundant.  Life, unending.  As opposed to life confined by the four walls of a bank.  By the four walls of the coffin.  As I think about the difference between my reality and her reality, I am saddened as much as blessed.  Why choose me and not her too, God?  Why separate families this way?  I admit it is so painful to live the reality of this separation, year after year--from my mom, my dad, my step-dad, my sister, my brother.  But He doesn't make mistakes.  He is just.  I can count on that, as much as I count on my daily bread.  My manna.

Jeremiah 29:11  For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Numbers 6: 24-26  The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

James 1:7  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

I leave you with something--Audio Bible Online

In doing some research for a series on prayer, I found an online audio Bible website.  Just think, you can listen to Scripture while sweeping your floor, while changing diapers, while loading your dishwasher.  What a blessing!

I don't have enough research done to start my series, so I wanted to leave you today with the Audio Bible Online website.  Of course, it can't replace reading the Bible, but for your auditory learners--and for moms who want more time in Scripture--it's a great tool!

I recently began the Book of James with the children at the dinner table.  We just listened (after downloading RealPlayer) to the two chapters we've already been through--James 1 and 2.  I didn't require the children to remain seated like I do at the dinner table, but in time, as my family grows up, I will.

Enjoy!

Composting for Kids

The boys and I found a wonderful PDF slideshow of the basics of composting--done by kids and easy to understand.  Even the carbon and nitrogen technical details are well presented and easy to understand.

Though your children may not be interested in actually doing this, the slideshow is still an excellent learning tool.

And for all those who love to garden, this is for you, too. Great gardening tips are included!

And a perk for birders......birds love compost!

I want to be a good mom, but.....

...I can't stop sinning!

Great Is Your Faithfulness - Source for Scripture found here: 

Lamentations 3:19-26 

 I remember my affliction and my wandering,
   the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them,
   and my soul is downcast within me.

Yet this I call to mind
   and therefore I have hope:
 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
   for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
   great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
   therefore I will wait for him.”


The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
   to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
   for the salvation of the LORD.