Let me ask you something personal, please. Would you want your loved ones, your dear friends, or even your children or love mate to speak to you only when they had a serious situation or emergency? What if they only acted like you were around when they needed help? Would you really want that? Well, neither does God.
As I slowly renew my awareness of Christ in my life, I find myself seeing how little I pay attention to God. It is growing, this attention, but it is still so little. What I want is to feel the crucifiction that took place in my soul when I received Jesus in my life just 34 months ago. I want to increase my prayer power and put it into action more. I need to pray like Nehemiah did, "Remember me, O my god, for good!"
Authentic prayer is actually just me or you welcoming God into our thoughts. Sharing myself with Him many times a day is strengthening my commitment and confidence in Him, and Jesus in me. I need to walk more with God, trusting Him more in my daily actions. I need to put what I have and am learning from His Word into action. I can't say this enough.
I know that my prayers are a reflection of what God is doing in my life. And just what do I want to receive from Him? What do YOU want to receive from Him? This I need, this you need to meditate on. Now I am doing everything I can to listen and react to my Almighty God's prompting of me, on how and when to pray. Pray - act - pray - act - pray - act. This is what I need to do. One follows the other. The items that I confess to God as sins should be those things I am trying, through Jesus Christ, to stop doing.
My prayers, your prayers, surely fall short of God's ears, I am sure, if we knowingly continue a particular sin that we have repented. Does this make sense to you? What I am getting at is, could you keep forgiving your child or mate of a wrongdoing if he or she blatantly repeated the wrongdoing right before your eyes again and again and again? God's justice prevails WITH His mercy. He is with Grace but also He is total Righteousness and expects us to walk the walk that we are talking. Ask yourself just what IS your motive for asking God's forgiveness. I have to remind myself VERY often that my prayer goal in not to satisfy God but, rather, to glorify Him. What I mean is, shouldn't we be remembering that God knows of our frailty and that we make mistakes, and that He is watching to see how we are changing through our glorification of Him. Isn't really our avoidance of repeated sins our truest prayer to Him? Yes, He will answer us when we align our prayers to His Will. Period.
But, please, let us remember this, also; as in life itself, our spiritual zeal and related endeavors can often have ups and downs, like our various moods. We all, new and even seasoned Believers alike, need to pace ourselves for "the long haul", of our Christian experience. We cannot, with our Lord Almighty's help, drop our guard after our initial or renewed task of accepting Jesus in our lives. His Word is our life's path. We must constantly look to see what God has entrusted us to have, to do and to take care of in our walk in Him. Strive so very hard, my fellow Believer, to develop godly habits. Yes, habits that can't be broken down and habits that build others up in their love and life for the Lord. That is how Christians of Jesus' Walk live and pray.
What I have been trying to say in all this is that our individual walks with The Cross are our lifestyles which are totally about attitude, attitude, attitude. I read once that for a person to truly understand art, that person must have art within them. They need to be an artist to truly appreciate another's art form. Those who only profess to know Christ but live only for self will know something of the cross but will not, can not see its real meaning. Sacrifice, little by little, those "things" in your life that you THINK you really, really just HAVE TO HAVE. Quit being so selfish and self-centered THROUGH acts of generosity and kindness. It will grow on you.
In Christ's Name, I pray that the Cross will become my nature, YOUR nature, the more we gaze upon it. Please dwell in me, and in all who strive to know You, O'God, and show me, show us Jesus' Way Home. Thank You, Father.
As I slowly renew my awareness of Christ in my life, I find myself seeing how little I pay attention to God. It is growing, this attention, but it is still so little. What I want is to feel the crucifiction that took place in my soul when I received Jesus in my life just 34 months ago. I want to increase my prayer power and put it into action more. I need to pray like Nehemiah did, "Remember me, O my god, for good!"
Authentic prayer is actually just me or you welcoming God into our thoughts. Sharing myself with Him many times a day is strengthening my commitment and confidence in Him, and Jesus in me. I need to walk more with God, trusting Him more in my daily actions. I need to put what I have and am learning from His Word into action. I can't say this enough.
I know that my prayers are a reflection of what God is doing in my life. And just what do I want to receive from Him? What do YOU want to receive from Him? This I need, this you need to meditate on. Now I am doing everything I can to listen and react to my Almighty God's prompting of me, on how and when to pray. Pray - act - pray - act - pray - act. This is what I need to do. One follows the other. The items that I confess to God as sins should be those things I am trying, through Jesus Christ, to stop doing.
My prayers, your prayers, surely fall short of God's ears, I am sure, if we knowingly continue a particular sin that we have repented. Does this make sense to you? What I am getting at is, could you keep forgiving your child or mate of a wrongdoing if he or she blatantly repeated the wrongdoing right before your eyes again and again and again? God's justice prevails WITH His mercy. He is with Grace but also He is total Righteousness and expects us to walk the walk that we are talking. Ask yourself just what IS your motive for asking God's forgiveness. I have to remind myself VERY often that my prayer goal in not to satisfy God but, rather, to glorify Him. What I mean is, shouldn't we be remembering that God knows of our frailty and that we make mistakes, and that He is watching to see how we are changing through our glorification of Him. Isn't really our avoidance of repeated sins our truest prayer to Him? Yes, He will answer us when we align our prayers to His Will. Period.
But, please, let us remember this, also; as in life itself, our spiritual zeal and related endeavors can often have ups and downs, like our various moods. We all, new and even seasoned Believers alike, need to pace ourselves for "the long haul", of our Christian experience. We cannot, with our Lord Almighty's help, drop our guard after our initial or renewed task of accepting Jesus in our lives. His Word is our life's path. We must constantly look to see what God has entrusted us to have, to do and to take care of in our walk in Him. Strive so very hard, my fellow Believer, to develop godly habits. Yes, habits that can't be broken down and habits that build others up in their love and life for the Lord. That is how Christians of Jesus' Walk live and pray.
What I have been trying to say in all this is that our individual walks with The Cross are our lifestyles which are totally about attitude, attitude, attitude. I read once that for a person to truly understand art, that person must have art within them. They need to be an artist to truly appreciate another's art form. Those who only profess to know Christ but live only for self will know something of the cross but will not, can not see its real meaning. Sacrifice, little by little, those "things" in your life that you THINK you really, really just HAVE TO HAVE. Quit being so selfish and self-centered THROUGH acts of generosity and kindness. It will grow on you.
In Christ's Name, I pray that the Cross will become my nature, YOUR nature, the more we gaze upon it. Please dwell in me, and in all who strive to know You, O'God, and show me, show us Jesus' Way Home. Thank You, Father.
