~ Alvin Vandergriend- I want to share a radical thought. It has transformed my way of praying and my way of thinking about prayer. For years I believed that my prayers started with me. I had to think them up. I had to get God's attention. Not surprisingly, with this frame of mind, prayer was often a chore.
I learned that I was wrong. Prayer doesn't start with us. Prayer starts with God. That's the radical idea that changed my prayer life. God is the initiator. He moves us to pray. He gives us prayer ideas. He holds out the promises we claim in prayer. When we pray, we are God's instruments. [Google image, Prayer starts with God]
God is at work in all our praying. He makes His will known to us so that we will ask for the very things He longs to give us. Out of love He burdens us to pray for others so that, in response to our intercession, He can pour out blessings on them.
And it's the Spirit, says Paul, that makes our prayer possible. We don't know what to pray, but we don't have to. The Spirit is there revealing God's will to us in the Scriptures and bringing God's prayer concerns to life within us.
He is nudging us through circumstances and opening our eyes to the needs around us. He is searching our hearts and trying our ways so that He can bring us to true repentance. He is revealing the glory and the goodness of God so that our prayers will be filled with praise and thanks.
We can be confident that God will hear when we come to Him. God answers every prayer that starts in heaven, every prayer born in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, every prayer based on a sure promise from His Word.
If prayer starts with God, then the first order of business as we learn to pray is to learn to listen to God's whispers, to tune our hearts to Him, to respond to His promptings. Perhaps the first prayer of each day should be-
"Lord, teach me to pray. Help me to understand your purposes, to feel your burdens, to see what you see, to hear the groans you hear, so that my prayers may be pleasing to you and may accomplish your purposes."
Let's pray-
Father, teach me to pray today, to make it a joy for me. Show me how to know what Your will is, allowing You to initiate what I pray. I thank You for being a prayer-hearing God, and for the privilege of knowing Your thoughts and praying them back to You.
Help me to set time aside to pray and to start by saying, "Lord, help me right now to know what you want me to pray." May my praise be evident in my efforts to confess my need of Your help, and to wait for impressions or promptings from Your Spirit, and then agree to pray them.
I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Love to Pray- 40 Day Devotional for Deepening Your Prayer Life by Alvin Vandergriend "Love to Pray lives up to its title. People love to do the things they know how to do. Here is a practical way to teach you to pray while you are praying through this devotional. This is truly a unique tool" —David Butts, Chairman America's National Prayer Committee.
~ When we receive encouragement, special gifts or some good counsel, may we appreciate someone’s effort to share their joy of faith with us. God uses many ways to help us increase our faith, for He knows how to influence us individually.
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Dr. Wesley L. Duewel- Jesus Christ is the Sovereign of our universe. He is the Creator of everything visible and invisible—the physical world, mankind, and the world of angels (John 1:3; Col. 1:16).
(Testimony by Stacie Myers in popular post on this post, and great words from Ernie Miller)
The North Country Christian Fellowship Center Churches,
located in the St. Lawrence county of NY,
broadcast their Sunday services at 10 or 10:15
You can view past services too.
Sermon listing: https://www.
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