Jesus desires our time and praise. Receive a your hug from Him today. He loves us - He doesn't love the sin we may have committed, but He loves YOU!

I don’t know how to pray!

 Psalms 119:145-149

145. I pray with all my heart; answer me, Lord! I will obey your decrees. 146. I cry out to you; rescue me, that I may obey your laws.   147. I rise early, before the sun is up; I cry out for help and put my hope in your words. 148. I stay awake through the night, thinking about your promise. 149. In your faithful love, O Lord, hear my cry; let me be revived by following your regulations.

I have probably looked at these verses at least 15 times in the past two weeks, and with everything that is making demands on my life AND what I am “allowing” to distract me from studying at this season of my life, I have yet to get anything that will flow onto this paper that really speaks to me, maybe this morning I can sit still and hear what the Holy Spirit has to tell me and then I can share it with ya’ll.

I remember somewhere in the past two weeks, I made a statement, (I think in our last lesson), that God is happy when we make consciences efforts and use what discipline we have or can muster up, to study and pray; He will honor our efforts as we strive to study / read and pray, even when our hearts are not really into it. PERSEVERANCE and commitment HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH  HOW WE FEEL, THAT’S FOR SURE. 

• Ø I pray with all my heart; answer me, Lord! I will obey your decrees.
• Ø I rise early, before the sun is up.
• Ø I put my hope in your words.
• Ø I stay awake through the night, thinking about your promise.
• Ø Let me be revived by following your regulations. 

• Ø I pray with all my heart; answer me, Lord! I will obey your decrees. I don’t know what kind of prayer life you have or don’t have, but I will share with you the kind I have as this verse speaks of praying from our heart and saying we will obey His decrees/word. 

The bible says to pray without ceasing, pray in all things, about all things; the Lord inhabits the praise of His people, renew our mind by the washing of the word, guard our hearts because the issues of life come from it…….. I can think of several verses as we ponder this portion of our scripture.

How do we “Pray with all our hearts”? Good questions, I don’t think it will be the same for everyone. For me, my normal routine/habit/commitment, is to arise early and get my tea and sit down in a small space (with at least 2 of my faithful dogs-I have 5 and all of them would barely fit in the space I try to sit still in).

 Every morning I deal with my mind racing alllllll over the place!!! I am not one of those that can sit and pray out load and have a lot of words flowing from my mouth, it just does NOT happen; and you know what, it’s ok!

 My gifts and callings are not being, what they often call a person that really gets down for a lengthy span of time and remembers everyone and everything that needs to be prayed about -   “A prayer warrior”. I believe we can all have prayer warrior’s hearts. 

I’m visual and I need lists and names and circumstances to be written down on paper. When I sit still to pray, I praise my Jesus for a little bit then I pray for my family members, (and that doesn’t take very long), then I pray for everyone that God brings to my mind or I know is listed on one of my prayer sheets; it’s a lot easier for me to just praise my Jesus than pray “pretty”.

 Some days I just have to make myself sit still even if I can’t think of much to say and, fight the fact that I just want to take a nap!  I believe since I strive to stay in the word and have a real passion for it, God has given me a thankful heart, and most of the time the gift of joy, therefore it’s very easy for me to praise Him all day long.

I don’t say Thank You Jesus out loud all the time, but I do it in the quietness of my heart and soul; I am thankful all throughout each and every day. Oftentimes, praise will come out of my mouth when something good happens, and I will say “Thank you Jesus”!

God’s word says to be thankful IN all things, not for all things, if any verse has ever stuck in my soul, it is this one! A good one to have stick!! It will change my attitude about everything that goes on in life, especially when it’s not a good circumstance and I am tempted to gripe and groan, this verse will put a stop to that kind of an attitude real quick! Thankful!!! See how it works, say it and we get a smile on our face and the frown and grumbling goes away.

Well this is how studying works for me, just look at the things I have been able to share in just a few minutes, as the words flow onto this paper from my keyboard, and it is coming effortlessly.

This is a scenario of what happens to me when I hear from the Holy Spirit, it flows on the paper! When it does not flow like this, I can’t “make things up”, and can’t muster up anything to say, so I just look at the verses and strive to read a while, pray a little and listen to some good teaching and go on my way.

We have shared on two pieces of paper and we have not even gotten off the first verse.

• Ø I rise early, before the sun is up. I put my hope in your words.

Well, you can see where I already shared that I am an early riser, most people that know me already know this; they also know I am early to retire and get my rest at night too.

So, I can relate to this verse big time. I do rise early and I do put my hope and faith in God’s Word, that is what I am doing right now as I share with you. It is my prayer, that the Holy Spirit will give you a PASSION for His Word and change your heart and attitude with what His Word tells you. Obedience=Blessings. 

• Ø I stay awake through the night, thinking about your promise.

If you are like me, I stay awake many a night because I just can’t sleep and my mind won’t stop raising and thinking and creating and organizing and working, I can’t say that I am awake thinking upon God’s promises; I have not arrived to fulfill this verse in my life.

I do believe it will make a big difference in our sleep if we make every effort to go to sleep with Jesus on our mind; you may be an evening person and you can sit still and pray and read before you retire, that will more than likely make your sleep time better. I can say, that when I awake, I often find myself ready to say Thank you Jesus and He is on my mind first thing.

• Ø Let me be revived by following your regulations.

To close todays time in the word and with you, I pray, that the Holy Spirit will revive our souls, refresh anew our spirits and fan the flame/passion within us, to be with Jesus and IN His Word and give us the strength to obey what He tells us to do.

 I pray to be reminded of His Words. If you don’t have a Memorex memory, not to worry, your faithfulness to sit still, spend time with Jesus will be honored, He sees your heart and attitude. 

Revive us oh Lord, Amen!

“Move On! Encourage yourself if you must”.

Psalms 119: 150-155 

150 Lawless people are coming to attack me; they live far from your instructions. 151 But you are near, O Lord, and all your commands are true. 152 I have known from my earliest days that your laws will last forever.

153 Look upon my suffering and rescue me, for I have not forgotten your instructions. 154 Argue my case; take my side! Protect my life as you promised. 155 The wicked are far from rescue, for they do not bother with your decrees. 

If you’re in a bumpy season of life where you feel attacked by people or the devil, keep calling out to Jesus! Stay InTouch with Him, He will protect, guide and give you grace and strength to withstand the valleys.

Stay in the Word. Commit to quiet time with Jesus. PERSEVERANCE and – Give thanks in all things, don’t follow your feelings. -Move on to the next lesson and encourage yourself – Gods word tells us to encourage ourselves, so it must be doable.

Blessins’ bfc