God’s presence

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Warm-ups for Prayer

“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.” – Colossians 4:2

I tend to greet God in pretty much the same way every morning and it’s a pattern I picked up from a revered Bible teacher. It involves saying “good morning” to each person of the Trinity, pausing to worship the Triune God, then asking for his mercy. The opening words are often the same, but the worship or follow up prayer time changes from day to day.

Why do I do this? Because when I begin my quiet time, I may not feel very spiritual or even ready to pray. My routine opening prayer becomes a catalyst for more conversational prayers to follow.

Here’s another example: We’ve taken what is commonly known as The Lord’s Prayer and often use that in a way that can be mechanical or rote, but if we slow down and think about what we are praying, phrase by phrase, it’s powerful. And the very familiarity of the prayer often opens our hearts to deeper, more personal prayers.

Another way to stimulate heart-felt prayers is to use a psalm or other portion of Scripture and pray about each phrase or sentence as you read. In Scripture we read about God and his purposes. Praying those understandings back to him sometimes opens a fountain of thought about people or situations in our lives we need to pray about.

I think we all sometimes need to calm, direct, and warm our hearts and minds for prayer. A routine reading, prayer, or pattern can do that for us. God enters our lives when we find a way to open the door to him.

“Prayer is not only asking, but an attitude of mind which produces the atmosphere in which asking is perfectly natural.” — Oswald Chambers

#prayer

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Don’t live afraid.

“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.” – Isaiah 26:3

There is so much to be afraid of these days. On a personal level, we’re afraid of traffic accidents, sickness – especially the life-threatening kind, criminal activity, storms, environmental contamination, and even the future.

And those are just the physical issues. We also have emotional fears of things like rejection, job loss, criticism, finances, and broken relationships. The problem is that living in fear overshadows our walk with God.

Safety and security are fundamental human needs. When we feel unsafe, we cannot be the productive, happy, fulfilled people God intends for us to be. So, he, as our all-powerful heavenly Father, offers to protect us, to shield from attack, and to make sure we have a safe place in which to know and serve him.

We just have to believe that and stay close to God, described in Scripture as our Rock, our Fortress, our Protector. If we rest in his presence, we might hear him whisper something like this:

“I am with you on every mountain trail and on every city street. I am with you on every drive in the car or flight on an airplane. Nothing can happen to you that is not my will unless you run away from me. Stay close and you won’t live afraid!”

Do you hear that? Don’t live afraid anymore! Believe God is with you and thank him. Talk to him all the time in every circumstance. Tell him you trust him and let him lead. Then, you can be free. You don’t have to live afraid anymore!

“I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.” – Thomas Merton

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On Praying Out Loud

“I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and He will hear me.” – Psalm 77:1 (ESV)

Most of us pray silent prayers in our minds, and I know God hears those prayers. Heart/mind prayers are a way of communicating with him even while we are walking down the street or sitting in a meeting.

But there are times when we might be better off praying out loud. I think God loves to hear our voices as much as we love to hear his. And, guess who else is listening? Satan can’t read our thought prayers, but he can hear our vocalized prayers. I think it makes him shake in his boots to hear us giving ourselves and our problems to God.

There’s another reason, though, to give voice to our prayers: When we are speaking aloud, we think more clearly about our words, and our minds don’t wander as they often do when we are praying silently – and we all have that problem! As we listen in on our own prayers, we begin to know our own hearts.

A friend of mind who, at one time in his career, had a long commute to work, said he used to imagine Jesus sitting in the passenger seat of his car as he pulled out of the driveway. He would talk out loud to Jesus most of the way to work, sharing his stresses, praying for his wife, and committing the day into the all-powerful hands of his divine passenger.

If you don’t already practice praying out loud, you may want to try it. Prayer can become conversation that makes a difference!

“True prayer is neither a mere mental exercise nor a vocal performance. It is far deeper than that – it is spiritual transaction with the Creator of Heaven and Earth.” – Charles Spurgeon #prayer

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Break for Blessings

“We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.” – Psalm 33:21-22

Sometimes when we pray or read the Bible, we think we’re doing God a favor. Don’t get me wrong, he loves it when we spend time with him – he wants to be the focus of our attention. But I’ve found he always gives me so much more than I give him!

Then throughout the day, when I stop to think about God, offer a short prayer, or remember a verse or phrase from the Bible, it’s as if I’ve opened up a pipeline to heaven through which he sends blessings. The most common one, for me, is joy. But there are others:

  • a sense of his presence
  • peace, knowing he has everything under control, even when I don’t
  • a new idea for a problem I’ve been wrestling with
  • or reassurance of his desire to be working for my good

He’s waiting to do all that for you, too. I think you already know that!

Our Father in heaven wants to be in daily, hourly relationship with us. He is always there, always ready. Stopping to engage with him is our responsibility. When we do, he responds. And our needs are met, sometimes needs we didn’t even know we had. Those moments become sparks of joy that brighten our entire day.

So, no matter how busy we are, let’s pause often to remember the one who waits for us to turn to him. His smile will be worth the pause!

“When I remember to pause, blessings appear. I break for blessings.” – Macrina Wiederkehr

 

#blessings

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Looking down or looking up?

“The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him.” – Psalm 37:23

When I walk on trails, I look at my feet a lot. The way is often rocky and the path is sometimes narrow. I don’t want to stumble, so I keep my eyes down.

That may be practical on the trail, but as I walk through life, I am beginning to realize that God’s  eyes are on me, so mine can be on him. I don’t stumble or stray if I am looking in the right place – at God, through his Word, prayer, and contemplation. Eyes on him always and then the path becomes smooth beneath my feet.

The benefits are amazing when we stop looking down: We can see the views around us and further along the path ahead of us. And, as we are open to God’s guiding presence, we realize he wants to calm our fears, enhance our joys, fulfill our hopes, and give us peace. He whispers, “Be healed. Be whole. Be fully alive! I am with you and will never leave or turn away. My eye is on you, my arms are open for you. I guide, calm, comfort, and provide. Trust me. Love me. Enjoy and thrive in the life I have given you.” With God, every step becomes a joy!

For all of us, it’s about realizing how much God loves us and that he chooses to be with us. Not because we are great, but because he is. He watches over every step. The journey is more of an adventure when we’re looking at him. It’s less about where our feet are and more about where he is leading.

“There is meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler.”– Dietrich Bonhoeffer

#walkingwithgod

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All Day Long

” . . . pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

How’s your prayer life? We all wince at that question, don’t we? We feel we should pray more and have a really hard time actually doing it. But maybe we pray more than we think we do.

The writer of Psalm 119 seemed to have some good prayer practices, one of which was praying at various times during the day. He talks about praying before dawn (v. 147), early evening (v. 148), at midnight (v. 62). In fact, he says he prays seven times a day (v. 164).  That’s a lot. Or is it? How many times a day do you pray?

For me, there are days when I go for hours without talking to God at all. On other days, it seems we are in constant communication – I see his creation and tell him thank you. I think about something I read in the Bible that morning and talk a little to him about it. A friend comes to mind and I bring her name before the Father. Do you do that, too? I like those days. Perhaps I’m less persistent in prayer than the psalm writer who made it a point to pray seven times a day. Sometimes I need to be more intentional in that focus. But I do love it when the communication lines between God and me are open all day long. I think that’s what he wants. I think that’s what we want, too. Let’s keep the conversation going!

“I have found that my reluctance to pray increases when I regard it as a necessary discipline and decreases when I see it as a time to keep company with God. True prayer comes from within, from the longing of the heart.” – Philip Yancey

#prayer

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Above all . . .

“In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” – Isaiah 30:15

How good are you at resting? God is very big on rest and actually designed our weeks to have one whole day in which we are told to rest – to stop what we do on other days and do something that is refreshing and restorative.

After God had given the commandments to Moses, he emphasized one of them: “Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you'” (from Exodus 31:13). Above all? Does God really mean that? Why, I wonder?

I think it’s so we learn to trust him. Trust him with the work we didn’t get done, with the plans that need to be made, and the relationships that need to be fixed. Trust him with the anxieties we carry all week. One day a week, we rest in his love and grace and his work on our behalf.

And that includes spiritual striving. God does the work of making us holy – setting us apart for him. We can try harder, working our hearts out to please him, but if he’s not in it, all our efforts are fruitless. Sometimes he just wants us to sit still in his presence and let him work his transformation in our lives. It is in that rest, perhaps, that we learn to love him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Maybe restful living is mostly about letting go.

“Unhurried does not describe how I spend hours or minutes. It describes a state of heart. Unhurried comes not from forced breaks, but from chosen stillness.” – David Timms

#sabbathrest

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When God Roars

“They will follow the Lord; he will roar like a lion. When he roars,his children will come trembling from the west.” – Hosea 11:10

Have you ever lost track of one of your children in a crowd? What do you do when that happens? You shout out the child’s name. You call out loudly, wanting him to hear your voice and come back to you.

Do you know God does that, too?

The prophets tell us that sometimes the great Lion of Judah roars to warn of coming judgment. But Hosea gives us a different view. He tells us that sometimes God roars when his children get too far away from him. He roars to let us know where he is so we can come back to his side. Hosea tells the people of Israel that when they decide to turn back to God, he will roar like a lion. Not at them, but for them. He will make himself clearly known so they can find their way from wherever they are. God’s roar is a call to come home. He makes it easy for us to find him!

I thought about that image and realized that, if I like the quiet voice of the shepherd more than the roaring voice of the lion, I need to stay near him. When he stops, I stop. When he moves, I move, always staying close enough so he can whisper in my ear. Never wandering away so he has to raise his voice to bring me back. Close is where he can sing to me. There I am safe, loved, caressed, and taught. Close is where I want to be!

“I would rather walk with God in the dark than go alone in the light.” – Mary Gardiner Brainerd

 

 

#walkingwithgod

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The GodSense Journey: Exploring Sacred Pathways – for free!

FREE digital download: February 23-26 only!

If you enjoy these blog posts, you may want to go deeper in your walk with God. I have a book for that! And, for the next few days, you can download it at no cost to you. In The GodSense Journey, we explore 52 topics, devoting one week to each. You will be invited to read some teaching, to meditate on Scripture, to pray, to interact with the Bible, and to apply what you are learning. It truly is a unique devotional experience.

To access this special offer, click on the Buy on Amazon tab below or go to the Free Preview where you can peruse the Table of Contents for topics covered, then go to the Buy tab (though you will not be charged if you click between Friday and Monday this week). Enjoy the journey on your Kindle or on the free Kindle app that can be downloaded to your computer.

Share this opportunity with your friends and enjoy The GodSense Journey together. This is a day-by-day devotional divided into 52 weeks. No need to begin on January 1! You can start to know God better and relate to Him more personally today.

And if you enjoy your journey, please write an Amazon review so others will know and can energize their relationship with God, too.

 

 

#spiritualjourney

#thegodsensejourney

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Just a Whisper

“For I am the Lord your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.'” – Isaiah 41:13

Have you ever stood by when a young child has what we call a “meltdown”? This often happens when a special-needs child responds to frustration by becoming out-of-control, usually thrashing around, and crying out.

Therapists tell us the best way to respond is to put your arms around the child, often from behind to hold them as still as possible. Then begin to whisper in their ear. They instinctively will want to hear what you are saying, so will quiet down as the still, small voice calms their fears and frustrations.

Spiritually, we are all special needs people. And sometimes, we have our own version of a meltdown. We become frustrated and panicky, feeling everything is out of control. We may not physically thrash around and cry out, but internally we can feel we are drowning in anxiety, anger, and/or fear. Does that ever happen to you? If it does . . .

Guess who is standing behind you? Putting his arms around you? Whispering in your ear? You are God’s dearly loved child and you are having a meltdown. Now just calm yourself so you can hear his quiet, gentle voice. He will assure you all will be well, tell you he loves you, and let you know nothing is out of control for him.

So when you feel the stress building, stop. Calm yourself. Listen to his whispered promises and reassurances. Remind yourself that, with God, “All will be well, all will be well, all manner of things will be well.”*. You can trust him.

“In your brokenness and imperfection, God whispers three words: You are mine.” – Margaret Feinberg

 

*Julian of Norwich

#allwillbewell