prayer

PODCAST: Lord, Help

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Here is our latest podcast, Thoughts for the Journey. If you ever need the Lord to help in your situation, you don’t want to miss this episode. It will encourage you!

Psalm 107:4-16, “Some wandered in the wilderness, lost and homeless.
5 Hungry and thirsty, they nearly died.
6 “Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble,
    and he rescued them from their distress.
7 He led them straight to safety,
    to a city where they could live.
8 Let them praise the Lord for his great love
    and for the wonderful things he has done for them.
9 For he satisfies the thirsty
    and fills the hungry with good things.
10 Some sat in darkness and deepest gloom,
    imprisoned in iron chains of misery.
11 They rebelled against the words of God,
    scorning the counsel of the Most High.
12 That is why he broke them with hard labor;
    they fell, and no one was there to help them.
13 “Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble,
    and he saved them from their distress.
14 He led them from the darkness and deepest gloom;
    he snapped their chains.
15 Let them praise the Lord for his great love
    and for the wonderful things he has done for them.
16 For he broke down their prison gates of bronze;
    he cut apart their bars of iron.”NLT

Pick up a copy of my new book, The Cloud of Witnesses. It is available on Amazon.

How to Have a Good Day

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I read this thought from Levi Lusko this morning and it resonated with my spirit. Everything is a choice. Including how we go through our everyday lives. It is all about how we decide to start our day.

LISTEN TO THESE WORDS FROM LEVI LUSKO:

It’s hard to have a bad day that starts well. Not impossible, but you make it harder for things to go sideways and your attitude to get sour if things begin on the right foot. If you start your months well, your weeks well, and your days well, you position yourself to receive from God all he has for you. A lot of people sit under open heavens with closed windows. So what does it look like to open them up? At the start of the month, give God your first fruits; at the start of the week, gather together with God’s people; and at the start of the day, get in God’s presence, and then come what may, you’ll have already had a great day!

The Psalmist said, “This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.” Start your day in God’s presence and learn to rejoice always, and again I say rejoice. This was the Apostle Paul’s secret to life. You cannot go wrong by beginning each day in prayer and Bible reading. It will shape your day, especially if you include thanksgiving and rejoicing. Now, have a great day!

Pick up a copy of my new book, The Cloud of Witnesses. It is available on Amazon.

Daily Disciplines

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What do you do every day?  What are your habits?

Forgive me for being so personal but, evaluate your day.  What are you doing with it? 

Many of us have routines in our lives that we do not even notice.  Often, they are routines that we could do without.  There are things we need to do that we don’t do and things that we don’t need to do that we do. 

I heard a statement recently that I cannot get out of my mind.  It has pierced me to the very core of my heart.  It said, “What you do daily determines what you will become permanently.”  So again, what do you do with your day?  I am challenged to look into my daily routines and see what my habits are.

Habits are okay for our lives as long as they are the good kinds of habits.  Life controlling substances are not good habits, but spiritual habits are good.  As believers we often find it hard to discipline ourselves in spiritual things.  We find it difficult to “MAKE” time to do the things necessary for us to be sharp spiritually.  It is a decision on the believers part to pray, to read the Word, to witness and serve the Lord.  These should be a daily habit of ours.

The Bible tells us to Redeem the Time and so we should but we must redeem the time for the things of God.  Paul even said that we should keep our minds on  things above.  The way to do these things is to discipline ourselves and form a habit of focusing on the Lord.

In the above statement it said we would become what we do daily.  If I want to have a relationship with God and be known by Him, I must pray daily.  If I want to KNOW Him, I should make habit of reading His Word daily.  The Word is Him.  The Word Is God.  If I want to have His heart, I should be a witness daily, for God’s heart is for the lost.

Often, we make a habit of things that have no eternal value and that is sometimes necessary on our jobs and so forth.  The fact is, however, that we should never forsake the most important habits that are found in the things of God.  Friends, you will become what your daily routine is.  If you do not like your daily routine change it.  Don’t dread the day!  Make God your habit and your hum-drum day will turn into a day of joy and peace.

Grab a copy of my latest book, Worry Less. WORRY FREE.

A Prayer Idea

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Here is something we can all try.  In E.M. Bounds book The Complete Book of Prayer, he quotes a gentleman that has a great “tactic” of prayer.  I think it would do our community and world good if we employed something similar.

Sir Thomas Browne wrote, “I purpose to take occasion of praying upon the sight of any church which I may pass, that God may be worshipped there in spirit, and that souls may be saved there; to pray daily for my sick patients and the patients of other physicians; at my entrance into any home to say, “May the peace of God dwell here;” after hearing a sermon, to pray for a blessing on God’s truth…upon the sight of a deformed person, to pray God to give them wholeness of soul, and by an by to give them the beauty of the resurrection.”

We should put these things into practice.  It reminds me of what the Apostle Paul said, “Pray without ceasing”.

Simple Prayer

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In my devotional reading, I stumbled upon a great verse in Psalms.  It is a simple prayer that David prayed in the midst of his declaration.  Psalm 68 is a psalm of praise to God.  It declares God’s provision of deliverance and victory.  It is an offering of worship for an all-powerful God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or even imagine. 

As David recounts God’s power and justice, he prays, “Summon your might, O God. Display your power, O God, as you have in the past..”  (Psalm 68:28 NLT)

I like that wording, “summons your might”.  A summons is a calling by an authority to show something.  The Psalmist prays, “God You have the authority to summons, show us your power.”  As I read that portion of Psalm 68 I couldn’t help but think about how powerful a simple prayer can be.  “Summons your power, the power by which you have worked for us.”  David was praying, “Lord, show us your power, the power, you have worked so many times before.”

This ought to be the cry of our heart.  A cry for God to reveal Himself in the power of the early church.  The power that is revealed in the words of the Holy Scriptures.  My prayer is as David’s, “O God, we need your power.  You have worked it before, work it again.”

Grab a copy of my latest book, Worry Less. WORRY FREE.