A P.S. for Today's Entry

After I wrote today's blog I ran across a quote (in my personal journal) that confirms today's entry. I felt I should share it with you. Enjoy!

When we live life centered around

what others like, feel, and say, we lose touch with our

own identity. I am an eternal being, created by God.

I am an individual with purpose. It's not only what

I get from life, but who I am, that makes the difference.

Neva Coyle

Prayer for Confidence in One's Identity in Christ

This week I am asking God to give you confidence in your identity in Christ. Many Christians are in an identity crisis. Our human nature causes us to be driven by a desire for approval. I pray you will seek to derive security from Christ alone.

People-pleasing makes me think of Paul’s questions in Galatians 1:10: “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

O Dear Jesus, our Rock and Salvation,

I lift up the precious readers of this blog to you in prayer. May their souls find rest in God alone; their salvation comes from you. You alone are their rock and salvation; you are their fortress, they will never be shaken. May each one find rest in God alone; their hope comes from you, dear Lord. Their salvation and honor depend on God, no one else. You, God, are their mighty rock and refuge. May they trust in you at all times, pour out their hearts to you for you are their refuge (From Psalm 62:1, 2, 5-8).

Remind them that they have been selected (Ephesians 1:4), saved (Ephesians 1:7-9), sealed (Ephesians 1:13), seated with Christ (Ephesians 2:6), are secure (Ephesians 2:19), and strong (Ephesians 3:16).

In the powerful name of Jesus Christ I pray all these things. Amen.

Worshipping a Worthy God

One of the hindrances of true worship is attempting to double up in service to make up for quality time spent in prayer and praise. Sadly, this problem prevails in most churches today. Our sovereign God knows that the opposite—placing worship as our top priority, describes his best for us. He has told us so through the familiar story of two sisters—Mary and
Martha.

According to the gospels, Jesus visited Mary and Martha’s home on a regular basis. On one occasion, Martha was running around frantically trying to serve everyone while Mary sat at Jesus’ feet hanging on his every word. Finally, Martha became so overwhelmed that she went to Jesus and complained. She asked Jesus to make Mary come and help her, but Jesus’ reply to Martha’s complaint was, “Mary has chosen what is better” (Luke 10:42).


God considers worship seeking him. Mary chose to seek the face of Jesus. To God, the act of seeking him far outweighs non-stop service. The Hebrew word for seek is baqash. It means to search out by any method, specifically in worship and prayer, to strive after, ask, beg, beseech, desire and enquire. Let’s pray for each other that we will strive after our Lord and take time out of every day to sit at his feet and enquire of him.

(Definition found in the Hebrew Dictionary in the Strong’s Complete Word Study Concordance, Expanded Edition, James Strong, LL.D., S.T.D., Editor Warren Baker)

Spiritual Disciplines

A good conscience is a tender conscience. The consciences of the godless may be so calloused that they scarcely ever act at all; but the healthy Christian conscience is constantly in operation, listening for God's voice in his word, seeking to discern his will in everything, active in self-watch and self-judgment. The healthy Christian knows his frailty and always suspects and distrusts himself, lest sin and Satan should be ensnaring him unawares; therefore he regularly grills himself before God, scrutinizing his deeds and motives and ruthlessly condemning himself when he finds within himself moral deficiency and dishonesty.

The healthy Christian has a sense of God's presence stamped deep on his soul, trembles at it, and tests and reforms his life daily in response to it. We can begin to assess our real estate in God's sight by asking ourselves how much exercise of conscience along these lines goes into our own daily living.

J. I. PACKER

Dear Lord,

Please teach me how to be a healthy Christian. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting (Psalm 139:23-24). Forgive me of my sins and purify me from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Fill me with your Holy Spirit so I can follow where you lead and serve the way you want me to serve. In the powerful and precious name of Jesus Christ I pray all these things. Amen

Time Alone With Jesus

My church has a prayer ministry that I'm a part of called Bridge the Gap. Church members make up a team that pray for our church 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In our intercessor update for October/November there is a section on how to pray for your pastor and church staff. There are seven great prayers that really apply to any of us that belong to Jesus.

I have decided to customize them and pray each one of the suggested prayer requests for you, too. Each week will find Scripture that goes along with each request. For this week I’m praying over your solitude and personal prayer lives. I love this first week because it is the theme of my ministry-The Listening Heart.

I pray you and I won't ever allow the pressures of everyday life to replace crucial one-on-one time with God.

Dear Lord,

Please inspire myself and each reader of this blog to give ear and come to you, hear you that their souls may live (from Isaiah 55:3).

Like Jacob did near the ford of the Jabbok, I pray that each one of us will get alone with you to wrestle out our issues and daily challenges (from Genesis 32:24).

That we would listen expectantly, waiting in silence for God’s counsel (from Job 29:21).

That we would be still, and know that you are God; You will be exalted among our churches and the nations, You will be exalted in the earth (from Psalm 46:10).

In the precious and powerful name of Jesus Christ and in fellowship with the Holy Spirit I pray all these things. Amen.

Have some awesome one-on-one time and a blessed week. :) :)

Setting Our Hearts

"For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord,

and to practice it . . ."

Ezra 7:10NASB

If only Ezra was available to ask questions like, "How do you set your heart to study the law of the Lord? How do you go about practicing it? What do your daily disciplines entail?"

As I write and talk about The Listening Heart, I would love to have Ezra's insight because setting your heart on Bible Study represents part of a Listening Heart's life. When you love God with all your mind you keep it busy in God's word. I am praying as I write this blog and at this very moment the Lord has impressed upon my heart that you and I have something better than an interview with Ezra. We have the Holy Spirit to guide us, we have the mind of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 2:6-16).

I believe God will do for us what he did for Ezra. If we feed our desire to know God better, he will put a flame in our hearts set on studying his word and strengthen us to obey it. For God's word promises:

"He wakens me morning by morning,

wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.

The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears,

and I have not been rebellious;

I have not drawn back.

Isaiah 50:4-5

This promise is open to all of God's children. If it has come true in my life, I am convinced it will come true in yours, if it hasn't already. All we have to do is ask him to awaken a teachable mind and heart in us.

"Do you not know?

Have you not heard?"

Isaiah 40:21

Choices

Choices can change our lives profoundly.

The choice to mend a broken relationship,

to say "yes" to a difficult assignment, to lay aside

some important work to play with a child, to visit

some forgotten person--these small choices may

affect our live eternally.

Gloria Gaither

I have found that the most important choice I have to make every single day is whether or not I will answer God's invitation to come and spend time with him in his precious word. For he says:

Come, all you who are thirsty,

come to the waters;

and you who have no money,

come, buy and eat!

Give ear and come to me;

hear me, that your soul may live.

Isaiah 55:1 & 3

These verses have become the theme to my life and ministry. It hasn’t always been easy to answer his invitation, but over the years the habit of spending part of my day with God has not only become an absolute necessity, but the most enjoyable part of my day—I can’t go a day without retreating to pray and reading God’s love letter written to me and you, the Holy Bible.

As I share about the life of a Listening Heart, I hear many of your struggles in the area of spending time alone with God in prayer and Bible study. Most of you desire help. I know the challenges of taking time every day for God. All of us are busy and it’s easy to become over committed. We have spouses, children, jobs, church, and aging parents vying for our time. We also have opposition, fighting against long “to do” lists, illness, and our enemy, who works hard at stealing our day. Our hamster-wheel days make us feel like we have no time to sit still. Satan does his best to block us from finding the abundant life found when spending time alone with God.

With 24 hours in a day, 365 days in a year we all have 8,760 hours to do with as we see fit. But the final answer is--the choice is ours. God gave us free will to spend our day on what we choose. I'm grateful to God that he made me curious enough to want to know what this soul living that he promises in Isaiah 55 is all about. And like Gloria said, it's those small choices that affect our lives eternally.

Always Listen.