Favorite Prayers from Scripture 112410

2 Chronicles 20:1-15 TNIV

1 After this, the Moabites and Ammonites with some of the Meunites came to make war on Jehoshaphat.
2 Some people came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Dead Sea. It is already in Hazezon Tamar” (that is, En Gedi). 3 Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah.4 The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him.
5 Then Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the Lord in the front of the new courtyard6 and said:
“ Lord, the God of our ancestors, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. 7 Our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? 8 They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying,9 ‘If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.’
10 “But now here are men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt; so they turned away from them and did not destroy them. 11 See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance.12 Our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”
13 All the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the Lord.
14 Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jahaziel son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite and descendant of Asaph, as he stood in the assembly.
15 He said: “Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the Lord says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s.

You should read the rest of the story too...it's pretty cool how God won this battle!

Thoughts on Prayer 112310

I go into my chamber
to sit before your throne
As many men and women
Have done from days of old
I wait there for your Spirit
to guide me as I pray
For never, Lord, do I know
exactly what to say.

Look on my heart and see
My feet washed in the basin
Look on my heart and see
Me clothed in your salvation
Look on my heart and see
The sacrifice was given
So I could come before your
Throne and have you look
Look on my heart.

I've read story after story
Of people gone before
Who came into your presence
And called on you, Lord.
Some would come in holiness
Some would come in shame
All came in humility
And called upon your Name.

I may be calling with the voice of an angel
I may be calling from the pits of sin and pain
But your promise is forever sure
that you will hear my voice
When I call to you In Jesus Name.

Look on my heart and see
My feet washed in the basin
Look on my heart and see
Me clothed in your salvation
Look on my heart and see
The sacrifice was given
So I could come before your
Throne and have you look
Look on my heart.

Favorite Prayers from Scripture 112310

2 Kings 20:1-6 NLT

1  About that time Hezekiah became deathly ill, and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to visit him. He gave the king this message: “This is what the LORD says: Set your affairs in order, for you are going to die. You will not recover from this illness.”2 When Hezekiah heard this, he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, 3 “Remember, O LORD, how I have always been faithful to you and have served you single-mindedly, always doing what pleases you.” Then he broke down and wept bitterly.4 But before Isaiah had left the middle courtyard, this message came to him from the LORD: 5 “Go back to Hezekiah, the leader of my people. Tell him, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of your ancestor David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you, and three days from now you will get out of bed and go to the Temple of the LORD. 6 I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my own honor and for the sake of my servant David.’”

Thoughts on Prayer 112210

You know how you can always tell when you're overhearing someone leaving a message on a answering machine? We just speak differently when we're recording a message than when we're interacting with another person. I've heard (from myself and others) many prayers that sounded like someone leaving a message on a machine. We aren't actually interacting with God. Instead we have this attitude that we'll just leave our prayer here and when God has time I know he'll get back to me.  Perhaps it comes from the feeling that God is somehow far away from us, or too busy to meet with us.

Incredible prayer times happen when we begin to grasp the truth, that God is near and he is listening.

One of my favorite prayers in Scripture

Ephesians 1:16-20 NLT

16 I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, 17 asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. 18 I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.19 I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power 20 that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.

How to Catch a Shadow

How do you catch a shadow? Actually chasing a shadow is pretty futile. You spend tremendous amounts of energy and in the end you have nothing of real substance that quickly seeps through your hands like water and your left to chase after it again.

The silliness of it is easy to see when I put it that way, but still people chase shadows all the time. Every time some one chases after a feeling they chase shadows. You want to feel like you used to feel about a person, God, your job...but instead you feel stale, stagnate, dry, unfulfilled...so what do you do? Do you change jobs, churches, boy/girl friends? Many do. Decisions like that, if based on a feeling that is or is not there, are seldom a good decision.

So how DO you catch a shadow? How do you get that feeling back? You chase after the substance of the shadow, not the shadow itself. Shadows move, bend, & fade but the substance of the shadow remains constant. So when you find what makes the shadow you sit & wait and in time the shadow will return. In the mean time we learn that it isn’t the shadow we wanted at all. Everything we wanted is in the substance.

Have you lost that "lovin" feeling? Pursue God (reading, praying, learning & obeying) the nearer you draw yourself into Him, no matter how you feel, the stronger your relationship becomes and while you may have seasons of that thrilling love feeling, when it fades there is still a deep, sure, confident love that never fades because it is the substance rather than the shadow.