Do You Believe in Prayer?

Do you believe in prayer?? I recently read about a church that had a "prayer chain" ministry set up through their email, facebook, and text for their church members who had a need for prayer. And what I thought was so great is that when a prayer need goes out, the person in charge of the "prayer chain" always signs it, "Prayer Works!!"

I believe prayer works and I believe in the power of prayer. Whether it be a group of people, all agreeing in prayer (read an earlier post, Agreeing Together in Prayer) or one desperate person, totally humbled and on her knees before God, I believe in the power of prayer. But I also believe there is a difference in believing in the power of prayer and knowing the power of prayer. Most people, whether they are Christians or not, will say they believe in prayer. But only a person who has experienced the power of prayer, knows the power of prayer. And ladies, when we know the power of prayer, we aren't content to just believe it.

I learned many years ago that if I want to know the power of prayer and pray in a more powerful way, then I must do four things;
1. Pray scripture based prayers.
2. Pray in God's will.
3. Pray in submission to my Father.
4. No matter the answer, agree with God.

You may be a new believer and wonder, "And just how do I do that?" Or maybe you've never known there was any other way of praying than those safe, simple prayers at bedtime or mealtime. And oh what you've been missing!!

Hope you have your prayer journal (that's in another post, too) and pen ready; here we go:
Pray scripture based prayers.
There is supernatural power in praying God's word back to Him, but in order to do that, you must be a student of the Word; can't do it any other way. I love to pray Colossians 1: 9-14 for my family. I call each family member by name, (mine, too) and I read each verse and insert a family member's name. Example;
v9; "Lord, I pray that "David" will be filled with the knowledge of Your will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding", then I go through the other verses inserting his name and I do that for all 15 of us. It takes time to pray scripture, but the rewards are worth it. Facing a difficult conversation? Pray Psalm 141:3; "Lord, set a watch before my mouth, and keep the door of my lips." Afraid? Pray Psalm 27:1;
"Lord, You are the Strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid." Use your Bible concordance or get a good Bible program for your computer and when you have a need, look up or type in that word and every scripture you need will pop up in front of your eyes. Ladies I'm telling you, praying the Word is supernatural power!!

Pray in God's will.
All of us have experienced that feeling; Lord, what am I supposed to do?
1 John 5:14, 15; "This is the confidence we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if (since) we know He hears us, whatever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him."
We get a "yes" each time we pray in His will. But how do we know His will? We ask Him.
"Father, should I take this job? I want to do Your will, and I know that You will give me whatever "petitions" I ask in Your will. What do You want me to do?" And then.......sit quietly. If an answer doesn't come immediately, stay in a "quiet" state of mind before Him, even as you go about your busy life........ listening. I have discovered that noise and "stuff" can drown out His voice. (Psalm 46:10; Be still and know that I Am God.) And I must confess, there have been times I have avoided the quiet and actually enhanced the noise because I didn't want to hear Him. Elijah learned the power of God's still, small voice (1 Kings 19: 12,13) and knowing His will is in the listening. God does not want His will to remain a mystery; He loves us too much for that and He loves us so much that He wants us to naturally come to Him as a child naturally comes to his mother. Answered prayer builds our faith and He is all about building our faith. Seek His will, then pray with confidence. Learn to listen for I have learned that He speaks, just after the stillness.

Pray in submission to the Father.
Rebellion closes down communication. Rebellion erects a wall between me and God. Before we pray it is important to confess any known sin that might be standing in the way to answered prayer. When sin is forgiven, submission comes easily. When submission comes, our heart is soft and pliable in the Father's hand and He can form it any way He chooses. (Romans 9:20,21) And He always chooses what is best.

No matter the answer, agree with God.
There it is in a nutshell; powerful praying comes when we say, "Lord, whatever you choose, You are right. I agree with You." And what, dear sister, do you think God will do when we agree with Him? He will allow us to experience an intimacy with Him that surpasses human thinking and understanding, because you see, to agree with God in prayer expresses an abandoned faith and trust that defies human reasoning and pleases Him in a way that nothing else can. (Hebrews 11:6). As you see God working in your life and the lives of those you love, say those words: "Lord, I agree with You and what You are doing in my life." It changes everything, and gives us life from a spiritual perspective. No matter the answer, agree with God.

When our heart is focused on praying His Word, when our heart is praying for His will in our lives and in the lives of those we love, when our heart is in submission and we agree with whatever answer He provides, we have stepped into that unseen realm of communion with the Creator of the universe, our Creator. And that, my friend, is supernatural prayer. It is a place where absolutely nothing is impossible with God. (Luke 1:37) It is the place where we know the power of prayer because we have experienced it.

I'd love to hear from you and I welcome your comments and questions.

Have a blest day and listen for the stillness.

Penny

What is Most Important?

I am so ready for some real spring weather. This week, in Kentucky, the weather forecast is for highs in the 80's and for me that is simply perfect!! This has been one wet, cold spring. And when it is warm and sunny, I cannot stay inside, I make it my goal for the day to sit in every chair I have in my yard at least once!!

On Memorial Day weekend, my family, brothers, sisters and their families meet at our home place for a family reunion. With 10 children, (one is deceased) many grandchildren, great grandchildren, great-great grandchildren, (I think that is as far as it goes), needless to say we have a crowd. My brothers and sisters and I were fortunate to have parents who valued family above all else and they wanted us to keep the home-place and we did. We gather in at Thanksgiving, Christmas, breakfast on Saturday mornings occasionally, (I make the biscuits, almost as well as Mama did) home-comings and when the weather is nice, to just sit on the porch in the swings and talk. Funny, but when I was a kid, I didn't think the home-place was all that impressive, but now, it is where I want to be, it is where I go when I need to truly be alone with God. In those woods I feel His presence like I can no where else, and for me it is my "Bethel". (Genesis 35:1) It is there that my "history" began and it is there that holds my identity.

The older I get, the more I feel drawn to what is most important, and like my parents, family is most important to me. David and I will be married 45 years this week. Where has time gone? On paper, we should not have made it; 17 yr old girl, 19 yr old boy, 2 years later a baby, height of the Viet Nam war, very different backgrounds, job struggles, but by God's grace and His grace alone, we are here today, and at this stage in life I know it is our faith in God, strong family values, and love and commitment to each other that has seen us through tough times and life struggles.

The thing I hear most from my readers is, "I want to hear more about marriage and making it work." So today, let me encourage you to make your marriage the most important thing in your life, after your relationship with the Lord. I tell my Sunday School class on a regular basis that the most important decision anyone can make is to accept Christ as Savior and the 2nd most important decision is who we marry. Those 2 decisions have more impact on our lives than any other decisions we will make in life. The first one has eternal consequences, and the 2nd determines our happiness, joy, fulfillment, and success.

Here are 3 things you can do everyday to make your marriage a priority; there are of course many others, but for me, these are the most important.

1. Pray for your marriage everyday. And get specific!! If you're mad at him, tell God. If you want him to be more demonstrative in showing his feelings for you, tell God. If you're worried about his health, tell God. If you want him to be a better,Dad, tell God. But.......be sure to sit quietly before the Lord and allow Him to speak to you about areas in your marriage that you can do better. Pray everyday about specific things in your marriage and ask God to help you and your husband to have a marriage that honors Him and sets a good example for your kids and others.

2. Protect your marriage.
Our #1 enemy, Satan, wants nothing more than to destroy your marriage and he will stop at nothing. He has waged an all out attack and war on the family and as our son Kyle so aptly put it, "We have a generation of victims, casualties of the war on the family. Children are the casualties of that demonic war." Protect your marriage by praying for it, but then don't stop there. We protect our marriage by keeping our heart soft toward our husband. If I allow myself to bring up past hurts, if I "build a case against him in my mind", if I dwell on his faults, Satan will plant seeds of discontent and those little, tiny seeds will eventually take root and grow into a monster that will destroy the very fabric of your marriage. Protect it by how you think about your husband, how you speak to him and about him, how you care for him and your home. As women, our instinct is to protect who and what we love. Love your marriage and protect it. Marriage is more than loving your husband; it's loving your marriage as well. And when we love and protect our marriage, our children will not be casualties of divorce.

3. Spend some quiet time together everyday.
When our boys were small, we put them to bed by 8:30-9:00 so we could watch a tv show together, sit and talk, and just have a little quiet time at the end of the day. Now, our kids didn't like it, they often reminded us that their friends stayed up till 10, but I personally believe children still need a bedtime, (amazing how that improves their school work, their personalities, etc) and we needed some quiet time. There are days it will be hard to do, especially as the kids get older, but as often as you can, have some quiet time together, focus on each other, talk things out, show love and respect, in other words communicate every single day...amazing what genuine communication will do for your marriage.

There are so many other things that we can do to keep the important......important, but maybe these 3 things can be a starting place for you and your marriage. God loves your marriage and He wants you to love it, too. Could it be that more marriages would last a lifetime if we loved our marriage as much as we love each other?

So thankful for spring and all things new; no place like Kentucky in May!!

Love to hear from you!

Penny