Psalms 61
1 Hear my cry, O God; Give heed to my prayer. 2 From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. 3 For You have been a refuge for me, A tower of strength against the enemy. 4 Let me dwell in Your tent forever; Let me take refuge in the shelter of Your wings. Selah. 5 For You have heard my vows, O God; You have given me the inheritance of those who fear Your name. 6 You will prolong the king’s life; His years will be as many generations. 7 He will abide before God forever; Appoint lovingkindness and truth that they may preserve him. 8 So I will sing praise to Your name forever, That I may pay my vows day by day. We find peace, and strength, and courage when we are in the presence of God. Our relationship with God should not be during one time of the day and then we "move on" into the rest of our life. Smith Wigglesworth is quoted as saying, “I don’t often spend more than half an hour in prayer at one time, but I never go more than half an hour without praying.” The psalmist says "Evening and morning and noon I cry out to You (Psalm 55.)" Our devotional life with God has to be one of constant contact; meditating on His word, living by His word alone, walking by the Spirit...that "Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus" Col 3:17. The Christian walk is not one of restriction, unless the activity is inherently sinful, instead it is one of freedom where everything we do should declare the name of Jesus; we do this by meditating on His word and walking in the Spirit. Spend time with God today, not just in your "quiet time" but in every situation and every decision, keep that connection alive. A Psalm of Praise150 Praise the Lord!
Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty expanse. 2 Praise Him for His mighty deeds; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. 3 Praise Him with trumpet sound; Praise Him with harp and lyre. 4 Praise Him with timbrel and dancing; Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe. 5 Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with resounding cymbals. 6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord! In Christian circles the term worship is almost always synonymous with music. We understand worship to be singing praise and giving glory to God through our instruments and our voices but this is simply not the case. Music is simply a medium in which we can extend worship to the Lord. We see this in the 150th Psalm, we praise Him "with" trumpet sound, "with" harp and lyre...it does not say we worship by playing music and singing. So what is worship? Please read this article by John Piper. The only way to truly know someone is to spend time with them. So our worship should be born out of our time with God. Our outward expression of worship to God reflects our inward desires and love for Him as we spend time in His presence. Within us, we have joy, love, admiration, and devotion to God, and worship allows us to pour out our hearts. Worship should not be an act to fit a mold, but a reaction to our relationship with God. 1. Intentionally spend time praising God for who He is. Look back to Psalm 150 for characteristics of God that are worthy of our praise. 2. Where do you find it more challenging; spending time building the inward relationship with God, or outwardly expressing your love in worship? I heard a teaching from Roy Brewer many years ago that impacted me greatly. He spoke on prayer and the powerful impact it can have on our relationship with God. And yet, it seems that many Believers struggle to spend quality time (notice not quantity) in prayer or abandon it all together. Prayer is not repetitious, it is not formulaic, it is not an incantation and voila we get what we asked for. No, prayer is powerful and effective and unique in Christianity where we can go into our room, close our door, and pray, intimately, to the Father. Below are five categories of prayer that we should incorporate into our everyday life. (Please don't make the below categories a repetitious formula ;)
Five Major Categories of Prayer: 1. Adoration - profound devotion, to worship 2. Thanksgiving - expressing gratitude and appreciation 3. Confession - a formal admission, usually of sin 4. Petition - present a formal request to an authority for a particular case 5. Intercession - to mediate, intervene, to plead on ones behalf Read Matthew 6: 9-13 9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. 11 ‘Give us this day [e]our daily bread. 12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’] Questions to consider: 1. What connections do you see, if any, in the Lord's Prayer and the five categories listed above? 2. Sometimes our prayer life becomes a list of demands and God is our all powerful genie. How can different categories of prayer life change this bad habit? Take some time to read through the scripture and meditate on it. Move into a time of worship as Psalm 100 tells us to enter His gates with thanksgiving and to enter His courts with praise! Go through the different categories of prayer listed above and spend time with your Father in Heaven. "The point of prayer is to get to God. Answers are most meaningful when they are thought of least. Prayer is most meaningful when God is thought of most." Donald Demaray I want to challenge us to pray from the outside, in. What I mean is start with the church universal....pray for the Christians who are experiencing true persecution for their faith. The church in Afghanistan. The church in China. Those Christians who do not experience the freedom that many in the West have. After praying for the church move to your country, your government, your state, your local community, your local church, your family, and finally yourself. Pray scripturally. Pray thoroughly. Pray humbly. Most health care providers and agencies recommend an individual to exercise, a minimum, of 150 minutes per week. You can break this down to 30 minutes a day for 5 days a week, or any other way you would like, and the recommendation would normally boil down to get at least 30 minutes of exercise each day because this has shown to improve cardiovascular health and positively impact one’s health overall. I want to ask the same of you, take 30 minutes out of each day and exercise…not physically but spiritually. Each of us should strive to spend time in the Word, in Worship, and in Prayer on a daily basis.
Read Psalm 1: “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.” Psalms 1:1-6 NASB1995 Questions to consider: 1. What are the two paths in life that are shown by the author? 2. What is the result of “staying” in the word of God? I want to encourage all of us not to read the word of God passively but to ask questions and dig deep. Spend time meditating and thinking about the passage of scripture, read it multiple times if you need to. Spend time in prayer and worship with God today. Let us begin to feed ourselves in the presence of God. Scripture Reading: Isaiah 6:1-8 KJV In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. [2] Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. [3] And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. [4] And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. [5] Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. [6] Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: [7] And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. [8] Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. Questions to Consider:
Questions to Consider:
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