God's wisdom through prayer

James 1:5 is a wonderful prayer promise for us today. "But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, Who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, If ANY person is lacking in wisdom, they can pray. The Lord's desire is to give us His wisdom today, and give it generously. Every single morning and throughout the day we can ask the Lord for His wisdom and it will be given.  The wisdom of this world can only take us so far.  The wisdom of God will enable us to navigate through this journey of life well and be a great blessing to others. Keep asking! I reminds me of Jesus' words about prayer in Matthew 7:7"Ask and it shall be give unto you.  Seek and you shall find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Our King wants us to learn to ask.  We ask, He answers.  We ask in faith, He responds.  This is how He has set it up. The asking must be coupled with Faith in our God who is able to supply.   Thank you Lord for wisdom!  Acquiring wisdom involves asking, seeking, watching, crying out, finding, pursuing, studying. We find God's Wisdom by spending time in His Word, day and night. and day and night. and day and night. Oh that we would  cry out for God's wisdom in faith as we open up the Living Word of God today. The wisdom of God is limitless and it is  available to you today. Learn to ask your heavenly Father for it daily and continually, in faith, BELIEVING! Then expect to receive it. When you receive it, employ it to bless this world.

lifewords 3.29.11 prayer. psalm 5:1-3

 

I pray Psalm 5:1-3 will encourage you and become your daily early morning prayer.  I have been greatly strengthened as  I have meditated on it today and write these words to you. David was a man of prayer and understood the necessity of approaching God early in the day while besieged by many adversaries. This Psalm is so very precious to me every morning before the dawn. I pray the Lord will make it real to you.     "Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning.   Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for unto You do I pray.   Oh Lord, in the morning You hear my voice: In the morning I direct my prayer unto You and will look up."    Give ear.....Consider.....Give attention! David  is emphasizing three times,  "Lord I desperately need Your help." If one of my precious children found me early in the morning before the dawn with an urgent plea three times "Mama please listen, pay attention to what I'm saying, I'm crying out for your help!".....I would  turn all of my attention toward  the cry of that dear one and respond.... and so does our Father.   Prayer has a voice.  Prayer is  our words, it is our cry, our groans. Of course it's possible to meditate in silent prayer. David understood the "waiting in silence upon the Lord" also.  But in the morning, surrounded by enemies, He cried out to God with words and groanings and prayers. The Lord responds to our call for help, for ourselves, for our family, for others.   My King and My God. I love the way David acknowledges His King, His God. He turns his focus from the circumstances and from his fears, anxieties, concerns, to his faithful all powerful God. My King, My God, My Protector, My Provider, My Healer, My Savior,  My Redeemer, My Lord, My Help,  My Light, My Shepherd, My All in All, My God who raises the dead!   For unto You do I pray.  This is an essential aspect of prayer. The Lord is the focus of our praying, not all the situations. Not ourselves. He already knows everything anyway! Focus on His faithfulness, His promises, His attributes, not rehearsing the details of all the problems.   Oh Lord in the morning you hear my voice. I pray that our Lord would hear our voice in the morning.  Jesus gave us the example, that "in the morning, rising up a great while before the day, he went out and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed!' - Mark 1:35" Jesus our Lord and our example rose in the dark to pray and spend time with the Father in a solitary place daily.    Every great man or woman of prayer understands the necessity of time alone with God early in the morning.   Charles Spurgeon says, "This is the fittest time for intercourse with God. An hour in the morning is worth two in the evening. While the dew is on the grass, let grace drop upon the soul." The urgency of the times demands our drawing near to the Lord in prayer early in the day. My favorite time of the day is with my Lord before the sun rises.  I could not survive without this time with Him.   In the morning I direct my prayer. The word direct here is the word used when the sacrifice was arranged by the priest on the altar,  the pieces carefully placed before the Lord. Some translations say "in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch." The idea is prayer is not haphazard and careless. Our call to God, our praying to Him is intentional, purposeful and thoughtful.   And will look up. Today, as we pray, we look to our King. When we leave the prayer closet our eyes should be fixed on Him for the rest of the day. "Looking unto Him the Author and Perfector of our faith." Don't allow your focus to shift back onto your feelings or circumstances, or the way the situations you are praying for look right now. Look to Him and have confidence in His faithfulness and His Word. I pray that this psalm would become your daily morning cry to God, He will hear and He will answer you, for you are His beloved one and your voice of prayer is essential to His purposes being released into your life, the lives of those around you and the world. Amy

Call

lifewords Monday 3.38.11 call;  Praying for you this morning was an exciting privilege.  Prayer is powerful and essential!  It is God's plan whereby we ask, He answers, we seek, and He is found, and we knock and the door is opened. It is the process between the need or desire, the promises in His Word received and the fulfillment of His will.   Today's "lifewords" center around one very simple choice that every believer can make that will please our Father greatly.  Daily, we can learn to call upon the Lord, out loud, and He will hear and answer! Calling upon Him, crying to Him, lifting our voice to Him is the necessary condition to His hearing us. We must move beyond hoping.  Hope waits for God to do something.  But I think He is often waiting for us to  do what He has already instructed us to do! True faith moves us to Call upon Him. He will hear, He will respond. He will never refuse the cry of His child. Here are just a few of the many scriptures involving lifting our voice to God.  I know they will encourage you to new levels of Calling upon His Name in faith! First Psalm 145:18  "The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth." When we call, in sincerity with a pure heart, He is near. And if He is near, all is well.   Second, it's interesting that finding wisdom and understanding is preceded by our CALLING out! Proverbs 2:3 'Yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek  for it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God." Third, in our distress, the Lord has given us instructions of what to do....Call upon Him! Psalm 18:6 "In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help.  From his temple He heard my voice, and my cry to  Him reached His ears." Practice praying continually instead of being overwhelmed. Remember  Philippians 4:6? "do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." When we feel like circumstances are pressing on every side, we can call upon Him and He will answer.  Just like a good earthly parent, He will never refuse His child's cry for help. Psalms 3:3-4 "But  you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and lifter of my head.  I cried aloud to the Lord, and He answered me from His holy hill." We can be sure He hears our cry! Psalms 4:3 says, "But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself, the Lord hears when I call to Him." And because of His heart of love for us and His faithfulness to His Word, when He hears us, He responds. So Call! And infuse your calling with sincerity, truth and much thanksgiving! you are His beloved. amy

Abiding prayer

 

He is Faithful and True and loves you with an everlasting love. Today's lifewords are six of the most important verses on prayer, spoken by our Lord. I pray the Lord will teach us and  transform us as we meditate on the living Word today. praying for you, amy.   John 15:5-11 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing...   If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.  As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you.  Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.  These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Lifewords 3.23.11 Prayer 6

lifewords 3.23.11 I pray the abiding presence of our Lord is yours today as you surrender all to Him. It is such a privilege to pray for you this morning before the dawn. Prayer is the focus of this week's lifewords and  Psalm 25 will greatly encourage you today. The Word of God is so rich!  I encourage you to read the entire Psalm because it is David's powerful prayer to God for help and it can become your prayer as well. Verses 12-15 are amazing concerning prayer. Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose. His soul will abide in prosperity, and his descendants will inherit the land.  The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him. And He will make them know His covenant.      Who is the person who fears the Lord? The word fear here is not like we might think of fear as being afraid of God. He is our loving Father who loves us with an everlasting love and desires to  forgive us, redeem us, live in us, have relationship with us and touch lives through us.  The word has the idea of one who who worships,  loves, honors, reveres, and obeys the Lord and His Word.  He will instruct him in the way he should choose.The Lord will guide and instruct and lead this person in all his choices, decisions, in praying, in all of life.  He will instruct us how to choose to prayfor others and for this world,  how to decide to live, how to choose the path of life among many choices. He will guide us to decisions that lead to life and blessing. Sincerely worship, love, honor and obey the Lord continually, and the Holy Spirit will guide you continually. Exciting!    His soul will abide in prosperity. What does this mean? It means that on the inside, this person will experience the shalom of God.  Peace, wellness, wholeness, blessing.  So, instead of fear, doubt, anxiety, confusion and emotional bankruptcy...the person who worships and honors the Lord and His Word will have peace, joy and emotional wellness.    His descendents will inherit the land. As we sincerely honor and revere our King by our obedience to Him, our children will reap the benefits of this in their generation. His Lordship in our lives will cause us to train up our children  to  love and honor Him and will bring His blessing and favor to them.   The secret of the Lord is for those who fear (worship, honor, revere, obey) Him. As we spend time worshipping Him, loving His Word, honoring Him with our life, He will reveal truths to us that cannot be entrusted to others. Some translations say the "friendship" of the Lord, the intimacy of the Lord is to those who fear Him. The secret things are only known by close friends. Another translation says the "counsel" of the Lord. I sure want the Lord's counsel don't you?   He will make known to them His covenant. His covenant is His Word, His promises to us, His will for us.  The Bible reveals His covenant with mankind. It is a covenant of His love.  He will reveal His Word to us. We will know and understand His Ways. He will demonstrate His covenant of love in our lives as we intentionally worship, love, honor, revere and obey Him by obeying the truth of the Bible and yielding to His leading. He does this for us not for our own benefit only. His purposes are always generational, global and eternal. Our understanding of His covenant is for the purpose of the Great Commission and being a conduit of His love and Gospel to a dying world. Our understanding of His covenant will effect lives for eternity. We must understand the urgency of the time and be alert to His leading.   Oh Lord teach us to live this way. Take a moment to pray for this verse to be a reality in  your life, the lives of your children and  in the lives of those you influence. I'm praying for YOU,  for you are His beloved. amy.

lifewords 3.22.11 the secret place of prayer

 

lifewords 3.22.11 the secret place of prayer   It was a privilege to pray for you this morning! You are greatly loved by God. The book of Matthew is incredible and rich regarding prayer. In Matthew 6:6, Jesus gives instructions concerning our personal prayer time. "When you pray,  go into your  room (your inner room, or closet, private place) and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father,  who sees in secret, will reward you openly."  How wonderful! An open invitation to meet with our Father in secret, closing the door on the business, usual activities, people and distractions of our daily life. "When you pray" means that as often as  we choose to draw near to Him in secret prayer, He will meet us.  Jesus says that the Father sees us in that secret place.  His ear is open to us in that secret place. His presence is available to us in that secret place. He  delights for us to come into that quiet place, away from the clamor, and meet with Him in prayer.  Intimacy always costs something, but is always worth the pursuit. The more desperate we are to meet with the Father alone, the more we will experience His abiding presence and learn how to pray.  He takes notice of our prayers in the secret place.  Oh He is urging us to more time with Him in secret prayer!   Jesus speaks of the results of  our secret time with the Father. He says that "the Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly." What type of reward?  Well, the context here is prayer. He is speaking of secret prayer. So the reward is very specific to prayer. I believe the reward is the manifestation of answers to prayer.  The answers to our secret praying will be seen openly.   Of course we can talk to the Father continually in prayer any time during the day and night.  The habit of meeting with others in prayer is also essential. But this secret place of prayer is on an entirely different level.  As we meet with Him regularly in the intimacy of that secret place, His presence will saturate us, and we will take that presence with us as we go about our day.  The reward is Him. The reward is His favor on our life, His wisdom displayed through us, His love manifested to the world through us. The reward is a manifestation of His will. The reward of our secret time is that His purposes are seen in our lives, others lives and in the earth.    Much time alone with the Father in prayer is the most valuable investment which yields the most valuable reward! Be intentional in making it a priority, then be jealous over keeping this time, for you can be sure  the enemy will do everything to keep you from it.         Praying for YOU, amy.   "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, 'You are my refuge and my fortress, my God, in Whom I trust.'" praying for YOU, amy

Prayer III

Psalm 13:5 is awesome today. "But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation." We can rely on God's steadfast, unchanging, lavish love for us. What an anchor for our hearts! In the midst of change, uncertainty, circumstances,  and battles, our Father's love for us is sure and it abounds. We can make a decision to rejoice in His abundant salvation and grace. I'm praying for the joy of the Lord to enfold you like a blanket today.  I've just finished praying for you this morning, specifically according to Ephesians 1:17-23. Powerful. I pray He would open the eyes of our heart to know the hope to which He has called us and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set apart ones), and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe. You are greatly loved.

The focus of this week's lifewords is Prayer. I'm praying that the Lord will ignite in each of us a renewed passion for prayer, give us deeper understanding of knowing how to pray well, and take us to new levels of intimacy, worship, consecration, faith and victory. The urgency of the hour is demanding our  alert, unprecedented commitment to prayer. Prayer is in the daily secret place Jesus speaks of in Matthew 6:7. Prayer is also an abiding, unceasing lifestyle Paul exhorts us to in I Thessalonians 5:17. We learn prayer from the example of our Lord in the Gospels. We learn it from the Living Word of God. Most of all, the Holy Spirit will teach us how to pray as we yield ourselves to Him in prayer daily. Prayer is always intentional. God's plan  is that we develop in all facets of our prayer life, understanding that prayer is the vehicle He has designed whereby His will is released in our lives, in the lives of those around us and in the Earth.  He transforms us in prayer. We call upon Him in prayer and He answers. It is in through the Spirit-led, faith-filled prayers of the saints that His purposes advance in the Earth. Prayer is work, it takes effort and time, but it will be the greatest eternal investment imaginable, not only for ourselves but for our families, His glorious church, our cities, our nation and the nations of the world. A true life of prayer is the greatest adventure we will have on this earth and our most urgent responsibility that will effect lives for eternity. praying for YOU, Amy.

3-20-11 Prayer

It is a lovely Sunday and I am praying for you now before the sun rises. Prayer is so powerful. Our Lord is faithful! His love for you is immeasurable and His thoughts toward you outnumber the sand. You are His beloved one.

 

This morning I was instantly awakened by  a myriad of  urgent thoughts.  That moment brought with it a choice to continue to think about the urgency of the circumstances or to employ that urgency in fervent prayer and thanksgiving. Jesus, speaking to His disciples in John 14, said, "Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in Me."  We choose our response to the circumstances of life,the pressures, the fears, the opportunities to be offended or wounded, the disappointments, our own failures or the failures of others.  He says choose to not allow our hearts to be troubled, believe in Him and trust in His Word!  We can place our hope in the living God. Then we can do what David did in Psalm 9. "I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.  I will be glad and exult in You. I will sing praise to Your Name O Most High." Let's believe God's Word today.  Let's remember His faithfulness! Right now we can make the decision to give Him thanks and praise and allow His steadfast love to keep our hearts steadfast in Him and His faithfulness. "Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, and His steadfast love endures forever!" (Ps. 107:1)

A Person of Prayer

"The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread?" Psalms 27:1 Good Morning it's a brand new day and I pray that you are encouraged and fortified in our Lord! He is faithful. His love abounds to you. All is well, because He is Lord of all.  I've just been praying for you and your family and it is such a joy to know that we can place our confidence in Him and in His Word. This week's "lifewords" are on PRAYER, I pray the Word will propel us to a whole new level in our prayer life.    Prayer is amazing! Faith-filled prayer, directed by the leading of the Holy Spirit and infused with the Word of God is so powerful! Faith grows by reading and meditating on God's Word and it thrives in an atmosphere of prayer.   I'm so grateful that our Lord has given us the  privilege and authority of praying in His Name.  Jesus prayed continually and taught His disciples to pray and expect results. Remember His Words in Matt. 7:7? "Ask and is shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened." Prayer. Ask, Seek. Knock. This is a time for every believer to be alert and employed in prayer and learn to pray well. Prayer is talking to God, but it also includes a lifestyle of worship, of listening, of using His Name, of consecration, of praying according to His Word, of using the authority Jesus gave us over demonic forces, and of being directed by the precious Holy Spirit. An authentic life of prayer is intentional, never by accident. It is marked by time set apart, and also by a moment by moment  abiding in Him. Paul said  in Phil. 4:6 to "not be anxious for anything, pray about everything.  And the peace that passes understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."  Pray without ceasing!  Instead of being overwhelmed, pray.  Resist hopelessness and fear and rise up and pray in Jesus Name.  Instead rehearsing circumstances or and focusing on pressures, we can pray in faith believing, and God responds!   Remember James 5:16 "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." God will transform us in prayer and He will ignite a passion in our hearts to pray for others. He will teach us how to pray. The purposes of God are set into motion in this earth through the prayers of His people. Prayer is by His design that we call upon Him, trust in Him and place our faith in Him. Intimacy with God is cultivated in prayer. Consecration to His will comes through prayer. A life of passion for Him and for His purposes is birthed in prayer.  A true love for people is comes through time in prayer. His wisdom, His leading, His abiding presence are experienced as we become desperate for Him in prayer. Prayer is more important than all of our talking, all of our doing, all of our ideas. Prayer connects us to His presence and His purposes. Make up your mind to be a person of prayer, then ask Him to teach you how. He will!

Amy Stoehr 390 Mimosa Ave. Vista, California 92081