A Minute In It - Pray Like This

A minute in God’s Word will change your life. Take a moment to read the text below and then pray this prayer using the prompts at the bottom of the post.

Pray like this:

Our Father in heaven,
    may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
    as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need,
and forgive us our sins,
    as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation,
    but rescue us from the evil one.
Matthew 6:9-13

Our Father in heaven, may our name be kept holy.
[Pray to God about his holiness. Praise him for who He is.]
May your Kingdom come soon.
[Pray about God’s Kingdom; for the world, your country, your town, your neighborhood. Pray that he moves in a mighty way to grow his children everywhere.]
May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
[Pray for God’s will. What would it look like if this earth were like heaven? Pray that we will live according to his will.]
Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
[Ask God. Place your needs before him and then thank him for what he has already given. Pray to forgive others and for forgiveness for yourself.]
And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.
[Pray for protection. Pray for the things that tempt you. Praise God because he has already overcome the evil one.]

For more inspiration, I found this video from desiringgod.org beautiful.
https://www.desiringgod.org/pray#modal-V-_lmGR9EdE

God's Word - Never Failing

For the word of God will never fail. Luke 1:37 (NLT)

This text is so powerful. The Word of God and everything it encompasses will not fail. It will not fail to come true. It will not fail to deliver. It will not fail you.

Below are some reminders of what God’s Word says.

God Loves You

You saw me before I was born.
    Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
    before a single day had passed.

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
    They cannot be numbered! Psalm 139:16-17

God Will Rescue You

Do not be afraid—I will save you.
    I have called you by name—you are mine.
When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you;
    your troubles will not overwhelm you.
When you pass through fire, you will not be burned;
    the hard trials that come will not hurt you.
For I am the Lord your God,
    the holy God of Israel, who saves you. Isaiah 43:1-3

God Has A Plan For You

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

You Can Trust Him

Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
    do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do,
    and he will show you which path to take. Proverbs 3:5-6

God Will Not Abandon You

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
    Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
    I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. Isaiah 41:10

Today, when it looks like everything is going to fall apart. Remember, you are not alone.

For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9

Counting The Cost

But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. Acts 3:6 (NLT)

As Peter and John went about their day, they came across a lame man. The man was calling out asking for money. When Peter and John stopped, the Bible says he looked up at them expectantly, hoping to get the same thing he always got.

Peter said to him, I don’t have any money but I do have something else to give you.

Lately, I’ve been praying for guidance during the shutdown of the US Government. There are so many people being hurt by this situation. Government workers, contractors (if the government is not working neither are they and they are also not getting paid) and business owners who rely on the government staff to generate business so they too can pay their bills.

I own a business that is impacted by this shutdown. In my humanness I want to hunker down and pull everything in so we are impacted as little as possible. But that is not what I feel God is saying to do. As I was praying about how to help folks who are going through this situation, I was talking to God about the financial implications of something he put on my heart. I was explaining to him that it didn’t make fiscal sense.

Two texts flashed into my mind.

One text was Acts 3:6. I might not have silver or gold (or paper money for that matter) but I do have Jesus and a peace in knowing that if I follow God’s directive, it will work out for his glory.

The second text was Matthew 25:40 “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!” If I reach out to help people, I am helping Jesus. If Jesus were standing there, would I say, “Well Lord, you are asking alot. It is not logical.” NO! I would not. So why would I not respond to others in the same way when he makes it clear that if I help people, I am helping him?

I am not sure what the future holds in this situation (and you better believe I am praying about it) but I do know this. The most valuable thing I have is my relationship with Jesus. How do you weigh the cost of sharing that with folks? Even if it does cost all of my silver and gold, wouldn’t it be worth it if they saw just a tiny glimpse of him?

What Is Your Job?

“The work of God for you,” replied Jesus, “is to believe in the one whom he has sent to you.” John 6:29 (PHILLIPS)

It’s Monday and for some of us in the US, it’s a holiday. For others it’s a work day. For some of us, it’s a holiday but we have to go to work. And for others, we have work to do even if we are not spending time at a “job”. It seems like there is always work to do or a job to go to. And if you do go to a “job,” there are usually many other tasks outside of that job that need to get done.

It seems like my “To Do” list is never-ending. And I often ask God how I am supposed to get it all done. There isn’t enough time in the day to do what I think needs to get done.

But then God says “Wait. There is only one thing you need to do today and that is love me. If you don’t do anything else all day long but you spend time with me, you will have done the most important thing. Believe and everything else will fall into place.”

This is quite a relief. Because even when I do a whole lot, at the end of the day it can still feel like I got nothing accomplished. But, if I spend time with God each day, I know I did.

The most important thing we each do every day is spend time getting to know Jesus. If we check nothing else off of our “To Do” list today except that, we will have accomplished the ONE thing God said to do.

Somehow, everything else always seems to fall into place…..

Can A Mustard Seed Move A Mountain?

Then Jesus told them, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don't doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, 'May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and it will happen. Matthew 21:21 (NLT)

It’s kind of ironic that today I seem to be writing about moving a mountain. I woke up feeling not so faithful. You know, it seemed like every day this week there was something that challenged my faith. By today, my faith was as small as a mustard seed. And I told God that this morning. :-)

We each have our mountains. They look really different depending on who you are and what you are facing right now. And, the mountain can change over time. As things move and progress, what is on our mountain becomes different. What do I mean by “what is on our mountain”?

Recently, I started digging in a little to understand fasting better. I can honestly say as a Christian, I know what it is and I know how it’s done but deep down, I don’t think I really get it. I am asking God to explain this and show me what he wants me to know about it.

I decided to start a weekly fast. What better way to find out about something than to start doing it, right? So, I set the time, the type of fast and then got to “What am I fasting for?” So, I made a list. I have a list of 10 things where I am asking to see God’s movement. As I looked at my list I thought “That’s a lot of stuff. Looks like a mountain of stuff.” And then during my worship one of the days following I read today’s Scripture. I’m sure that wasn’t a coincidence.

As I fasted, I began praying for the mountain. And now, even when I am not fasting, I pray that God will move in things on the mountain. When I have days like today when my faith is very, very small, I remember that God is bigger than my faith. I remember what he has done in the past and how he shows up all the time - maybe not in the exact way I want but he still shows up. I remember that while I have my mountain and some days I look at it too often, I need to move my focus to take in the view from where I stand. I need to reflect on the journey that I am on instead of the obstacles that loom ahead.

It boils down to what I truly believe in my heart. Do I believe in a God who loves me and is involved in my life? Do I believe that he has shown up in the past and everything, although sometimes painful, has worked out for the best? Do I know in my heart that God is more powerful than any mountain I am staring at? And most importantly, do I believe he is willing to get involved?

I do. So as I continue to climb this mountain, instead of looking at the rocky trail ahead, I am going to adjust my view to the One who stands at the end of the path and keep walking toward Him. I can’t wait to see how he moves this mountain!

A Minute In It - Which Skin Are You In?

A minute in God’s Word will change your life. Take a moment to read the text below and answer the questions at the bottom of the post.

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins.  New wine must be stored in new wineskins.  But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say.” Luke 5:37-39 (NLT)

Old wineskins = the religion and traditions practiced by the populace at large
New wineskins = Jesus revelation of God and how God wanted them to practice their faith

What are some “old wineskins” in your life that might prevent you from worshiping God as he says you should?
Where did they come from?
Why do you hold on to them?
What are some things you hold on to that prevent you from sharing Jesus?
What are some things you could add to your life that would allow you to fully realize the gospel?
Are you, like the people in the story, content to drink the old wine and not look for Jesus’ new wine?

A Little Goes A Long Way

And his disciples believed in him. John 2:11b (NLT)

The story in John 2 of when Jesus turned water into wine is one that I ponder. I’ve heard people discuss this and wonder why. Why was this the first miracle? Compared to the times he raised people from the dead, this is really small potatoes. In the big scheme of things it seems so inconsequential.

So why? Maybe we’ll never really know the answer to that but we can look at the things we do know.

We know Jesus came to show us the Father. What can we see in this story?

1. We can see that Jesus was social. Even though he had a tremendous work to do, he still hung out with people and was part of a community.

2. We know that he cared about the little things, like this man’s wedding. Maybe in the big scheme of things this miracle was inconsequential but it wasn’t inconsequential to the bridegroom. Jesus showed up where the bridegroom was and helped him with something that was important to him.

3. We know that God is a very generous God. Jesus could have turned the water into very mediocre wine. Even God’s mediocre would be better than their best. But he didn’t. He produced the very best wine. He gives us his all.

4. We know that after this first miracle, his disciples believed in him.

To me, this is the best result of this story. Every single day God is working in our lives to reveal his love to us. A lot of the time, we miss it. But when we do see it, we are amazed and we believe. And that is truly why Jesus came. He came so we would see who God really is and turn to him. He came so we would look at the stories in our own lives and know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we are loved by a very generous God.

Living Love

And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. Colossians 3:17 (NLT)

I own a business. There are many days I wonder why. Especially on days that I am supposed to be on “vacation” but I am working. My husband has the same problem. His family has owned their own business for years and you are never really and truly not on the clock. It is something that is understood. When something happens, you step up.

I was thinking about this over the holidays when I didn’t get to “have my vacation” because things kept happening. Over the years I’ve heard a lot of Christians say this too (me included.) I’m on vacation or it’s my day off so I can’t ______________ (fill in the blank.)

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with resting and I definitely think I should do more of it (in a constructive way - which is another post.) But, I think we do a disservice to God when we try to compartmentalize what he is calling us to do. You see, what he’s calling us to do is love one another. He is calling us to take care of each other. When we try to say “I can’t go help that person” or “I’m on vacation today so I’m not going to reach out,.” it seems like we are trying to put our number one role in life on a schedule.

I am reading the book Everybody Always by Bob Goff (great book by the way) and he says this:

"We don’t need to call everything we do “ministry” anymore either. Just call it Tuesday. That’s what people who are becoming love do."

I love that line. What would happen if we did everything we are supposed to do with the idea that this is our business? Our business is to love God and each other before ourselves. What if we owned that like we own the other things in our lives? What if we stopped distinguishing between what our “jobs” are and what our life is supposed to be? What if we lived love in everything we do? Even when we are on vacation…..

I think maybe the world would look really, really different.