God’s Faithfulness

Final Lessons on Prayer

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And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. Matthew 6:13 KJV

The voices of our parents calling us in on a summer’s night rang out across our neighborhood. “Louie! Wally! Peter!” It didn’t really even matter if your mom or dad was too busy watching the latest episode of Bonanza to remember to call you in. Once two or three kids left to go in, whatever game  we were playing was essentially over.    P1030934

In that same way these final words of the prayer Jesus teaches us sat that it is time to come home to God’s house. We started the morning remembering God is our Father and that His name must be kept holy in our life. We went out into our day ready to find our part in the work of His kingdom. Then as we went along the path God leads us we asked for bread to keep us strong and forgiveness when we stumbled. Now as we are praying through our day we ask Him to keep us safe from temptation on the inside and the enemy named Satan without.

Jesus teaches us that we need to pray this way every day because only He knows where our journey leads and at what hour He will call us home!

another-schooley-sunset

Learning to Pray – Day 2

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Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:10 ESV

Our first step in learning how to pray room begins by becoming God’s child, but the second only happens as we yield our will to His. When we pray your kingdom come and will be done it isn’t about who will win the next election or what laws will be declared constitutional by the courts. God is most interested in His kingdom coming in our own hearts.

Consider the life of Jesus who never sinned, acted from selfish motivations or asked others to do so. He always walked in perfect fellowship with His Father and yet on the night before He was crucified He prayed alone in a garden. He told His disciples to pray with Him because of the weight of His sorrow as He faced the cross.

Then Jesus prayed an astonishing prayer. He asked God to find another way if it were possible for Him to finish His mission on earth. If Jesus had to pray this how much more the rest of us! Even if we did everything right, and avoided breaking even one of God’s rules we still come up short until we are ready to yield our will to His. The old Hymn we learned to sing when we were young declared, “I surrender all” but practically speaking we should have sung, “I surrender some!” Nobody knows this better than Jesus so He includes this part of our prayer: “Your kingdom come, Your will be done”. He wants us to remember that every day we will need His help. And every day He is willing to answer!

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Facing the Unseen

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Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.   1 Timothy 1:17 KJV

Life sometimes hands us unforeseen results. It happened to me when the sun came up one Sunday just as it had always done. We dressed, went to church, and got ready for the communion service. Then just as I was setting up some special music at the sound board my cell phone rang.

The call was from our son who was in despair because his wife had walked out the door that day and he didn’t know what to do. That moment all of our lives were changed as if we had been hit by a lightning strike. We did not do everything right. We certainly did not know all the answers but we did drop everything and desperately prayed for God’s help as we drove some of the longest four hours of our lives as parents.

black leather strap silver chronograph watch

Photo by Jatin Anand on Pexels.com

I wish I could say that everything worked out: It didn’t. I wish I could point to a rosy happy finale to the scars it has left on our family but it hasn’t happened that way Only God’s grace and the presence of His Holy Spirit have seen us through.  We have at times faced the invisible forces of  anger, disappointment and fear. But we are still standing, in faith and still trusting God. We have learned that only Jesus sees the unseen and only He knows the way through to victory. He is our invisible God and who watches over us through the night of despair to the day of victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.