“Pray continually”
(1 Thessalonians 5:17)
I read a beautiful story recently about an old Christian lady whose health had forced her to live in a Care Home for seniors. She had been an active servant for Christ, constantly involved in all the activities of her church and working in the community with various groups helping the needy, the poor and the disadvantaged. One of the members of her church came to visit her and asked her if she was missing not being involved working for the Lord and how did she now fill her days. Her answer totally surprised the questioner.
“Oh no,” she said. “I am busier than I have ever been for the Lord. I now have lots of time to use my gift that never ends, prayer. My friends and visitors keep me busy with their prayer requests. My days are spent in communion with him.”
What a good reminder that prayer is really a gift from God. When Moses is talking to the children of Israel, he tells them of the incredible privilege they have of being close to God when they pray.
“What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?” (Deuteronomy 4: 7)
James also tells us what happens when we use that gift.
“Come near to God and he will come near to you…” (James 4: 8)
Being near to God constantly, means we can hear his voice all through our day. We won’t 
be blindly turning down the wrong path because our companion, The Holy Spirit, will be close by to remind us not to make any decisions in life without first consulting him.
Unfortunately, life, in our present age has become more and more frantic, activities, work, exercise, social events, even Sunday is no longer considered a day of rest, so talking to the Lord gets pushed down the priority list of things to do and sometimes the loud voices of the world block out the sound of our Saviour’s voice.
But, like all habits, if we start by making prayer a habit, it slowly becomes something we do every day and we begin to look forward to that special relationship we develop and the benefits we reap can change our whole lives and the lives of others.
Sometimes a quick prayer is needed before we answer a question, Nehemiah was in just that quandary when he was the cup bearer to King Artaxerxes and was asked a question and the answer would mean restoration for his people, but because he was already a man of prayer, he had a quick prayer to God before answering;
“The king said to me, “What is it you want?” “Then I prayed to the God of heaven and I answered the king.” (Nehemiah 2: 4 – 5)
Nehemiah’s answer covered by prayer, pleased the king and Nehemiah was able to go back to Judah to help his people with the king’s blessing.
Our answers to questions don’t always carry the responsibility of Nehemiah’s, but we can thank God for his gift, when we remember a quick prayer before we answer those difficult questions, can prevent a lot of heartache for us.
I had a very exciting day, this Fall, as my son-in law and my daughter with their two young children, asked me to accompany them on a trip to the Pumpkin Patch to select pumpkins to decorate their house for Halloween. I had never actually done this before and the adventure began with a beautiful drive into the countryside along winding roads lined with stately trees in their full magnificent Autumn colours.
One of the special celebrations was the Feast of Harvest, also known as the Feast of Weeks. This special Feast was to celebrate God’s special providing of food and the best of the first harvesting was to be brought to the temple and dedicated to him
through our example and we will witness a plentiful harvest. James gives us some good advice on how to exactly accomplish that.
When my husband was running his busy Dental Practice, he had wonderful, instructions to all the receptionists who met patients at the front desk, as sometimes they had to deal with angry confrontations, usually concerning billing related to insurance companies. This was his advice to diffuse anger and to calm whoever perceived some sort of wrong doing
I have two granddaughters who were born very close to each other, six days apart, and as they were growing up little spats broke out between the two cousins, I remember witnessing one, when they were three years old, where both mothers were trying to teach them to say sorry. The punishment was for each to go to their room and when they were ready, to come out and say sorry. The elder of the two opted to say sorry first and as she stood in front of her cousin, with hands on her hips, she shouted and made a rude face as she said sorry. Obviously that lesson failed, but even if we don’t go to that extent just mouthing sorry without coming from the heart, negates any true forgiveness.
ying, sorry, begins the forgiveness cycle and when we practice both being willing to say sorry and being willing to forgive one another, we are blessed by living out Jesus’ beautiful example of loving one another as he commanded us to do.
My little granddaughter is going to a Day Care and I was so pleased to discover they are teaching her the same sweet songs that I sang as a small child. The other day I was travelling with the family and sitting in the back seat next to her car seat, when she offered to sing a song for me. I was thrilled to hear the words of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” emerge from this little mouth, accompanied by all the hand actions.
One of the churches I attended many years ago had a beautiful stained, glass window which I loved looking at, while seated in church. It was a depiction of Jesus, holding a lantern in his hand and knocking at a door. It was only just recently, while reading a study on the verse in Revelation 3: 20, that I discovered the history of this much, admired window. It was originally a painting by an English artist, William Holman Hunt and hangs in the Keble College Chapel in Oxford, England and is entitled, The Light Of The World, converting it to a magnificent stained glass window, has brought joy to countless viewers in churches scattered across the world.
and miss out on his loving fellowship. When Paul was telling others the good news in Antioch, the city realised they needed to hear the word of God, so they too could have the same wonderful relationship they could see Paul had with his Saviour.
Sending out words is vastly different as to the way it was when I was young. Handwritten letters were personal methods of communicating and for more official letters, a typewriter was used. Today the quickest way of getting your message across seems to be the most important point of any communication from emailing, texting to Twitter and Facebook. My sister and I played a little experiment this last few weeks to go back to sending a letter to each other. She lives in Australia and I live in Canada and while chatting on the phone to each other we were sharing some favourite recipes with each other. We both decided we would like to have each other’s recipe to try so my sister offered to send me hers by mail and I decided to send mine to her. Just for fun we posted them on the same day and waited to see which country had the best postal service. I received hers in exactly 7 days she is still waiting for mine 12 days later!!!
We tend to forget the incredible power of God’s word and sometimes fall into the error of thinking the Bible is just words written in a book. The Psalmists considered them so important, they wanted to absorb God’s words into their very being, the centre of the human heart;
When we are constantly spending time with the Lord and his word we are blessed by producing fruit which in turn blesses others and sends out his word in a mighty way. Somebody once remarked, people don’t need a sermon to find out what it means to be a Christian, they just need somebody demonstrating what the Lord’s love produces. Paul aptly describes how to do that in his letter to the Galatians;
!!! DISCOURAGEMENT !!!
carefully at our own lives and strive to be one who brings encouragement to those who need it and to be careful in offering unsolicited advice that may discourage others.
Perhaps one of the most amazing stories about mending broken walls, is the recording in the book of Nehemiah of how the Israelites bonded together with the return of the exiled ones and those who had been left behind, to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. It was certainly a team effort with everyone pulling together with a common goal which was the centre of everyone’s activity.
around us. A loss of a job can collapse a family’s ability to survive, also causing a collapse of one’s self confidence. A loss of a dear one can make us feel that life is crumbling around us. Within our church family others may have doubts about their own worthiness and need to have their faith strengthened. Paul writes to the Ephesians urging them to build each other up and to be aware of who needs this help.
of safety around us have cracks in them and need mending. God’s word is the sure foundation we need and again it is Paul that gives us this good advice;
Allergy season is upon us here in North America and those who suffer from allergies are at the mercy of the pollens swirling around them. The results are sneezing, eyes watering and for some, difficulty in breathing. I was watching a television ad for tablets that promised to rid the sufferers of all their terrible symptoms and one vowed that this particular one would relieve those with breathing problems and give them “good breath”. I thought the phrase was incorrect grammar, but it made me think what good breath was. The following Sunday, we sang a beautiful song with ended with these beautiful words for the repeated chorus;
Breathing love! What a gift to be able to use our very breath to spread love to others. We need breath to speak, so when we are breathing the Lord’s love our words will be filled with love not anger, bitterness or hatred but with understanding, love and sympathy.
That beautiful word – overflowing – is often used in Scripture, and often to describe God’s gifts to his loved ones in bountiful crops etc., but the most powerful way it is used, is when the Psalmist’s and other writers use it to somehow capture his love. In Psalm 65, the Psalmist recognises God’s love in his gracious abundance of gifts;
We can do exactly that in our lives when we overflow with God’s love. We can in-turn spread that love to others who may be in desperate need of some joy in their lives, bereft of happiness. Others may need to find peace in a turbulent situation and yet others may need hope when they have given up in despair.
