A New Way To Pray

Praise
Regrets
Admitting your wrongs
Yielding of yourself
Express your requests
Rejoice

Here is a new way to remember how to pray. Oftentimes when we come to God about something, it is mostly just asking God for our desires. Desires for safety, provision, love and other wants and needs. There are some important aspects of prayer that we too often leave out. Therefore, our prayer lives can become dull and lifeless. Then we question God wondering why our prayers aren’t being answered. When we fill our prayers with selfish things and do not humble ourselves before God our relationship with Him is similar to a baby. We take from God what we want and He continues to give it out. But we need to remember to “give as was given to us.” The Bible tells us to put away childish things. Are your prayers all about asking God for what you want? If so, try this little anagram and see if your prayer life becomes more powerful and fulfilling. I have found that when I am bothered by a situation, to go to God in prayer and to follow these steps. Afterwards, I feel so much better for several different reasons. Here they are:

1.Praise- Praising God first and foremost gets your mind off of the negative things of life and onto the most wonderful thing ever. If reminds you of Gods power to control any situation. Praising God is thanking Him for knowing everything. If he knows everything then he certainly knows about all of your problems. Thank Him for being all-powerful. This means that He has the power to change anything with the blink of an eye, so if something is in your life, there must be a reason. Thank Him that all things work to the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. Thank Him that He created you with a purpose and a reason for being on this earth, as well as all other human beings. Thank Him for being your Provider. There are so many reasons to praise God and be thankful! I do not have enough time to list them all, but this is a start. You can take anything bad and find something good to thank God about. For instance, if you have been mistreated, thank God that He knows the truth and the truth will set you free. Thank him that he loves you and will never leave you alone. There is always something to thank God for.
2. Regrets-This is just telling God about the things in life that you are sorry about. Not necessarily admitting your wrongs (that comes later), but telling Him about the things you have already confessed that you still feel guilty about and about the situations in your life that you wish had turned out differently. For instance, if a relationship has ended bad or you had a miscarriage. Just tell God all about it and how you are feeling. He has been there and understands all that you are going through. This is an opportunity to talk to God as you would your best friend. Only he is even better than your best friend because he understands and he is always there to listen.
3. Admitting your wrongs- This is where you confess all your sins. Sometimes you may not be able to come up with a long list of blatant sins, but it is also sharing wrong attitudes or anything that you think you may have done wrong. You can also share anything that you may not necessarily have done wrong, but that you could have done differently or better. Like getting annoyed with someone who was being obnoxious or passing someone in the hall without saying a word to them. Confess not only the big, obvious sins but the little things you did, as well as the things you should’ve done. I find that as I begin to confess these things and admit my faults, it humbles me and it feels as though each thing takes a burden off of my shoulders. Humbling yourself before God, allows your heart to be opened to what God is telling you and then you are more likely to hear his guidance and follow it.
4.Yielding of yourself- This is giving up your wants and desires and instead choosing to do what God wants you to do. This can be one of the hardest things. This is giving up your rights and letting God do his will with your life. This is realizing that God has a plan for your life that is far better and bigger than anything you could ever come up with. It is saying that you will take up your cross and follow Christ.
5. Expressing your requests- This is where you actually tell God what you need and what your goals and desires are for the future. After you have already yielded your rights to Him, this should be short and to the point. No longer do we have the need to fill our prayers with our “Christmas Lists”. Instead, it is mentioning that you would really like to find a new job that would be more fulfilling, but only if it is in God’s will and for the best interest of you and your family. You will have a new attitude when you get to this part after already dong the steps above. Therefore, this section will not be near as important to you as before.
6. Rejoice- Ending your prayer on a positive note helps you to keep the right focus. We should be thinking about God’s goodness and everything He has done for us. Instead, we find ourselves thinking about all of our problems and what we want but don’t have. So rejoicing at the end of your prayer and praising God for all He has done for you, all he is doing currently in your life and all he is going to do in the future ends you prayer in the right frame of mind with the right perspective.

If you continue to come to God in this way every day or as problems arise, I believe that it will change your outlook on life, as well as deepen your relationship with God. If we can learn to praise God, admit our mistakes and humble ourselves before God every day, then we will be more open to hearing and following God’s will for our lives. These things are so important and yet we leave them out of our prayer time. This way of praying gets our focus off of ourselves and puts it back on God and his awesome power and love for us.

3 Solutions ToAny Problem: Part 4 (The End)

“But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.”
1 Thessalonians 5:4-9


As I said before, I don’t believe there is any problem that can’t be solved with faith, hope or love. When a situation comes up that is troublesome, we use these three things together as a team to get through it. They may not resolve the situation or make it go away, but they will put your focus on other things so that the situation is more bearable. These three things are choices you make daily to live in the light instead of the darkness. Chances are that if you feel as though you are living in the darkness, you are not utilizing three of the most important tools God has given us. As these verses say, if we put on our armor and use it to fight our spiritual battles, we will belong to the day, or the light. It is when our focus is on the wrong things that we lose the battle. Every day, we all face spiritual battles of one kind or another. It can be a situation involving conflict with someone else, a negative attitude, laziness, criticizing others, blaming others for things or many other such things. No matter what the situation, the enemy (Satan) tries his hardest to get us out of focus on God and instead becoming selfish. He really loves it when he can get us thinking that we are innocent and above others and that other people are to blame for our problems. I believe that is one reason why the Bible says, “But the greatest of these is love.” When we are choosing to love someone else, we are putting the focus on others and taking it off of ourselves. That is becoming increasingly difficult, as our society tells us to “get in touch with ourselves”, “love ourselves”, “you deserve it” and “it’s all about me.” But God still calls us to stop being of the world and living in darkness and to instead come out into the light where we can see other people. In the darkness all you can see is yourself and know that you are there. In the light, you are fully aware of others in the world.
So, how do we come out of the darkness and into the light? It is a choice that you must make. At first, it might be scary because whenever someone comes into the light they are blinded. Their eyes are not able to focus. At that moment it is scary and you want to go crawl back into the darkness, but the moment your eyes begin to refocus, you are so much more aware of the wonderful things you can see and experience in the light. God helps us to see all those wonderful things and it all starts with faith. You have to have faith in God and His promises in order to step out of the darkness in the first place. It all begins with just a tiny bit of faith. Just enough faith to take that next step. Then, when you take that step out and your eyes are blinded, you stay out in the light because your faith begins to grow. You trust God enough to know that he is going to help you through this. As your eyes refocus and you begin to see the light, hope begins to form in your heart. You begin to see God’s beautiful creation as He intended it to be. Seeing the wonderful flowers, trees, plants, animals and other human beings helps you to realize how much you were missing by living in the darkness. As you see that what God promised is really true, your faith grows even more and you begin to have hope that things in the light really are going to be better than they were in the darkness. After you have begun to hope and your faith is still growing every second, then your hope begins to grow as you realize all the wonderful things God has planned for your life. Then after your hope has started to grow as well, God begins to replace the selfishness you had in your heart with His love. It is through his love that you can then begin to love others.
Someone who is not a Christian is living in the darkness by its truest sense. They have no light whatsoever in their lives. That is why Christians are to be light to the world. If a Christian comes around a non-christian, that Christian should be shining light in the other’s life by their faith, hope and love. If that person does not exhibit these qualities, then their witness to others is compromised. You can be a Christian and still not be fully in the light if there are areas of your life that are still in darkness. If there is part of your life or a situation that God is not in control of, that part is in the dark. Most likely if there is anything negative in your life then you are not putting faith, hope and love into practice with that particular thing. Because if you were, then that area of your life would be acceptable to you because you know it is part of God’s plan. Sometimes we begin to practice faith, hope and love in an area in our lives and then for some reason, we quit. It is then that this area is once again in the darkness. So, once again you have to make the choice to step out from the darkness into the light through faith. In my opinion, it all begins with faith. And as you step out again, you begin the process all over. Maybe you stepped out in faith before and then got scared and ran back into the darkness. Maybe you stepped out in faith and began to have hope, but because you did not forgive someone, you were not able to love them and so you ran back into the darkness. This is why it is so important to put on our armor of faith, hope and love every day so that when Satan throws an arrow of temptation at you, it will hit your helmet of hope or breastplate of faith and love and it will bounce off. His darts will not hurt you. Without your protection, anything that Satan throws at you, will hurt you in some way or another. But the most incredible thing in the world is that God calls us to come out of the darkness and fight the spiritual battle, but he gives us the most advanced equipment and strategies. These are no fail strategies that work 100% of the time when used correctly. It is in our humanness that we fail to use them correctly or even to use them at all. But when we do, we are unstoppable. This is only through God’s unending power and love. If we start using our own equipment, we will lose the battle. There are other very important weapons in this battle as Ephesians 6 tells us. We must always be ready for battle with every single piece of protection we can find because the more battles we win, the harder satan is going to fight us. So make sure that you are ready for you battle today with faith, hope and love. If you aren’t, take that first step out of the darkness and ask God to help your faith, hope and love to grow in Him. He won’t let you down.

3 Solutions To Any Problem: Part 3

But the greatest of these is love.
So, what exactly is love and what is so great about it? How can it help me solve problems in life? First of all, I must address that we are seriously misled about this topic. From the entertainment industry we are led to believe that love is that fuzzy feeling you get when you are around someone that causes your stomach to be in knots and your palms to sweat. We are taught that love is full of romance and happiness and that when these feelings go away we do not love that person anymore and should end the relationship. These are all lies that Satan has deceived us with. Actually, love is a choice to treat someone in a loving way. There are different kinds of love. Eros love is purely sexual. This is the kind of love we see in the movies. Phileo love is a friendship. Agape love is the kind of love that God has for us and wants us to have for each other. Agape love is unconditional love. Which means there are no rules, no score kept and no way to lose this kind of love. God loves us even when we hurt him and He probably doesn’t really feel like loving us, but He still does because love is a choice, not a feeling. “And over all these virtues, put on love, which binds them [compassion, humility, gentleness, patience, and forgiveness] all together in perfect unity,” (Colossians 3:14). Love is what ties all other good things together. It is something we “put on” which is an action. It is something you do. So, when you know that love is an attitude in which you choose to have, then it is easier to understand how you can love people in different situations as the Bible tells us to.
When faced with a problem, what is so great about love that it can help us? Proverbs 10:12 says, “Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.” No matter how you have been hurt or have hurt someone else, choosing to love can make things right. “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing,” (Zephaniah 3:17). Love calms your spirit and quiets you down. 1 Thessalonians 1:3 reminds us to “put on faith and love as a breastplate.” Love is part of the armor we need to fight in the spiritual battles we face every day. Love helps us defeat Satan. That is why we are told to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. 1 John 4:18 tells us that, “there is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” Perfect love drives out fears and helps us not to be afraid of anything because we trust the one who has that perfect love: God.
Now that we understand what love is and how it can help us, we must figure out where this love comes from. “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God,” (1 John 4:7). All real love comes from God. We cannot possibly love anyone the right way without God’s help. The way that we receive his love is by first loving Him. He then fills us with His love, through the Holy Spirit, which enables us to love others. “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us,” (Romans 5:5). Love is the first “fruit of the [Holy] Spirit” mentioned in the Bible. Ephesians 3:19 explains, “and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” When we know the love of God, we are filled up. We then have so much love inside that it spills out to other people. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another, “ (John 13:34). Being loved by God teaches us how to love others as ourselves and to put others first. God sets the example for us by how He loves us. “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends,” (John 15:13). Jesus Christ came to earth and gave up his life for each of us. There is no greater love than this. We are to lay down our lives for those we love.
So, maybe you already know that you are to love others, but you are having a hard time actually doing that. We have already discussed that love comes from God, but how can I obtain love from God and pass it on to others? The first step is to have faith in God. To believe that He does love you unconditionally. Many people have a hard time believing that God loves them with no strings attached. The psalmist said, “Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!” He doesn’t want but one very simple thing in return from you. All he wants is for you to love Him in return. Deutoronomy 6:5 says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” When you seek to love God, he will help you to be able to love others. So, if you having problems loving someone, or showing them love, first seek God and His love. The more you are filled with the love of God, the easier it will be for you to love others. Since the Bible tells us that “God is love”. The only way to find true love is to find God. The Bible says in Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Isn’t it ironic that when we refer to love, we draw hearts and when we are hurt by someone we say that we have a broken heart? When really we need to seek God instead. There are so many verses in the Bible that refer to God’s unfailing love. He will never break your heart. I think we have it all mixed up. First, we try to love someone and establish a relationship with them, then when that doesn’t work out or we are disappointed, we go to God in prayer or Bible study. But what we actually need to do first is to seek God. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then all these things will be given to you.” We all yearn to be loved, but we will never find the love we long for until we find God first. Then He will develop within you patience, kindness, forgiveness, and compassion. Those qualities that are essential to loving someone unconditionally. We must stop dwelling on how others have hurt us and instead concentrate on how we can love others more. We need to thank God for his love and praise him that His love never fails us. Not a single person on this planet can claim they are unloved. God loves each and every one of us, and his love is able to overshadow others humanness. I leave you with words from a worship song, “Think about his love. Think about his goodness. Think about the storms he’s brought us through. For as high as the heavens above. So great is the measure of our Father’s love. Great is the measure of our Father’s love.” But the greatest of these [really] is love.

3 Solutions To Any Problem: Part 2

What Is Your Hope In?

“Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:30-31)

Let’s be honest here, all of us lose hope at one point in life or another. We all get tired of the journey and want to give up. It’s basically a fact of life. Life is hard and sometimes we just feel like throwing in the towel. But as this verse in Isaiah says, we don’t have to give up, because if our hope is in the Lord, he will renew us and give us what it takes to take the next step. So, what exactly is hope anyways? According to Emily Dickinson, “Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all.” Hope is something, like faith, that is inside of you, that no one else can take away, and as Emily says, never stops, unless you make it. The New Century Dictionary defines hope as, “looking forward to something you really expect to happen.” By looking at this definition, you can see how faith and hope are so closely related. It appears to me that you have to have faith in “something you really expect to happen.” And then hope appears, “looking forward to something” So, the question we need to answer today is what is that something? Once again the Bible gives us some clear answers of a few “somethings” we can hope for.
First, let’s talk about what not to put our hope in. “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment,” (1 Timothy 6:17). We cannot put hope in material things or earthly things. Many people go through life saying, “If only . . .” If only I could make more money, then we could get out of financial trouble and my worries would be over. If only my husband would be more supportive of me, then our marriage would be great and I would be happy. If only, people would stop hurting me, then I would be able to love my neighbor as myself. We are looking for solutions to our problems, when the solution is right in front of our eyes. Money won’t solve your problems. Your husband changing won’t solve your problems. Other people won’t solve your problems. The solution to your problem is something only you can fix. That is putting your hope in the Lord instead of in things and people. Money and things are only temporary. People are human and they will fail you. Notice I didn’t say they might fail you, I said they will fail you. NO matter how godly the person is, they will still fail you at some point in time or not live up to your expectations. But God will never leave you, nor forsake you. So, if you are thinking that some of these things will fix your emptiness, you are mistaken. Only God can do that. By first having faith in him and then putting your hope in him. This won’t necessarily make your problems go away, but they won’t be burdensome because you know that God is working to do what is best for all involved.
“Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God,” (Psalm 42:5, 42:11, 43:5). I find it interesting that the psalmist said the exact same thing, three times within two chapters. I think he was trying to make a point. Sometimes we are stubborn and need to be told things many times before we actually get it. If you have been a Christian for very long, you know in your head that your hope should be in the Lord. But does your heart actually do that? If you are downcast, sad, depressed then your hope is probably not in the Lord, but in something or someone else. You are probably looking somewhere else for your happiness.
You may be wondering, how exactly do I put my hope in the Lord? When a situation arises that causes you to be worried or depressed, you must first take it to God. Give him complete control of the situation. Then He will give you hope. “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him,” (Psalm 62:5). Giving it to God, gives your soul a break because no longer is it your responsibility. Now it is Gods and he knows the best solution for this problem. So knowing that “all things work to the good of those who love Him and are called according to his purposes” helps you to put your hope in God and then He in turn gives you more hope. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us “For I know the plans I have for you, “ declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” God has great plans for us. He wants to give us hope for the future. But when we don’t give our problems to him and let him have control over them, we actually get in God’s way and prevent him from being able to give us prosperity and hope. In order to believe these things, we must first put our hope in the word of God, the good book, the Bible. You have to have faith and believe that every single word in the bible is true. Once you believe this, then you can have hope, knowing that you are promised a future in heaven and so many other great things. You have hope because you know that you are never alone and that you are always loved. Romans 15:4 says, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” God gave us the Bible so that we could have hope. I can’t say it any better than that. “You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word,” (Psalm 119:114). When we do put our hope in the word of God, we have a place of safety to run to (His word), and we have a place of protection (His word). Immersing yourself in the word of God and meditating on it and memorizing it gives you some protection from the schemes of Satan because then when he tempts you or lies to you, you can counter it with the truth of the Bible. It also puts positive, true thought in your head that helps you have a better attitude.
So, when we put our hope in God. We have hope in a bright, eternal future. We have hope that what he says in the Bible is true, which in turn gives us all kinds of reasons to have hope. We have hope of his unconditional, unfailing, unending love. We have hope of prosperity and blessings. We have hope of his faithfulness to answer our prayers. We have hope that, “he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.” Then when we hope in the Lord and He renews our strength like it says in Isaiah, we are armed and ready to face any battles that life brings our way and we will soar through life like a beautiful, majestic eagle. Not that there won’t be problems, but we will still be able to run through them and not become weary. Take a few minutes right now to think and pray and find out: Is your hope in the Lord? If it's not, put it there right now. You won't regret it.