“This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it”. Psalm 118:24 (NASB)
Unintentionally, but maybe it’s one of those God-incidences, this is sort of a follow-up to my post from a couple weeks ago about quietness and the importance of spending time with God and His word. But there’s another avenue in which to spend time with God that is just as important!
Last week I saw a quote on the Facebook page for “Get Stronger, Girlfriend” that has really stuck with me. It said, “What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday.” Wow! That takes a moment to swallow. Now while there may be some things in my life I’d rather not have so I’d be ok with God taking them away (I know, I know – what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger!), there is PLENTY in my life that I take for granted and never show my appreciation to God for such blessings! Worse yet, there is plenty in my life that I am exceedingly thankful for, and yet I tend to overlook thanking God for them. If I do have a daily prayer time with God, I often skip right to the “gimme” section of our time together (I’ll come back to the requests part of prayer in a second) rather than being thankful for the things I do have in my life.
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.” Psalm 100:4 (NIV)
The first point of today’s blog – Thank and praise God for all He’s done for you!
So what about those requests we might have? Luckily the Bible gives us some pretty easy-to-follow direction on that as well!
“In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.” Psalm 5:3 (NIV)
God wants us to tell Him the things we want and think we need (remember, God always knows what we actually need – we only THINK we know those things!). I struggled with this concept because if God is an all-knowing God, shouldn’t He already know what I need and want? Why should I have to ask Him for these things? This question came up when I went through the membership class of a church a number of years ago. The pastor had a simple response. He stated that God is our heavenly father, and just like earthly parents want their children to come to them for their needs, so God wants us to acknowledge our needs before Him. By presenting our needs before God, we are more likely to acknowledge Him when those needs are met.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4: 6-7 (NIV)
What better reason do we need to spend time in prayer?!? The peace of God that Paul describes is unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced – and I long to sit in the peace as long as I possibly can!
Before I end – one more thought. The following quotation is from The Christian Worker in an article titled, “Prayer or Fate?”
God in His sovereignty has ordained that human destinies may be changed by the will of man. This is at the heart of the truth that prayer changes things, meaning that God changes things when men pray. Someone has strikingly expressed it this way: “There are certain things that will happen in a man’s life whether he prays or not. There are other things that will happen if he prays, and will not happen if he does not pray.”
One never knows the influence our prayers can have in this world, and that’s a chance I’m not willing to take! Our God is a loving God and He not only wants to spend quality time with us to enhance our relationship with Him, but He also wants to know what our deepest desires are. Don’t neglect this eternally important relationship!
Sidenote: If you’re looking for a jumpstart on your prayer life, I HIGHLY recommend the book, “Give me 40 days” by Freeda Bowers. I have used this book a number of times when feeling like my prayer life is in a dry spell – and it never fails to get me back to where I need to be prayer-wise.
just2blessed2bstressed 