It has been four years since my first blog post. I started this journey because of the prodding of friends. My first post was on seeking God through prayer. I can honestly say it had to be of God. It was only a few days after my first post that great prayer was needed. As I looked back on the first post I read through and noticed this paragraph.
“I find the times that I really pray from the heart is when there is a pressing need. Someone we love is sick or a trial has approached. We may even be in the middle of the trial. Why, oh why don’t we love God enough to feel an urgency to talk to him every day. Just to be alone with him, because we want to know him better. It seems it takes a pressing matter for us to have “honest to God” praying. Are we so selfish that our selfishness dominates our prayer life too?”
I wonder how many trials could be avoided if we would only pray more. Another aspect that I wonder about is our outlook on life and its situations. If we prayed more it would draw us closer to God and it would allow us to see things differently. It would be such a different picture if we could see life from God’s perspective. I can’t imagine seeing life from Heaven’s viewpoint. Maybe if we prayed more we could see beyond our desires, maybe it would lessen the grieving process when a loved one is ready to experience Heaven.
Another reflection that has been brought to my mind has to do with the salvation of people. I long to see people come to know Jesus. I have prayed for God to bring people to our church that need Jesus and then to give them the courage to step out in faith and accept Him. He answered that prayer this past week. We as a church were blessed to see 3 young ladies come to Christ. There are several I continue to pray for that are still lost in their sins. This causes me to reflect on my life and find out why I am not seeing this prayer answered. Is there unconfessed sin in my life, am I asking amiss? I know people have a free will, but I also know that God knows how to get their attention. So, I ask myself what is wrong with my prayer life? It is a good thing to question myself and examine myself.
James 4:3 “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts”
Grace is another subject that has been real this year. God’s unmerited favor on me. Grace is God’s riches at Christ’s expense. It is God showing love to the unlovely, giving gifts to the ungrateful, peace to the restless, and it is a free sovereign favor to the undeserving. I will never grow tired of thinking of how grace rescued me. Grace that was and is greater than all my sin.
Ephesians 2:7 “That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”
Romans 5:20 – 21 “Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”
My last reflection of this past few years of posts deals with the subject of joy. I am so glad that my joy is not dependent on my circumstances. Happiness, sadness, both come and go. They change according to our circumstances, but joy is different. Joy is that deep-seated emotion that is dependent on my relationship with God. It is the Holy Spirit working through me to help me to see Jesus. When I get a clear picture I put Jesus first, others second and myself (yourself) last. The deeper my joy the less I think of myself and my situation, and the more I think of Christ and others. It is one of the character traits of the fruit of the Spirit. It will keep you going when nothing else will. Joy is filled with hope for the future. Joy recognizes who is in charge of the future. This truth increases our joy because there is no need to worry. The key to the Christian’s joy is our source, which is the Lord. If Christ is in me and I am in Him, that relationship is not a sometimes experience. Then I as Paul can rejoice always. When Paul wrote the following verses, he was in prison. His circumstances did not dictate his joy.
Philippians 3:1 “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.”
Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.”
