Feeding our Faith with Prayer

The difference between to pray and a prayer is that pray is a means of addressing God, but prayer is the two-way conversation that we have with Him.  In other words, to pray is a verb, but prayer is a noun, a sacred thing.

As Christians, we are called to pray and there are many reasons to do so, but sadly, we only seem to do it earnestly when in need.  Prayer should be our first response, not our emergency back-up when nothing else seems to work.

We should pray before the event, over the event and through the event, and not just after the event.  Although God knows our needs before we even have to ask them, He desires our interaction of being alone with Him. He wants us to commune with Him, to converse with Him, to vent with Him and to seek His presence earnestly and early.

There is something special and powerful when we make the choice and sacrifice to start our day early, alone and in a quiet place, to get into the presence of God in prayer. There is much rest, replenishment and wisdom to be found in this secret place, which sets up our attitude for the day correctly, to face whatever lays ahead.  

When we study Jesus’s example of prayer, we can clearly see the awesome benefits and miraculous results of time spent with His Father.  Unlike ourselves, it should not be a rushed quick request chat, but a lengthy, sometimes overnight time of seeking and listening.

Our prayers are a time of memorial and for remembrance – to remember the person and His faithfulness and to remind God of His promises towards us. It’s like a court case where we get to go before the Righteous Judge with our advocate Jesus and our counselor the Holy Spirit, and plead our case for His ruling, to make our requests and supplications known.

Many of us when faced with adversary, either isolate or talk to anyone who will listen, when instead our prayer time should be when we turn to God for His advice and opinion on the situation, and then wait to hear it, either for Him to speak to our hearts, or through His Word.  When we spend time in prayer, I like to imagine God lays His hands on us to bless us with the touch of His anointing, for there is nothing more powerful than having felt His touch after spending time in His presence.

When we develop a posture of prayer, either with our hands together, eyes closed, or on our knees or with our hands up in praise, it is like a tap that opens up to pour out the filling of the Holy Spirit into our lives, our minds and our hearts.

When we prayer regularly, constantly, consistently and persistently, it fuels our faith and grows our belief, so that every doubt, worry, fear or temptation is destroyed.  It is the power that gives us our Spiritual strength to face our stormy situations with a nevertheless, overcoming faith.

If you are facing a situation with no answers or a scary future, I challenge you today to get serious about prayer and see how God can transform the situation; if not the problem itself, then definitely ourselves to deal with it.  Our breakthrough will come when we stop asking God to remove the problem and start asking Him to help us to get through it.

Just like our muscles need exercise, and how we say Grace before we eat to bless the food to our bodies, we need to exercise our faith with prayer so that God can bless our day.

In conclusion, I leave you with this simple acrostic for prayer –

P = Praise God for who He is and for His faithfulness
R = Repent of your attitude, sin or lack of faith and unbelief, and ask for His forgiveness
A = Ask God for His help, for answers, for whatever you are needing
Y = Yield and submit to whatever is God’s will for your life and for your situation
E = Empty your mind of all your worries, concerns, doubts or what makes you confused
R = Rest in God’s presence and be replenished and restored

 

 

 

Knowing the End

As a foodie and huge fan of the ‘Master Chef’ TV series, I have enjoyed discovering new recipes for my husband and I to try. The recent series that we have enjoyed watching in South Africa however, was not aired in the correct chronological order, which meant we discovered who the winner was before the end of the series. This occurred when one of the current participants, a blind woman by the name of Christine Hà, was introduced in a previously aired series as the Master Chef winner. This came as a huge surprise to me, as if you had told me that a blind person would have won this cooking show, I would never have believed you for a second! But foresight and revelation are marvelous things…

Although some might find it a huge let-down to know the end of a story before it happens, much like reading a book, I found great comfort in it. I knew that even if she was voted off in one episode, that somewhere in a future episode, she would be given the opportunity to come back and win back a place, or how else would she have won...

This is a lot like having faith. So often we pray for things, without having that assurance that somewhere down the line, God will and does answer that prayer. Having this assurance gives us the inspiration to thank and praise Him for it before it happens, knowing that in His timing, what we pray for will surely come to pass. It may not always be to our recipe, but we know that it will be according to His will for our lives. You could say that the reward of faith is being able to see what you are believing for.

This revelation is particularly important when you are holding onto a dream. I particularly like the way the judges always ask the Master Chef contestants if they will be the winner. I believe that if you can see it in your mind’s eye and maintain a positive attitude to see your dream come true, it can surely happen. On the flip side, when you carry fear or doubt, it creates a negative effect in blocking God’s blessings of having your dream realised. I’m not sure if anyone else will agree with me, but I like to think that when we partner with God by having positive faith for something, He is then able to make it happen for us. Having said that, I do know that if we have been positive and our dreams don’t happen, we must still praise God and accept that He has a good reason for not allowing it, or has something even better planned for us.

So, as you consider your prayer needs for today, may I challenge you to change your perspective to see that what you are praying for has already been answered in the future. The Bible tells us in Philippians 4:6, that we are to come to God in pray and petition, with thanksgiving, when we present our requests to Him. Therefore, consider it already answered and rejoice in it, knowing that holding onto hope for something, is having an assurance in our faith of that we believe God can and will see it to pass.

Joy!

Every year around Christmas time, God blesses me with a new, special revelation! Last year it was the symbolism of the lights on our Christmas tree. The year before that was how our words and the people in our lives are gifts both to others and to ourselves. Well, this year I was relishing in the word JOY and what it really means, especially over the Christmas season.

My Pastor says that joy is a gift from God that can only truly be experienced when you know Him. Those that don't know God, are only capable of experiencing moments of happiness. 

So I've been reflecting on the difference between happiness and joy. The dictionary regards them the same, but the Bible verses I've read, seem to regard joy as a much deeper, inner kind of happiness, not based on our situation or experience.  Being happy is merely a surface emotion, but feeling joy is like a bubble that fizzes from the inner soul, our heart. 

 

In studying the various facets of joy, I've discovered the words en-JOY, JOY-ous and re-JOY-ce, which now holds a deeper meaning to me.

We can always choose to be happy, but joy is a fruit of the spirit that God blesses us with when we choose to follow Christ. The verse that says 'The Joy of the Lord is my strength', means that God's joy can sustain us during life's occasional bouts of despair and depression.  Our joy also needs to be based on our gift of salvation, for therein lies the very key for its activation in our lives. 

So as I will be seeking joy in my own life this year, I wish you too a joy-filled 2017! May all your memorable happy moments of pure bliss, burn a fire in your heart that warms you from the inside.  And as you experience those moments, be sure to spread your joy to others, like butter on warm toast...