Reflections #5: At His Feet

Relfections

Thank you for joining us for Reflections, short meditations on scripture intersecting life.

Show Notes

In today’s Reflections we are meditating on Luke 10:38-39:

As Jesus and His disciples were on their way, He came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to Him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what He said.

As I read through the Bible, I see that Mary was not the only one who ended up at the Lord’s feet. Many others did too. And it was usually for one of two reasons:

They were desperate for healing.
They has just received their healing from Jesus.

What is it about being at the feet of Jesus that is so powerful? Let’s consider that question today on Reflections.

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Be sure to grab your journal and record your own meditations after listening to and praying through the reflection.

May your soul’s meditation be fuel for Spirit-led actions today!

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From Withered to Revived

I winced as I looked at my six-pack of wilted impatiens. Leftover from my butterfly garden, they had sat under the tree for two weeks waiting for me to find a garden bed to squeeze them into. Originally bursting with color, the now shriveled, drooping blossoms showed little signs of life. I picked them up to toss them into the trash.

“There’s no way they’ll ever recover from this,” I thought. As I opened the trash can, something made me stop. What could it hurt to plant them in the bed out front? It took only minutes to plant the bedraggled plants and water them.

A few hours later I opened the front door to walk out to the mailbox. A flash of pink caught my eye and I stopped astounded. The withered flowers were completely revived, their leaves and blossoms plumped out nicely, the picture of health. I couldn’t believe it. I had been certain they were beyond hope. All they needed was good soil, a thorough watering, and some time to revive.

“It’s the same for people too,” the Holy Spirit whispered to my heart. I mulled that thought over and let its truth sink in.

There was a time in my life when I’ve felt like those flowers. For months after my infant daughter died, I was depleted, devoid of energy, joy … life. I wasn’t sure I would ever recover from the blow of losing her. I barely went through the motions of life. My friends and family stuck by me and kept praying. Several months after she died, I joined a Bible Study Fellowship group and God started slowly putting me back together. Over the course of the next year, I was planted in the fertile soil of my group and watered by God’s word and the testimony and encouragement of wise women. At the end of that year, I had revived.

Maybe you’re there today. Perhaps you think life is over for you. Too much heartache, too many mistakes. Your blooming days are behind you. I’m here to tell you that if you plant yourself in the fertile soil of a healthy church or Christ-based group and water yourself with His word, you will recover. Expose your wounds/sin to the healing light of God’s truth and love and give yourself time to heal and hope.

Get ready to bloom again. God is going to do a mighty work in your life!

Pray on!

Short & Sweet: an old prayer

9 In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

10 Your kingdom come.

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts,

As we forgive our debtors.

13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Matthew 6:9-13

Our Father who art in heaven …

When I was a little girl, I had the privilege of attending a church that valued the Lord’s Prayer. We said it. We prayed it. We believed it. I can’t remember a time when I did not know the Lord’s Prayer by heart. While there is great value in committing Scripture to memory, like a well-loved song, words memorized often become words overlooked. With memorization can come a false sense of knowing a portion of scripture.

Like a wet towel wrung dry, I thought I had squeezed out every last drop of meaning from the Lord’s Prayer. Because the words were so familiar in my head, I no longer listened with my heart. After 48 years of knowing the Lord’s Prayer, what else could I learn from it?

The unfolding of His word.

God is eternal, therefore His word is eternal—it continuously delivers. Meaning upon meaning, deep upon deep, precept upon precept endlessly opens to those who seek with all their heart. In a recent Bible study, Looking For Lovely by Annie Downs, God downloaded fresh meaning from the Lord’s Prayer straight to my soul.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

First, God showed me the heart or key motivation of all prayer. It’s found in verse 10. Read it again.

Thy kingdom come.

How is God’s kingdom established on earth? By prayer. Ponder this for a moment. Prayer establishes God’s kingdom on earth. This leads to a question: What should we be praying for? Not my will. Not your will. God’s will. God’s will and God’s kingdom are connected by prayer. Prayer is not about us being happy, getting our way or being comfortable. The goal of every prayer is for God’s will to happen.

Every prayer. Every time. Period.

Second, God showed me as Christians we play a vital role in establishing God’s kingdom on earth. We are able to focus on this valuable work by praying for God to supply three basic needs:

Food: Our daily bread (physical and spiritual)
Forgiveness: Our forgiveness (salvation) and the grace we need to forgive others
Focus: Our purpose (keeping our mind focused on Him not our temptations)

When we are not overly consumed with worry about obtaining our daily bread, earning our salvation or creating meaning and purpose for our lives, we can focus on establishing God’s kingdom on earth. God confirms this later in Matthew 6:33,

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

The Lord’s prayer is not a formula: say this and you will get this. It is a model for how to pray and for what to pray. We focus on His will and He’ll provide for our welfare. All of this is accomplished through prayer. And when His kingdom is establish in this world, it will be heaven on earth.

Action Points:

Pray. No matter how little, insignificant or unimportant, take everything to God in prayer. Prayer changes things.
Pray God’s will. This one can hurt. No matter how much you want the job, the house, the boyfriend, the car, ask for God to work your situation according to HIS will.
Pray for God’s Kingdom. A kingdom is territory ruled by a king. Since the Fall, we have given Satan a foothold on this earth. We take down the enemy and reclaim our schools, neighborhoods and communities one prayer at a time.

His kingdom come. His will be done.

Life is sweet. Pray!

Puffball Seeds of Prayer

You never know when God will intersect your everyday with something sacred.

Even something as simple as a dandelion.

The other day I was walking out to the mailbox and glanced down. Lying at my feet was a perfect puffball of a dandelion gone to seed. Detached from its root, it was resting on my blacktop driveway ready to send it seeds up and away at the first breath of wind.

I want to be like that dandelion …

with a perfect puffball of seed-prayers ready to send aloft at a moment’s notice — no matter where I am — because I’ve found that sometimes the wind of the Spirit puts me in places where it wouldn’t be my first response to pray. Will I listen or wait for a more “fitting” place?

Over the last year, God has prompted me to waft a few seeds of prayer while –

in the middle of a facial at a spa. I stop and pray with my esthetician as needs bubble to the surface. Off blows a seed of prayer.
on the phone with a new friend worried about her aging father. Another seed wafts away on the breeze.
at a meeting where a person suffers a breakdown. Three of us pray as emergency workers attend to her needs. Seeds floating all around us.
in the median of a busy road with a desperate young woman on a cold, miserable night. Winter winds carry this seed up to heaven.

Praying in church is intuitive. But it’s in the middle of living our lives that God sends opportunities for prayer that may be a bit risky as we open ourselves to ridicule or rejection. Yet being willing to gently blow our seeds of prayer for others makes a pathway for the work of God in their Dandelion seeds lives.

When I met the young woman on the median, disbelief, tears, and relief played across her face as we hugged. And prayed. In the midst of cars whizzing by us on a freezing night, a puff of the Holy Spirit dispersed love, comfort, and hope right there on the “blacktop driveway.”

We can’t afford to wait for perfect timing and comfortable circumstances. We always carry the seeds of prayer within us, and when the Spirit prompts, it’s time to take a deep breath, catch the wind of the Spirit, and let them fly.

What about you? How is God using you in His kingdom work? Leave a comment to let me know.

Pray on!

i pray: divine appointments

i pray

short podcasts to bring the sacred into your everyday

Do you only have a few minutes for prayer today? You’re in the right place! Try one of our new i pray podcasts. A few minutes is all you need to pray God’s word into any situation by interceding for friends, family, and yourself.

Show Notes

Sometimes I go through life oblivious to everyone and everything—except for my own agenda, my own schedule.

When I do that, I may miss the divine appointments and opportunities that God has scheduled for me that day. Will I take the time to look the homeless person in the eye and talk to her, or will I listen the the prompting of the Holy Spirit and smile at the person on the bus sitting next to me? I know we live in a dangerous world, but I need to be listening to the direction and guidance of the Spirit. At times He may move me along, but many times He would have me pause. I want to be alert to the work of the kingdom, not asleep on the job.

Today’s Scripture to Pray

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 1 Peter 3:15,16

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Thanks for praying and in the comment section below, feel free to tell us about a divine appointment you kept.

Pray on!

i pray: second chances

ipray

i pray

short podcasts to bring the sacred into your everyday

Show Notes

Do you ever feel that you’ve messed up too much for God to forgive you?

That is a lie. When we confess our sins and accept that Jesus died on the cross and took the penalty for our sins on Himself, we have the assurance that we are forgiven.

Once we have established our relationship with Christ, when the Holy Spirit convicts us of any new sins we’ve committed we simply confess them and let the Spirit work in our lives to heal us of what needs healing. God is our God of second chances.

Let’s pray today using 2 Chronicles 7:14. “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Thank you for praying with us at OnlyByPrayer.com today!