prayer

One thing I'm really working on in my spiritual life is prayer. I enjoy studying the bible and reading books, but one thing I have lacked in is prayer. Daily prayer. I think prayer is so important in our walk with God. For some people praying out loud is difficult, but I first challenge you to focus on praying personally to Jesus daily. The more you pray, the more you will feel connected and comfortable. Once you pray out loud for the first time its done! You've done it, whether it was easy or not you made the step of faith and your Father is proud! From now on it isn't a burden, but a part of life. I am really working on setting aside time each day to pray one on one with God. He loves it when we talk to Him. Communication is so important in any relationship and it's no different when it comes to God. One thing that has helped me with prayer is having a topic to pray about and writing it down. I don't always pray like this, but usually once a day I try to sit down and write out a pray for a specific situation in my life or someone else's. This helps me focus because when I sit to pray sometimes my mind wonders and I don't feel like I am staying on task. Everyone has a different prayer style that works for them. I just share mine in case that helps you :) I'm starting to pray for bigger things, I don't to just want to pray for my personal life, I want to pray for others that I don't even know! Here are some prayer topics to help you start thinking outside our normal boxes of prayers.

1. Prayer for interpretation of scripture.
    When we pray for this we can invite the Holy Spirit to direct us as we read, that God will show us the scripture how he intended us to and reveal more to us every time we read it. God is so much more than we will ever grasp, that's no excuse to stop seeking Him, but don't limit Him to what you can learn about Him from reading a scripture once.

2. Prayer to love the people He's placed in our lives
    Sometimes it is hard to love the people around us, we have been hurt or wounded, or just don't like the attitude they may have. Jesus wants us to love above all else. Others should be able to see Jesus inside of us by the way we love. It is good to pray for His love to flow through us as we encounter the people Jesus has placed in our lives.

3. Prayer for us hear from Him and act accordingly
    I don't know about you but I want to hear from God, whether that be from my pastor, my bible, my husband, or a random stranger. Not only do I want to hear from Him, but I want to follow Him. We are not following Jesus if we are hearing truth and not applying it to our lives. We all may lack at times that is why we need to pray for a passion that when we hear the truth we act on it.

4. Prayer for fear to be replaced with the truth.
    When we get saved we need to renew our minds! Our minds are full of satan's lies and Him trying to deceive us. All of these lies place fear in our lives. In order to crush fear we need to soak in Jesus' love and truth.

5. Prayer to be a light
    Praying to be a light is awesome. We carry the power and presence of God everywhere we go! I want to ask God to help me shine so bright that I am continually pointing people to Him.

6. Prayer for whoever God has placed on our hearts that day.
    I love when I pray for others and can see God working in and through them! God is so good :)

These are just some ideas, as you read them the Lord may show you what he wants you to pray for.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 
Pray without ceasing

Gifts and talents

Jesus gives each one of us spiritual gifts and talents. The more you press into Him the more you discover and learn about them as He reveals himself. Our spiritual gifts and talents are given to us to be used to glorify God. It may be frightening if you find out you have the gift of tongues or prophecy, but the last thing God wants us to do is hear from Him and keep it to ourselves. When we obey Christ it comes with a boldness and an attitude that shows we care more about what He thinks of us than the world. I have had someone come up to me who received a word of knowledge about me from Jesus. It was the coolest thing hearing what Jesus thought about me and they revealed that to this person! I couldn't stop thinking about it and thanking God because it was so special. I'm sure it took a LOT of courage and boldness for this person to come up to me because she didn't even know me. She was risking if I would think she was crazy or not, but ya know what she didn't care if I thought that, she cared what Jesus thought, and He wanted her to come speak to me. And was I glad she did, at the time I needed desperately to hear from Him. Jesus likes to talk in parables and one of His parables is about us taking what He gives us and giving and sharing and USING all for his glory!!! It upsets him when we have a gift and were hiding it, because of fear. If this is you I don't want you to feel guilty, I want to challenge you to really listen for Him this week and USE what he is giving you, whatever that may be.

Matthew 25:14

Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with two talents gained two more. But the man who received one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his money. After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five, 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.' "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in change of many things. Come and share your master's happiness! "The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you have entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.' "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talents in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.' His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. "'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

This verse is symbolizing Jesus leaving for a long time and what are we gonna do when he is gone? Are we gonna take what he gives us and use it for his glory to be multiplied or bury it in ourselves not to be used? Really everything thing we have is God's our money, talents, gifts, we are not owners, but caretakers. He wants us to take what He has given us and obey Him willingly. I don't know about you, but I want to step out in faith and do what He asks of me. It makes Him happy and who doesn't want to see that! :) I want to live different today than yesterday as the fruit of the Spirit and my gifts grow more in me and Christ is magnified. 

prayer:

Lord, thank you for everything that you have given to me and let me be care-giver of. Show me what you want me to do with what you've given me. Let my gifts never go wasted, and let me be the vessel for you Jesus. I want to be your good and faithful servant. In your name we pray.

Amen.

What does it mean to believe and what does it look like?

What does it mean to actually believe in Jesus? Do you believe that Jesus existed? Do you believe He died and rose again? Did you repeat a prayer after someone? Do you believe he died on the cross a horrible painful death for your sins, so you can have an eternity with Jesus in heaven and live out the everyday showing others Jesus? It does say in the bible in Romans that whoever confesses with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For some of you you read this and say yes I can full confidence that I am saved. Others may say, I repeated a prayer on time but NOT ONE THING has changed in my life after that. I encourage you to think about that. The bible says For it is with your heart that you believe. So do you believe in your heart?

Romans 12:2
Do not conform any longer to the patterns 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. 

So when your saved people should be able to tell! Your life should look different! As a Christian were told NOT to look like the world. In the bible they refer to satan as ruler of the world. Why would someone who is saved by Jesus want to look like the product of something that satan rules over! NOT ME! I understand this is hard, it really is, but once you get that fire and deep passion you want to be different, you know God smiles upon different, and you want others to be that way too. Let's step out if faith. People go to church, say they believe, listen to the message, but change absolutely nothing else in their lives. The bible says

James 1:22-25
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what is says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what is says is like a man who looks at his face in the mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forget what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does.

We are all guilty at some point for hearing and not doing, but lets change this. Let's open our hearts and minds for Jesus to transform us! Let's make sure when we confess JESUS IS LORD and believe it in our hearts that we repent and let God penetrate every area of our lives to reflect Him. I want to know when I get to the pearly gates Jesus KNOWS ME! That he doesn't know of me, but knows me by the personal relationship I seek to have with him DAILY! One thing the bible talks about when you receive Jesus you receive the Spirit (Holy Spirit) (Acts 2:38) So now that your saved and have this relationship with Jesus, he sends his spirit to be with you, the bible refers to the Holy Spirit as the Counselor, our Advocate ( someone who supports). When we receive the Holy Spirit things should really start to change in our lives. When we live in the power of the Spirit things should look more supernatural than natural in our lives. We are not living to what God called us to be if you can explain everything that happens in our lives, apart from the work of the Spirit. In this book I'm reading called Forgotten God, Francis Chan uses a really cool description of the Spirit I want to share. He says image a caterpillar that all its life has crawled on the ground and eaten leaves, then one day takes a nap, a long nap, and wakes up and says WOW I've got these beautiful wings and I can fly. That is how much our life should change when we encounter Jesus and Holy Spirit. We shouldn't be crawling anymore because we have this awesome potentinal now that completely changes who we are. Our old selves have died, we are a new creation in Christ. I want others to be able to tell that from spending time with me. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Acts 4:13
When the men saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

We should want others to see that we spend time with Jesus and his spirit is on us. Stop and think of the first person who comes to mind when you like Spirit-filled. Aren't they just fun to be around? Don't they carry this light and joy with them? We can have it too, its not their light anyway its Jesus'!!!!

2 Corinthians 2:4
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

prayer: Jesus, you are so good! Holy Spirit come and enter every area of our lives. Let whatever we say and do be led by You. Let others see Your glory by how we live our lives. Let it be a reflection of who you are and the power of Your Spirit.
Amen.