Hi, and welcome back to Disciplers blog. I'm wondering how your prayer life is starting out in 2016? Has you prayer list been getting longer and longer lately and because of that do you ever feel like you're rushing through your prayers for those you love and care about? Or maybe you're like me and sometimes just don't know what to pray and you become frustrated with yourself.
One thing I have been asking God to do for me in 2016 is refresh my prayer life -- to give me stronger commitment to pray for all those on my prayer list, for deeper insights into His will as I pray, and for more joy. Yesterday, while checking out the blog of my dear friend Betty Newman, God graciously and gloriously answered my prayer. And He answered it with three short words: "be a basin". Now that may sound pretty weird to you, but please read Betty's blog that follows because it just may refresh you prayer life also. Here's what Betty wrote.
"I was struggling, while in prayer one morning, about what exactly to say – or pray.
There are so many people on my prayer list, and many others not written down, whose needs are so varied, or even unknown to me, that I don’t always know what to say. I do “lift them up” to God, as I know He knows their needs, but that seems like sort of a “cop-out” at times. I do want to meditate on each of them, but how?
I know, of course, the Scripture of Romans 8:26 where it says, In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words…
And as I was thinking about that, I thought about God’s Spirit pouring the words that we are to use into our hearts.
Then, I “imagined” or “saw” an antique china water basin and pitcher; the type that, before the days of running water, used to sit on a washstand for bathing or freshening up. I saw that if one pours water into the basin too quickly it doesn’t “stay” in the basin, but splashes back out.
And I had an “Ah-ha!” moment. YES! God’s Spirit (when we ask) pours the words into our hearts with such fervency that they can’t possibly stay there! They have to “splash” back out into the world, and back to God Himself! Living Water coming down in a torrent, into the basin, and sloshing back out the other side! What a wonderful picture of God’s Sovereignty. He actually tells us what to pray for, which is the very essence of “praying in the will of God.”
There are many scriptures that bear that thought out. For instance, Ezekiel 36:37, I will let the house of Israel ask Me to do for them: I will increase their men like a flock.
Can you imagine… God letting us ask Him for the very things He intends to give us. When we pray “in the will” of God; when He says, I will give you the desires of your heart; and when He says, "Whatsoever you ask, in My Name, I will give it to you…” He is telling us that He will “pour into” our spirits; what should “slosh” back out to Him.
We don’t have to worry what it is – we only need to be the basin…Betty"
I've written the words "Be a basin" at the top of my prayer list, and look forward to having God pour His will into my prayers and slosh back out to Him so I can be a basin of blessing....Suzie
P.S. You can check out Betty's blog at https://prayerlogue.wordpress.com
One thing I have been asking God to do for me in 2016 is refresh my prayer life -- to give me stronger commitment to pray for all those on my prayer list, for deeper insights into His will as I pray, and for more joy. Yesterday, while checking out the blog of my dear friend Betty Newman, God graciously and gloriously answered my prayer. And He answered it with three short words: "be a basin". Now that may sound pretty weird to you, but please read Betty's blog that follows because it just may refresh you prayer life also. Here's what Betty wrote.
"I was struggling, while in prayer one morning, about what exactly to say – or pray.
There are so many people on my prayer list, and many others not written down, whose needs are so varied, or even unknown to me, that I don’t always know what to say. I do “lift them up” to God, as I know He knows their needs, but that seems like sort of a “cop-out” at times. I do want to meditate on each of them, but how?
I know, of course, the Scripture of Romans 8:26 where it says, In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words…
And as I was thinking about that, I thought about God’s Spirit pouring the words that we are to use into our hearts.
Then, I “imagined” or “saw” an antique china water basin and pitcher; the type that, before the days of running water, used to sit on a washstand for bathing or freshening up. I saw that if one pours water into the basin too quickly it doesn’t “stay” in the basin, but splashes back out.
And I had an “Ah-ha!” moment. YES! God’s Spirit (when we ask) pours the words into our hearts with such fervency that they can’t possibly stay there! They have to “splash” back out into the world, and back to God Himself! Living Water coming down in a torrent, into the basin, and sloshing back out the other side! What a wonderful picture of God’s Sovereignty. He actually tells us what to pray for, which is the very essence of “praying in the will of God.”
There are many scriptures that bear that thought out. For instance, Ezekiel 36:37, I will let the house of Israel ask Me to do for them: I will increase their men like a flock.
Can you imagine… God letting us ask Him for the very things He intends to give us. When we pray “in the will” of God; when He says, I will give you the desires of your heart; and when He says, "Whatsoever you ask, in My Name, I will give it to you…” He is telling us that He will “pour into” our spirits; what should “slosh” back out to Him.
We don’t have to worry what it is – we only need to be the basin…Betty"
I've written the words "Be a basin" at the top of my prayer list, and look forward to having God pour His will into my prayers and slosh back out to Him so I can be a basin of blessing....Suzie
P.S. You can check out Betty's blog at https://prayerlogue.wordpress.com
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