A Quiet and Peaceable Life I Timothy 2:1-2

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, [and] giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and [for] all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

We all want a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. God tells us what we need to do to have this. Paul mentions, “supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving thanks.” What is the difference in these types of prayers? Supplications are for the averting of evil; prayers are for the obtaining God’s goodness; intercessions are for others, and thanksgivings are for mercies already received.

We are also to be in prayer for those in authority around us, both religious and civil. We are to be praying for our pastors and we are to pray for our state and national leaders as well. We do these things so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

How can we develop an effective life of prayer? Well the simple answer is to start praying! Get alone with God for 10 minutes a day to pray for God’s protection from the evil influences that are all around us. We are used to asking for God’s goodness in our lives. We also are to pray for the needs of others around us and then we are to be thankful for all that God has already done for us.

When we begin to pray in this way, 10 minutes will begin to turn into 20 minutes and 20 minutes 40 minutes! When we begin to look for those around us to pray for, our prayer time expands even more. As we start to expand our prayer time, we will begin to “pray without ceasing.” We will find ourselves voicing prayers at all times of the day for all sorts of reasons.

I have been on the road and heard a siren on an ambulance and I would voice a prayer for that person. I have had someone ask me to pray for a specific need or some individual and I have found myself saying, “Let’s pray right here, right now.” I pray when I am driving. I pray when I wake up in the middle of the night.

When we face fear, pray. When we face adversity, pray. When we are depressed, pray. When we are happy, we can pray as well! There is never a reason not to pray and there are all sorts of reasons for us to pray if we will just begin to do so! When we do we will find a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

Prayer Made in this Place II Chronicles 6:40

“Now, my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and let Your ears be attentive to the prayer made in this place.


Solomon has built the Temple for God in Jerusalem. It is a magnificent Temple and all the people of Israel had come to dedicate this House to the Lord. Solomon stood before all the people and he prayed that God would bless this House that he had built and that He would indeed dwell in the Temple.

Solomon asks God to forgive the children of Israel of their sins when they come to this place to worship and to seek His forgiveness. He prays that God would hear their prayers and that He would forgive their sins and heal their lives and their land.

He prays a number of prayers that cover a variety of situations that the children of Israel had found themselves in, in the past and at the end of his prayer, he says, “Now, my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and let Your ears be attentive to the prayer made in this place.”

Our lives are the temple of the living God if we belong to Him. Our lives ought to be characterized by the words of this prayer that Solomon prayed to God; “God my prayer is that Your eyes will be open and your ears attentive to the prayers that are made in this place, in my life and in my heart.”

You and I ought to be people of prayer. We ought to let prayer be the guiding principle in our lives. Prayer acknowledges our dependence on God. Prayer acknowledges our need for Him in our lives. Prayer allows God to move in our lives in each and every decision that we make so that He can forgive our sin and fortify our situation in every circumstance that we have ever or will ever face in our lives. God will give us victory if we will just make prayer a priority in our lives.

Would you be willing to pray today, that God would open His eyes and His ears to your prayers made in this place, in your heart and in your life? If you will just pray this prayer, God will hear your prayer and He will make a profound difference in your life!

Trust In God I Chronicles 5:21

20And they were helped against them, and the Hagrites were delivered into their hand, and all who were with them, for they cried out to God in the battle. He heeded their prayer, because they put their trust in Him.



18The sons of Reuben, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh had forty-four thousand seven hundred and sixty valiant men, men able to bear shield and sword, to shoot with the bow, and skillful in war, and they went to war. When the battle began, they cried out to God for His help and God heeded their prayer, because they put their trust in Him.

God gave the two and a half tribes victory over their enemies and that victory allowed them to live in peace for a number of generations. Not only did the children of Israel win the battle and secure their homestead, 21 they took away their livestock—fifty thousand of their camels, two hundred and fifty thousand of their sheep, and two thousand of their donkeys—also one hundred thousand of their men, who became servants to the Israelites.

God not only gave them victory over their enemy, He blessed them in the same action! God heard their prayer and he heeded their prayer because they put their trust in Him.

There is no excuse for a child of God not to place his trust in Him! None. When we go to make a decision, all we have to do is think, “Has God been faithful to me?” “Has God ever let me down?” “Has God blessed me even when I did not deserve His blessing?” “Has God shown me that He loves me and that He cares about me?”

If the answers to those questions are yes, and if you are a child of His they are, whether you realize it or not; then it would only seem reasonable that God will continue to provide for and protect you in the future!

God heard this groups prayer and He heeded their cry because they put their trust in Him. He will do the same for you and me today if we will just put our faith and our trust in Him as well.

Meditation or Prayer James 5:16

15And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 16Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.



I was reading an article in the New York Times about meditation and its ability to reduce stress. Someone has defined stress as the reaction of the body to things that happen to it. Meditation allows the mind to relax and therefore the stress is reduced.

Using functional MRI and advanced EEG analysis, a group of medical experts were able to measure and record certain set points for the brain that were associated with certain moods. The functional M.R.I. images reveal that when people are emotionally distressed — anxious, angry, depressed — the most active sites in the brain are circuitry converging on the amygdala, part of the brain's emotional centers, and the right prefrontal cortex, a brain region important for the hypervigilance typical of people under stress.

By contrast, when people are in positive moods — upbeat, enthusiastic and energized — those sites are quiet, with the heightened activity in the left prefrontal cortex. The scientists discovered what they believe is a quick way to index a person's typical mood range, by reading the baseline levels of activity in these right and left prefrontal areas. That ratio predicts daily moods with surprising accuracy. The more the ratio tilts to the right, the more unhappy or distressed a person tends to be, while the more activity to the left, the more happy and enthusiastic.

As I went on to read the rest of the article, I could not help but think how wonderful God is indeed! He created us with not only the capacity for prayer… He created us with the need for prayer! Prayer is God’s remedy for stress! The greatest form of meditation is prayer! Talking to God is the best form of meditation there is and therefore it is the best cure for stress!
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man indeed availeth much!

When anxiety comes, pray. When discouragement comes, pray. When disappointment comes, pray! When you have thoughts that you know are not from God, pray! When things happen to you or around you that affect your life, your outlook on life or your relationship with God… then it is time to pray.

How do you spell relief for stress in your life?

PRAYER !!!

Prayer works if we will just work prayer!!!

Strengthen and Encourage Deuteronomy 3:28

27‘Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift your eyes toward the west, the north, the south, and the east; behold it with your eyes, for you shall not cross over this Jordan. 28‘But command Joshua, and encourage him and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you will see.’



Moses wanted to go into the Promised Land. However, this was not going to happen. God’s plan was for Joshua to take the children of Israel into the Promised Land. God did allow Moses to go up onto the mountain and look down on the land that He was going to give to His people.

God told Moses, “command Joshua, and encourage him and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you will see.”

Sometimes, our call and our responsibility is to pray for others. We do not know what God’s will and plans are. However, we can understand that our responsibility first and foremost is to pray that God will lead us to do what He wants us to do.

Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt. He wanted to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land. He had spent 40 years with them in the wilderness. He looked forward to seeing the Promised Land Himself.

Sometimes, our calling is to lead and prepare others to reap the harvest that we may want to reap ourselves. Moses’ responsibility was coming to an end. He is old and his life is almost over and God tells him, “Encourage and strengthen Joshua for he will lead the people into the Promised Land.”

It does not matter what our call and our responsibility is; we are to encourage and strengthen those around us so that in God’s strength they can accomplish what God wants to accomplish in them and for His glory and for His honor. When you and I take the time to pray to that end, we share in the rewards and the benefits of what God is able to accomplish in the life of that person!

What a blessing indeed it is to be able to share in the work that God is doing in the world around us.

In One Accord Acts 2:1

1When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.




Pentecost must have been a wonderful sight! I can only imagine how things must have been when the Holy Spirit down like a mighty rushing wind and filled the hearts of all the people who were in that room. The key to the process can be found in two areas.

First Jesus promised the disciples that this event would take place. 4And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father,“which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; 5“for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

You and I need to understand that God says what He means and He means what He says. When He makes a promise, He will keep that promise.

The second key is that Jesus’ followers did what Jesus told them to do! They went into the upper room and there they waited for this blessing from the Lord and they were there in “one accord.” This must have been some kind of prayer meeting! That is the only way that group of folks could have been in one accord for that long a period!

When you and I are willing to wait on the Lord and we wait in an attitude of prayer, it gets God’s attention and He responds in monumental proportions! God is ready to pour out His Spirit on His people; He is ready to pour out His Spirit on His church. All He is waiting for is for you and me to be willing to stand with Him and wait on Him to do what only He can do! He wants us to stand together in an attitude of prayer and thanksgiving in one accord with His will and His purpose for our lives and allow Him to do what He wants to do in and through our lives.

When you and I are willing to do that, we may well find the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our hearts and in our lives and we will see people coming to the Lord in record numbers because God has come down and touched us in a very special way!

Spiritual Renewal II Corinthians 4:16

Though our outward man perishes, the inner man is being renewed day by day.



Every day that we live, we come one day closer to eternity. With each passing day the outer man perishes little by little. Each year brings new aches and pains as well as a whole new set of challenges. Life itself offers little consolation.

For the Christian there is hope for the future! When we take Christ by the hand and walk with Him in fellowship, He is able to renew our spirits day by day. When you and I take God by the hand and allow Him to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, we can truly say, “Today is the first day of the rest of my life!”

Every day with Jesus just keeps getting better and better. The key to understanding this principle is found in the phrase, “day by day.” Taking the time to get alone with God on a daily basis is the key to finding life that is abundant and full. In fact, taking the time to get alone with God is an indispensable condition to experiencing the power and provisions that God has in store for His children.

There really is no excuse for the child of God not to experience life in all of its glory because the Giver of Life and the Sustainer of Life will renew your spirit on a daily basis if you will just come to Him in prayer and walk with Him one decision at a time.

We ought to thank God every day that though our outward man perishes, the inner man is being renewed day by day.

Prayer and Expectation Matthew 6:33

31Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.



Jesus reminds us that God knows what we need and He has blessings in store for us that are beyond our expectation. Jesus uses the birds of the air and the lilies in the field to illustrate God’s careful attention to detail, Jesus says, 30Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

The emphasis in the scripture is always given to God’s answer to our prayers. Everything God does for us is secured by prayer. Prayer puts us in touch with God. Prayer allows Him to touch us in return. Prayer is God’s way of reaching out to us with His blessings. Prayer always brings us an answer from God. If it doesn’t we need to examine the motive of our prayer.

Jesus tells us that we are not to worry about our needs; He tells us to worry about something that we can do and that is to seek God first and His righteousness and we will have what we need in life, plus some! God knows what we need to be happy and to live a fulfilling life. He knows what He wants to do for us. He wants to give us peace and joy so that our lives will be the absolute best they can possibly be.

All God looks for from us is a prayer of expectation. A prayer founded on faith in God in who He says He is and all that He says He will do is the kind of prayer that will change our lives and our communities for His glory and for His honor. All we have to do is come to Him in prayer and then watch Him do the rest! This is what the world needs to see and see they will if we will just pray and expect God to answer.

Answers to Our Prayers John 11:41-42

And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42“And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.”



Jesus is at the graveside of Lazarus and He is about to raise Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus has been in the tomb now for three days and it is obvious that what Jesus is about to do has never been done before. Jesus prays, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42“And I know that You always hear Me.”

Prayer is a wonderful privilege! God hears our prayers. Not only does He hear our prayers, He hears them every time we pray! Jesus said, “I know that You always hear Me.” You and I can know that God always hears us as well. This is the foundation for our prayers. In Romans 8 we read, “26Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” Our prayers are heard by God.

Listen to Jesus’ next statement, 42“And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” Here we have Jesus explaining one of the profound benefits of prayer. Prayer proves our level of faith in God. When we go to God in prayer, we are making a statement of faith in Him! Jesus said what He did so that those who were standing around Him would hear and see and then believe.

When you and I go to God in expectation in prayer and we make our prayers known in public, God rewards us openly and He hears our prayers and He answers those prayers that everyone might know that we belong to Him and that He is still at work in our world today.

The problem with most prayers today is the lack of real faith in God to do what we are asking Him to do. Most people pray to God without any expectation whatsoever. A prayer offered to God for which there is no answer expected gets none. Prayers that get no answer are often prayers where no answer was expected. Jesus said,“I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.”

What kind of expectation do you pray with? Do you know that God hears your prayers and even more important than that, what kind of answer do you really expect from Him when you pray? Your answer may have a lot to do with the answers you have been getting!

Seek God In Prayer Proverbs 2:3

² Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding. ³ Cry out for insight and understanding. ⁴ Search for them as you would for lost money or hidden treasure. ⁵ Then you will understand what it means to fear the LORD, and you will gain knowledge of God.

Wisdom comes from God. Solomon instructs us to “tune our ears to wisdom and concentrate on understanding it. Cry out for insight and understanding.”

It is important to seek God to know His will and His way for our lives. Prayer is one of the avenues that we “seek” Him. Solomon tells us to cry out for insight. It is not enough to just ask… we need to cry out to Him. Sometimes our prayer time needs to be characterized by “intense seeking.”

Solomon tells us that we need to seek wisdom as we would lost money or treasures. The King James says, “If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures;” We spend a lot of time every day of our lives seeking treasures that do not last nor do they even satisfy. We work from “can to can’t” trying to have money in our pockets but we fail to search for and find the treasures that really satisfy the needs in our soul!

We are morally and spiritually bankrupt. Our lives are trying to cash checks that our soul cannot support! We may have money in the band but we have nothing in our person. There is no real joy and no lasting happiness in our lives.

The problem is we are looking in the wrong places for answers to the questions of life. When we look to God in His Word and in prayer, earnestly searching for wisdom, then God promises, you will understand what it means to fear the LORD, and you will gain knowledge of God.

There is nothing like experiencing God in all of His glory and all of His majesty. He is rich in His marvelous mercy to us and He will give us His grace as we seek to find Him in everything that we undertake to do.

Seek God in prayer and in His Word and you will understand what it means to fear the LORD, and you will gain knowledge of God.

Praying in the Spirit Jude 20-21

20But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.


The New Living Translation reads this way, “20 But you, dear friends, must continue to build your lives on the foundation of your holy faith. And continue to pray as you are directed by the Holy Spirit. 21 Live in such a way that God’s love can bless you as you wait for the eternal life that our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy is going to give you.”

Prayer is an important part of our spiritual growth and the strengthening of our faith. As we pray, the Holy Spirit leads us and guides us. It is our responsibility to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Prayer helps us follow as well! Jude admonishes us to build ourselves up in our faith. He then instructs us to pray in the Holy Spirit.

Prayer strengthens our faith and helps us keep ourselves in the Love of God and His provisions for us. Prayer and obedience allow God’s blessings to come into our lives as we wait for the promise of eternal life. The desire of God’s heart is to bless us until Jesus comes for us.

The Holy Spirit does not just come and help us at certain times. He dwells in our hearts and He is an ever-present help to the child of God. Therefore His goal is for us to pray to Him without ceasing and in every single decision that we make. This prayer becomes an exercise of constant fellowship with the Lord and His everlasting love for us.

We need to look to the Lord every moment of every day for His guidance and His direction for our lives. God will bless us as we walk with Him. He will strengthen our faith in Him, which helps us stand for Him! Prayer is the key to the whole process of life in all of its fullness and its glory both for you and me and for God Himself.

Grace and Mercy Psalm 67:1

1 God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah. 2That thy way may be known upon earth,God’s mercy is forever with us.

His blessing is ours even though we do not deserve it. What is the difference between God’s mercy and His grace? How would you define “grace” or “mercy”? I heard someone define grace and mercy like this: “God’s grace is Him giving us what we do not deserve while His mercy is Him not giving us what we do deserve.” We deserve death and His wrath but because of His love for us, He does not give us what we deserve but gives us what we do not deserve in His constant blessing of our lives.

David writes, “and cause His face to shine on us.” When God is able to shower us with His blessings, His face shines which, in my mind, is a picture of one aspect of the glory of God. God’s whole purpose in creating us is to be able to bless us so that our lives can be their absolute best. God is blessed and we become a blessing to the rest of the world and then His way is made known to that world.

Life is God’s design. We are His handiwork. When He is able to bless us, He rejoices and His joy is made full. Others see His way and then they look to Him to bless their lives. God wants to see us happy and our lives filled to overflowing. He has the grace and mercy to accomplish that task.

God be merciful unto us, and bless us. Guess what… He will do just that! Just give Him the opportunity to do it!

The Fullness of God Ephesians 3:19

14For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ… 17that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.



Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus. He prays that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Faith the Bible tells us in Romans 10, “17comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Prayer helps us receive that Word and then understand that Word. Prayer also helps us apply what we hear as we make decisions in our daily lives. This is how faith makes its mark in our lives. This is how we can know that we have faith!

Faith is active. Faith gives us direction in our lives. Faith makes its presence known in our lives as we make decisions. The decisions that we make have a lot to do with the lives we live and the directions our lives take. This is why Paul prays that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. He knows the benefits of walking with the Lord on a daily basis.

The whole purpose of understanding and accepting the Word of God and making it part of our daily lives is that we might be filled with all the fullness of God. God has a perfect plan for our lives. He has knows what we need and He knows what He has in store for us. God knows what it takes for us to have a victorious Christian life in spite of our circumstances and situations. You see, there is a big difference in being happy and having joy and peace in our hearts. God wants to give us the latter and that produces this fullness that God has for us.

Prayer allows God to move us from where we are to the place that He wants us to be. Prayer needs to be personal but it also needs to be public! We need to pray for ourselves but we need to learn to pray for others as well. As you and I begin to pray for the spiritual needs of those around us, God will being to show us ways to help meet those spiritual needs! He will include you and me in the things that He wants to do to reach out to give the fullness that He has in store for those around us. This is a blessing that cannot be measured and can be ours if we will just take the time to get on our knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and carry the needs of those around us to Him!

Preserve Me Psalm 40:11

11Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy loving kindness and thy truth continually preserve me.



“Do not hold back Your tender mercies from me.” What is God’s mercy? God’s mercy is Him not giving us what we do deserve. We do not deserve what God has done and is doing for us. His purpose was before the foundation of the world however, to love us even though we were so unloving. His purpose was to provide for us and protect us even though we were disobedient and rebellious.

David writes, “Let Your loving kindness and Your truth continually preserve me.” We do not understand the scope of God’s love for us. God’s loving kindness is expressed in His tender mercies toward us. God loves us in spite of who and what we are. He created us so that He could love us and that we could love Him in return. His loving kindness is His expression of Himself to us in ways that we may know who He is. God created us so that He could fill us and meet our needs and touch our hearts. Love may be difficult to understand, but His kindness we cannot misunderstand! God’s touch is a touch that makes a difference in our lives.

David writes, “Your truth continually preserves me.” Faith is believing that God is everything that He says He is and that He will do everything that He says He will do. The truth of God is what protects us and preserves us. It is the truth of God that helps us know who God is and the truth of God is what makes His loving kindness so special! It is the truth of God that allows His mercy to make a difference in our lives. It is His loving kindness that allows His truth to make a difference in our lives.

We need to know His truth and this truth that we have come to know will set us free because Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life. His loving kindness will make a difference in our lives and in the lives of those around us. David wanted God’s tender mercies to stand with Him. He wanted God’s loving kindness to make a difference in His life because of His truth! He will continually preserve us when we allow Him to give us His loving kindness!

God wants to bless us! He wants to meet our needs and He wants us to know His truth that will set us free from all that is keeping us from experiencing all that He has planned for us.

Let’s take God by the hand and walk with Him so that His tender mercies will be ours and His loving kindness will make a difference in our lives and His truth will continually preserve us!

Keep Your Promises I Samuel 1:26

26And she said, Oh my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the LORD. 27For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him: 28Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD. And he worshipped the LORD there.



Hannah was a woman who loved God very much and she prayed to God for a son. She went to Eli the prophet of God and prayed there in his presence and sought his help in her request to have a son. Hannah made a promise to God. She told God that she would dedicate that son to God’s service. She got the news that she was pregnant and after her son was born, she came to Eli with Samuel and she gave her son to Eli to serve him as he served the Lord.

Hannah reminded Eli that she had been there praying for a son and she told him of the promise that she had made with the Lord. They worshipped God together there.

There are a couple of things that are important to remember in this story. First of all, Hannah made a promise to God if He gave her a son. This is not something to be done lightly. Our promises to God do not normally cause God to act. However, there are times when God may lead us to make those promises and when we do, we need to be very careful to follow through with those promises.

God keeps His promises. When you and I make promises to God, We need to keep those promises as well.

Prayer and Obedience Isaiah 66:2

1Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? 2For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.



God has done wonderfully in His creation. He created the earth and the heavens as well. There is nothing that can begin to compare with the wonder of His creation! However, God is concerned with one thing; He says, “I am looking for a man with a poor and contrite spirit who trembles at My Word.”

When we submit our hearts to the Lord and we draw near unto Him He draws near unto us. God blesses this kind of life! When we read this passage this morning, we want to read “poor and contrite spirit” because we can interpret those words the way that we want to. We can say, “I have that kind of spirit and that kind of heart.” However, Isaiah defines what God is looking for in that kind of spirit in the next phrase. He defines the person who has this contrite heart and spirit as one who “trembles at God’s Word.”

Isaiah goes on to say, “3 But those who choose their own ways, delighting in their sins, are cursed. Their offerings will not be accepted.” Our lives are really very simple. We can do things God’s way or we can do them our way. When we choose God’s way over our own way, our lives reflect the benefits of doing what God’s Word tells us we ought to do. When we fail to do what God’s Word tells us to do and we choose our own way instead, our lives reflect those decisions as well and the Bible tells us that we are cursed. Our lives are the product of the decisions that we make. We have to live with the decisions that we make.

This is why prayer is so vitally important. Prayer helps determine the direction that our decisions will take. Prayer is the beginning of a contrite spirit and heart. Obedience to God’s Word is the product of our prayers. Obedience follows prayer. Without prayer, obedience is almost impossible! James tells us that faith without works is dead. Obedience to God’s Word and His will for our lives is impossible if it is not first born and bathed in prayer.

Submit and The Resist James 4:7

7Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.



Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Living a victorious Christian life is not really that difficult; all we have to do is submit ourselves to God. When you and I make the decision to live for Him, we have taken the first and most important step in being victorious over sin in our lives. James writes, “Draw near to God and He will draw near unto you.” When we are willing to take that step and determine in our minds to do so, we can then resist the devil and he will flee from us.

We make a couple of mistakes in this area of our lives. The first mistake we make is we try to resist the devil without first submitting ourselves to God and drawing near to Him. We must remember that our strength to resist the devil does not come from within; our strength comes from the Lord. When we determine in our hearts that we are going to take God by the hand and live our lives according to His will and His way as set forth in His Word, His strength becomes available for us to resist the devil and the devil will flee.

God never expected us to do this on our own! He knows that we cannot do it on our own. The truth is, until we draw near unto God and submit ourselves to Him, there is not only no strength to resist the devil but there is no real desire to do so! Our pride is the one thing that keeps us from drawing near unto God. This is why James goes on to say, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up!”

God created us and He sustains us and gives us life. It does not make sense not to draw near unto God and humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord so that He can lift us up and draw near unto us so that in His strength we might be able to resist the devil and he will flee from us. Life really is that simple if we will just do it!

A Blooming Prayer Life James 4:3

2You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.



Prayer is a wonderful thing. There are three things that stand out in these two verses. The first thing that Paul mentions in talking about our prayer is that we do not have because we do not ask. Prayer is the most underused privilege that we have as God’s children. God expects us to come to Him in prayer and that time alone with God is what brings His blessings into our lives. Our lives as a child of God are severely lacking if we do not avail ourselves to the practice of prayer on a daily basis.

The second reason that Paul says about prayer is when we do ask, we ask amiss because we ask for the wrong things! When we come to God with requests that satisfy our own lusts and our own sinful desires, we can be sure that God is not going to give us those requests. The desire of God’s heart is to bless us and He will not give us things that will take us farther away from Him!

There is a third provision in this passage that is not as easy to see. Paul says, “You lust and do not have.” In James we read, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” How we live our lives determines the effectiveness of our prayers. The truth is simple. God is able to bless us when our lives reflect His presence. Disobedience robs God of the opportunity to do the things that He so much wants to do for us. Disobedience is the real root of our problems when it comes to prayer or a lack of prayer in our lives!

A disobedient spirit keeps us from praying in the first place and it causes us to ask amiss when we do pray! Ask God today for His wisdom in praying and ask Him for the strength to do what He tells you to do so that you can be the person that He wants you to be. Your prayer life will begin to change as your walk with Him takes a new direction!

Seek Him Wholeheartedly Psalm 119:2

² Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart!

David writes, “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the Law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart.”

David has learned on of the most valuable lessons in life. He has learned the value of allowing God to be God in his life. He has learned that God is the source of life. He has learned the decisions that he makes in his life are important. He has learned that the decisions that he makes today are going to affect the quality of his life tomorrow and the day after that. David has learned that there is only one way to walk and that way is the way that God has set for him to walk. He has learned that walking in that way is where his life has been its fullest, not because of what he has done but because of what God has been able to do in his life.

David writes, “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart.” How can we keep “His testimonies”? A testimony is a recount of what God has done. If faith is believing that God is everything that He says He is, then keeping His testimony is to live for Him because of what He has already done in our lives. If faith is believing that He will do everything that He says He is, then when we keep His testimony by walking in the Law of the Lord, we are saying to God and to the rest of the world, I know that God will continue to do what He has already done in my life!

God wants us to seek Him with our whole heart. This used to be a little difficult for me to understand. After all, God created us to think for ourselves. He created us with these desires to be our own person and to make our own way and do our own thing. We want to live our lives and include God in that life. He wants us to make Him central in every decision that we make. He wants us to walk with Him every moment of every day that we live. Why?

God knows what He has planned for our lives. He knows what He has in store for us tomorrow or later this afternoon for that matter! He knows that when we take that step to walk in His way, He will be able to bless us exceedingly more than we could ask or hope for. He knows that He can fight our battles, meet our needs and give us the desires of His heart! Why on earth would we want to walk in any other way? Why would we not want to serve Him and walk with Him with our whole heart!

Look at His testimony in your life. Look at His testimony in the lives of others around you. Look at His testimony in the scriptures and see just how much He has loved you and how much He has done for you and decide like David has done, to love Him with your whole heart! Let Him have His way in your life so He can give you the life that He has planned for you to have!

The Lack of Prayer Revelation 3:17

17“Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—



The Laodicean church had a real problem; they lacked any commitment to walking with the Lord. They had a form of righteousness and were guilty of going through the motions and maybe even looking good to people who were on the outside. However, they were neither hot nor cold and Jesus said, I would just as soon spit you out of My mouth! When our lives are characterized by a lack of prayer and a lack or commitment, we run the danger of becoming like the church at Laodicea.

The sad thing about this church is the fact that they were destitute and did not realize it. Jesus says, “you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—“

This is a sad indictment on that kind of church. It is one thing to acknowledge ones situation and refuse to do anything about it; it is another to walk as if one is rich and nothing is wrong and it is obvious to everyone that there is nothing right!

Prayer helps us see ourselves for who we are. Prayer helps us make commitments that allow us to move from where we are to the place that God has planned for us. He wants us to be rich and wealthy and have need of nothing; however, we have to do things His way or else we end up wretched, poor, blind and naked. Understand something; this condition that Jesus is speaking of has nothing to do with the balance of ones financial statement or bank accounts.

It is entirely possible to have money in ones pocket and have absolutely nothing in ones person. Prayer keeps that from happening! Prayer keeps life “real.” Prayer causes us to make sure that we are walking in the right direction and it helps us make the right decision and choice for that moment in our lives.

We need to understand that the Bible tells us that we have not because we ask not. We need to learn to make prayer a priority in our lives and then be willing to stand on the promises that God has given to us as we avail ourselves to the practice of prayer. Just as there is no excuse for not being thankful in our prayer time, there is no excuse for not having that prayer time! A Lack of prayer creates terrible consequences that do not have to happen to us!

Acknowledge God I Kings 8:23

22Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven; 23and he said: “Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or on earth below like You, who keep Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts.



Wow! Solomon has just had the Ark of the Covenant brought into the Temple, which he has just finished building for God’s glory. When the Ark was placed into the Temple, the glory of the Lord filled the House of the Lord and everyone there witnessed this awesome event.

22Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven; 23and he said: “Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or on earth below like You.

There is no one like God not in heaven nor on earth or anywhere in the universe for that matter. God deserves our adoration and our praise for who He is! He does. There is no excuse for us not to recognize Him for who He is, especially if He has forgiven us of our sin and saved us.

Solomon goes on to acknowledge that God keeps His promises and has made His mercy a priority to those that walk with Him. This prayer is amazing. It is impossible for us not to be thankful to the Lord if we will take the time to recognize who He is and what He has already done and wants to do for us!

You and I have to remember that the desire of God’s heart is to be God in our lives. He wants to be our God and He wants us to be His people. He wants to fight our battles and He wants to bless us and make us a blessing to those around us. Make prayer a priority in your daily walk, acknowledging God for who He is and what He has promised to do for you. God will hear your prayer and He will make a profound difference in the life that you live.

Acknowledge God and walk with the Lord with all your heart!

The Most Holy Place I Kings 1:6

6Then the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the Most Holy Place.



Solomon has just finished building this magnificent temple for the glory of God. The temple, though richly beautiful, was like a body without a soul, or a candlestick without a candle, or (to speak more properly) a house without an inhabitant. There was something missing. The Ark of the Covenant had not been brought into the Temple. The Ark represented the presence of God. The work was over; the House was finished; it now needed to be complete. It was time for the presence of God to fill His House!

Solomon summoned the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel as well as the congregation of Israel itself. Everyone was expected to be there. This was an important event for Israel and Solomon made sure that everyone knew to be there.

The sacrifices were made and 6Then the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple, to the Most Holy Place.

There are a couple of things that stand out in the passage. First of all, the people did everything that they did out of respect for Solomon for all that Solomon had done in having the Temple built and now dedicated to the Lord. However, many were there to worship God for all that He had done for them as a people and as a nation.

When you and I come into the presence of the Lord we too need to come in thanksgiving and adoration for all that God has done and wants to do for us as individuals and for us as a church and as a nation. This solemn act of worship was done because the ark was brought into the Temple. You and I are the Temple of the Living God and our responsibility is to worship God with every decision that we make; allowing His presence to fill our lives as His Temple or dwelling place.

When you and I come into His presence in prayer, we need to be like Solomon and the children of Israel; we need to come to Him in thanksgiving and in honor of Him for all that He wants to do in us and for us. When we come into His presence in that kind of matter, there is nothing that God will not do for our benefit and His glory!

May we all come into His presence as the Ark was brought into the inner chamber of the sanctuary, the most Holy place!

Reward Us Openly! Matthew 6:6

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.


The "closet" is the closed place, where we are to get alone with God, where the human spirit waits upon an unseen Presence and learns to recognize Him who is a Spirit, and cultivates His acquaintance, fellowship, and friendship. Prayer is the foundation that forms a relationship with our Heavenly Father who has done so much for us and wants to do so much more.

When we pray unto God in secret, the Bible promises us that He will reward us openly. God rewards us in a variety of ways. First of all, the privilege to pray to Him knowing that He will hear our prayer is a reward in and of itself. Here we have the Great God of the universe, the God of all grace and glory who stops to listen to our prayer! What a wonderful privilege that is.

When we enter into the quiet places with the Lord and we come to Him in prayer thanking Him for all that He is and all that He has done, God is able to speak to our hearts and that allows Him to begin to strengthen and enrich our lives. God will begin to fight our battles for us and He will begin to bless us in ways that we could never begin to imagine.

God is the giver of peace and joy, which form the foundation that real happiness is built on. As God is able to give us this peace and joy, we begin to realize just how blessed we really are. This causes us to look to the Lord even more in thanksgiving and that makes us more determined to walk with Him, which allows Him to bless us even more!

The challenge that life offers is to see just how much God can do in us and with us and through us! AS God blesses us, He makes us a blessing to others and that may well be the greatest blessing of all! Pray to God in secret today so that He can begin to reward you openly tomorrow and every day after that!

That It Might Be Well Deuteronomy 5:29

O that there was such a heart in them that they would fear Me and keep My commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever.


Moses has the children of Israel gathered together and he is reminding them of all the things that God has done for them. He recounts the giving of the Ten Commandments to them and Moses reminds them of God’s words as He said, “O that there was such a heart in them that they would fear Me and keep My commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever.”

God gave His people these commandments for a reason. He wanted to be the source of blessing in their lives and the road to obtaining those blessings is forged as we keep His commandments. Listen to God’s heart as He makes this appeal to us. God does not want us to keep His commandments for His benefit! He wants us to keep His commandments for our benefit.

One of the reasons that so many people have such a hard time living an obedient life is because their motives are all messed up. Somehow the devil has convinced us that God is some cosmic kill-joy that sits in heaven and He rewards people who follow Him and punish people who do not. Many also believe that being a Christian means they have to give up the fun that seems to be so important to so many.

The truth is, God wants to reward us and bless our lives in ways that we cannot begin to imagine and all He asks of us is that we simply follow after Him by keeping His commandments! In keeping God’s commandments, we must be born again. Once we have come into God’s forever family, our responsibility is really very simple; walk with God in each and every decision that we make and allow His Word to influence and direct those decisions.

When you and I are willing to live our lives as God would have us live them, God is able to bless us exceedingly abundantly more than we can ask or hope for. He is able to do things for us and with us that will be well with us and with our families for generations to come!

There really is no excuse for us not to live our lives for the Lord in light of all that He has done and is doing for us. Prayer gives us the opportunity to be reminded of all the things that God has done for us. Gratefulness is one of the aspects of life that is most often overlooked. There is nothing any more beneficial to us than being grateful to the Lord for all that He has done for us. When we are grateful, God is able to do even more for us.

O that there was such a heart in them that they would fear Me and keep My commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever.

><> Pastor Bob

God Satisfies Psalm 103:5

Who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.


More than anything, God wants to satisfy our lives with good things. David says here that God satisfies our mouth with good things. He does that in a number of ways. First of all, God provided for our nourishment so that our youth is renewed and our vitality is extended. We live in a day where people are so conscious of what they eat from counting carbs to multi-vitamins to drinks that they take. Every effort is being made to retain that youthful appearance. We may feel like we are a hundred years old, but we sure don’t want to look like it!

Our problem is that we are looking in all of the wrong places to find the answers to the questions of life. We want all the good things but we don’t want to go to the source of life to get them. God will renew our vitality and satisfy our lives if we will but allow Him to do so. He and He alone knows the real answers that we so desperately want to find.

God also satisfies our mouth with good things that come out of our mouths as well, which renew our youth. Perhaps the saddest indictment on our society as a whole today, is the lack of respect and concern for people around us that is so prevalent in America today. We know how to let others do for us but by in large, we are not very giving in return. There is a prevailing attitude in our society that basically says, “Leave me alone and let me do my thing…if I need something I will ask for it.” Christianity is supposed to be right the opposite.

God’s design in life is to be blessed by Him and to be a blessing to others. As we are a blessing to others, good things come out of our mouths and that satisfies our being to the core. Life is to be shared. It is not what we get out of life that satisfies us, but rather what we give to life that really satisfies. It is not what we take from life but what we give to life that makes it worth the living. The age old adage of the more you put into it, the more you get out of it is so true, even today.

As God gives to us, His desire is that we give to those around us. The things that we speak to those around us make or break our lives. The things that we say determine the quality of the life that we enjoy. If we will be honest with ourselves, we work so hard to have so much to fill the emptiness in our lives so that we will be satisfied. God never intended for us to try to fill those voids with things. He intended to fill those voids Himself and as we receive we give and that and that alone would satisfy the deepest needs in our lives. Then, as we are satisfied, the things that we need to surround our lives would be there.

God’s way is the only way to find real satisfaction in our lives. The great news is that life is readily available to us the very moment we take God by the hand and allow Him to do all the things that He has planned to do for us! He will satisfy our mouths with good things and renew our youth like the eagles! Make prayer a priority and get ready to soar!

Open My Eyes Lord Psalm 119:18

18 Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.




David asks the Lord to open his eyes that he might see the wondrous things from God’s Law. Think about David’s prayer for a moment. Why would David ask God to show him the “wondrous things from God’s Law?” This is a great prayer indeed when we understand the full impact of David’s prayer.

David had learned the value of walking with God and following God’s direction by allowing God’s Law to affect the decisions that David made as he lived his life day by day. As David made decisions that were in line with God’s commandments, he found his life headed in the right direction. As David allowed God’s Word and His Law to penetrate his heart and his mind, he found out that the quality of his life improved according to the opportunity that he gave God to make a difference in his life.

As David prays this simple prayer to the Lord, he is asking God to show him His goodness as David makes decisions that are in line with God’s law! David has learned that God does not reward us for keeping His commandments. When we keep God’s commandments, we place ourselves in a position where God’s blessings can be found! It is as if God has a blessing waiting for us at noon in a particular place. When we make decisions that are in line with God's plan for our lives, our path will take us right by the blessing that God has for us! When we are walking in the way, He may well be helping us avoid the obstacles that we might have ordinarily encountered had we gone the way that we wanted to go on our own.

David is asking the Lord to show him some of these things. He is saying in effect, God show me some of the obstacles that You have protected me from. Show me the provisions that You have provided for me today and let me know that those blessings came from You. There are so many times that God does something for us and our first thought is, “look at what I have done today!” “Look at this great deal that I just got” as if we had anything to do with it! We need to take a closer look at some of the things that happen in our lives and realize that these things were blessings from God and we need to take the time to thank Him for those blessings.

God does not want us to thank Him for the sake of being thankful. He does not get bent out of shape because we are ungrateful. God wants us to learn to be more thankful so we will recognize the source of those blessings and allow Him to continue to bless us! The only thing that God cares about in your life and mine is the opportunity that we give Him to be God in our lives. When we do that, He is glorified and He is lifted up and all of heaven rejoices because He is able to bless us and do for us what He so much wants to do.

Will you ask God today to show you the wondrous things that He will do for you as you follow Him and allow His law to be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path and you make decisions that will honor Him and allow Him to be God in your life. He will show you great and wondrous things that He has in store for you today!

Seek Your Face Psalm 24:6

6 This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face. Selah


David writes, “this is Jacob, the generation of those that seek Him, who seek Your face.” This phrase is also found in II Chronicles 7:14 where the Chronicler writes, “if my people who are called by My name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear their cry from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.” What does it mean to “seek His face?

This Psalm is a song to come into the presence of the Lord. When we do that, we become a blessing to God as He is able to bless us and make us a blessing to one another. This is singularly the purpose of life, period. To seek God’s face is to come into His presence in a special way. We come to God in a number of ways. Most often we come to Him seeking His hands, seeking His help and His provisions and His protection and all the things that He can do for us. We are supposed to come to Him in this manner. He wants us to come to Him allowing Him to do all these things for us.

However, coming in to His presence alone brings His protection and His provisions! To seek His face is to come to Him looking into His eyes instead of looking at His hands. God delights in seeing us come to Him because of all that He has already done for us, and not for what we want Him to do for us. He delights in our coming to Him as Mary did when she came and sat at His feet and listened to Him talk about His love for her. When we make Him the focus of our lives and we make His way a priority and we determine to have clean hands and a pure heart not tarnished by the lure of this world, He is able to bless us and do the things for us and with us that He desires to do.

God is looking today for the generation of Jacob that are willing to seek Him and seek His face and find a relationship with Him and His Spirit that dwells inside us and is leading us and guiding us and wanting to bless us indeed!

God Come Nearer Psalm 145:18

The Lord is near to them that call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.


From time to time I have people tell me that they do not feel that the Lord is very near to them. When they pray it is as if their prayers do not get above the ceiling; it is as if God is not listening to them and He refuses to hear them. I am sure that David felt the same thing. He was anointed to be king of Israel at a very early age but his rise to power and popularity was not without some very difficult days.

David understood something that you and I need to understand. He knew that God was with him no matter what was going on in his life and no matter how he felt. David tells in verse 15, “You give them their meat in due season. The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and Holy in all His work.” He goes on to write, “The Lord is near to them that call upon Him and to all who call upon Him in truth.”

God hears our prayers. He knows our circumstances and He knows our situations. He has a solution for whatever is going on in our lives as well. Here is what you and I need to remember today. First of all, David tells us that the Lord is near those who “call upon Him.” How often are we guilty of living our lives our way and according to our own timetables and we take no time to call upon the Lord. It is one thing to call on the name of the Lord when we are in trouble, but it is entirely another thing to call upon Him with each and every decision that we make so that He can keep us out of trouble!

Look closely at what David says. He writes, “The Lord is near them that call on Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.” Here is where the real difference comes in for your life and mine. We are to call upon the Lord in truth; how do we do that? We call upon Him according to His truth found in the Word of God. As you and I seek to live our lives holy and acceptable unto Him, obeying His Word and keeping His commandments, we can know that His presence is with us and where His presence is, there His power and His provisions be found as well, in due season or according to His time table.

When you and I make the commitment to walk with the Lord in obedience to His Word and His direction for our lives, we are promised His presence as He promises to be near us. We may not always feel His presence but we can be assured by faith He will be there with us and for us. If we refuse to walk with Him in obedience and we insist on doing what seems right in our own eyes, God may well allow us to be captive of our own decisions to teach us that His way is always the best way. He is still with us because He promises that nothing can separate us from His love for us. He is always watching out for us.

Just remember that “near” is a very relative term and His nearness to us is always close enough from His perspective. If He is not as close to you as you would like, begin to walk with Him in obedience without excuse or exception and let your obedience to His truth draw you closer to Him! He will bless your obedience to His Word! If you are not as close to the Lord as you need to be, guess who moved?

Lead Me God Psalm 139:23-24

Search me oh God and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.



What a prayer and what a promise! The Psalmist prayed and asked God to search his heart and to know his thoughts. Remember the Word talks about God’s thoughts not being our thoughts and our ways are not His ways. The Psalmist is saying much the same thing. He wants God to look at his thoughts and see if there are any wicked ways in his life. This is really not a question of “if there are any wicked ways” but rather a prayer of the Psalmist to show him his wicked ways.

How can you and I see our lives as God sees it? Well, we can see our lives in God’s Word. God’s Word sets the standard for our lives and all we have to do is take a look at the Bible to see our mistakes and our failures. People tell me that they have a tough time reading the Bible. My point is that the problem is not so much reading the Bible, the biggest problem is being able to handle what they do read!

When we read God’s Word and then come to Him in prayer, His Word and the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts reveals the intent of our heart. When we begin to look at our motives and our attitudes, our thoughts begin to come into focus. For our decisions are the result of our thoughts. This is why making God’s thoughts our thoughts are so important. When we make God’s thoughts our thoughts, we begin to make decisions that are framed and founded by God Himself. When we make the right decisions in our lives, the direction that our lives take is the right direction.

Decisions determine direction and direction determines destiny. The Psalmist says, “Lead me in the way everlasting.” When we allow God’s Word to search our heart and try our thoughts, the result will be a life that only God can give. This life may not be exactly what we think it ought to be but you can be sure that it will be exactly what God has planned for it to be to accomplish all that He wants to accomplish in our lives and the end will be a home in heaven forever.