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.