Pray without Ceasing

By repenting of our sinful lifestyle and believing in Christ as our Savior, we are made children of God (John 3:16-18). We are set free from the law of sin and death by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2).

Exchanging our old nature for a new nature in Christ creates true righteousness and holiness in us (Ephesians 4:24). God helps by disciplining us for our sin, in order for us to share in His holiness (Hebrews 12:10).  

Submitting to His discipline allows us to exhibit His fruit to the world around us. We know that when Christ does appear, we will be exactly like Him, because we shall see Him in all of His glory (1 John 3:2).

Growing in our union with Christ starts each new day in a time of aloneness with God. Night owls do this before they go to bed, and morning doves pray when they wake up.

God also created the earth in such a manner that half the world is awake while the other half is sleeping. This way, we keep God company twenty-four hours a day!

We enter a realm of oneness with His Spirit and pray according to His will. We thank Him for His daily provision of our needs and appreciate Him for who He is.

Then we share our apprehensions and questions with Him. We feel His presence in our spirit; and sit quietly, listening for His still, small voice in answer to our prayers (Philippians 4:6; 1 Kings 19:11-13).

Once we make our requests known to God, we release all anxiety. Discarding all doubt and fear, we feel the peace of God, which transcends human reasoning and protects our soul and spirit in Christ (Philippians 4:6-7).

Prayer:

Father God, Jesus is part of Your Trinity, yet He spent hours communing with You while He lived on this earth (Luke 6:12). Prayer is essential, but the way that we insist on praying could prevent us from walking in Your Spirit. You taught the disciples how to pray and never told them stay in their prayer closet.

You love our focused attention during our times alone with You in our prayer closet; yet You also encourage us to pray throughout our day and walk as Your Spirit directs each moment. You may lead us to sit in our prayer closet to remove us from all distraction; but remind us that we do not stop praying when we leave our secret place.

Thought for the Day:

The Lord draws near to everyone who comes to Him with sincerity and integrity as the motive of their heart. 

- Psalm 145:18

Who Needs God Anyway?

 

 

 

The reason secular religions are so popular today is that they do not require us to give up control of our life. They give us permission to attempt to perfect our own self through a series of mantras, religious activities and self-denial. In contrast, authentic Christianity requires total surrender of our entire body, soul and spirit to the ministrations of God's Holy Spirit.

Surrender is much harder for the human mind to accept than the concept of working for one's own salvation. Most people are too busy for God anyway, except when life gets too hard to handle. When we get in distress or some type of trouble, we quickly turn and run into God’s everlasting arms (Deuteronomy 33:26-28). We soak up all of His love and comfort until we feel strong enough to face life.

We use Him like an Aladdin’s Lamp to grant our three wishes. Then, we leave God in our prayer closet and come out with the false confidence that we can do all things on our own again. We quickly get side tracked by life and its demands and forget all about God until we need Him again. We even forget to thank Him for His blessings in our life (Luke 17:17).

God desires fellowship with His creation. All of nature knows this and even the trees of the fields clap their hands in praise to our Creator God (Isaiah 55:12; 1 Chronicles 16:30-34). Most people, even some Christians, are not conscious of God’s continual presence in the life of a Believer. Only authentic Believers relinquish our will to God and submit to His plan and purpose for our life (Ephesians 2:10).

Prayer:

Father God, even though You never give us more temptation than we can handle without giving us a way to escape (1 Corinthians 10:13), You often give us more trials than we can handle in order to prove to us that we need You in our life. These trials are never more than You can handle, however. Teach us to walk in Your Spirit every moment of the day and to perform only those works, which You created us to do (Ephesians 2:10).

Thought for the Day:

Self-effort is the enemy of an intimate relationship with God.

Alone With God

How often do we plan to spend some time alone with God, and some earthly distraction looms before us, demanding our undivided attention? We look wistfully at our little prayer chair or prayer closet or secret place and feel the draw of God’s Spirit on our spirit. However, the world pulls our soul – our thoughts, choices and feelings - away from our Beloved Father.

Whenever God claims our attention, Satan makes sure that our mind wanders and our affections are torn. We cannot even finish the train of thought in our prayers before demonic activity highjacks our attention. God longs to liberate us from the demands of our temporal life and to set us free to soar with Him in the spiritual realm. He wants to remove us from our busyness and give us His rest (Hebrews 4:10).

Martha, Jesus’ friend, was distracted by the duties in her world too. She demanded that Jesus order Mary, her sister, to help her to get dinner ready. Jesus told Martha that Mary already chose the best course for her time. There would be plenty of opportunities for domestic activities when Jesus was not in their presence (Luke 10:42). Our duties are always with us too; so schedule time alone with God.

God wants our undivided, focused attention with our vision and thoughts on nothing other than His face. Then God comforts us, inspires us, directs us and loves on us from the depths of our soul. We must jealously guard this time, setting it aside every day or even several times a day. We also commune with God without ceasing all throughout our day (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

Prayer:

Father God, You call some of us to the ministry of intercession, and Your Spirit prompts us to lift up certain ones in prayer. Yet, we also spend alone time with You, because in Your presence is fullness of joy and pleasure forevermore (Psalm 16:11). You mold us by Your grace and replace our carnal flesh with the fruit of Your Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). As we contemplate Your glory, You shape us into the image of Christ, our Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Thought for the Day:

Much is accomplished in the spiritual realm when we make the time to spend in the presence of God.

Ultimate Protection

God gives His armor to all of His Saints to prepare us for battle with temptation, sickness, weakness and lies from Satan (Ephesians 6:10-18). As we put on God’s armor each morning before the world, the flesh and Satan ever get a chance to attack us, then we walk in victory all throughout the day. God’s Spirit fully clothes us to withstand any discouragement or enticement that the enemy brings our way.

The first piece of armor is to accept Jesus as our Savior. He is the Truth, and He is the belt that holds our life together. Then, we put on the breastplate of holy living, which protects all of the vital aspects of our life. We walk in peace, which comes from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This fully prepares us to stand victoriously in the Lord and in the authority of His power within us (Ephesians 6:10).

In addition to all of these protective elements, we hold up the shield of faith in Christ to stop the fiery arrows of deception and temptation, which Satan shoots at us throughout the day. We put on the mind of Christ as our helmet (Philippians 2:5). Finally, we take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. We follow Jesus’ example on the pinnacle of His temptation, and we quote the truth of scripture to Satan when he tries to deceive us (Matthew 4:8-9; 2 Thessalonians 2:3,4).

When we face any situation in life through our human ability and resources, we come up short. However, when the God of the universe, who dwells within us, attacks our problems, He makes quick work of them. The key to walking in victory is to look back over all of the issues in our life that God took care of for us. There is not one aspect, no matter how awful it seemed at the time, which He did not work out for our good (Roman 8:28). This gives us faith to leave everything in God’s capable hands to deal with it in His timing and way.

The Lord is always available to us, because He lives within us (Philippians 4:5). His love is so dear, that it favorably changes the meaning of everything we experience in life, even if our soul lays broken and bleeding in His arms. We never experience any trial alone. Our sin is the only issue, which causes static in our relationship. Once we repent and commune with God in prayer, the fellowship between us is restored. Our prayer closet is so filled with God's presence that we can almost see the gates of heaven before us.

Prayer:

Father God, we look into Your sweet face and feel nothing but peace and rest. We come to You in our time of need for You to deal with the issues in our life as we live in Your peace and rest. Thank You for Your daily provision of all of our physical, financial, mental, relational, emotional and spiritual needs. You always provide for us with more abundance than we deserve. We thank You for Your gracious love for each of us.

Thought for the Day:

Take all of your cares to the Lord in prayer, with gratitude in your heart for what He already did for you, and stand still and watch the salvation of our God on your behalf over and over again. 

 

Praying in the Spirit

We start our prayer time with praise and worship to God for His attributes, attitude and character, as well as for what He does for us. We confess our sins and ask for pardon for our transgressions (1 John 1:9). We pray with our mind and mention everything that is on our heart. Then, we finish by waiting on God and setting our mind on the Spirit, allowing God to show us what to pray by His Spirit’s direction (Romans 8:5). The Spirit may lead us to pray for the Body of Christ, for specific people or for people groups in general, for the unsaved and for upcoming events and occasions, etc. (Ephesians 6:18).

When we enter the Lord’s gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise (Psalm 100:4), we thank Him for His provision in our life and then we pray about the concerns and feelings of our soul. We pour out our heart to the Lord with thanksgiving (Psalm 95:2). Then, all throughout the day, we pray without ceasing, consulting God through His Spirit before we do anything, so that we can discover God’s perfect will for our day (1 Thessalonians 5:17; Romans 12:2).

Paul talks about praying with his spirit and praying with his mind (1 Corinthians 14:15). We pray from our soul – our mind, will and emotions. Then we pray in the Spirit. Paul encourages us to pray in the spirit at all times and with all manner of prayers (Ephesians 6:18). In this type of prayer, we do not pray from our soul, which is carnally minded. We pray from our spirit, which is spiritually minded (Proverbs 20:27). The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness when we do not know how to pray, and He prays through us (Romans 8:26).

Praying in the Spirit does not refer to the words we use, but to the Spirit, who is directing our prayers. The Greek word used for “pray in” the Spirit in the Bible can refer to several different areas: pray “by the means of,” pray “with the help of,” pray “in the sphere of,” and pray “in connection to” the Spirit of God. Whatever we ask for during our prayer time, if it is according to God’s will for our life, He will grant it (1 John 5:14-15).  Our surrendered prayer, “Lord, Your will be done,” will guarantee our success in our prayers.

Jude encourages us to vigilantly encourage our self and to increase our faith by praying in the Holy Spirit (Jude 1:20). Praying in the Spirit is not reserved only for the holiest of Believers. It does not signify that one person has more spiritual power than anyone else. Praying in the Spirit is a command for all Believers. It is simply allowing God to speak to our spirit and through our voice, as we pray; and then to act according to His will.

It is of vital importance that our prayers come from our spirit in direct communication with our Father as His child. Rote prayers or repeated recitation of the same prayer over and over is not pleasing to God (Matthew 6:7). However, we sometimes use all the words we can think of to relay to God some need for our self or someone else. Then, we cannot describe the situation in any other words. We are at a loss for any more ways to express our prayer. At times like this, the Spirit makes intercession for us with words, which we cannot articulate (Romans 8:26).

Some people inappropriately equate praying in the Spirit with using spiritual tongues (1 Corinthians 14:14). Having the gift of tongues is not a prerequisite to pray in the Spirit. Using tongues in a worship service requires an interpreter (1 Corinthians 14:27-28). Also, we can use tongues without an interpreter when we pray in our prayer closet, because it builds up our faith (1 Corinthians 14:4; Jude 1:20). However, praying in the Spirit actually means praying in the power and by the direction of the Spirit according to the will of God. So, at times we pray out of compassion with our mind and understanding for our concerns and feelings; and then, at other times, we pray with our spirit as the Holy Spirit directs us to pray (1 Corinthians 14:15).

Another great way to pray is to use Bible verses as the words of our prayers. We use the verses that apply to the situation about which we are praying. The Psalmists worded their Psalms as prayers to God and they are still relevant to our issues today. Their poetic imagery blesses us to the very core of our soul and often provides words for us that we could never imagine to use during our times of prayer. Every book in the Bible is available to use in our prayers and builds up our spirit when we make it a habitual part of our day.

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for giving us the method of prayer to communicate with You about what is on our heart. Thank You too for the Spirit’s intercession through us to reach Your throne and to affect the world around us. Studies show that prayer works miracles in the physical, emotional and mental aspects of our life. Thank You for coming to earth to open the way for us to access Your throne with our prayers. We count on You to continue to lead us in our prayers by Your Spirit.

Thought for the Day:

Pray in the Holy Spirit and keep yourselves in God’s love, as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. – Jude 20-21