prayer coach

image courtesy of Message in a Bottle

Most of Christians view prayer as a message in the bottle. We pour our hearts out in a one-side communication to our God who we hope has affection for us. Our prayers are cast out into the empty sea of quietness. Where are you God? I’ve just reached down into my soul and realized how I long for you. Please reply.

We are desperate for God’s voice—His words of affirmation, words of acceptance. We strain to hear Him in the crashing of the waves, in the thunderclaps, within the hurricane, but God’s voice was not there.

We sit back on the vast beach looking out into eternity and feel so small and insignificant. We lean back and feel the sand between our fingers, and once again are plagued by thoughts of insignificance. “I’m only just a grain of sand in this world.”

We need to persevere as Elijah and realize that God’s voice is in the whisper—the still small voice. Even though this grain of sand appears small, it represents one wonderful thought that God has for you. His amazing thoughts about you are as numbered as each grain of sand. One small handful has hundreds of grains. As you look up and down the beach, the sand endlessly goes on and on. Each one is a response to our request for returned affection.

The world is screaming at us that we are worthless and for the most part we have believed it. God is whispering it is not true. We are royalty in God’s kingdom (1 Peter 2:9). We are ambassadors of His Son (2 Corinthians 5:20). We are more than overcomers (1 John 5:4). We are the apple of His eye (Psalm 17:8). He risked it all that we may realize how much we mean to Him. He delights in us (Zephaniah 3:17).

poster used during World War II to raise British morale

So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” – Hebrews 13:6

Last week I looked at how Jesus had no fear. Thinking along these lines leaves us with the natural conclusion that we are to live without fear. Throughout the Bible God is constantly telling His friends not to be afraid.

• Abraham, do not be afraid. – Genesis 15:1
• Hagar, do not be afraid. – Genesis 21:17
• Isaac, do not be afraid. – Genesis 26:24
• Jacob, do not be afraid. – Genesis 46:3
• Moses, do not be afraid. – Numbers 21:34
• Joshua, do not be afraid. – Joshua 8:1 , 10:8, 11:6
• Gideon, do not be afraid. – Judges 6:23
• Elijah, do not be afraid. – 2 Kings 1:15
• Jeremiah, do not be afraid. – Jeremiah 1:8
• Daniel, do not be afraid. – Daniel 10:12, 10:19
• Zechariah, do not be afraid. – Luke 1:13
• Mary, do not be afraid. – Luke 1:30
• Joseph, do not be afraid. – Matthew 1:20
• Shepherds, do not be afraid. – Luke 2:10
• Paul, do not be afraid. – Acts 18:9

Each of these saints were either afraid of God or the situations they were being called into. Either case, the natural reaction was fear, and the automatic response from God was peace. We will never overcome this world if we are living in fear of it. We never fully love that which we fear. Remove all fear from your lives. Take on more of God’s love and peace.  Jesus has left us with peace that our hearts will be settled and we would not be afraid (John 14:27).

image courtesy of Keene and Cheshire County (NH) Historical Photos

Why can’t we all get along? One of the downsides to the great advancements of Martin Luther is the need of Christians to create new denominations each time they disagree. Denominations in themselves are not so bad; it is appalling how we separate from other Christians believing that our segment of the body of Christ is better than the other segments. But how do we get along with people with whom we disagree?

Because of many moves my Christian background is a large montage of denominations. I have been Southern Baptist, Independent Baptist, Pentecostal, non-denominational, Methodist, Evangelical Free, Episcopal, overseas missionary church, and Presbyterian, PCA and EPC. I am happy for my varied background because I have learn from each one. God is good and is willing to meet people whatever their background. We are the ones that get caught up with denominations that tend to create barriers between Christians. Each of these denominations have natural strengths bred into them and accompanied weaknesses, which is why we need the full body of Christ if we are to represent Him well to this world and each other. The key to survival is the old quote, “unity in essentials and liberty in the no-essentials.” What are the essentials?

1. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
2. Sin has separated you for God’s love and His plan for you.
3. God send His Son to remove that separation so you may know and experience God’s love and plan.
4. And, we must each receive Jesus to be reunited to God’s love and plan.

Our interpretations of our experiences in life result in our beliefs. These beliefs can come from God who alone can give true interpretations, or they can come from our limited mind, sometimes with the help of the enemy. Our beliefs results in expectations about life which lead to behaviors. These behaviors create new experiences which because flowing out of our beliefs, tend to support them, whether good or bad.

Therefore say you view yourself as a sinner, as this a common one among Christians because they mistakenly think it is how God views them. God sees you as a saint; you were a sinner. Remember for those who have asked Christ into your life, you are now hid in Christ. However, if you see yourself as a sinner, you may set an expectation that you are going to fail anyway. Therefore in your behaviors you tend to not commit all the way because you assume you will fail. Since you do not commit fully, you do fail and you say to yourself, “See, I am a sinner.”

Calling yourself a sinner, a worm, nobody special is not being humble. Being humble is knowing who God says you are – nothing more AND nothing less.

Let’s take the example of seeing yourself as a sinner. If you believe this lie, then you will assume your natural tendency is to sin and you will always fail. After awhile you will get fed up with the cycle of sin, confess, sin, confess, etc., and most Christians make one of two different promises to themselves.

1. I will never tell anyone of my struggles. Your embarrassment pushes you to hide from the what you believe to be true about yourself.

design courtesy of Lisa Samartino Atelier

The greatest way to grow in faith in God’s goodness is to thank Him for everything that comes at you. It is God’s will for your first response to any circumstance be thanksgiving (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Here are some of the benefits of being thankful:

1. Prepares you to experience God. We enter God’s presence with thanksgiving (Psalm 100:4).

2. Prepares you for more blessing from God. As you complain about what you are going through, it will stagnate your growth (Philippians 2:14-18).

3. Prepares you for the peace of God. It removes our focus on the situation and on the anxiety (Philippians 4:6-7).

4. Prepares you for God’s joy. Thanksgiving and joy go hand and hand (Psalm 100). Giving thanks changes our perspective and gives us hope.

5. Prepares you to hear from God. As you hold onto your negative interpretations of events, you will not hear what God is saying. The disciples heard Jesus plans of death and resurrection, but when it happened they were clueless because they could not see it as being good (Matthew 16:21-23).

Are you going through a hard time? Are you struggling with depression and anxiety? Try to take steps of faith and thank God for everything that has happened to you. Choose to believe in God’s goodness for you. He sees you and love you.

• “You can always get God’s attention. Can He get yours?”
• “Prayer is not you trying to win back God’s favor; it is you participating in the favor He has for you.”
• “Obedience out of fear is for slaves; obedience out of love is for heirs and friends.”
• “Prayer affects the plans of God.”
• “There are things God is not planning to do but is willing to do through prayer.”
• “Our beliefs are the doors that keep shutting the passage to the realities that God has promised.”
• “God’s love is never-ending. How much of it do you want? Just enough or overwhelming?”
• “This filter in our minds can hinder God’s leading in our lives.”
• “There are things that we may not like that God loves.”
• “There is a kind of omnipresence and omnipotence in prayer. Nothing is too difficult or out of reach.”
• “As you pursue the heart of God, you will gain His heart for yourself, your friends, and the world.”
• “God is good all the time. Prayer makes you more alert to those times.”
• “Too many have accepted “doing things” as more important than prayer. They only pray when there is nothing urgent to do.”
• “The best thing you can do for your friends is to love God. The second best thing you can do for your kids is to love your spouse.”
• “You are who Jesus says you are. You do what you think you are. Do they line up?”
• “If you don’t know who you are, you are not going to pray what you should.”
• “Truth is what Jesus says is true; you are who God says you are.”

image courtesy of David and Bathsheba movie

Have you ever thought of how Bathsheba felt in her story (2 Samuel 11:1 – 12:24)? Here you are going about life and one day out of the blue you are called into the King’s presence. He rapes you and sends you home. Your husband is off at war. You may have your family with you, but what kind of condolences would you get? He’s the King. You’re just a woman.

Later you find out your pregnant. You more than likely hear rumors that your husband is being brought in from war. You have to know that purposes of these events because the King would not risk having you tell what happened. Each night you wait for your husband to come home, and he doesn’t show.

You had just experienced the humiliation of being the object of one man’s lust and then thrown aside when he was finished. Now the one man who is supposed to love and protect you won’t come to your side. What would he do when he finds out your pregnant? Thoughts of raising a child alone start to form in your mind. What would you think about God, yourself, or God’s view of you?

Then on top of the depression that must have already been setting in, your husband is killed at war. The reason of his death you would assuredly find out at some point was the man who caused all of her pain. Remember Nathan’s rebuke of David portrayed Bathsheba as the innocent lamb stolen from the love of another and sacrificed for the portrayer’s pleasure. Would God ever step in and make good come out of this?

image courtesy of Joe McLean

My oldest, a 5 year old, had a nightmare the other night. I had gone for an early morning gym run, so I missed the action but I thought what happened was beneficial to what we had been discussing.

The nightmare was pretty basic. In the dream we were at a local kids’ park and a tornado started coming. We got in the car and went home.

She woke up scared and came to our bed to hunt for comfort. My wife asked her, “What do we do when we are afraid?”

“Ask Jesus for help.”

“Can you do that?”

“Yes. Jesus can you help me?”

“Do you feel better?”

“Yes.”

Since it was almost morning, we stayed in bed and snuggled.

It is important to remember the earlier post because we had to first deal with the pride that was keeping her from coming to Jesus. This is important because if we hadn’t done that first, the fear and anxiety would have no outlet besides just parental protection. Don’t get me wrong, a little snuggle with the kids is quite wonderful, but it is also important for them to learn the true source of peace. She needs to go to Jesus herself. She needs to see that Jesus is there for her and not only for Mom and Dad. There will come a time she will not come to us for every nightmare, and we want her prepared for how to deal with them besides just stuffing down the fear.

We could have possibly talked her through how we did not need to worry about tornadoes where we live; tell her that God would protect her. And, this would have been good counsel, but it would in effect belittle her feelings and not point her to the true source of peace.