Tag Archives: prayer

March 12, 2014 · 7:43 AM

Prayer For My Path

Lord,

I come to you today and thank you for all that you have done in my life. I recognize that you are the one who created this world and my life. I believe that you have a purpose for me and that the things I face each day are your way of fulfilling that purpose. I don’t always understand why there are things that happen and push me to my limits, but I trust that you are in control and that you see the bigger picture.

I confess that I’m worn out, mentally exhausted and need your peace. I need to find my rest in you. I ask that you send the Holy Spirit to help me do that. Let me find solace in the middle of the things I have to face today. Let me have the peace that passes understanding as I go about my day. I need your presence with me in a tangible way as I face each uphill battle. I can’t face the day on my own. I’m too weak to continue so I ask that your strength would be made perfect in my weakness.

Help me to build relationships that will further my understanding of who you are. Put people in my path that will stir up the gifts that you have given to me. I don’t want to bury the talents you have entrusted to me. I want to invest them in your kingdom and to produce a harvest. I believe you have created me with a purpose and that you have given me the things I need in order to be successful where I am. I want to be faithful where you have me so that you can trust me more. Keep me from the mindset that wants to despise the small beginnings.

Show me new ways to accomplish all you have for me. Open the doors that you need me to walk through and shut the ones to the paths I should stay away from. Let your word be a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Guide and direct each step I take so that everything I do honors you. Give me the courage to step out in faith. Call me out of my boat of security and onto the waters of promise. Take me by the hand when I fail and lift me back up. Walk with me through the rough waters and keep me safe.

You alone are my rock and my fortress. You are my shield. Protect me from the fiery darts of the enemy. Keep me secure as I move forward from this spot to the next place you have for me. Remove the doubts that want to creep in and keep me from trusting what I can’t see. Increase my faith and ability to trust in you. Give me peace in knowing that the road I’m on is the road you have for me. Help me not to look back or down. Help me to keep my eyes fixed on you and my thoughts on things that are above. I trust you with my life, my present and my future. I’ll take this life one day at a time and my faith one step at a time.

Thank you for being my peace today.
In Jesus’ name I pray,
Amen.

I’m considering writing one prayer a week, like this one, that you can pray. Please comment and let me know whether or not you like this change. I constantly want to make this site better in order to help you grow your faith. I’m also open to other suggestions you may have. Thank you in advance for your feedback.

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March 6, 2014 · 7:55 AM

Plow Of Preparation

When I think of living by faith, I always think of Abraham first. The next person I think of is Elisha. Like Abraham, he was minding his own business doing his own thing when the call came to uproot and move. Elisha was plowing a field when Elijah walked up, threw his cloak over him and walked away. I’m not sure what my reaction would be if someone walked into my place of work and did that, but Elisha’s reaction was to run after Elijah. He didn’t ask what it meant or why he did it. Instead he said, “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye – then I’ll follow you.”

I believe that God had already spoken to Elisha even though the Bible doesn’t say it. We know God gave Elijah the instructions to find Elisha and to do what he did, but it doesn’t give us any insight to Elisha before this moment. I believe he was a praying man. I believe that as he plowed fields with those oxen, he spent time praying and asking God to use him in mighty ways. Day after day, he plowed waiting for God to tap him on the shoulder and put him into action. I wonder if he had days where he doubted that God would ever move him from plowing fields to doing ministry.

So many who read this are like Elisha. We’re plowing fields day in and day out. We’re waiting on God to come get us and put us into full time ministry. We’re waiting on God to give us the green light. But as we put our hands to the plow each day, it’s easy to begin to wonder if God has forgotten us or if we ever heard Him in the first place. We look at the calendar and wonder, “How much longer, God?” We start thinking the “what if’s” and “how come’s”. Our faith can weaken in the times that it’s intended to grow stronger.

If we aren’t doing the things it takes to grow our faith while we are plowing, how will we ever do it when we aren’t? God uses the times of preparation to grow our faith, to increase our prayer life and to build our trust in Him. He expects us to be people of prayer while we plow. He expects us to plant seeds in people who are already doing ministry. He expects us to be ministering to people around us before he instructs us to minister to the masses. We have to prove to Him that we can be faithful in the little things while we are plowing before He can trust us with more.

If you are plowing today and are waiting for the cloak to be thrown over you, don’t lose heart. This time of plowing and preparation is essential to your growth and necessary for you to be able to perform later. God has not left you in a field and forgotten you. Be a person of prayer while you are plowing. Build up your faith now that when you have to really walk by faith, you have a sufficient amount. Keep your eyes open and be ready for God’s tap to put you in. Be ready to walk away from the plow and to step into that life of faith at any moment. Until then, keep plowing.

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February 7, 2014 · 8:07 AM

Clear The Mechanism

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It’s Free Friday! Today is the day you let go of the things in your life that keep you down or hold you back. To celebrate, I’m giving away a copy of “Be Still and Know that I am God Promise Journal”. Keep reading to find out how to enter.

When you think of Kevin Costner and baseball, you probably think of “Field of Dreams”. You probably don’t think of “For Love of the Game”. I think it’s one of his most underrated movies. In it he plays an aging pitcher who is being forced to decide if he should retire or be traded. He’s pitching at an opponents stadium and the crowd is loud. They’re trying to disrupt his concentration while he’s pitching. Before each pitch he says, “Clear the mechanism,” and he shuts out the crowd noise so he can concentrate.

I always thought that was cool and I wanted to be able to do it. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that the ability to do that is necessary when spending time with God. My mind is always working, thinking or solving. It rarely gets a rest. I have sleep apnea and when I don’t have my CPAP or mouth guard, my mind thinks all night long. When I try to get still and spend time reading the Bible or praying, my mind kicks into gear and thinks about everything but spiritual things. It’s aggravating.

I want to concentrate on God and what He’s saying, but the very moment that I get quiet, something pops in. Sometimes it’s a song. Sometimes it’s the to do list for my day. Sometimes it’s about how I’m going to resolve an issue. Five, ten or more minutes go by and I realize that I haven’t been praying or reading. I get back at it and it’s not long before I’m off on a rabbit trail. I know I’m not the only one who deals with this. I think we all do in some way. I’ve learned and trained myself to clear the mechanism in my own way. It’s not 100% effective, but it works most of the time.

When a thought pops in during my quiet time, I’ve learned to do one of two things. The first thing I do is challenge the thought. When it threatens to distract me, I challenge it and push it back out. If I can’t push it out, I write it down or save it in my phone for after. That way, I can control the thought by setting myself free that I’ll address it when I’m done. I’m then free to concentrate on what matters. I’m open to hear from God and study His Word in depth. I’ve found that when I clear the mechanism, I’m free to receive. My quiet time has become growth time.

What are some things you do to clear the mechanism in your quiet time? I’m always looking to grow and when we each share what we do, we help others who haven’t found a way to clear theirs.

If you would like to win the “Be Still and Know that I am God Promise Journal”, all you have to do is go to my Facebook page here and “like” it. I will randomly pick one person tomorrow (February 8, 2014) who has liked my page. If you have already liked my page and enjoy reading these daily devotionals, please invite your friends to like my page so they can receive encouragement from God’s Word too.

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January 29, 2014 · 7:40 AM

Open The Hood Of Prayer

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Prayer to me is like a car engine. I don’t know everything about it, but I know it works. Sure I can point out some parts under the hood and tell you what they do, but I don’t understand fully how they work. I’ve replaced a couple of parts that were easy to do, but for the harder stuff, I go to someone who understands it more fully. They are able to replace anything under the hood and make it run as intended. I take it to them because they know and understand every part of an engine. They also know how to tweak it to get the most out of it.

Every one of us can pray. Every one of us can make it work. We may not understand how it works or what to do to get the most out of it, but we can push the gas and make it go. I’ve read where people have broken down “The Lord’s Prayer” and taught me how to pray. I’ve been given methods like “ACTS” (Adoration, Confession, Thankfulness, Supplication) to give structure to my prayers. I’ve been shown how to pray intensely so that my prayers have more power. There are so many things we can learn about prayer, but most of us leave the hood closed.

We’d rather just ask God for what we need rather than to intimately know God through our prayers. It can be scary getting to know an omnipotent God who wants to meet and converse daily. What if He asks me to go to some crazy part of the world that I won’t like? What if He tells me things I don’t want to hear? We let our fear of the unknown make our prayers a one way communication. We keep our effectiveness to a minimum and have to rely on others who understand it more fully to pray for us in our needs.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t go to others for help when praying for something. I believe in the power of multiple people praying and I know that there are others who have more effective prayers than I do. I seek them when I need it. What I’m saying is that each one of us have the ability to have effective prayers that God will not only hear, but answer. We have the ability to open the hood, tweak the things that need tweaking and make our prayers as effective as possible.

It’s going to require you to get a little dirty though. You’re going to have to do some work. You’re going to have to spend some time under the hood tinkering. Powerful, effective prayers come out of spending time with the one we’re talking to. They come from intimately knowing the One to whom we pray. They come from understanding what His will is and what His Word says. The more we know what His Word says, the more we pray in accordance with it. The more we pray in accordance with it, the more He answers. The more He answers, the more faith and confident we get. The more faith and confident we get, the more effective our prayers become.

Don’t be afraid to look under the hood of prayer. Learn what you can. Take time tweaking this and that to make it comfortable for you. Understand there are different types and ways to pray. Your prayers get an audience with the One who created everything you see. It’s worth investing time and energy to make them as effective as possible. Hang around others who get their prayers answered. Learn from them how to pray. Each one of us have room for growth in our prayers. To get better, we just have to open the hood.

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January 22, 2014 · 7:54 AM

Tips For Rebuilding

Rebuilding is hard work even when you have help. As Nehemiah worked to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, there were many who opposed him. People came along and taunted him, “If a fox climbed that wall, it would fall to pieces under his weight.” Others planned to attack them as they built. They didn’t want the wall rebuilt and the people living in safety. There were internal distractions from arguments among the workers too. It seemed that everything and everyone was against the rebuilding of the wall, but Nehemiah kept at it. He prayed and encouraged those daily who we’re rebuilding. He kept their focus on the job at hand.

Each one of us have times of rebuilding in our lives. Sometimes that rebuilding is more like a remodel. Sometimes it’s repairing holes in our wall that were created from bad decisions. Other times the whole wall around our lives lies in ruins. Everything we had or worked hard to build crumbled and fell right in front of us. It makes you feel lost, unprotected and vulnerable. There’s so much work to do to rebuild that you don’t know where to start. You want to just give up and live in the ruins. You try to rebuild one part of your life and another falls down. It’s hopeless.

I think that’s how he people of Jerusalem were in the book of Nehemiah. They had gotten used to living in the ruble and had quit trying to rebuild. Their lives were sad. They had no joy or sense of protection. They had to rely on others to protect them and were treated poorly. It wasn’t until Nehemiah came along and got them excited about rebuilding that they began to change back into who they were made to be. He encouraged them daily, prayed over them and helped them rebuild the walls. He helped them protect themselves against attacks and rebuilt their confidence with the building of the wall.

Yes, there were distractions, times where the work slowed down and people who tried to hold them back. There will be the same things in your life when you try to repair or rebuild your life. There will be people who try to hold you down, pull you backwards or taunt you. Nehemiah didn’t get down off the wall or stop working though. Instead, he set up people at the breaches in the wall to stand guard. He had the workers rebuild with one hand and hold a sword in their other.

You will need to ask people to stand in the gaps for you where you’re most vulnerable. You’ll need to stay in the Bible constantly as it is your weapon. Ephesians 6 says, “Take the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” The Message calls it an “indispensable weapon”. There will be those who oppose you. Stay constant in prayer so that you hear God’s voice above theirs. Above all, never give up. Keep working. Keep building. Don’t get used to living in the ruins. God’s desire is that you rebuild. Find someone who will encourage you daily to keep building and who will pray for you. Before you know it, the walls will be repaired and new life can begin.

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January 1, 2014 · 7:45 AM

2014 New Year Prayer

Today, I offer a prayer for you to pray to bring in the new year.

Jesus,

Thank you for 2013 and all the things that you showed me through it. Thank you for the victories and answers to prayers that you gave. Help me to continue to learn from the defeats I faced and the changes that you made in my life. I may never fully understand why things happened this year that weren’t part of my plan, but were a part of yours. Even when I don’t understand, help me to trust you still. Bring healing to the pain I’ve endured and turn my mourning into joy. My life is in your hands and everything I have is yours.

In 2014, I ask that you guide me in everything I do. Help me to walk in your paths and to find the doors that you’ve opened for me. Give me the courage to walk through them even when I can’t see what’s on the other side. You’ve called me to live by faith and that means that I won’t always know what the next step is. I just have to trust you and your timing. I ask that in my weakness you will be my strength. In my blindness, you will be my sight. In my shortcomings, you will be my grace.

Teach me to show your love more proactively than I ever have in this new year. Help me to not respond in hate to the things the world throws at me that I don’t like. I want to be your light in this dark place. I want to build bridges that the lost can walk across rather than to dig ditches that keep them away. Help me to react out of love instead of hate or fear. Teach me to reach out to the lost the way you did. I want to honor you with my life this year more than in any other year of my life so far.

Open my eyes to see those whom you called “the least of these”. Let me be your hands and feet in their lives. Give me the strength to share your love through my actions whenever you bring them into my path. Provide the funds that it will take to travel to other parts of the world so I can share your love with those whom the world has abandoned. Give me a heart that loves the unlovable, hands that do your will, a heart that beats in tune with yours, feet that will carry the Gospel, eyes to see others the way you do and a mouth that speaks your words.

I commit 2014 to you. May this year bring new beginnings where previous years have looked like dead ends. Speak life into the dead areas of my life. Bring people into my life that will help me accomplish all that you want me to. Place me in people’s lives that need my help to accomplish the plans you have for them. Expand my territory so that I can influence more for your kingdom. Open up the windows of Heaven and pour out blessings in my life so I can be a blessing in the lives of others. Use me in whatever capacity you see fit so that your name is glorified.

Thank you for all you will do this year. In your name I pray. Amen.

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November 19, 2013 · 7:40 AM

Where’s Your Roof?

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One of my favorite things to do in Haiti is to get up before everyone else and meet with God on the roof of the guest house. There’s nothing quite like sitting up there watching the sun rise light up the mountain and spending time alone with God. As the tap taps and moto taxis go honking by with music blaring, there’s a quietness that can be found up there where I can block all of that out and just relax in the presence of God as I enjoy His creation and spend time in His Word. Most people on the team will also find their “roof” somewhere in the house where they can meet God. I love walking around the house seeing Bibles opened, coffee in one hand and a journal in the other.

With expectant hearts and open ears, we wait to hear from God. We hang on His every word to write it down and to share with others. We fill our spiritual tank each morning because we’re about to go give it all out throughout the day. After breakfast we have a team devotion where one person shares what God is showing them. I love to see how excited people get when all of a sudden God’s Word becomes alive to them. Scriptures they had read several times before start making sense to them. Words they had never seen or glazed over become real and applicable. We receive so much while we’re there because we expect so much.

My question is, “How do we duplicate that once we get back?” The first thing I tell those who as is to find their balcony or roof back home. In Matthew 6, Jesus told us to go into our closet when we pray. I don’t think He literally meant to go in there. He was telling us to go so we here private where we can be alone with God. He wanted us to find a place where we can just sit in His presence and expect to hear from Him. He wanted us to find a place in our every day lives where we could have our Bible open, coffee in hand, a journal in front of us and to be excited to be in His presence.

I believe God wants to have daily encounters with each of us. He doesn’t want to just do it when we’re on a mission trip. He wants to meet us in our every day life. If it means we get up an hour before the kids do or stay up an hour after they go to bed, that’s the sacrifice He’s looking for. We somehow expect reward without sacrifice when it comes to our relationship with Him. We expect Him to do everything in the relationship while we receive all the benefits. Your relationship with God is just like any other. It requires time, effort and sacrifice. If you want a healthy relationship with God, find your “roof” somewhere around your house and make time to be alone with Him. You’ll find that excitement you’ve been missing and you’ll hear from Him each day. Your spiritual tank will be full and you’ll be able to give out God’s love all day without worry.

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October 7, 2013 · 7:36 AM

Your Piece of The Puzzle

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I prayed something this morning that I’ve never prayed before. I prayed for someone I don’t know to do what only they can do. I’m a big believer that others are waiting on the other side of your obedience. When God asks you to do something, no matter how small, large, crazy, odd or illogical, it’s not necessarily just for you. It’s to line things up for someone else to be able to do what God has asked them to do. So this morning, I not only prayed for courage to step out in faith to do my part in obedience to help someone else, I prayed for the person I’m waiting on.

When we’re in that moment of waiting on God to move to show us a sign of what’s next, it’s dependent on someone else’s obedience. We keep asking God to show us or to move on our behalf, but today, I decided to pray for the person who needs to do their part so that my part will line up. When my part lines up and I step out in faith, it will release the next person who is waiting on me. Our steps of faith are never just for our own benefit.

I work on secret projects at work all the time. Because it’s a highly competitive industry, I don’t get all the information. I get just enough to do my part. I’m not allowed to reach out and ask others if they’re working on the same project or what their part is. The people higher up know what each piece of the puzzle looks like and assigns different people to work on different pieces. Once each of us completes our work and submits it, the higher ups put it all together and then I can see how it all fits together and makes sense.

Stepping out in faith and obedience is just like that. Each of us have a piece to a puzzle that is much larger than ourselves. Our responsibility isn’t to complete someone else’s part. It’s to do what God asked us to do. It doesn’t matter how small you may feel your piece is. In a puzzle, every piece is important. In faith, each of our parts is important. It doesn’t matter if you have a corner piece or a center piece, what you do in faith today matters to the whole of what God is doing.

If you aren’t happy with how small you feel your piece is, remember Matthew 25:23. Jesus used a parable to teach us that if we were faithful in the small things, He would make us ruler over many. When you show God you’re willing and able to do the things that seem small in your eyes, He will know He can trust you with the things that seem larger in your eyes. Our faithfulness activates God’s trust in us and allows Him to give us more than we have now.

What has God asked you to do in faith, but you’ve been holding out on doing because it seems menial? What have you been asking God to do in your life that you haven’t seen any movement on? Pray for those who need to do their part in faith that will put you in position to receive from God what you’ve been waiting for. Do what you’ve been asked of God to do so that those who are waiting on your piece can do what God asked of them. Your piece, no matter how small, is important to God’s plan as a whole.

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September 10, 2013 · 8:17 AM

A More Powerful Spiritual Life

If spending quality time with God is the way to having a quality spiritual life, then fasting is the way to having a more powerful spiritual life. Giving up our time shows God we are making Him a priority. Giving up food shows Him that we are willing to sacrifice our physical comfort for spiritual gain. Fasting is a spiritual discipline that I’m afraid too few Christians engage in. Either we don’t see the purpose or we don’t see the value, so we don’t do it. When we skip fasting as a spiritual discipline, we miss out on strength needed to overcome certain things in our lives.

In Mark 9, there is a story of a man who asked Jesus to heal his son who was possessed by an evil spirit. In verse 18 he said, “I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn’t do it.” They had spent quality time with Jesus, but hadn’t been fasting and praying so they lacked the power to heal him. Jesus told them in verse 29, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer and fasting.” He inferred that there is more power in fasting.

When you are in need of more power to overcome a temptation, to find the right direction or to get through a situation, I encourage you to fast and to pray. Your fast should be between you and God. Don’t make an outward show of it or tell people you are doing it so they will feel sorry for you. Jesus said that if you did that, you have your reward. I’d rather have the power of God than the approval of man. It’s our choice when we fast.

In Matthew 6:16, Jesus said, “When (not if) you fast, don’t make it obvious.” He knew that our human nature likes to receive sympathy from others. We like to play to the crowd and to get others to feel sorry for us. Fasting is not about that at all. It’s about showing God you have brought your body under discipline and are denying it what it needs in order to gain what your spirit needs. It shows Him we are willing to feed our spirit instead of our stomach.

The Bible talks of many different types of fasts and lengths of fasts. How long, what you fast and why you fast are between you and God. I always feel like the more challenging the fast, the greater reward. If my fast costs me nothing, that about what I’ll get in return. The greater the need in my life, the greater the fast I do. Some are mentally challenging, but all are physically challenging. I usually seek God on what He wants me to fast and for how long. Once decided, I pray for the need every time I have a desire for what I’m fasting. I’ve learned that giving up what I want for what He wants changes me for the better every time.

What are different fasts that have challenged you physically, mentally and spiritually? How often do you think that Christians should fast? Should it be just when we need something from God or should it be something we do on a regular basis? I’m curious to hear how God has called you to fast and what He’s done through your fasting.

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August 8, 2013 · 7:45 AM

An 80/20 Prayer

One of the things I talk to sales reps about is the 80/20 rule. I try to teach them to let the customer talk 80% of the time and they should only be talking 20% of the time. If they’re talking 80% and the customer 20%, they won’t have enough information to make a good recommendation. The interaction should be about the customer not them. I think the same rule should apply to prayer.

What if in our prayer time we let God speak 80% of the time and we only spoke 20%? How would our lives change? How would our faith change? We have a greater need to hear what God says then He has of what we have to say. He knows what we are going to say before we even speak. He knows the intent of our hearts. He already knows us inside and out. It’s us who have a need to know Him.

I’m not writing this as someone who has accomplished this consistently with God. I’m writing this as someone who has a greater need to know God more. I use words to fill up my time with God more than listening. When I do listen, He speaks. He’s always speaking to us, but we rarely listen to what He’s saying because we’re too busy talking during the time we give Him each day.

I love how the Message writes the conversation between Jesus and His disciples concerning prayer in Matthew 6. Jesus said in verse 6, “Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense His grace.” The reason for prayer is to shift the focus from you to God.

Imagine how your life would be different if you shifted the focus from your problems, schedule, bills, hurts, hopes and dreams to God. Mark Batterson tweeted yesterday, “Talking to God about your problems is fine and good, but FAITH is talking to your problems about God.” We fill up our time with God talking about our problems instead of getting to know Him. We tell Him our needs, but never ask what His needs are. We ask for His help, but rarely offer our help.

Most of us would never want to be in a relationship as one sided as that. So why do we think that God wants to? I believe He wants to engage in conversation with each one of us. He wants us to get to know Him on a deeper level than we ever imagined possible. First of all, it takes finding that quiet, secluded place every day. The next step Jesus said was to just be there simply and honestly. He didn’t say to fill the silence with words. Just be there in that moment with God and listen. Open yourself up to what He has to say to you. That’s when you’ll begin to sense His grace and know Him more.

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