MY FOREVER SHEPHERD!

FOREVER!

TIMELESSNESS!

All the days of my life---now and later in heaven with Him!

That's ETERNITY!

One Word that seems to say it all while touching my heart!

PRAYER PROMPTS

P.R.A.Y.

There are many prompts which can help one with the structure of prayer. 

The one I've been most familiar with is.... 

Praise

Repent

Ask

Yield

This morning I found a new P.R.A.Y. on Lectio 365, a devotional my dear Ukrainian friend, Katya shared with me.

Possibly it's because I seem to find it difficult to first be still  and Lectio's P. stands for Pausing---as a gerund, a verb used as as the head of a noun phrase. Pausing is difficult for me.

Pausing to be still......I need to remember. 

Rejoicing....with a Psalm, my go to Scripture and Reflecting on Scripture gets me right into God's Word. Okay so it's 2 r's but it's a GR-R-E A T idea!

Asking God's help not only for self but for others.

Yielding to his will in our lives, come what may.

The prompt one chooses doesn't matter...but prayer does!

Morning Prayer "veloci-TEA"

 O God, you are my God; early will I seek you: my soul thirsts for you, my flesh longs for you.....(Psalm 63:1, KJV)

Velocity can be both good and bad....especially in one's prayer life. Speed and direction in a moment of crisis is just the motion needed. Quickly praying upward. Immediately turning (directionally) to the One who hears. 

Yet, apart from times of urgency, one's prayer times can be so much richer than that, as reading through the Psalms clearly shows. The poetry of the Psalms seems to take on a slower rhythm......a rhythm of the life of the poet or author, from David and Solomon to unknown others. Laments. Praises. Testimony. Confessions. 

Morning prayer times often have me praying slowly.....prayers for others expressed thorough passages from the Psalms. The rhythm of my own life expressed in language from the Psalter. Inhaling the scripture, exhaling the prayers. A breath of God breathed out---His Words, my breath.

Panic prayers, arrow prayers and night-night prayers, are more rapid than those morning ones. Reading through a psalm or other scripture slows me down. No speed reading. In cadence with God's word. Reading and praying. The silences and the sounds.

Holy Spirit, living Breath of God, Breathe new life into my willing soul. Bring the presence of the risen Lord To renew my heart and make me whole. Cause Your Word to come alive in me; ("Holy Spirit, Living Breath of God," lyrics)

A "hurried" velocity in praying doesn't leave room for empty space. 

"A note in music gets its significance from the silences on either side." (Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift From the Sea, p. 115) As in music, empty space is essential in correlating the scripture to the prayer.

A slowing of my morning cuppa mirrors the velocity of my reading and praying, as it takes time to sip and savor both----my English Breakfast Tea and prayers re-directed to Him as I am stimulated from His word. 

PIP

10/3/11 PIP is my acronym for "Put Into Practice." Usually for me that means living out a meaningful verse of Scripture. Today was a "Day of Praise" for the radio station K-Love. They asked listeners to join them in praising God for who He is & thanking Him for what He's done. Praise and thanks. That seemed like a good thing to PIP. (By the way my acronyms are in no way connected to net lingo for chatting or texting---just my way of remembering, established long before one could even text on a phone.)

Today's MM (Monday Meditation) is a glimpse as I PIP this challenge. Meditating on scripture often serves as a springboard for prayer and praise. Psalm 67 was my international praise guide. Psalm 150 was my benediction.

1May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us
2that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.
3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!
4Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth.
5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!
6The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, shall bless us.
7God shall bless us; let all the ends of the earth fear him! (ESV)

Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. (Psalm 150:6)

As the Puritan's "Evening Praise" states, "My cup runs over. Suffer me not to be insensible (without feeling) to these daily mercies.Thy hand bestows blessings: Thy power averts evil. I bring my tribute of thanks for spiritual graces, the warmth of faith, the cheering presence of Thy Spirit...." (The Valley of Vision, p. 121)

Praying the Psalms

1/21/09

24 hours without a computer and a telephone with a "black hole"--- do you think maybe God wanted me to "be still and know that He is God" as Sara B. prayed??!!

Well, there it is. I open my Jesus Calling book and the first sentence says, I want you to be all mine.

Yesterday was a little of a stretch ----couple of doc visits---lots of plans to be considered---logistical and insurance questions---but God…………………I wonder if Ronnie Stevens realizes what an impact those to words have had on my life since I heard his long ago sermon (Eph. 4:2)---that's about his speed--- 2 words a Sunday (hopefully Ronnie can take a joke)----helps folks like me digest it.

I began the day (before computer needed a new hard drive) with a big blessing. An elder from Allen Bible Church, where son Buddy is a pastor, wrote that he had been praying Psalm 20 for me. I remembered the verse "some trust in chariots and some in horses but we trust in the name of the Lord our God." SW helped me glean insight from that during our H2H teacher training sessions one summer. As the day ended and I was having trouble settling down, Larry read Psalm 20 to me.

Then I asked him to read Psalm 121 to me-----one I memorized (KJV) as a part of my 4^th grade teacher's instruction---now there's a good teacher. It was the psalm that I was given the privilege to recite for the First Evan Women's Team to Mexico on the last night of our mission trip to El Lano (you won't find it on a map) for the Tlapaneco Christian Easter Conference. I can still close my eyes and see those mountains and the sweet faces of all the groups who so beautifully dramatized the verses---"He will not suffer your foot to be moved. (slip) He that keepeth thee will not slumber, Behold He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep…The Lord is thy keeper….He shall preserve thy soul….The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and even forever more, I had never felt more smack dab in the middle of God's good and perfect will for my life on that trip and that's where I am right now. To Him be the glory!