Our prayer and pray-ers

Cast your cares upon the Lord. Do not be anxious about anything but instead pray about everything. Seek Him in the morning and pray without ceasing. Go to the Lord with thanksgiving. These are all things we are to model when we go into the throne room. Did you know the quickest way to the Throne Room of God is through praising Him? We were made to worship God. If there was anyone that ever deserved our adoration it is the Lord. We all opened our eyes this morning when there were people that had plans for today didn’t. There are people that lost their lives, lost their their children and we take opening our eyes for granted. As if it is something God is just supposed to do. He doesn’t have to allow us another second. Life is beautiful and can bog us down and that is why we pray.

Prayer is a conversation between you and God. Jesus taught us how to pray in Matthew 6. If you do not know what to say start there. Or use the acronym ACTS. I like to sing to Him before I go to Him in prayer. It makes me feel like I have worshiped Him and then I go to Him and lay everything at HIs feet. I say the Lord’s Prayer at night before bed and I use ACTS when I pray in the mornings. God taught me to pray and He will teach you too. None of us know how and it astonishes me the changes that I have seen in myself since my process started. Trusting this process and preserving has been difficult. There were many days that prayer is all I had and I used it way more that twice a day. I have finally learned to pray without ceasing. This all come from God, trust me, because I did not know how to legitimately ask for anything. I have been shut down by people so much that I lost my way. I had almost given up on God because people gave up on me. Do not ever do that but take everything to Him. He has literally gotten me to a place where I do not complain, unless I am complaining to Him. It has been a long grueling process, I will not lie, but I am thankful for all of it. It has shown me what is in everyone else’s heart but also in mine. I could have run away and never walked into who He made me to be, well, I like to think I could have but we will never know because it was all so surreal. It was like I was watching my life through different eyes. As if I were watching it all play out from a movie and I had no control at times. I can see when the flesh was in control verses when the Spirit was in control. I praise Him for these trying times and the crazy things that happened during all of this.

My process has been seven years long. That is how long He has been training me up the way I should go. There was heartache, bending, breaking and chaos but it was all necessary because now I can teach it to others and help them through their process. I have learned the enemy and his agents more than I even cared to admit to, on most days, but I know how to beat him as well. I know what kind of faith it takes to snatch the keys of authority. I know how to love God’s people even when they are unloveable but I wouldn’t if God had not taught me. I was not a fan of people so when I tell you the changes are great believe me. He has done so much in me that it could only be God, and those that know me know this. I have only Him as my God now when there were so many things I would put in front of Him. It amazes even me what He can accomplish when we are willing.

Back to prayer and how to pray. God wants to be praised and He so rightly deserves it. Look back on your life and remember where you came from. Everything good that has happened to you is because of the Lord. Of course there are gonna be bad things but that is because of our choices and because of the evil one. Nothing worth having comes easy and to have a life with Christ there will be moments of disaster which should make you cry our to Him, the faithful One. When we move towards Jesus that is when satan comes at us hard and fast. This is because his main goal is to move us away from Jesus and to him. Many will already know this but he wanted to be equal to God but he isn’t so God has had to put him in his place. We all get to choose which one we will serve. Who do you belong to? Good or evil and you can tell everyone from their fruit because everyone that remains in the branch will produce good fruit, but when we cut ourselves off from that branch there is no love. Not of the good and that is even when people think they are good. If you run into a person that thinks they are good be careful of them because chances are they really aren’t. God is showing everyone who is good and with Him and who isn’t but it is up to us to pay attention. Yes, that went off course but I suppose someone needs it..

ACTS stands for A-Adoration. C- Confession. T- Thanksgiving. S-Supplication. We do adore Christ and if you dont you need to get to a place where you remember that He died for your sins. That wage of sin is death and He took your death on Himself. It is right and just to adore Him for that and that alone! Confession is the confession of our sins and the ones we do not know. It is easy to sin and one harsh thought is a sin when we do not ever consider our thoughts that way. Our thoughts are not private and God searches the heart and that mind. This is why we are told to renew our minds daily. Thanksgiving is easy because we have so much to be thankful for. I do not know your life, you’re right, but I do know that God opened your eyes today. Supplication is when we go to Him humbly for our needs. Humility goes a long way with God. I believe it is because we are acknowledging that we are nothing without Him and His blessings.

Our Father, who are in Heaven hallowed be thy name.. if you get stuck and need to pray this to learn to pay here is where we need to tell the Lord how much we adore and love Him. He has done so much for us and we need to let Him know how He is first in our lives because we know nothing is good without Him. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. we all need to get to a place where we want His way for our world and our lives more than our own way. Give us this day our daily bread. The bread of life is the Word of God and we need to saturate ourselves in His Word so when bad things happen we don’t spew bad and He wants all of His children to eat of food. He did give it to us. Forgive us of our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. If we do not forgive and take the plank out of our own eye we need not to even ask for forgiveness of our own sins because we must forgive to be forgiven. So many forget this and are running around with their heart posture warped and need to be healed by God. He is the only one that can provide this healing. When we have forgiven and go to God for forgiveness He is just to forgive us of our sins. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. We will be tempted and being tempted is not a sin, following through is. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever- Amen

It can be hard to pray to a God you cannot see or always feel but there is a way. I was reading a book last week when I came across a story that I love. I am going to attempt to tell it and I pray that I do it justice and do not butcher it. There was a girl in church and her father was dying so she asked her pastor to come pray with her dad. The pastor showed up that evening and went into the room of the girl’s dad. There was an empty chair there so the pastor assumed it was there for him and that the girl had told her father that he was coming. He asked the man if he prayed to God, if he were saved and all the necessary questions pastors are supposed to ask. The dad was honest with the pastor. He told him that he found it hard to pray at times because he could not see who he was talking to and that is why that chair that he was sitting in was beside his bed. That pastor assumed that the daughter told her father that he was coming but she had not and that chair was always there. It is there, the dad told, because he needed to have a place for Jesus to sit. A place for him to look at Him when he talked to Him. Jesus always sat in that chair because the Bible says, “ He will never leave you…” and since He is always with us I needed a place for Him to sit. The dad would talk to this chair as though he were talking to his best friend, Jesus and tell Him everything about his day. A week later the girl called her pastor to tell him her daddy had passed. The pastor asked if she thought he had went in peace. The daughter answer; “idk but he went with his head in the chair next to his bed.” That pastor wiped a tear from his cheek and said, “I wish we could all go that way.” … I loved this story and I hope and pray everyone gets as much from it as I did. I would love to die with my head in the lap of my Savior. If you’re having problems praying get you a chair and use your imagination. Imagine that God is sitting in that chair wanting to know everything on your mind and how your day was. Tell Him the innermost secrets and desires of your heart. Always know that He is right there with you because He lives inside of you but we all have moments when it is difficult to go to our daddy for help. Please know that is when He wants you to come to Him the most.

Being a Pray-er is not always easy but it is something we are called and instructed to do. I love the book of Psalms because there are many supporting verses of adoration, thanksgiving, confession, and supplication for our friends and our enemies. Setting an alarm on your phone may help you remember to pay when you’re learning. I still have that alarm set for 9 and 9. This reminder is what made me pray even when I didn’t want to or when I didn’t know what to pray. I also wrote out a prayer that I prayed every day because it reminded me what and who I needed to pray for. As time progressed I watched God answer every single one of those prayers and this allowed me to see Him in everything and everywhere. When you have a vision of someone or you see something about a person, even saying a persons name when you do not mean to, are signs of being an intercessory prayer and you need to take a moment and pray for that person. That is a gift from the Holy Spirit and one of the best kinds that creates intimacy of the relationship. Seek Him and find your joy in Him early in the morning as Jesus showed us in scripture.

Father, we love you and we thank you for all that you do for us. We know all good things are from you and we praise Your Holy Name for being so good to us. We sure do not deserve it. Lord, we confess our sins and ask you to please forgive us. We lay down ourselves to You and yield to You, Lord. Thank you for the so many blessings we take for granted. Toilet paper is a luxury and we sincerely thank You for this item and our food. The bread of Your Word and for nourishing our bodies with Your goodness. Father, teach us to pray with the fire from Heaven in us. Remind us daily of the things you have done in our lives and show us how to be better for You and Your Kingdom. Lord, bless us, keep us, protect us and guide our steps as we venture out in to the world today. Let us be a beacon of Your light, Father. Put one hand on our shoulders and the other on our mouths so nothing that doesn’t glorify You comes out of us. Show us where we are going wrong, show us where we are broken so You can fix us. Show us what we need to do in order to live and breathe for You, Lord. Help us love those that are difficult and give us Your heart. Open the windows of heaven over us Lord. Show us who You are and that all of our storms will run out of rain. You are the light of the world and we ask for that light to shine on us, Father. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

I do not pray perfectly or in KJV but I do pray from my heart and that is what He wants. When we act out of love we are yielding to Him. Ask Him to show you where you are going wrong so you can change your cycles and shift your season. These are all things that have helped me and I pray they will help you too. Go to Him with praise about everything … your praise is dangerous! It helps others break free but also busts your own chains of bondage.