Abandoned

There will be times in life when you feel abandoned. The burden may seem more than is humanly possible to bear. We want to ask why these events happen, but why? isn’t the right question. The right question is, will you worship and follow God even if He does not meet your expectations? Will you follow Him even when you feel forsaken? Will you still pray?

Can you trust Him with all the challenging events of life and live in faith? Even in the midst of suffering and pain? We must come to the conclusion and understanding that the Lord uses all things to accomplish His purposes in our lives. The Lord even uses evil things that come from the evil one (Proverbs 16:4).

And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ).
Mark 15:34 NIV
https://mark.bible/mark-15-34

Unanswered prayer

But why doesn’t God just go ahead and answer our prayers? That’s a great question. God has an end game with us—an eternal, essential purpose. That purpose is oneness with Him and being conformed into His image. Above all things, including answering our prayers, He wants to draw us deeply into Him. Persisting in unanswered prayer is the training ground for increased faith. It’s the place where God extends grace to us, and it is the perfect soil for character building. Unanswered prayer leaves us vulnerable before the Lord, the ideal place for surrender.

If there is a sure prescription for failure in prayer, it is the attitude of “I want my answer, and I want it now.” Our love of ease, impatience, and spiritual laziness don’t contribute to persevering prayer.

Disunity

And the enemy schemes to create division in our fellowship with other believers because he understands that division will discredit the love of Christ. Disunity in the body of Christ will cause people to doubt if Jesus really is who He said He is, the Son of God. Much of Jesus’s prayer in John 17 addresses His plea to the Father for the unity of believers with them (the Father and Son) and with one another (vv. 11, 21-23).
The
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—  I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
John 17:22‭-‬23 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.17.22-23.NIV

Like a child

There's is only one required standard to enter the kingdom of heaven: childlike faith in Christ as Savior. Little children are harmless and inoffensive. They are meek, free from malice, and without pride. Little children do not have ambitious ideas or desires for superiority. Where do you go to school? How much money does your parent make? These are questions that wouldn’t cross a child’s mind.

In coming to our Lord in prayer with the spirit of childlikeness, we will realize the Fatherhood of God in our lives.

Transformation through prayer

Prayer is the key to this experience. We can indeed live in an attitude of prayer the entire day, in every conversation and through every task we undertake. And it is through this that the mundane is truly transformed into the miraculous. But the transformation of prayer can go much deeper. As we face the world every day, we face temptations, and this is where we need the Lord to purify us. Prayer is the vehicle that frees us from the bondage of flesh. Prayer is our road to transformation. “As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning” (Luke 9:29, NIV).

Stillness before God

As simple as it may seem, we find stillness by making a choice, deciding to sit down away from all the clamor of our life and technology. God bestowed on us free will; it is not an illusion. We are not victims of our culture. We have control over the way we respond to everything that comes our way. The science of neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to reorganize itself by developing new neural connections) makes it very clear that when we make a decision, we change the matter in our brain. It is the scientific confirmation of God’s Word: “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23: 7). Every time we steal away with the Lord in quiet retreat, we transform and renew our minds and conform to the communication pathways of the kingdom (Romans 12: 1-2). And it is in the stillness that our zeal for the Lord and His ways is given the chance to grow.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2 NIV
https://romans.bible/romans-12-2

Pray this way

Of all the things the disciples could have asked of Him, they asked to be taught how to pray. As you read Jesus’s words of how to pray, ask the Holy Spirit for fresh revelation, for how you can practically respond to His instruction. Worship is the beginning and end of prayer. “Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name, for Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” (Matthew 6: 9, 13, MEV) Jesus taught the disciples and us that in prayer we are to pay homage to the reality that this is His kingdom. God has control over everything, and He can and will answer our prayers. There is nothing impossible with God (Luke 1:37). “Your kingdom come; Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10). He desires His kingdom to come. It is His will, His purpose. He has set before us a vision of a renewed community and people in unity. Jesus’s prayer reminds us that extending God’s kingdom is included in our decision to follow Him. “Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11) Can we live in this kind of simplicity and trust, like a little child? Can we be grateful for the food, how little or much, set before us today? This is one place we repeatedly allow our peace and contentment to be stolen. We compare our provision to others. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matt 6:12). To be forgiven, you must forgive. You must live in forgiveness daily toward everyone: your spouse, friends, enemies, children, and most of all yourself. There is great freedom in forgiveness; it is the key to the kingdom—confessing our sins, seeking forgiveness, and forgiving others. Christ instructs us to pray a very honest prayer, “Lead us not into temptation” (Matthew 6:13). As shocking as the thought may be, the Lord tests us (Psalm 139:23-24; Jeremiah 17:10; 1 Peter 1:6-9). The Lord desires to produce pure gold out of our lives. Also, far too many of us are not in a position to face the temptations of sin and attacks of the enemy when they come. For our protection the Lord is able to chain up the roaring lion that seeks to tempt and destroy us (2 Peter 2:9). Do you count yourself among those who need Christ to teach them to pray? I do. So let us come together and learn from the master teacher on prayer. Let’s pray for God’s purposes, provision, pardon, and protection

A place to pray

Here’s the deal. If you don’t have a familiar place, a quiet place away from others, you probably don’t have a habit of praying often. It is the great secret to prayer—you must pray in secret.

 “If a man loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our home with him” (John 14:23, MEV). Did you see and feel that word We? The eternal God, three in one, will meet us in the secret place.

Begin with prayer

It didn’t matter if the issue at hand was profound or an everyday incident, Jesus began all things with prayer. While Jesus was being baptized, He prayed (Luke 3:21-22). Before setting out to preach and cast out demons throughout Galilee, He rose a great while before sunrise to pray (Mark 1:35-39). When the people rolled the stone away from Lazarus’s tomb, Jesus prayed for all to hear before raising him from the dead (John11: 4-44). And as He sat at a table for dinner with two disciples on the road to Emmaus, He simply prayed (Luke 24:30-31). Jesus’s example leads us to pray before taking that new job, before a proposal of marriage, and on the way to work every morning. Beginning all things in prayer is a foundational discipline of the Christian life. The times of praying in stillness and solitude are when God reaches into our minds, emotions, and wills—the deepest places of our souls. In the quietness of prayer we free ourselves from the constant distractions of the world and the nagging whispers of our past, dysfunctions, and sins. Beginning all things in prayer during the day and having close and continual fellowship in prayer with God will leave its mark on us. As we follow our Lord by beginning everything in prayer, we position ourselves to receive the glorious benefits that flow from this way of living. First and foremost, prayer is our path to intimacy with God. There is no other way to deeply know God apart from the stillness of prayer (Psalm 46:10). One of the sweetest and most powerful benefits of beginning all things in prayer is that our “spiritual ears” will be trained to recognize His voice. We learn to quiet our thoughts, our educational training, and our persuasions. We become deaf to anything except His voice and will. By following Christ’s example and beginning all things in prayer, we are able to discern His voice above the cacophony of the world and the murmurs of the enemy. Learning to recognize His voice is fundamental preparation for hearing the Lord through the Word. Beginning all things with prayer leads to right hearing. Right hearing produces right speaking. This is how we learn to speak words of life to people, to speak the language of the kingdom, and to call people to their destiny in Christ (Isaiah 50:4).

Fix your eyes on Jesus

To fix our thoughts and hearts on Jesus, as we are encouraged to do in Hebrews 3:1, is to relate intimately and lovingly to him. It will mean focusing our spiritual eyes and the emotions of our heart on the person of Jesus, not just his position. Fixing our thoughts on Jesus will result in submission to him. It will mean moving beyond our rational beliefs about the historical Jesus and seeing him and all that he is as a contemporary and present Savior. He can be trusted!

Prayer is interaction

We must approach God with an attitude of sincerity. Prayer is not merely asking God for all we need or want. It is interaction with the Creator of the universe. It is an essential way in which God transforms us into his likeness. Our hearts must be broken when we approach the living God. Without humility and brokenness, we will be like the Pharisee who prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people” (Luke 18:11). When we come to him humbly, God’s heart will be very open to us, and in prayer we can encounter God anew.

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Luke 18:14 NIV
https://luke.bible/luke-18-14

Pray for others

I believe we all need to see that prayer as conversation with God is a powerful ministry that everyone can participate in. People need us to enter into prayer for them. There are so many hurting, addicted, lonely, broken, and lost people in life, and while we can’t possibly know every one of their needs, God knows. We want to pray for them and we want the Holy Spirit to intercede through our words to our heavenly Father on their behalf. Holy Spirit-empowered conversation allows us to lift more than we could ever lift alone. It is surrendering to the work of God in us. It should be the desire of every Christian to follow God wherever his Spirit leads us and to participate in communion with God as he directs. Prayer does not move mountains. God moves mountains. Prayer is not the answer. God is the answer. Prayer is not the key. God is the key. When we enter into conversation with God about the needs of others, we will find he is always there.
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
Romans 8:26‭-‬27 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/rom.8.26-27.NIV

Prayer as relationship

We might as well admit it. We often use prayer in our lives and in the church as a tool from a tool bag. When we need God to do something, when we need something in ministry, when we desire to have something accomplished, we go to the spiritual tool bag because we know prayer is what we should use. We pick up prayer, we pray the prayer, and then we put prayer back in the bag until we need it again. But prayer is intended to be so much more than this! So often we use prayer as a vehicle to get us to a desired destination. We need provision, so we pray. We need anointing, so we pray. We need healing, or deliverance, or cleansing, so we pray. But what if prayer is not the vehicle that brings us to our destination, but rather, what if it is the destination? Prayer is not simply a step of the journey, prayer is the journey. When we realize this, we begin to understand prayer as a continual conversation with God and our relationship with God deepens to new levels.

Love the Lord your God

Since the greatest of all the commandments is to love God, let’s pause to consider the question: "How is it that we really 'love God'?" Often our response indicates that we believe that loving God is equal to doing things for God. All the while, he is simply longing for us to RELATE to him!

If God needed things done, he could enlist the angels for perfect execution and without complaint. We, as his created, have the privilege of intimacy with him. Our journey with God in prayer provides this unique opportunity.

Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
Matthew 22:37 NIV
https://matthew.bible/matthew-22-37

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
https://bible.com/bible/111/1th.5.16-18.NIV
Practice of the presence of God?

Pray

‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’
Jeremiah 33:3 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/jer.33.3.NIV

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
https://bible.com/bible/111/1th.5.16-18.NIV

Prayer doesn’t change things; God changes things! I’ll say it again: It is not prayer or even a life of prayer that brings us power, it is the God to whom we pray who has all power.

Seek God's kingdom first

It’s not the wealth of life but the depth of life that matters the most. When you seek God’s kingdom first and His righteousness, all these things will be given to you!

If we prioritize God and his Kingdom above everything else, guess what? We become Heaven’s responsibility! God becomes the source of our security. His wealth is at our disposal, to use for His glory! And it is greater than all of the human wealth and wisdom put together on this earth. 

Let’s seek God first and all other things will follow us. God’s priorities precede God provision and promotion! Let’s pursue the depth of life, as we were created to! 

Temptation

The purpose of temptation is to distract you from your purpose. Stay focused today! 

Obedience inspired by faith

Obedience inspired by faith unveils the hidden things of God. Your knowledge and intelligence will only accomplish the dreams and destiny designed by man. But your Faith and Obedience will get a hold of heaven’s plans and God-designed destiny for you.
For obedience inspired by Faith will take you where your knowledge and intelligence would never dare to go.

Your significance

Your significance is not in your earthly fame but it’s in your Heavenly Father’s name. Today, you are a child of the Most High and all of Heaven’s attention is on you! May you live each day of your life in this truth and let no one tell you otherwise.

Be available

God desires to speak to you more than you would ever long to hear from him. The book of Job says, “for God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it.”  Sometimes we may wonder, does God really speak to us today? Yes, he does! Is he too busy for us? Has He forgotten us? Is He far from us? No, he is not! Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. If he spoke with Moses at the burning bush, Abraham at the altar, Samuel in the temple, He will speak to you today. The Bible is an expression of His longing to reveal himself to you. There are 66 books, 1,189 chapters, 31,205 verses and over 2,500 promises in the Bible. This is how much God wants to talk to you! You cannot even fathom the number of thoughts He has for you. He wants to have a relationship with us. In fact, He created us for fellowship with Him. When we decide to draw close to him, His voice becomes more and more clear to us.  Let me give you the most important key to hear from God: BE AVAILABLE .

Listen or you become deaf

Let me issue a warning, though. If you aren’t willing to listen to everything God has to say, you eventually won’t hear anything He has to say. If you want to hear His comforting voice, you have to listen to His convicting voice. And it’s often what we want to hear least that we need to hear most. Trust me, though, you want to hear what He has to say. 
Ultimately, all of us need to find our voice. And by voice I mean the unique message God wants to speak through our lives. But finding our voice starts with hearing His voice. 

Listening

Listening doesn’t happen by default; it happens by design. You have to seek solitude, seek silence. You have to ruthlessly eliminate distractions. And you have to turn some voices down or tune them out altogether. It might be as innocent as talk radio or as innocuous as social media. Why not turn off the radio and talk to God during your commute? Or fast from social media for a season? Or take a silent retreat? 

Business and noise

That’s why chronic noise may be the greatest impediment to our spiritual growth. When our lives get loud, with noise filling every frequency, we lose our sense of being. We run the risk of turning into human doings rather than human beings. And when our schedules get busy, we lose our sense of balance, which is a function of the inner ear. 

Silence is anything but passive waiting. It’s proactive listening. And each day God’s voice gets a little louder in our lives until He’s all we can hear. 

If you want to hear the heart of God, silence is key.

If you want the Spirit of God to fill you, be still.

God whispers....why?

So why does God so often speak in whispers? When someone speaks in a whisper, you have to get very close to hear. In fact, you have to put your ear near the person’s mouth. We lean toward a whisper, and that’s what God wants. The goal of hearing the heavenly Father’s voice isn’t just hearing His voice; it’s intimacy with Him. He speaks in a whisper because He wants to be as close to us as is divinely possible! He loves us, likes us, that much. 
Nothing will determine your destiny more than your ability to hear His still small voice. That’s how God-sized dreams are birthed. That’s how miracles happen. 

Self-control

Self-control (Galatians 5:22-23), which is often translated “sober”, is a sober-mindedness that gives thought before acting. Self-control, which is produced by the Holy Spirit, gives way to godly desires rather than sinful desires. A person with self-control looks to future and eternal realities rather than indulging immediate sinful impulses.