Lifewords, prayer series, 14 of 30

 

lifewords, prayer series, 14 of 30  Waiting on the Lord IV   Jesus said we are to pray much. In following His example, the Holy Spirit will teach us how to have an abiding prayer relationship with Him, moment by moment. Oh this is the most imperative, the most exciting foundational aspect of our life in Christ and it is the key to all!. Jesus  also taught us, by His habit and by His Word, that we are to establish a time to go into a set apart place and meet with our Father alone. This is the necessity of each day!    An important aspect of our prayer time is learning to "wait on the Lord." The most often used word in the Old Testament for Wait, in the Hebrew, is the word Qavah, which means to hope or wait with expectation! Hebrew words are often a picture of the meaning of the word and in this case, the word has the connotation of a rope bound together. I believe it is the binding together of hope and expectation in looking to our Faithful Lord who will meet us and  who will watch over His Word to perform it. We are not waiting, just to be waiting. We are looking to our King and His Word, confident of His covenant love for us and His faithfulness to His Word. I absolutely love Psalm 59:9.10 O my Strength, I will watch for you, for you O God are my fortress.  My God in His steadfast love will meet me;  God will let me look in triumph on my enemies.   When David wrote this psalm he was on the run for his life.  Saul had sent assassins to kill him. But he does not allow himself to get overwhelmed. He is looking, watching, waiting expectantly knowing God will meet him. Refusing to be moved by the hopeless circumstance he looks to God knowing the God will meet him on his battlefield.  He says, 'my God in His steadfast love (love is "hesed" meaning covenant love!)  will meet me'. That word "Meet" has the connotation of  having an appointment with someone and arriving in advance to make preparation. In other words, God is already ahead of us, on our battlefield waiting to meet us  with provision for victory. We are His covenant Children. Our Father delights to arrive on our battlefield in advance with His provision, protections and purposes. He will meet us. That is what covenant love is. So learn to wait, not just for the sake of waiting, but by looking with expectation to His promises, understanding His absolute faithfulness,  until your faith soars with confidence that will enable you to stand, to defeat the enemy and to walk in God's plan!  Let's master  art of waiting on the Lord, He will strengthen us, He will meet us! My soul waits in silence for God alone.....wait, I say, on the Lord!

Lifewords, Prayer Series, 13 of 30, Waiting on the Lord III

Lifewords, Prayer Series, 13 of 30 Waiting on the Lord III   "For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who WAITS FOR HIM."  Isaiah  64:4    As part of your daily prayer time with the Lord, make time to master the art of waiting on the Lord. It will be lifechanging for you and the Lord will teach you. Here are some scriptures for you to meditate on regarding waiting and the blessings that accompany our obedience to practice being still and looking to Him for all.    Isaiah 40:31 But they that wait  upon the Lord will renew their strength, they will mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be wary; they shall walk and not faint.   Psalm 33:30 Our souls wait for the Lord. HE is our Help and Shield. For our heart is glad in Him because we trust in his Name   Psalm 130:5 I wait for the Lord. My soul waits. And in His Word I hope; My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.   Psalm 37:3-7 Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light. And your justice as the noonday. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him;   Psalm 40:1 I waited patiently for the Lord, He inclined to me and heard my cry.  He drew me up form the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure....   Psalm 62 My soul waits in silence for God only; From Him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, My fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.

Lifewords, Prayer Series, 12 of 30

Lifewords, Prayer Series, 12 of 30 Waiting on the Lord II "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord, more than the watchmen for the morning, more than the watchman for the morning."      Especially when there is much to pray about....many concerns, many needs, fears within and fears without, trials abounding, battles raging, impossibilities clouding our faith......it is often the most difficult discipline to practice waiting on the Lord in our prayer time. But it is this time in the secret place of learning to look expectantly to Him,  and being  still in His presence, in awe of His majesty that is the key to an amazing abiding prayer relationship with our Lord. He wants us to learn the art of waiting upon Him.     Sometimes when one of my little ones would get a little too agitated  or worked up, I would have them practice sitting still in a chair and just think about being thankful. They would rather do almost anything else, it was so hard to be still. They would immediately want to tell me all about it and before they could start talking I would say "sh....no talking."   They would say..."but mom I just want to...." No, be still,  I would say, "No talking. Just be still and think and be thankful". They would try to talk three or four more times and I would stop them at the first peep. That would be almost impossible for my son when he was about  five years old.  Soon, his little feet would start swinging. "Stop moving" I would say. Then he would start humming. "Shh, be still" Then he would start clapping his hands or moving his head. Oh how hard it would be for him to be still. Isn't that how we are at times when we come to our Lord in prayer?   I think our Father is wanting us to be still daily. We want to talk. We want to fret. We want to explain. We want to complain. We want to bring one hundred prayer requests. But  I believe that the Father says "Worship Me dear child, and  be still for awhile. Think about Me. Wait for Me. Be with Me. Quiet yourself, trust in Me and My Word. Consider my Works. Consider my Love for You and just be still and wait awhile in my presence.  Remember all of my faithfulness to you, and through the generations. Remember Who I AM.  Bring your racing mind in line with My Word. Allow my love to fill you, My Peace to anchor you. I will come. I am here."     Memorize this verse, and  live like you believe it. It is just as true  and alive for you and I today  as it was the day it was written. Read it and meditate on it until you really Hear it as a living promise for you this day.   "For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who WAITS FOR HIM."  Isaiah  64:4

Lifewords Prayer Series 11 of 30

Lifewords Prayer Series 11 of 30 Waiting on the Lord   Our daily time of prayer alone with God is such a miraculous exchange. Our weakness for His strength. Our failures for His forgiveness. Our petitions for His answers. Our barrenness for His life. Our fear for His love. In His Light we see Light. In His presence is fullness of Joy. His love is consuming. He is our All in All! One of the most important aspects of an awesome prayer life is that we don't do all the talking! Of course the Lord responds to our cry for help as we bring our petitions to the Father with childlike faith. But God's plan for us as we grow up in our praying is that we learn to be still in His presence, cultivating the art of hearing. It is what the Bible refers to many times as Waiting on the Lord. It is challenging, for our inclination more to DO than to BE STILL! It takes practice and the Holy Spirit is our Teacher in all.    Today, let's ask the Lord to teach us how to wait in His presence in awe of Him, trusting in His matchless Word. He will teach us how to be quiet and to "hear" with spiritual ears. Psalm 37:7 says, "Be still before the Lord and wait." Psalm 130:5 is one of my favorites, "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord, more than the watchmen for the morning, more than the watchman for the morning." Be sure to have your journal/notebook with you and your Bible in prayer, for He will meet you in your waiting and He will show you great and mighty things that you do not know!!! Remember Isaiah 40:31, "But they that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength, they will mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." Learning the art of waiting on the Lord brings strength and endurance for every day of the journey.    Waiting is to look to the Lord with expectation, with full assurance that He will meet you, He will fill you afresh with His presence, He will transform you, He will instruct you. Determine daily that before you ask, seek and knock, you will "wait upon the Lord" until you receive from Him. Meditate on His Word, Think about the splendor of Who He is. Listen. Lord, teach us how to Wait on You daily.

Lifewords Prayer Series 10 of 30

Lifewords Prayer Series 10 of 30    Jesus said in Matthew 6:6 "When you PRAY,  go into your room and close the door and pray to your Father in secret, and your Father,  Who sees in secret will reward you openly."     Oh how our Lord is beckoning us, urging us to daily time with Him in the secret place of prayer. We enter His gates with much thanksgiving and into His courts with much praise. We come by the precious blood of Jesus, humbling ourselves and asking the Lord to reveal areas of sin in the light of His Word. According to 1 John 1:9 we bring our failures, our inadequacies, our sin to Him in repentance and we receive forgiveness and cleansing!  This is the most wonderful miracle of every day and a key to effective prayer! That we can receive the Lord's forgiveness from our failures.  "If we confess our sin before Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness." Wow!  When you come into the prayer closet don't bypass this process...............Come to the wonderful Cross of Christ, see your failures nailed there, and allow the power of the Blood of the perfect Lamb of God to cover them. The penalty for our sin has been paid! But we must appropriate this precious blood of Jesus every day and receive forgiveness. Jesus said that we are to ask the Father to "forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us."   Psalm 66:18 says, "if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Oh but as we allow the Holy Spirit to reveal areas of darkness and sin in our heart and repent,  He will hear and respond to our prayers.  "Bless the Lord Oh my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquity....!"     According to Psalm 51 "He will daily wash us from our iniquity and cleanse us from sin" We can't approach God the Father any old way. We come into His presence in prayer receiving forgiveness.  Don't let sin keep you from prayer. Run to Him, receive forgiveness and come boldly to the throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help in time of need, by faith! Every day we can receive mercy for our failures! Who can ascend to the hill of the Lord and stand in His holy place in prayer? He who has clean hands and a pure heart..................Oh Lord thank you for forgiveness!

Lifewords Prayer Series 9 of 30

Lifewords  Prayer Series 9 of 30 Jesus said in Matthew 6:6 "When you PRAY,  go into your room and close the door and pray to your Father in secret, and your Father,  Who sees in secret will reward you openly."    As we surrender all to Him the Lord will teach us to pray, through the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit our Teacher. He will expose and remove the barriers of pride, unbelief, sin and unforgiveness . These four areas must be brought into the light of God's Word every day. If left unchecked, they will hinder effective praying. But when we bring them daily to the victorious cross, trusting in the power of the blood of Jesus to forgive and liberate us, we will be set free into a whole new level of prayer and intercession.      So, we come into His gates with Thanksgiving, We enter His courts with Praise. It is interesting to think about the Tabernacle of Moses, a picture for us today of how we are to approach God in prayer. Remember, the first area right after the entryway to the tent was the Altar of Sacrifice where the animal sacrifices  were made to atone for the sin of the people.  This  is a picture to us, of bringing our sacrifices of Praise  to the Lord as we come into prayer.    Next was the "Laver" or wash basin for cleansing. This signifies to us that when we come into our time of prayer, we must come by the cleansing Blood of our Savior.  We come with humility, asking the Lord to search our hearts and reveal, so that we can repent and receive forgiveness and cleansing according to 1 John 1:9. Daily repentance is powerful and necessary and vital for effective prayer! God's Word says in Psalms that "if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me."  Oh, but the precious, powerful blood of our Savior who is abundant in lovingkindness and forgiveness! He wants us to come to Him, with all of our failures, all of our sin, all of our imperfection. As we come with a humble and sincere heart, repenting for all, we can receive forgiveness and cleansing. We can be confident that the power of His grace and love to forgive us is greater than our sin.There is power in His blood, in the very Name of Jesus!