Category: prayer

Thrilling Guest Thursday: Jeanie Kelley


Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This isn’t a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in.
(Matthew 7:7-8 The Message)

 
Please welcome my journaling and writing friend, Jeanie Kelley. Jeanie has a blog where she shares insights from life and the Bible studies that she enjoys online with Melissa Taylor and her Online Bible Studies.
 
Here’s a recent post from Jeanie, where she shares about her cats and perservering prayer in Cats Alive and Begging:
 
Who does not love an animal especially a cat? In our marriage, we have had a total of four cats and they can do all the craziest things to make a person stop and think. What brings to my mind is how a cat can beg so sympathetically and eat the crumbs off the floor just like a dog. In a way, our cats are like dogs. They have quirks that make them act like a dog. Take for instance, when we have sat down to a meal. We see that the cats have came to call looking for that proverbial morsel on the floor. They lick them up and are waiting enthusiastically for more. It is kind of like Oliver Twist by Dickens where he says to the cook,”Please sir,I want some more.” That is what seems is happening with our fine feline friends. They keep saying I want some more.
Click here to read more . . .
 
 
And now introducing, Jeannie’s current furried friends . . .  read more about them here.




Lupas



Tilq
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How Then Should I Pray?

 

Pray then like this—

Our Heavenly Father,
may your name be honoured;
May your kingdom come,
and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day the bread we need,
Forgive us what we owe to you,
as we have also forgiven those who owe anything to us.
Keep us clear of temptation,
and save us from evil.

(Matthew 6:9-13 J.B Phillips)

Linking up with:


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Pray Continually

 
Rejoice always,  pray continually,  give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV)

As I thumbed through a couple journals from summer 2012, I was searching for poetry and flowers, and instead I discovered a garden of prayer.

Last year, I was reading, The Hour that Changes the World by Dick Eastman and I adapted his twelve steps of prayer into a time of creative prayer. Here’s an example of one of my more colorful times praying:

 
Each bud in the pot names the topic of prayer!

 
 
 
Prayer of An Artist’s Need

 
 
I need
stunning vistas
wild wonders
great vantage points
a bridge to the past
the best seat in history
novel ideas
to experience art
to be filled with holy
INSPIRATION
 
 
 

Linking up with Random Journal Day.

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Uncertain: Not Clearly Identified or Defined

 
Now faith means putting our full confidence in the things we hope for, it means being certain of things we cannot see. It was this kind of faith that won their reputation for the saints of old. And it is after all only by faith that our minds accept as fact that the whole scheme of time and space was created by God’s command—that the world which we can see has come into being through principles which are invisible.
(Hebrews 11:1-3 J.B. Phillips)
 
 
Hello all! I am honored to be guest posting with Dawn  over at Beneath the Surface: Breath of Faith today. The past few weeks, we have been reading and responding to our journey through Writing to God.
 
Writing to God -40 Days of Praying With My Pen
 
My desire has been rekindled to express my love and passion for God through writing. I spend my days with pen and journal in hand, scribbling love notes, writing little poems, and just talking about life with Jesus. 
The prayers and writing prompts of Rachel G. Hackenberg in Writing to God: 40 Days of Praying with My Penhave opened new vistas as I meet with God on paper.
When Dawn asked me to share this week, I immediately offered the opportunity to God. When I read the prayer offering for Day 24: Uncertain, I decided to reflect on the prayer and the prompt for this week.
We all have questions and uncertainty in our lives. This prayer has edged itself into my heart, especially these lines:  “Is ‘Jesus’ the simple answer? Looking back, I see that you offered more puzzles than answers; that still seems to be true. So I will sit here, with palms open and unresolved prayers, O complex Jesus, if you will sit with me. This I ask, for lack of answers. Amen.” (Hackenberg)  
The angst that uncertainty produces in my heart desperately needed the comfort of this prayer.
 
Click here to read the entire post over at
Beneath the Surface: Breath of Faith
 
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Hurry: To Perform With Undue Haste

 
She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.
Proverbs 31:25
 
 
Lord God, you who are source of all truth, wisdom, justice, and love…Help me constantly to rest my life upon the eternal foundations of your love and presence. Save me from haste and confusion, from wrongful desire, and the net of evil. Through the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, enlighten, instruct, and guide me all the day long. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
(A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants)
 
 
Do you ever wake up in a hurry? I do. My mind is whirring through all the activities inviting my participation, all the obligations awaiting my attention and all the unfinished projects crying out for my resolution. Some mornings, I rush through breakfast, complain to my husband for the umpteenth time about some nagging problem while sipping our morning coffee, and then dive into some pile of work.
 
Neglecting to be still.
 
Then His tender voice whispers, “Kel, Kel.”
 
And I press on in my task. He taps me on the shoulder, and I reply “Oh, it’s you LORD, what do you want?”
 
Then I pause, and He gently asks His routine question and offers His perennial invitation:
 
“Why all the bluster and rush? Come sit, awhile. Listen. Enjoy my Presence.”
 
So I do. And then the Holy Spirit leads me into green pastures, besides still waters and onto paths of righteousness, and all the while He restores my soul.
 
One of the pastures I found myself in today was 1 Samuel 3. The story of God revealing Himself to the young Samuel. At this point Samuel didn’t really know God. And it says that “the word of the Lord was rare in those days . . .” (1 Samuel 3:1). Everything was dimming. Eli, Samuel’s mentor had poor eyesight, and the lamp in the temple was burning low where Samuel slept in the presence of the ark of the covenant.
 
In this rare and dimly lit moment, God calls out to Samuel. 
 
Samuel thinks Eli is calling him. And it takes Eli, dull Eli with dimming eyesight, three times before he realizes it must be God calling out to Samuel. And so he tells Samuel, go back and if you hear the voice again, this is what you should say: “Speak, LORD, for your servant hears.” And Samuel goes back, and thankfully God calls him again, and God reveals Himself to Samuel and tells him some difficult news. Eli is to be judged for his negligence. Samuel reluctantly divulges this word to Eli, which Eli appears to accept with no argument.
 
Samuel continues to grow and be discipled in the truth by the LORD himself. “And the LORD appeared . . . and the LORD revealed himself to Samuel . . . by the word of the LORD.” (1 Samuel 3:21)
 
Oh, how I desire to be a beloved Bride, who hears and listens to her Beloved Jesus! That He would continue to call out to me even in the midst of my hurried moments, moments that really never need to be hastily taken in the first place. That I would start my day, waiting as a disciple to listen for words for the weary. (Isaiah 50:4)
 
 
May my heart readily respond:
“Speak, LORD, for your servant hears!”
 
 
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