The Power of Prayer

My one and only New year's Resolution is this: To Pray More!~ I do pray every day and several times a day at that. My Morning Prayer is the longest and most committed. By committed I really take the time to get into thanks and gratitude, as well as offering up my prayer list for loved ones. But, the prayers throughout the rest of the day and even bedtime are just simple conversations with my creator. Now, that is a good thing and it has certainly served me well the last few years. I've had some major prayers answered just by being faithful in turning things over to Him.

But, I know I can do better than that and I plan to pray more. Not, that I intend to become some fanatic living in a bubble of prayer and excluding the world around me. Not at all. I just know now that he answers prayers. So, I intend to use the Power of Prayer even more, to strengthen. sustain, develop, and encourage myself and my loved ones. I need to grow in my own faith walk, and I have loved ones who do too.

I've studied on Prayer using the concordance in my Bible.

I Thessalonians 5:17 "Pray without ceasing."

is good advice and I've made an attempt at that over the course of the last couple of years.

Acts chapter 6:4 "But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word."

I am not in the ministry but when I consider what happened in the lives of the Apostles, and the people they preached to I am encouraged to pray more.

Not many people consider this chapter. St. John 17. The entire chapter is a prayer Jesus prayed during his final hours. He prayed for glory, for the strength and sanctification of the disciples and he prayed for us, his church. In verses 22-26, some of my favorites, Jesus prays,

St. John 17:22

22."And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them: that they may be one, even as we are one:

23. "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me."

24. "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world."

25. "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me."

26. "And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

Only after reading and thinking on these verses and pondering the verses did I see so many powerful words. So much information too. These few verses are packed with information about My God, his love, and his dwelling place, not to mention his plan from the beginning (foundation). Amazing. So, knowing how Jesus prayed, and knowing that having found glory in this life, I will strive to pray more and find more glory and watch for prayers to be answered.

Jesus prayed this prayer right BEFORE he went into the Garden of Gesthemane, where he then prayed for hours. I am so thankful this prayer is in my Bible. I take such comfort and encouragement from his very words. It means so much that in his final hours before his agony in the garden, and his sacrifice on the cross, he left this immortal prayer for me. I am so blessed and so are other followers who read and take his comforting words to heart. Ihad to study and reread the verses over and over to see his intent. I think the darkness that tries to invade my mind, sometimes clouds my perception in gleaning everything there is for me in scripture. So, again, I need to pray and pray and pray.


footnote:
If anyone reads this they may be wondering about the comment "having found glory in this life", I will wait for another time and post to elaborate on that one.

Brain dead!~

I am slightly brain dead today. I fasted yesterday and things went wild. Granddaughter got sick at school, so I went and got her and brought her home. Later in the afternoon, Dr. said it is a virus. So, she is here today and sleeping now. At noon yesterday BoBo and mama had car trouble so I hauled them around doing a few errands. It will be such a blessing in a few weeks when she gets a better car. Some days like yesterday, It is so hard to find "me" time. It was a bit difficult for prayer time aside from the running in circles all day. I ended my fast at dinner time as I was starting to feel weak and worried about a crash. (Crash is diabetic lingo for a bottom in low blood sugar.)

Hubby worked on pulling the trany from the Z71after he got home last night. The trany went out Monday night. We've had vehicle problems for the past two months. I just pray my way through. If the trany had to go out, at least it wasn't in the hard freeze or during the horrible winter storm a couple weeks ago. It helps to find the good in every situation. The weather is good right now, so hopefully he can get a rebuilt or whatever replaced right away.

The scripture that seemed to lift me up this morning was:

Psalm 27:14 "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart, wait, I say on the Lord."

I also take comfort in the verse from

Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Life can be so demanding, and circumstances beyond our control can sure hit hard, leaving us reeling sometimes. I ran in circles yesterday and aside from the struggle to keep up with everyone, I was wanting to be in prayer for my fast. I know that we are to go about our business as usual while fasting. But, a couple of my reasons for fasting are the kind that really need prayer and fasting. Lots of prayer. I have two loved ones who are going through so much emotional torture, I know they are under severe attack, similar to the story of Job. I can see the evil influences in their lives and I know how difficult it is for a young person. It is hard for older and stable adults to suffer a bombardment of emotional stress, but, young people don't always have the emotional tools needed to cope with these things.

I pray for their strength and mine as well. I need to be strong and that has been a true gift and blessing from my God. Since my open heart surgery I am sometimes weak and weary. With his strength flowing through me I am able to maintain and walk with them through some of the battles.

I started a new book a couple of days ago. I will get back to it later today and get a bit of physical rest. It is an older publication titled On Wings of Eagles by Ken Follett. I will try and post my thoughts on it soon. It is a true story and Follett is a great writer, so that should make for a great book. I am fortunate to be such a fast reader. I can blaze through a book in no time when I am hooked on the storyline.

I intend to post some of my older writings such as Poetry and whatnot here. So, be aware as some of my postings will be older things I am adding for the storage here on my blog.

Fasting and Prayer...

Fasting and prayer is not an easy undertaking in weather like we are having now. But, Pastor Bowman asked us to fast and pray one day this week. I am diabetic so I do a Daniel fast; no meat, no sweets and no bread. (I am fine, and I have done this before.) I am doing mine today as the week is getting away from me.

But, the rest of the family still has to eat, so I read scripture, pray, and come here to express my thoughts and stay away from any snacks. I put on a pot of Pintos, made a pan of brownies and will cook chili later on. Yes! I am fine. It is sooo cold out, the idea of good food will make my family happy. My son Dale will be by later on for lunch, and to carry a few brownies and other stuff home to the kiddos. My daughter may come for lunch and my oldest grandson may pop in and he can snack. Hubby and granddaughter Ricci will enjoy the fruits of my labors later on in the day after school and work. I will eat later too. In the meantime if I need a snack I have my things ready.

I am praying for the healing of my daughter, my son and his wife, my grandchildren, greatgrandson, and my hubby, I am praying for my church family and their extended families too. Our church has been praying for a little girl named Shasta who has cancer, and I have been praying for her as well. I also pray for Revival Fire.

It is almost lunchtime and I am hungry. Only natural, right? So I read some scripture and it helps me.

Numbers 12:13 13. "And Moses cried unto the Lord saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee."

If the words were good enough for Moses they're good enough for me. When I pray and fast, and read, I feel the Spirit move through me and it strengthens me. Sometimes it brings me to tears when I think about the problems troubling the people I am praying for, so, I mean it when I say I beseech thee.