Praying with a Thankful Heart

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”

Psalm 100:4-5

When you go to God in prayer, what motivates you?

Do you pray because you want to talk with God? Do you pray because you want something from God? Do you pray because you want to take another's problems to Him?

Or do you pray to thank and praise God for all that He is doing in your life?

Prayer is about all of these motivations and yet so much more. When we go to God in prayer, we are entering His sanctuary, His courts; through His Gates. Prayer allows us the opportunity to perfectly align ourselves in God's will. Our first thoughts in prayer should be about recognizing Who God is and thanking Him for giving each of us the grace to come before Him.

Our praise of God should be the first words from our lips - before any cries for help or need - we should first recognize what God has done before and what He continues to do. By verbally recounting God's goodness and thanking Him for how He has acted in your life, your faith in how He will handle the petitions and needs you bring before Him will be strengthened. Through our recognition of God's unending faithfulness our individual faiths will be strengthened.

We are to take everything on our hearts - the good, the bad, the fearful and the faithful - to God in prayer. He wants to be our solution to all of our problems. By beginning our prayers with a remembrance of what He has done before, we will have the courage to ask and the boldness to know He will fulfill our every need.

Scripture

Psalm 100

Quote of the Day

“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is 'thank you', it will be enough.”

Meister Eckhart - German Theologian

Question of the Day

What is your prayer today?



Praying to Peace

Do you ever find it hard to pray for those you do not know? How about those people you don’t like – even if you do not know them? Is it hard to pray for your teachers? Your principal? The mayor? The governor? The president?

God calls us to pray for ALL PEOPLE – particularly He tells us to pray for all those in authority. He asks us to lift up those who He has placed in leadership roles in our lives – from parents to teachers to bosses to government officials. He wants us to remember them in our prayers so that they might be conformed by the Holy Spirit and ultimately give their lives to Christ, because if those in authority are believers than Christ’s mission will become a reality.

God wants us to live holy, peaceful lives. If those who govern our lives are directly opposed to our beliefs, our lives will never have peace. By praying for those in authority, we have the great privilege of growing in empathy for them while simultaneously offering them the greatest gift – Jesus and His love.

Often conflict we feel with leadership comes because we are not beginning at the same starting line. Through prayer, and petitions to God, we can seek to open our eyes to where those we are praying for are starting and we can pray that their hearts will be transformed so we might all end at the same finish line.

We pray for our leadership’s salvation – not just to make our lives easier – but to help to transform the world, because ultimately this is God’s greatest desire.

Scripture

1 Timothy 2:1-7

Quote of the Day

We should pray the hardest when it’s hardest to pray.

Rob Ricketts

Question of the Day

Who can you pray for today that could make a difference in the world?

Praying Through the TO DO's

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

Romans 8:26

Do you ever start to pray, but find you do not have the words?

Are all of your thoughts focused on other things than being with God and what to say to Him?

This is a perpetual problem I face nearly every time I sit down to pray. I start and then my mind creates a "To Do" list of all of the other things in my life:

• Check the presentation for work
• Schedule Christmas party for GUMY
• Read new training manual
• Clean the kitchen
• Do I need to make cookies for someone?

The list will keep going and going until I physically stop myself and refocus on talking with God. I can have several rounds of starting and list making before my spirit lets go and I allow God's Spirit to work in me so that I can truly communicate with God. Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, my prayers are weak and broken filled with starts and stops and not a great deal of content.

Prayer is our two way communication with God and just like in our communication with other people we have to be fully present to understand the other person and to be coherent in what we are trying to communicate. When we rush through communication - whether we are giving a speech in class or talking to a friend on the phone - we often do not say exactly what we intend and the other party often misunderstands what we are trying to communicate. Prayer is not different.

When we stop and take time to pray, we must focus our whole being on God and being present with Him. By focusing your mind and your heart on God, your spirit will know how you are to pray and for what you are to pray. With your mind and heart focused, your ears will become tuned to God's still, quiet voice and His direction will become clear.

Prayer is a learned behavior. Just like we expand our vocabulary each week with new spelling words or through reading new books, we grow our ability to communicate with God through intentional practice. Intentional communication with God can be hard in the midst of the bombardment of external voices in the world, but through God's grace and your willingness to try, He will cut through the noise and whisper in your heart.

Prayer is powerful - - and prayer is up to you. You have a choice to communicate openly with God - with anyone - you need to decide if communicating with God is a high priority in your life.

For me, prayer ranks pretty high up on my list....and even in the midst of the crazy "To Do" list - prayer always wins.

Scripture

Romans 8:22-30

Quote of the Day

There is a vast difference between saying prayers and praying.

Unknown

Question of the Day

Where do you pray?