Tag Archive for Prayer

Patience and Persistence in Prayer

2017-06-28 Devotional with Hymn No comments

James 5

Father, You act in Your all-wise, all-loving time,
not on my anxious, self-centered schedule.
Help me to wait for You patiently,
as the farmer waits for rain (James 5:7-8).

Father, we consider the great saints to be greatly blessed of You.
They patiently endured suffering.
They remained faithful,
no matter how dark the days seemed.
Like them, help us to stay strong in faith (James 5:10-11). 

Father, as Your people,
help us to meet every situation with prayer:
suffering, with patient petition, relying on You;
joy, with thanksgiving and song;
sickness, with anointing and intercession;
sin, with confession to one another and forgiveness (James 5:13-18).

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Keep Us Strong in Faith
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Fruitful Prayer

2017-03-22 Devotional with Hymn, Pictures of God No comments

from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Read John 14:12-14; 15:7-8; 16:23-28

Part of a fruitful relationship with God is prayer. As Jesus taught His disciples for the final time before His crucifixion, three times He talked about prayer. Three times He made the lavish promise, “Ask, and you will receive.”

What did He mean by this? Is this a blank check to indulge all our desires?

Whenever we want to understand what a person is saying, we have to take it in context, in the flow of what he or she is communicating. Taking isolated sentences out of context is a recipe for disaster, whether in daily conversation or in interpreting the Bible.

Read today’s scriptures, and notice the contexts for Jesus’ promises about prayer. The context is always Christian service. He is talking about asking for ministry purposes, not for personal reasons. The focus is on bearing fruit for the Father. There will be times in God’s work when we will either ask the Father plainly for what is needed, or the job won’t get done. So ask!

Ask for the Father’s benefit, not your own. Ask in Jesus’ name, for His purposes, for the Father’s glory. Prayer is not drawing the all-wise, all-loving Father down to your petty, personal viewpoint. Prayer is drawing us upward into His perspective and His concerns. Sovereign God is not going to dance to your tune. He wants to teach you to dance to His. Note what James says: 

You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. (James 4:2b-3, NASB)

Pray as a branch in the Vine. Pray out of the life you share with Jesus Christ. Pray as standing in the loving Father’s presence, as a brother or sister of Jesus Christ, as His friend and servant.

Pray as Jesus would pray, and the Father will answer you as He would answer Jesus.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Ever Standing in Your Presence
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Preoccupied with Love

2016-12-27 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Do everything in love (1 Corinthians 16:14, NIV). 

When your mind wanders, where does it go? What do you think about in your spare moments – when driving, eating, waiting, or doing undemanding tasks? What are your daydreams?

During one particular vacation, I was in the same room with a number of family members, all near and dear to me. Yet I caught myself being so self-absorbed that my heart and mind were not awake to them and their concerns. If they had felt problems or pain or confusion, I would not have sensed it. I would not have reached out to them to offer a listening heart.

The Lord has graciously showed me that I waste too much of my time and thought on myself.

I want to be preoccupied with loving other people. What could I accomplish if I let the Lord’s love dream through me?

I want to be awake to the kaleidoscope of concerns around me, ready to be Christ’s presence however I can.

I want to be more Christ-like. I’m tired of being insensitive in the little things I say and in the little things I don’t say. I want to have the mind and heart of Christ.

How does this happen, after a lifetime of being self-centered? Resolutions and guilt trips don’t work. But I’m finding the answer is much simpler. Whenever I realize that I stand in Christ’s presence, my heart is drawn to Him in prayer. And as I turn to Him, He soon brings other people to mind. When I pray, He frees me from bondage to myself and into the freedom of love. And I can pray anytime.

Sitting in church on a Sunday morning, the Lord prompts me to pray for the needs around me:

  • to my right, a family numb from years of dealing with a delinquent son;
  • behind me, an elderly man apparently about to lose his wife;
  • to my left, a young person (remember those years?);
  • in front, the mother of two young children facing a painful divorce.

In traffic, passing coworkers in the office, or in my home, He is ready to share His mind and His heart with me. He just calls me to turn to Him more often as I live in His presence.

Lord, draw me to You.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: My Mind Is Yours
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Prayer Is Simply Talking to God

2016-12-20 Devotional with Hymn No comments

It is personal conversation with Him.

Who can pray?

Absolutely anyone.
God only asks that we trust Him –
that we believe
He is listening and
will respond to us.

How do I pray?

Simply talk to Him, from your heart.
You can pray in silence or out loud,
sitting, kneeling, or in any position.

How long should I pray?

Prayers can be as short as a single sentence, or
as long as you need them to be.

Where should I pray?

God is always with you and is always listening.
Pray anywhere – at home, at work, or
in the privacy of your car as you drive.
Pray alone or with others.

What should I talk to God about?

Whatever is on your mind.
Thank Him for His many wonderful gifts.
Share your problems and ask for His help.
Pray for others – for your family, your friends,
your nation, your world . . . or
for the person ahead of you in line.

God is always with you.
He always listens when you pray.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Simple Faith
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Pray for Those You Pass

2016-12-13 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Pray for each other (James 5:16, NIV).

My daily walks are my prayer time. It’s a wonderful, beautiful time alone with the Lord.

But even then, foolish, selfish daydreams invade my thoughts. I don’t want my mind or my time spent that way, so I asked the Lord to help me.

He answered my prayer. He challenged me to look into the faces of the people I pass and pray for them.

When I do, I find that my thoughts are turned away from myself and toward those around me. The love of Christ is stirred in me.

Prayer is a wonderful privilege. It is there throughout the day, always available to realign our hearts and minds with Christ and His love. Make prayer a constant part of your life.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Ever Standing in Your Presence
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Teach Me to Pray

2016-10-02 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.
(Luke 6:12, NIV)

Jesus, You prayed so much when You were here on earth.
At times You ministered to people through the day,
then prayed through the night.

How did You do it, Lord?

For You, was prayer work,
or was it rest?
Did You need to rest from praying,
or was prayer itself a type of rest?

For me, should prayer be labor,
an activity requiring energy and discipline,
an obligation to be endured?
Or should it be rest,
a retreat into You?

If I trusted the Father as You did and
relied on Him completely,
then what would prayer be for me?

Jesus, my Savior,
You are my example.
Teach me to pray.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Teach Us to Pray
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Blessed by Problems

2016-08-30 Devotional with Hymn No comments

A small computer problem evolved into a massive computer problem. It dragged on for a week, absorbing much of my time and attention, before finally sending my faithful old computer to an unexpected grave. Then came the transition time as I waited on my new computer to arrive, then worked with my programmer-daughter to get set up and operational.

During this painful time when my routines were totally disrupted, the Lord taught me several valuable lessons.

Prayer

My work as a writer involves transitional times – brief periods when I decompress and prepare my mind to move from one task to another. Normally such transitional times are filled with diversions, like Facebook or computer games. They absorb my attention without taxing my mind, so I find them helpful. But without my computer, I turned my spare moments more often to prayer. Such “simple prayer” throughout the day helps me fellowship with God more naturally and constantly. God used my computer problems to draw me closer to Himself.

Thank You, Father. Continue to draw me and teach me.

Productivity

As a writer, I definitely missed my computer as a work tool. But the Lord kept me productive without it. He led me to write a hymn, Our God Came to Visit. Hymn-writing is less computer-dependent than other types of writing.

He also led me to do even more Bible study than usual. A meditative study of Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12 was particularly meaningful and refreshing.

God uses our human tools but is never dependent on them.

Patient Endurance

Patient endurance is one of the most precious but least sought Biblical virtues. When our discomfort absolutely MUST stop but doesn’t, we patiently endure. My computer situation exercised this valuable quality.

Father, You are good. You bless us in unexpected ways, even through our suffering.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Good Gifts
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

FIXED ON GOD Devotional Tapestry

2016-08-18 Devotional Tapestries No comments

FIXED ON GOD Devotional Tapestry

Devotional Tapestries are short recordings designed to draw your heart and mind to the Living God. Each includes a devotional reading over instrumental music, leading into a hymn.

Listen to FIXED ON GOD Devotional Tapestry
Printed devotional & hymn
More Devotional Tapestries

Turned Toward God

2016-03-29 Devotional with Hymn, Prayer One comment

Recently this old hymn has been on my mind:

Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,
Unuttered or expressed,
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast.

Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
The falling of a tear,
The upward glancing of an eye,
When none but God is near.
            (“Prayer Is the Soul’s Sincere Desire,” by James Montgomery, 1818)

I’ve found this description of prayer true to my own experience. Prayer is turning toward God.

My morning walks are my prayer time. For twenty-plus years I have used the Lord’s Prayer as the outline for my prayers, but even so, my daily prayers are quite varied. Some days He leads me more toward petition. Some days, praise. Sometimes I sing as much as I speak. Some days my praying involves lots of thinking and reflecting. Some days He even leads me to write as I talk to Him.

But consistently, the attitude that nurtures my heart is the attitude of the Lord’s Prayer:

Father, Your glory,
Your kingdom,
Your will.
Your bread for today,
Your forgiveness,
Your keeping.

Prayer is the single-mindedness of a heart turned toward God, desiring God, talking to God, listening to God, seeking Him alone.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Reign in Me
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Gethsemane

2016-03-15 Devotional with Hymn No comments

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. (Luke 22:42, 44, NIV)

Gethsemane removes any notion that Jesus’ suffering and death were somehow easier for Him. Falling on His face before the Father, coming to Him repeatedly with the same prayer, grasping for support from His friends, literally sweating blood – the scene reminds us that He felt all the anguish any of us would feel.

Knowing that such a horrible and fatal ordeal awaited us, we would likely be consumed with dread. Jesus was conscious of what awaited Him, and He was anxious for the day to come:

“I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!” (Luke 12:49-50, NASB)

But we never sense that He was overcome by fear or distracted by dread. Facing His death, He seemed to deal with the long-term pressure the same way He dealt with it in Gethsemane: He kept Himself completely committed to the Father, completely dependent on Him, completely trusting. His daily bread was always enough.

Lord, simply give us each day our daily bread. No matter what comes, You will always provide all we need. Thank You, Lord.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: A Garden in the Night
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

« Older Entries   Recent Entries »