The scripture for today, December 23, is 1st Samuel 12:23 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

00-COVER-Thumbnail“As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right.”

It’s a sin not to pray for others!

Do your prayers get bogged down in the mire of me’s? Do you wonder why you can’t pray for more than a couple minutes ~ five on a good day? Satan gets you to do this; he is the enemy of prayer because he knows how powerful it is.

Who is on your prayer list? Pray for people by name. Your neighbors. People you work with. Your government officials ~ both good and bad. People in a nursing home. People in your congregation. People in the military. People being persecuted, imprisoned and even killed because they are Christians. Missionaries. Children in an orphan home. Sales people at the store. Local school teachers.

Pray for 15 minutes a day. Half an hour. An hour. It’s oh so easy when we stop praying only for self and pray for others.

Pray for them by name. And tell them that you do. Some people have never been told, “I am praying for you”.

Let us not sin by praying only for “me”.

The scripture for today, November 9, is Luke 11:9 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

HS-COVER-KINDLE-GOLD” ‘So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.’ “

Does this mean that, if we ask for our favorite team to win, they will win? Does this mean that, if we ask for a particular job, we will get that job? Or, if we have our eyes on a particular young man or young woman, we will marry that person?

In the context that Jesus said this, he had just taught his disciples what many call the Lord’s prayer. In that prayer, Jesus instructed us to ask for a little bit of the physical and a whole lot of the spiritual.

You might say, “Well, that doesn’t leave me much to pray for.” Oh, yes it does. Shift your focus from yourself. It leaves the rest of the world to pray for. What about their little bit of physical and their whole lot of spiritual? How many people do you pray for? Not as a group, but by name? Not occasionally, but every day?

Well then, will God give us every one of the souls we pray for? God gives everyone free will. He does not force people to follow him. God provides opportunities for people we pray for, and he even moves their hearts. But he does not force them. We must still, keep on praying, even when we feel like someone is hopeless. Maybe they are hopeless during our lifetime. But sometimes someone’s soul is saved after our death.

So let us pray for others and never tire of it ~ a little bit of the physical and whole lot of the spiritual. Seek and we will find. God will answer in his own way. And that’s a promise.

The scripture for today, November 5,is Ecclesiastes 11:5 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 3-HEARTS AFIRE-COVER“As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.”

Are you ever frustrated because you cannot touch God or see God? In times of deep unbearable distress, probably a lot of people feel that need. But, if we could touch or see him, he could not be everywhere at once; he could not be omnipresent. That means, if he was with you where you could see and touch him, the rest of the world would have to wait for him to get done with you and go to the next person.

Are you ever frustrated because you cannot figure out God? In times of great challenges to faith, probably a lot of people feel that need. But, if we could figure out God, He would not be superior to us. It means that either he would not be God, or we would be God also.

Let us be grateful that we cannot touch or see God. Let us be grateful that we cannot fully understand God. Let us be grateful that, despite all his greatness, he dearly
loves us.

The scripture for today, August 3, is 1st Corinthians 8:3 as found in the New Testament of the Bible.

0-BOOK EIGHT-COME FLY WITH ME-Cover“But the man who loves God is known by God.”

How can God know us all individually? Just how does God do it? There are multiplied millions of us. All praying with our own set of problems, sometimes thousands of us at once. All singing our various hymns. All trying to do right in the name of God.

This Creator of the entire universe, the Maker of stars and sunflowers and little puppies and unfathomable oceans, knows each person who loves him. Not “knows about”, but KNOWS! With all that is going on in the world, yea even in the universe, he still knows which ones of us love him, and he takes the time to know us!

How large he is. How small we are.

Utter amazement!

And so we worship him.

The scripture for today, July 7, is Matthew 7:7 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 5-FLOOD GATES-Cover-Print“Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

How beautiful. The Creator of the universe pays attention to each and every one of us. How does He do it? How does He even sort us all out when thousands of us are praying to Him at the same time?

Sometimes we may not think He is listening to our prayers. But it takes time to answer some of them. If I am praying to meet my future husband or wife, God may have to move him or her from the other side of the country, get a new job for him or her, and arrange for us to “accidentally” bump into each other. This is just one example.

Also, when Jesus said whatever we seek will be given to us, he had already explained that we must “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). So only within that context, God will give us our heart’s desire.

Maybe today you can do a little bit of extra seeking and extra knocking.

0-Logo-LargePrintThe scripture for today, May 26, is 1st Thessalonians 5:26 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“Brothers, pray for us.”

Do you have a prayer list? There are many people we can pray for besides ourselves. Often prayers get bogged down and short because the only person we “remember” in prayer is ourselves. Well, and maybe a relative or two.

There are many people who need your prayers: Your family is obvious. How about your neighbors? If you don’t know their names, pray for them by house or apartment number. What about the newspaper? Everyone of those bad-news stories is crying out for prayer. The school near you needs your prayers ~ students, teachers, administrators, janitors. It doesn’t matter whether you have a child in that school; pray for them anyway. Who are your local government officials? Not liking them doesn’t make any different, for Jesus said we are to pray for our enemies too. And that leads to the list of your enemies; do you have any at your work place? Include them too. It’s pretty hard to resent someone you pray for.

One other thing you might try doing in addition to having a prayer list: Have an answered-prayer list. Write down when you pray for someone, then when it is answered. Keep it as a reminder when you are down and don’t think He’s ever going to answer your requests. God does care after all.


And speaking of requests, by the time you’re done praying for all the other people on your prayer list, you won’t have a lot of time to pray for yourself. And that is okay too, for others are praying for you!

The scripture for today, May 13, is 1st John 5:13f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 6-PROMISE KEEPER-Cover-Createspace“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”

What a wonderful and comforting promise: The God of the universe, the Creator, the King of all kings hears you!

Of course, it must be “according to his will.” Well, how are you supposed to know God’s will? By a feeling deep in your heart? Feelings are fickle. But can there be another way? Of course. It’s simple. Just read his very words to you in the Bible.

The Bible is full of examples of people who did right and who did wrong, to help you see the consequences of good and bad decisions. The Bible is also full of God’s advice to you. Proverbs is one of the books that is full of such advice. Read the Bible. You do not have to guess what God’s will is.

What about asking God’s will whether you should move to this place or that, whether you marry this person or that, whether you take this job or that? Perhaps all your choices are good. God has also given you free will. Always remember, “ALL things work together for good to those who love the Lord and called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

The scripture for today, May 11, is 1st Peter 5:11 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 4-FOLK HERO-COVER“To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.”

God has the power to do more for you than you ever dreamed. He can take you in new directions in your life; arrange for you to meet wonderful people; provide the ability to overcome not-so-good things in your life.

All you have to do is ask. Perhaps more than once. Perhaps many times. But he wants you to ask. Why?

Parents sometimes tell their children “no” the first time they ask for something. Maybe it’s because the child needs to find our for him/herself how badly s/he wants it. It’s in the asking that they find out. So God waits for the request. Sometimes the request never comes. And so the blessing never comes.

Remember, God has the power. He may have something special in mind for you. So ask.

The scripture for today, May 3, is Psalm 5:3 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 2-DREAM MAKER-COVER“In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. “

Morning. The time of new beginnings. Birth is a morning. Graduating from a school is a morning. Marriage, a new job, birth of a child ~ these are obvious mornings.

We can create our own morning of life in a spiritual way too. We can stop depending on ourselves, and begin following and depending on God. We cannot fix all our problems. Sometimes we get ourselves into our own problems and don’t know how to get ourselves out. But God knows.

Let us lay our requests before God. Then wait. The waiting can create frustration. But wait in peace. God does things in his own timing. He loves us as children and knows when the moment is right. Sometimes when we look back, we are most grateful he did not answer a prayer for us; he had something better in mind. And then, it was morning.

God loves to answer prayer. Therefore, let us wait in peaceful expectation for morning.

The scripture for today, April 19, is 1st Corinthians 4:19a as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

05-Inspirations-Cover-KINDLE“But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing.”

God knows each step you take through life. He knows all the roads you take in each phase of your life, and what is awaiting tiy at the other end. The road you are on today may lead you to where you do not want to be. But not being able to see the future, you do not always know that.

The writer of the above scripture was telling his friends he was coming to see them soon “if the Lord is willing.” Sometimes a decision seems so right. But there may be danger on the way. Or there may be a different road to take leading you to somewhere even better.

Thank God he does not say yes to all of our prayers. Try to remember, when you ask God for things, to add “Your will be done”. His will is for you to have the best life possible.