All hail king Jesus

All heaven declares ...

Silent Night

The Sunday school teacher told the kids to draw a picture of "Silent Night" and walked around while the kids were doing so.  One little girl had drawn Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the shepherds and the wise men.  She had also added a fat man off to the side. 

"Who is that, Susan?" the teacher asked, pointing to the fat man.

"Oh", Susan replied, "that's Round John Virgin."

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The Sunday school teacher told the kids to draw a biblical picture and walked around while the kids were doing so.  Little Susan was industriously scrabbling on her paper.

"What are you drawing, Susan?" the teacher asked.

"I'm drawing God."

"But honey, nobody knows what God looks like."

Without missing a stroke, Susan replied, "Well,  they will as soon as I am done."

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The Sunday school teacher told the kids to write down the "Our Father".

Jimmy wrote: "Our Father which are in Heaven, Harold be Thy Name".

Oscar wrote: "Our Father who shouts from Heaven "Hallo, what is your name?"

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Thank You Father, for this amazing gift - the perfect sacrifice that reconciled us with You so that we may draw boldly unto the throne room of grace (Heb 4:16/10:19)

Wow ...

Day 40 - What Has Gone Before

Over the past 40 days we have looked at principles for effective prayer.  The source of these principles is a book by Selwyn Hughes, titled "Fifteen Ways to a More Effective Prayer Life".  It is a thin book, all of 63 pages, but it contains some wonderful, practical advice that will benefit everyone from a brand-spanking-new Christian to a grizzled prayer warrior with calloused knees.

The 15 principles (very summarised) are:

1. Breathe a prayer for help as you begin.
   You're embarking on an amazing adventure and satan will oppose you. Start this journey by asking God to help you.
2. Establish a definite time.
   It will help you to keep on keeping. If you can schedule meetings, visits, etc., you can schedule time for God.
3. Keep your appointment even when you don't feel like it.
   That's only good manners. It will help you to discipline yourself and you will find that some of your most wonderful experiences come out of times when you pray in spite of not wanting to.
4. Find a suitable place in which to pray.
   If you have a study, bedroom or office where you can be alone, use it. If not, go for a walk. If that's not possible, find a place within you.
5. Go into your prayer time relaxed and receptive.
   Do some relaxation exercises. Relax your mind by focusing on God. Deliberately put your troubles and anxieties out of mind while you pray.
6. Begin your prayer time by reading a passage from the Bible.
   There is no substitute for His word. Expect Him to speak to you out of His word.
7. Use a notebook.
   Write your requests on one side and God's answers on the other. If you find this too mechanical, just try it for a month or two and see what happens.
8. Develop a prayer pattern.
   There are generally three parts to a prayer – look to God, look to yourself, look to others.
9. Offer up prayer in Jesus' name.
   This means to pray what Jesus would have prayed, i.e. acting as His representative.
10. Listen for God's voice.
    Prayer is a dialogue. Take time to listen that you may hear what God says to you. This takes practice and time. Do not give up.
11. Open up your whole being to the flow of God's Spirit.
    God speaks to us and works through us with His Holy Spirit. Allow Him to do this. Expect Him to do this.
12. Cultivate the power of imagination.
    Your imagination is from God and you can use it to His glory. See with you imagination how you receive God's love, joy, peace. See how He answers your prayers and affirm it by saying it aloud.
13. Outmanoeuvre wandering thoughts.
    If your thoughts wander, turn them to God or bring Jesus into the picture as soon as you realise that they've wandered. Thinking about your job? Thank God for your job and that you can serve Him in the workplace. Thinking evil thoughts? Tell Jesus about it and ask Him to fill your mind with His thoughts.
14. Add power by entering into an occasional fast.
    Fasting builds your spiritual nature and diminishes your carnal nature. That's what is known as a win-win situation. Remember Jesus said "When you fast", not "If you fast".
15. Understand and practise the principles of faith.
    Heb 11:6 – Without faith it is impossible to please God for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

I have purposely kept this summary short for two reasons:

1. to encourage you to meditate on these principles. What do they mean to you? Expect God to reveal the meaning to you as you meditate on the various principles. Naturally I'd be happy to discuss them with anyone who is interested. You can even borrow my copy of Fifteen Ways to a More Effective Prayer Life :-) - just collar me at a church service and ask.
2. all the principles are recorded more fully in this blog.  Page through it and leave comments - questions, advice, stories, testimonies, anything that seems relevant to you.

And so we come to the end of our 40 days of faith but, of course, it is not an end.  Your relationship with God continues and hopefully these 40 days have helped you to come closer to Him, to get to know Him better.  I hope that you have received a little nudge, a small encouragement, some momentum that will help your relationship with God to grow in intimacy.

I would like to do this again sometime in the future and would appreciate input about the format, presentation, etc. - any ideas that can make it better.  Please leave a comment.

Thank you to everyone who followed the blog, who prayed for it, who read it regularly and who left a comment or two.  A special thank you goes to Suneeta who contributed content as well.

May God continue to bless you as you seek Him with all your heart.

Day 39 - Principle 15: Apply the Principles of Faith

Heb 11:6 is one of my favourite verses:  Without faith it is impossible to please God for everyone who comes to Him must believe that He is and the He is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.  It reminds me of Jesus' words in Mat 6:33: But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.

Faith is central to prayer.  If you don't believe what you pray you are either fooling yourself or trying to impress the people within earshot of your prayer.  Both are foolish and a waste of time.

Faith is defined in Heb 11:2 - It is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

The central concept is trust.  Faith means that we trust God that He is honest and that He can and will do what He has said He will do.  Over the years people have said that faith means that God

• can do what He said;
• will do what He said; or
• has done what He said.

Personally I like the last one best - God has already done, prepared, made available everything that He has stated in His Word, e.g. healing, and we take hold of it and appropriate it through faith.  To me faith simply means knowing the truth that will be.

It is that simple, but you have to back it up with knowledge and relationship.  You can only really, truly and totally trust God when you know Him intimately.  The better you know Him, the easier it is to have faith in Him.  See the Day 37 post.

He is an awesome God, deserving of our worship, praise and adoration.  He is also our Father and His eyes are continually running to and fro throughout the earth, so that He can show Himself strong on the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards Him (2 Chron 16:9). God has a great, great desire to show Himself strong on your behalf, to open the windows of heaven and shower you with so much blessing that you will not have room enough to receive it.  Go to Him, like a child, and put your faith and trust in this awesome, wonderful, magnificent God Whose one desire is that you should know Him.

Day 38 - P R A Y E R

What does "PRAYER" stand for?  We considered this in our small group meeting last night and this is what we came up with:

• P - Patience, Persistence, Praise, Peace, Perseverance, Power
• R - Repentance, Right away, Rejoice, Reality, Revival, Righteousness
• A - Acknowledge, Always, Adoration, Aardvark*, Asking, Acceptance, Altar
• Y - Yes, Yearning, Your will be done, Yoke
• E - Encourage, Exact, Expectation, Ever, Everyday, Eternal Life
• R - Return, Regularly, Request, Reside, Remember, Repentance

*"Aardvark" might need a little explanation :)  It is the first entry in an encyclopaedia and thus signifies that God should be first in our lives.

That's what we came up with.  What does PRAYER mean to you?