I was driving in to work Monday morning and I was having a talk with God. The Holy Spirit was revealing the purpose if prayer. Deep down I feel I have always struggled with the practical side of prayer, yet deep down I also know that I have felt warmth, healing, and sense of community thru prayer. Something else was revealed and maybe because I have been on a journey since reading the book by Francis Chan "Forever You and Me", almost a year ago. In his book he talks about the greatness of God and how far that is above our family, friends, work, and other worldly items.
I pray, talk with God, and ask him to work in every aspect of my life and every minute I'm awake. It is great incorporating love, compassion, and forgiveness into everything I do. I think it is what God wants us to do.
One of my "resolutions" for 2016 was to put relationships first. I would say that I am not a very good "relationship" person, but I wanted to be intentional about the times that I spent with people to be meaningful, and set aside time when possible to focus on meeting with people to learn about them and if possible have God speak through me to them.
The meaning of this post was to address the revelation about prayer, let e get to that, prayer is a method of putting the focus on God. We know this, but there is something truly new to this idea for me. Prayer is taking time out of our worldly lives to focus on the spiritual realm (which we do not live in) and focus on something where nothing else matters. Think about this for a minute. You are focusing on something that has no practical worldly reason. Prayer may comfort us for a moment, allow us to connect to our inter being, allow us to relax, but even these are worldly pursues. They are about us. Prayer is about taking a putting a focus on how great God is. It is looking at taking a personal limited resource, time, and dedicating that to something that is greater than all other things. When we do this we are allowing God to be the center of our universe in that moment. When we do this nothing else matters.
In the car a song I have not hear before came on the radio, it's title was, "Outta my Mind" by Anthem Lights. The main line that caught my attention, which I typically do not focus on song lyrics, but again the Holy Spirit was pointing me to this, is "outta of my mind and into your heart", which is exactly what prayer is all about. It is about getting our thoughts and ambitions out of being self focused and into the heart of God.
Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Teaching our Kids through this Election
Who we elect is a reflection of who we are as a nation. The Democrats and the Republicans each nominated individuals that they felt represented who they wanted to lead this country. They both had massive flaws! Whichever candidate you supported those flaws were overlooked because you were a Democrat or a Republican and that is who your party nominated. (it is a little more complicated than that) Each had issues and reasons for not being a good president (See my post on moral presidential candidates) I cringe at having to explain why this country would have elected Clinton with the disregard for the rule of law, try explaining that to your kids, or electing Trump and having to explain why we would elect a president that says insensitive crude sexist comments and doesn't seem to have compassion for others. Both sides overlooked the candidate that they supported and we have elected a president that either side is not totally happy with.
These individuals that we nominated to represent us are a reflection of who we are (are we collectively garnering wisdom when making our selection?), in this election people held their nose as they went to the voting machines to vote against the person they had disdain for the most, not because the candidate they voted for was the perfect choose or that they truly supported 100%. We need to bring civil discourse back into the public square, where integrity, humbleness, and servitude are characteristics of who we select to run for office. These are the type of characteristics that I want to pass along to my kids.
A lot of nasty things have been mentioned by both candidates in this election cycle. We need to take a hard look at the candidates that the two party system nominates in the future and make sure they are a true reflect on who we want representing this country. If we do not, we will have an election cycle where we focus on the negative verses the positive and lose focus on the policies and actions that will make this country strong. There are a lot of critical issues on the table and a lot of these issues did not even get addressed or brought up. Let us be wiser in who we select in the next go around.
Social media has been a blaze with comments about ultimatums, threats, and even friends fighting over what other people are doing in the name of the candidate they are against. Listen, we need to stop pointing fingers, look at the direction we are headed as a country and work together to fix it. Even though we have elected a candidate that may not represent your position, lets work together to bring those issues to the table, lets have them addressed in a civil manner.
Toby mentioned a few weeks ago, that "I am more worried about whether you are praying with your kids every night than whether they are praying in the state house." We need to get back to teaching our kids about right and wrong, there are going to be people in the world that don't like our hair, cloths, color of our skin, how much money we have or don't have, as parents we need to teach our kids the difference in right and wrong, that the things that people say may not be the most appropriate. We need to discuss these with them and teach them that God is in control and we need to pray for those that do harm to us, so that they may see what they are doing is not acceptable and to open their hearts to forgiveness. Do not allow your kids to harden their hearts for those that repress them, teach them to be creative in showing love to even their enemies.
There are things that we need to explain to our kids about both of these candidates leading up to this election. We needed to talk about sex, sin, corruption, breaking the law, justice, etc. Not exactly issues that come up in everyday discussion with your kids, and not something that presidential candidates should be mired in as we typically hold these people to high moral standards, but our kids are going to be exposed to this at school eventually and it is better to talk with them about why this is not acceptable behavior, so they can make a difference in their sphere of influence. Let us as parents each our kids about right and wrong. We will always have "enemies" that want to repress us, let us stand against them and find ways to spread love not hate.
Let us take the first steps in ensuring the next generation make a positive different by being Christ followers and not worldly worshipers of man. We live in a free country where each one of us has the ability to be a positive influence, let us each take this opportunity to make a difference.
These individuals that we nominated to represent us are a reflection of who we are (are we collectively garnering wisdom when making our selection?), in this election people held their nose as they went to the voting machines to vote against the person they had disdain for the most, not because the candidate they voted for was the perfect choose or that they truly supported 100%. We need to bring civil discourse back into the public square, where integrity, humbleness, and servitude are characteristics of who we select to run for office. These are the type of characteristics that I want to pass along to my kids.
A lot of nasty things have been mentioned by both candidates in this election cycle. We need to take a hard look at the candidates that the two party system nominates in the future and make sure they are a true reflect on who we want representing this country. If we do not, we will have an election cycle where we focus on the negative verses the positive and lose focus on the policies and actions that will make this country strong. There are a lot of critical issues on the table and a lot of these issues did not even get addressed or brought up. Let us be wiser in who we select in the next go around.
Social media has been a blaze with comments about ultimatums, threats, and even friends fighting over what other people are doing in the name of the candidate they are against. Listen, we need to stop pointing fingers, look at the direction we are headed as a country and work together to fix it. Even though we have elected a candidate that may not represent your position, lets work together to bring those issues to the table, lets have them addressed in a civil manner.
Toby mentioned a few weeks ago, that "I am more worried about whether you are praying with your kids every night than whether they are praying in the state house." We need to get back to teaching our kids about right and wrong, there are going to be people in the world that don't like our hair, cloths, color of our skin, how much money we have or don't have, as parents we need to teach our kids the difference in right and wrong, that the things that people say may not be the most appropriate. We need to discuss these with them and teach them that God is in control and we need to pray for those that do harm to us, so that they may see what they are doing is not acceptable and to open their hearts to forgiveness. Do not allow your kids to harden their hearts for those that repress them, teach them to be creative in showing love to even their enemies.
There are things that we need to explain to our kids about both of these candidates leading up to this election. We needed to talk about sex, sin, corruption, breaking the law, justice, etc. Not exactly issues that come up in everyday discussion with your kids, and not something that presidential candidates should be mired in as we typically hold these people to high moral standards, but our kids are going to be exposed to this at school eventually and it is better to talk with them about why this is not acceptable behavior, so they can make a difference in their sphere of influence. Let us as parents each our kids about right and wrong. We will always have "enemies" that want to repress us, let us stand against them and find ways to spread love not hate.
Let us take the first steps in ensuring the next generation make a positive different by being Christ followers and not worldly worshipers of man. We live in a free country where each one of us has the ability to be a positive influence, let us each take this opportunity to make a difference.
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