Monday Meditation – Matthew 6:9-13

Today’s Meditation Verses:

Matthew 6:9-13

9 Our Father in heaven,

may your name be kept holy.

10 May your Kingdom come soon.

May your will be done on earth,

as it is in heaven.

11 Give us today the food we need,^a

12 and forgive us our sins,

as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

13 And don’t let us yield to temptation,^b

but rescue us from the evil one.^c

This is the Lord’s Prayer as translated in the New Living Translation.  Most of us can quote it from the King James Bible, but I wanted to use the NLT because is brings the prayer into today’s simpler language.

For some reason this prayer has been resonating within me lately.  Often when I pray these words seem to rise up within me.  So, I’ve begun praying this prayer often.  Because of that I’ve also begun mediating on the words of this prayer and just exactly what I am praying.

Verse 9 acknowledges the holiness of God and prays that His name will be kept holy.  As we enter into His gates in prayer remembering God’s holiness is of supreme importance and will center us in our faith as we do remember.

Verse 10 asks for God’s kingdom to come soon.  For years I’ve heard that we should not wish for the end times as there are too many people who still need to come to Christ.  But as I was meditating on this verse I realized that what Jesus is instructing us to do is request that the end times hurry along so that God’s kingdom here on earth can be reestablished.

Verse 11 asks for our daily food.  We know that there are ample scriptures about God’s abundant provision and that we have no need to worry about it.  But here it does show that we are to continue to pray and request that provision.  However to be fed by daily bread may not just mean literal bread but spiritual and emotional nourishment as well.

Verse 12 shows us to ask for forgiveness as we forgive those around us.  We are perpetually forgiven, but if we want to put a kink in the pipeline of grace which rains that forgiveness down on us then all we have to do is not forgive others.  Note verses 14 and 15.

Verse 13 asks God to help us with all the daily temptations that will most assuredly come our way and also asks that He will run interference for us with the enemy, protecting us through out the day.

The preceding verses to this prayer talk about not needing to babble on with long lengthy prayers.  I love the simplicity of this prayer that covers so much in such an efficient manner.  Learn this prayer and its meaning and then you will have no longer have the excuse that you have no time to pray or that you do not know what to pray.

Meditating on the meaning of these prayer verses will bring reflection to ours lives.  Use this prayer to kick start your prayer life today.

Each Monday we are going to be having ‘Monday Meditations’. We hope to bring to you each Monday a verse to mediate on for the week. This is not for memorization, but to think about and to dwell on. The word meditate, in the bible, means to mutter. So this week as you go about your life, mutter to yourself the verse for the week and think about how it applies to your life. Meditating on a verse will bind it to your spirit and it will become part of you! The more of the Word you meditate on, the more it will transform you into the image of Christ!

No matter what your beliefs are, we want to thank you for visiting our Christian blog!

DAY JOB LINKS…
Dreams Do Come True and Dragonfly In Amber Designs

Is Life Fair?

This is a continuation of the post Who Are The Greedy.  I recommend that read that you read that post prior to reading this one.

Let’s consider a few things as we ponder this scripture.

Deuteronomy 8:18 – But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.

There are countless scriptures in the bible confirming God’s desire for us is to have more than enough, living an abundant life.  But there are so many who are not living in abundance.

This is what I believe:            

• God has given everyone the power to obtain wealth in order to fulfill His covenant with Abraham.  Deut 8:18

• He wants us to never forget that the source was Him and not of our own doing.  Deut 8:11-17

• Even though He has given us the power to obtain wealth we still have to seek Him about how to do this for our own individual lives.  Proverbs 16:9

• There is effort involved to obtain.  Sometimes great effort and hard work.  Proverbs 14:23

• Stepping out in faith is required just as the one who invested (let go of) their minas in order to hopefully gain more.  Hebrews 11:6

• He expects us to take whatever it is we have whether great or small (10 or 5 minas) and use it and then be content with the reward we have reaped.  Philippians 4:12

• Never give up.  Galations 6:9, Romans 12:11

• Don’t grumble or complain about the work you have before you.  Philippians 2:14-15

Since we know that ALL things are possible to those who believe (Philippians 4:13) then everyone everywhere has the ability to have all that they could ever need or want.

God has at the ready His provision and power to anyone who is ready to take hold and believe Him for it.  God has not created any victims, and those who wallow in a victim mentality, always blaming others for what they do not have, only create more poverty in their lives as we saw with the fearful victim in the parable above.

But there is hope.  If you feel that you have been a victim to circumstance there is hope for you today.  Stop looking to others to pull you out of where you are.  Stop blaming others for where you are.  Start looking to God who desires to take you hand as you reach out to him, and pull you up.

It may not be easy and it may seem overwhelming.  There will be work involved.  It may only be the work of reading the bible to renew your mind or it may be stepping out in faith to work at a job you never thought you had the skill or ability to do before.  Just remember that now you DO have the ability because God will give it to you.

Let me leave on last thought with you.

Mark 9:23 – “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.”

Remember, stop looking at the avenue from which your provision comes and start looking to the source, the provider, and remember He can provide through any source He chooses.  Trust Him and the avenue may change, but the provision will grow beyond your wildest dreams.

No matter what your beliefs are, we want to thank you for visiting our Christian blog!

DAY JOB LINKS…
Dreams Do Come True and Dragonfly In Amber Designs

Who Are The Greedy?

Those who live in America are blessed just to be able to live in such a great country.  Most have no idea just how blessed they are because they have not seen other countries and those who are not blessed.

Here in American those who don’t feel blessed make that judgment based by comparing themselves with other blessed people here in the same country.

Yes there are many in need in this country.  There are homeless people, people who go hungry and those who are destitute.

Wednesday Word Study – Fornication

 Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: porneuó
Phonetic Spelling: (porn-yoo’-o)
Definition: commit fornication,. to be unfaithful to Christ, while posing as His true follower

Revelation 17:1-2
1) One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. 2) With her the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.”

 

I’ve been watching and waiting for the end times to come to pass since I was in high school in the 1970’s.  It was mentioned briefly at the church I attended, but I began on my own to read books written by different biblical scholars who specialized in end time’s prophecy.

And then I began to pray and wait.

Monday Meditation – I Kings 17:1-3

Today’s Mediation verse…

I Kings 17:1-3

1Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe^a in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”

2Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: 3“Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. 4You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.”

5So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. 6The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

Where does your trust lie?

I have seen the fear of ‘not having’ drive good people to do things and believe in things that I never thought possible.

The Anti-Anxiety Remedy

Philippians 4:6
New International Version (NIV)
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

This scripture is a very well known scripture, one that we often quote even if only in part. We often say ‘be anxious for nothing’. But the key to not be anxious is in the remainder of the verse. That part alone will not be enough for we cannot force ourselves to not be anxious just by determining we won’t.

Asking to See

God is amazing how he brings things to light ..just when you need them.

This weekend a situation occurred that actually carried through today where I had to stop and pray and ask God to see.

Do you remember Blind Bartimaeus? (Mark 10 46:-52)

He was a blind beggar just hanging out and sitting along the road. He heard some buzz that this guy was coming along who could heal folks. When the buzz got louder and he realized Jesus was approaching he cried out to him to have mercy on him, which loosely translates to, “I am sooooooo tired of being blind, could you help a poor beggar out?!”.

At This Moment

Where are you at this moment?

Do you wonder why you are where you are?

Long ago, a beautiful young Jewish girl was snatched from her home, probably in the middle of the night.  She was taken from the only family she had left, her uncle Mordecai’s home.

You ARE Beautiful

My husband and I teach a group of young people and have for the past 7 years.  Each year when we ask what topics the young ladies and gentlemen would like to cover, one topic resurfaces time and again…especially among the girls.

Self image.

Not dating, not sex, not drugs or alcohol, but self image.

Props From God

If I asked you right now how you are, many of you would probably give me that pat answer we all do just to get by.

“I’m fine”.

But, if you’re like me, you may have a lot of stress and business going on in your life.  You may feel out of control.  You may climb in bed each and every night and be thinking “I’m exhausted!”.