Powerful Prayer

-

  With all of the turmoil in the world: wars, pandemic, death, crime, natural disasters... I am often at a loss to know how to pray.  What can I say to a God who knows everything and has everything under His control?  Who am I to ask Him to do this or that?  Am I saying the right words?  Does it matter?  Are my prayers heard?  

Thankfully, the answers are in the Bible!   Let's look into this more...

Often when my heart is hurting, I cannot find my own words.  I am so thankful for parents who encouraged Bible memory because I frequently find Scripture says it better than I ever could anyway.   

In Luke 11:1, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray.  Jesus gave us what we call "The Lord's Prayer" in answer to their request. 

And he said to them, “When you pray, say:

“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
3Give us each day our daily bread,b
4and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.” (https://www.biblehub.com/esv/luke/11.htm)

Jesus guides us to begin our prayers with worship to our Father in heaven.  He shows us how to focus our prayer on what is most important.  This is the hub of effective prayer.  God the Father, the Holy One, is to be worshipped and adored.  Asking for His kingdom to come brings our minds away from our own wants and circumstances, acknowledging that our God deserves all of our praise.  

God wants to hear our petitions, but as we strive to walk in the footsteps of Jesus we can see that He guides us to put worship first in everything, specifically our prayers.  

My prayer for you, my sisters, is that we will be prayer warriors!    More on this topic soon!

💓 Heather Sparks

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It Is Well With My Soul

-
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul. We are all reeling from the images we are seeing of our neighboring communities after Hurricane Helene blew through our region and dropped unprecedented amounts of rain. TVA has stated this was a 1 in 5,000 year event. There has been much loss of life and personal property. With the loss of my nephew fresh on my mind, I have found myself thinking of the words and humming the old hymn "It is Well" frequently. The story behind this hymn (along with the lyrics) tells that the state of our soul is the only thing that truly matters.  The author, Horatio G. Spafford was a businessman from Chicago. He had a successful legal practice and was a devout Christian. Spafford’s lost almost everything overnight in the great Chicago Fire of 1871. To add to this tragedy, his young son had just passed away a short time before the fire...
Read more

Adorning the Gospel

-
Image
  We all love to make things look nice, don't we?  Ourselves, our children, our cars, our homes --- most people like for our lives to be attractive to others and for our own enjoyment.  While I usually brush it off as false, Sam knows that I love hearing him or the kids tell me I am beautiful.  The beauty of nature is breathtaking.  God made us all to love pretty things.      Brother Doug has been leading us through the book of Titus recently.  Titus 2 speaks to every category of Christian -- older men, older women, young men, young women, and those in bondage.  A couple things stood out to me as Doug was teaching that have been running through my mind for the last couple of weeks.   3  Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior,  not slanderers  or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good,  4  and so train the young women to love their husbands and children,  5  to be self...
Read more

Joy To The World!

-
Image
     One of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is the music!  Christmas music brings a special element of joy to the season.  There are so many great Christmas songs in almost every style, from whimsical and folksy all the way to classical.  I am always excited for the time when the radio station switches to all Christmas music so that our car rides are serenaded with the sounds of the season.  The familiar melodies are comforting and cheerful, for the most part.  Many of these songs have been ingrained in my mind since infancy and I can't remember a time that I did not know them.  Just like all familiar music, however, I catch myself mouthing and humming along to lyrics that I know like the back of my hand without giving any consideration to what those words mean!  My older kiddos don't always appreciate this overly analytical approach to music that may cause me to nix a song or two from their playlists at times.  However, f...
Read more