Please join me for a lil’ iced tea and some conversation today, will you?
In recent days, I’ve had this feeling that GOD has been Whispering into my soul about my relationship with Him. That He specifically wanted me to take a closer look at my prayer life.
His Whispers come to me in the form of gentle reminders, nudges, things that I read, hear from sermons, conversations that arise (seemingly out of nowhere), His Word and the people that lived similar experiences in Scriptures.
Ever have that happen to you? Where GOD Himself plants a seed of thought within you and allows for circumstances to water and cultivate that seed?
Sometimes, I don’t readily recognize His Work. I’m a bit of a slow learner — takes a couple times (or more) to get things right. But once I do, it’s locked in. And when My Heavenly Father is tenderly and compassionately getting my attention, that’s cause for a pause.
In that pause, I have to intentionally seek His Will for me. And I’ll be honest with you here … I’ve not always done that right either. Until I began to learn that since I am His creation and He formed me, He in fact knows me better than I know myself. So, He will communicate with me in the manner that I am apt to recognize it is Him.
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27 ESV
How do I really know it’s His Voice and not my imagination? It must align with His Word — which is the expression of His Will and His Character. If anything is contrary to that, swipe right. Strike the delete button. Trash it.
To know if your thoughts align with His Word you’ve got to get into the Word …
In this particular season, there are a myriad of things swirling around me. Without boring you with all the details, I’m sure you can write out your own list of unending ‘mental-emotional-personal-family-career-relational-financial’ issues. When I look at my own list and I examine those critical issues that are heaviest on my heart, I start to take a closer look at how I am presenting them to the King of Kings.
Trust me when I say that good habits take a very long time to form. Experts say twenty-one days of repeated behavior leads to the development of a habit. Because I know the way I tend to operate, I stretch that out to at least a full month.
With a heart full of sincere determination and a desire to obey with genuine love, I listen more than I speak.
Remember now, this habit came out of many, many attempts to get it down to a natural way of communicating with the Lord. The minute I realized that my prayers were sounding like my ‘wish list for GOD to do for me,’ I had to start over again. Literally. And that’s okay. He knows we’re not perfect — He honors our heart to please Him.
You and I both know that GOD Almighty is not a genie in a bottle. We know that to claim the Promises He has spoken over our lives, we must be in relationship with Him — that’s the Father and Daughter relationship we have. All because of Jesus, we can approach the Throne of Grace and say, “Abba Father.” That, Sweet Sister, is a privilege and blessing.
And one of those Promises is that He hears us. The cries of our hearts. The joys from our souls. The desires and dreams and hopes … He hears and sees it all.
He knows every bit of our prayers before they are spoken. Yet, do we intently seek to listen once we’ve laid it all out there?
Prayer is dialogue — not a monologue. If we are expecting the Lord to listen to us, should we not also listen to Him?
When we pause to consider that He alone has the power over everything in our lives — all the chaos, crazy circumstances, drama from the trauma — should we not at least bow the knees of our hearts in humility and reverence as we surrender our wills to His?
42 “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Luke 22:42 NLT
Jesus modeled this for us. These very words of our Savior example for us how we should posture our prayers.
10 May your kingdom come
and what you want be done,
here on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:10 NCV
Humility and reverence. This demonstrates what we believe about Who we believe.
Now, that I’ve shared a bit of my recent journey … allow me to ask you …
“How is your prayer life today?”
As long as we’re on this side of Paradise, there’s always going to be room for improvement. The awesome part about community is that we don’t have to feel like we’re the only ones needing it. And DIY isn’t the best option.
I love you to Heaven and Back, Girlfriend ~~
LindaRJohnson, TitusTwo Visionary
Titus Two 
This hit home. Thank you!
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grapevineofgraceministry: I am so glad you were blessed by this today. Praying that you will continue to feel the presence of the Lord in your everyday. (((HUGS)))
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