It's like Christmas...

The Lord has been showing me many things I feel. I would encourage everyone to have a journal and keep it regularly if you don't already. Writing down your thoughts provides a way to connect with God...and yourself. It keeps you from muttering redundancies to God and allows you to reflect later on what the Lord was showing you. Just don't let your pride hide that you secretly want someone to publish it someday after you die. Of course, I have no experience with this. ;)

This post and the next is made of tidbits from my recent journal entries. I find that when I attempt to refine my thoughts from my journals, it becomes more about me and less about God and His revelation. As the Lord has shown me more of His character, it changes me, the way I interact with others and, most profoundly, the way I interact with God. So, pray through whatever God may show you and ask Him to reveal more of Himself that you may be changed from the inside out.

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“Jesus, I feel You saying that instead of striving and then seeking Your blessing, we ought to receive Your blessing as You extend to us the favor we have through Your Son – that is the power to serve You by Your Spirit will come before the service itself. Let it come. Your are not slack to give it without measure if we will but humble ourselves…”

Do we see prayer as a privilege or a chore? I think the greatest change in my recent life with God came when I began to see prayer as a place to go rather than an activity to do. I’ve had people tell me that prayer was like jogging to them and that it was burdensome. I used to see it the same way. Now, it is as easy and pleasant as breathing fresh crisp air on a spring afternoon. Look, if we’re praying in agreement with His Word, we’re not trying to talk God into doing something, we’re agreeing with Him in what He wants to do and seeking to bring joy to His heart by opening ourselves to receive from Him.

“I’m looking at prayer like my living room on Christmas day. I am going to this place to receive gifts from my parents who love me. In the same way, I’m going to God now to receive from Him whatever He has for me today.”

What God can give us in prayer could be anything from His heart for the lost, His heart for the unreached, a time of refreshing, a time of worship, a time of rest, a lesson of teaching, a change of heart, granted repentance, a healing for us or someone else, a prophecy, etc. This is why prayer is so exciting for me now! The God of the universe is so diverse in His unchanging goodness! “As you have freely received, freely give.” So many times we see prayer as a time to try to appease God and to fill up on one spiritual activity to go and do another. We must truly believe that “our Father gives good gifts”…so RECEIVE from Him!

Lastly, we need to quit letting the enemy tell us that God only wants to refine us by smoking us with repentance all the time. And that if we don’t feel broken all the time over the nations, we must not have God’s heart. In the other ditch, God doesn’t want us to rest and fall asleep in prayer every time either. Allow the Lord to take you through seasons, but ask continually for the Spirit to reveal your heart to you in case of needed repentance.

(If you haven’t yet, reading through my post called “The Shepard’s Voice” talks about how to discern the Lord’s voice over the enemy’s.) May the Lord bless you all!