Our Father in Heaven

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Jesus example prayer starts with a simple concept, yet there is so much in it. I hadn’t thought about the first word much, but Warren Wiersbe drew attention to it in his commentary on the book of Matthew, Be Loyal. Wiersbe points out that there no singular pronouns in the Lord’s prayer. They are all plural. While some cultures in the world have a more group mentality, there are many of us who live in individualistic societies. We too easily think of ourselves first. However, Jesus example shows us that we are to be thinking of others.

The next piece is God being our Father. For those of us who have a good Father this is a comforting thought. We have known the love, care and hard work that our earthly father showed to us. We have been able to see a picture of our Heavenly Father. For those who didn’t have a good earthly Father might have a harder time with this. Please know that God is the perfect Father. He never makes a mistake. He never does anything unloving.

One note – God is NOT everyone’s Father. Matthew 7:21-23 tells us that not everyone who claims to follow God will enter the kingdom of heaven. Romans tells us that placing our trust in Jesus Christ to be our Savior is the will of God. If you don’t know how to truly be a child of God, please talk to me. I would be happy to share what God has said. His way is perfect.

Praying through 2019

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I have known many who choose a word for each year.  It is something that they want to focus on throughout the new year.  This year I want to focus on prayer.  This is a lesson God has been teaching me for almost 5 years now.  I have thought about it, written some blog posts about, but I want to spend more time studying what God says about prayer.  After all, my blog is called Pleading in Prayer.  

James 5:16 is the verse I am using for this coming year. There is much theological debate about what prayer accomplishes. I do not take this lightly. Studying Scripture should be done carefully. My plan is to look at this passage and others throughout the year, carefully studying what God has to say.

Do you have a word or verse for 2019? Feel free to share that in the comments.

Christmas in the Present

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I pray you have a blessed Christmas.  We like to enjoy the time with family and friends, exchanging gifts, too many Christmas cookies and the list goes on. I hope you take the time to stop and remember Jesus and the true reason for Christmas.

We typically spend the month of December thinking about Christmas and all of the traditions that go with it.  However, I hope we remember who Jesus is all year long.  Don’t forget that the character traits the Bible tells about Jesus when He humbled Himself and came to earth as a baby are true all the time. 

The Lamb of God

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I was given this lamb ornament when I was a child.  I have often thought of this as visual for Jesus being the Lamb of God.  In Old Testament law, a perfect lamb had to be sacrificed for forgiveness of sin.  Jesus was born as a baby (the reason we celebrate Christmas) in order to grow up and be the perfect sacrifice for our sin.  

I love Christmas.  I enjoy putting up Christmas decorations, listening to and singing Christmas songs, and thinking about the joy and wonder of the season.  The most important piece of Christmas is to remember the purpose.  Jesus came, because we are sinners who cannot pay for our sin outside of suffering for eternity (read the book of Romans in the Bible). In order to pay this penalty for us, Jesus came to earth to be a man.  He lived a perfect life (the only man who ever could) so He could die for our sins.

I pray you have trusted in Jesus to save you from your sins.  If not, I pray you do today (2 Corinthians 6:2).

God is so good.

Thankful for Warmth

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At Thanksgiving, I often remember a time I didn’t have a working furnace.  In the fall of 2010, I had 18 inches of sewer water in my basement after a heavy rain storm.  I was told that I should have the furnace checked.  A contractor came by and told me there was a crack in the heat exchange (which risks getting carbon monoxide in the house).  This was the result of an old furnace (not the flooding), but it came at a time when I was dealing with other challenges.  Those were tough days.

The flooding was late September. By the time I worked through what needed to happen, got quotes, picked a contractor and scheduled them to install the furnace – I was looking at a cold Thanksgiving.  The contractor started the Monday before, but didn’t think they would finish until the Monday after.  I was glad heat was coming.  I was working through being patient for the rest of the week, when I found out they would be able to give me heat the day before Thanksgiving.  Hallelujah!  The contractor turned the heat on and turned off the space heaters that I had been running 24 hours a day for the previous few days.  I was blessed by the action. 

God blessed me with friends who were concerned.  Sometimes even the guys acted like mother hens (I know – a horrible illustration for men, but I treasure the memories). 🙂

One other blessing at the time of the flooding that I want to share – I had plans that fall to buy an electric blanket.  Not knowing how much the flooding repairs would cost, I dropped the idea even before I knew I had to replace the furnace.A friend of mine surprised me with the gift of a brand new electric blanket.  That was an extra blessing in the days I was without a working furnace and provides a long term hug.

I am thankful for a working furnace in my house, a good heater in my car, and an electric blanket to keep me warm during the cold months.

Philosophy of Thankfulness

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As I mentioned in my Thanksgiving and Praise post, I have been thinking about a statement of thanksgiving.  This has been on my mind and heart for some time.  I couldn’t write this philosophy because of some life struggles over the past several years.  I wanted to be able to be honest about the difficulties, but I felt pulled to live a Pollyanna type life – only sharing the positives and ignoring the negatives.  However, I was struggling to deal with the negatives; ignoring them to “be thankful” wasn’t helping.  I know that complaining is sin.  I know that there are many things to be thankful for.  Yet I struggled.  So God kept teaching me about prayer. 

As I prayed through the negatives, God gave me peace about the truth.  The truth is that we will face difficult times.  The truth is that the difficult times hurt.  The stronger truth is that God is good.  Always good.  So my Philosophy of Thanksgiving looks at both sides.

My Philosophy of Thanksgiving is as follows:

“I will pray through each day, frequently giving praise and thanks to God.  I will seek opportunities to share my thankfulness with others. 

Because life is filled with challenges, I will be honest about the pain caused by difficulties.  Then I will remind myself of God’s goodness and ask Him to help me to honor Him through honesty and praise.”

I am not a spectacular writer – I won’t be selling any books.  I just want to use writing to express my thoughts and hopefully help someone know more of the truth of God.

God is so good.