Friday, November 19, 2010

What Do We Say?





“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

His love endures forever.

Let the redeemed of the Lord say this

Those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,

Those he gathered from the lands, from east and

west, from north and south.” Psalm 107:1-2 (NIV)



When we asked Jesus to enter our hearts, He redeemed us from our sinful ways. In essence, He bought us back from the evil path we were walking.

Each of us has benefitted from God’s enduring love. He protects us from sin. He guides us in the way He wants us to go.

I remember, as a child, hearing adults remind their children to say thank you by asking, “What do you say?” I remember prompting my son the same way.

I participate in a prayer group. We petition God for the salvation of those who are lost. When we pray we also give thanks for our own salvation. When one of us does others all add our thanks while praying.

As God’s children, we sometimes might need to be prompted by the Holy Spirit to say ‘thank you.’ But we would please our Father if we said it automatically, without His having to prompt us..

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

With Thanksgiving

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything,

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)



Paul shares with us a lesson we all should review. He tells us to pray with thanksgiving. I personally have had times when my request was not anything I wanted to thank Him for. But, I believe that we are to thank Him for the fact that we have Him to help us and guide us through the issue.

We can also thank Him for what He is going to do to resolve the circumstance before He does. We have instances when we know God is the only one who can remedy a problem; in fact, the majority of the issues that confront us can be solved by God’s intervention in our lives. When God chooses to mediate in our stresses, He either handles the facts himself or he instructs us what we need to do. Somewhere along the way we have to remember to thank Him.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Look to God



“As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,

as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress,

so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he shows us mercy.”

Psalm 123:2 (NIV)



We have ups and downs in our lives due to our being human. Some friends of mine call these times parts of life.

When we are face to face with tough times, what do we do? We ‘run’ to God. We speak of His presence more often. We listen more attentively.

What happens when things straighten out and all is going well? We forget God. By our actions we tell Him, “I can take over now.” We forget He is still in control. Shame on us.

For this reason our Christian forebears chose to institute times of prayer and Bible reading, sometimes twice a day. We need to stay in touch with God, especially when things go smoothly.

When we undergo good things we should praise God, thanking Him for the experience. At the end of my prayer list I keep a list of praises. Each day I try to find at least one thing that I can thank God for. Some days I have several; other times, all I can give praise for is the sunshine coming through my window.

Praising God keeps me from being downhearted. In order to praise Him we have to look to Him. Also, we have to look for Him and His acting in our lives and the lives of those around us.

God Alone

  Jesus and the children at our church's prayer walk.          I will both lie down in peace and sleep;  For You alone, O LORD make ...