10/26/11

 

This is a Vietnamese garden that we saw at the fair.  They had some unusual things growing in this garden.  It made me want to climb over the wall and get up close to them, but I refrained.  I didn't want "Sacurity" to get me.

My brother thinks this is a type of eggplant and I agree.  It is a lovely color.

I don't know what this is but it was lovely.

 

Yesterday I gave you a "teaser" about what I was going to share today. 

It is something I have been thinking on for over a week and then, after my Bible lesson to my children yesterday, I began to continue in the thought.

I am going to chat about prayer.

A little over a week ago we saw on the TV that the Indy race car driver, Dan Wheldon, passed away during a wreck during a race.

My heart was saddened with this news, but it also got me thinking.

The man who announced his death spoke to the public that he had passed and that "our thoughts and prayers were with the family."

I totally get that.

What I find interesting, and even spoke about this with Steve, is the fact that the during hard times like this tragic event, people want the prayers coming in and rightly so.  However, when times are good... are there prayers going up?  Are there prayers needed?

I also find it interesting that our society as a whole doesn't want to hear about God because He shows all that is wrong in our nation, but let something bad happen and all of a sudden the liberal news media is talking about prayers, our president is saying "God bless America" and we are hearing "Amazing Grace" all over the place.

Where are these things in the easy times?  The times when life seems to be going well?  God is there then, too, but we seem to put Him "on a shelf" because, well... things are going great and we don't really need Him.  Or so we think.

Is the only time you talk to God when things are going bad and you need some help?

Don't get me wrong, God wants to hear from us during those times.  My Bible lesson yesterday showed my kids this fact.  I was teaching on Jacob returning to meet Esau and he found out Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men with him.  He was scared and rightly so.  However, he took that fear to the Lord and prayed specifically what he was feeling.

Genesis 32:11

Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children.

God delivered Jacob just as He had prayed.

Is it only appropriate to pray during times of trouble?  

NO.  God wants to hear from us every day.

I will be honest... voicing prayers is a hard thing for me at times.  I find that I "picture" the people in my brain and that is how I pray. (I did find out from a class at teacher's convention one year that visualizing prayers is typical of a visual learner of which I am definitely that!)  

But God wants us to talk to Him.

He wants us to voice our every day, trivial, small, happy or sad thoughts.

He wants to show us that He is there for it all.

This quote I put on yesterday's post was so true of what I was thinking so I am going to post it again:

"Prayer is not merely an occasional impulse to which we respond when we are in trouble: prayer is a life attitude." - Walter Mueller

Let's remember I Thessalonians 5:17 - Pray without ceasing.

Not only when times are bad... but throughout your day in every way. 

God wants to hear from you.

Make it your life attitude.