Prayer Nourishes Our Relationship With God

We are totally dependant on God for life itself and prayer is how we show God that we need Him for absolutely everything. As believers, our first instinct in dealing with all things in our lives should be to pray. Sometimes we are not quite sure exactly how to pray. Prayer is simply us talking to God in each of our own way about things that concern us ~ big and small. There is no need to try to impress anyone with fancy prayers and long and drawn out words- talk as you were talking to a friend because you are talking to a Father and a friend: God! I find that to be so awesome!

Every believer has the ability to pray and to pray effectively. God loves, recognizes, and appreciates each of us with our own unique voice and characteristics that we possess. Just as a parent loves and adores his or her child, God feels the same for all of us. Prayer is powerful! When we pray, things change and we should expect change to happen! Prayer is meant for us to nourish and further develop our personal relationship with the Lord. It’s a time for each of us to get to know God better and what his agenda is. We must have faith and we must have confidence in God that He hears us when we pray and that He can do all things. The Bible reminds us that:

Jesus looked at them carefully and said, “It’s impossible for human beings. But all things are possible for God.” (Matthew 19:26 CEB)

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Awesome Christian Resources

Over the years, I have used lots of awesome Christian resources to encourage me on my journey and to strengthen my knowledge of God’s Word. Life is busy and its nice to keep apps, handy devotionals, favorite shows/recordings, and other resources nearby to stay centered in the Word of God. I wanted to share a few with any of you who are looking for new ways to continually develop your relationship with God each day! Below you’ll find a range of resources that I use a bunch and find to be not only user friendly, but are fruitful. Click the link for more information on each. Please enjoy!

Apps:

First 5 App | YouVersion Bible App | Bible Gateway App

Bible:

The Everyday Life Bible

Books, Study Guides, and Devotionals:

The Purpose Driven Life and Journal|Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World|The Power of a Praying Wife

The Power of a Praying Parent | New Day, New You

Other:

*Setting the DVR for daily television recordings of TD Jakes -The Potter’s Touch , Joyce Meyer – Enjoying Everyday Life, Joseph Price Ministries – all are truly phenomenal teachers of the Word ~ I watch the recordings when it’s convenient for me each day, preferably with a good cup of coffee 🙂 .Online streaming is also another option (most churches offer this) for watching broadcasts and church services on Sundays and for mid-week Bible study. [Read more…]

Daily Intimate Time With God

The Bible is our guide for daily living and we should seek God’s presence continually. Having consistent and daily intimate time with God is a goal that many of us have, but sometimes that goal is difficult to accomplish. We find ourselves racing through life, busy with things to check off of our to-do lists, our work, obligations, relationships, and much more. God actually desires for us to spend quality time with Him each day because He loves us that much! We can choose to spend this quality time with the Lord in the first portion of each day, as well as having mini-moments throughout the day, and also at the end of each day. Some prefer to spend quality time with God through using a combination of all of these methods throughout the course of the day. To worship is to reverence and to honor God. Spending quality time with the Lord each day is a form of worship, which makes God smile. He wants us to know Him, love Him, and worship Him. We always find joy when worshipping Him.

Our faith is further developed each time we fellowship with the Lord, preferably through daily intimate time. We have to be sure that we are truly setting out to enjoy God during this time together and not just simply trying to check something else off of our lists. God wants us to fill each day of our lives with meaning and with purpose. Spending time with Him allows Him to reveal things to us that lead us into meaning and purpose in our lives – His will.

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17)

When preparing to take out some time to spend with God, here are a few things to remember :

Focus on is TODAY only and the fact that we can have time with Him today. Don’t worry about making promises about tomorrow and thinking of what things we will do tomorrow. Follow Jesus one day at a time, this keeps us in the center of God’s will.
Bring just a few things such as your Bible, a pen [Read more…]

Make Me Live By Your Way ~ Psalms 119:37

Many things that actually have little to no value call for our attention daily. These things can eventually end up distracting us from having the fruitful life that God wants us to have. Psalms 119:37 is another one of my all time favorite Bible verses because it serves as a great reminder of what we should be focusing on the most. We should center our hearts and minds away from things that add no value to our lives or to the lives of others. The Psalmist is praying and asking the Lord for help to keep his mind focused on the things that really truly matter in everyday life, so that he can live in a way that is pleasing to God. The closer we are to God, the more fulfilling our lives will be. We must keep our line of prayer open and talk to God constantly to remain close to Him. It is so amazing that God is truly concerned about every single detail of each of our lives! It’s important to Him that we clean up our thought life and redirect our thinking in order to seek His Kingdom first in all we do. We all have hobbies, interests, and things in our lives that we like to do and to be a part of. These things are surely a part of who we are, but we must be sure that we are living a balanced life overall. Essentially, being unbalanced means that we are doing too much of something and not enough of another thing. We have to be careful not to let wrong things have too much weight and value to us, making us unbalanced. This encompasses an array of wrong thoughts and things, including having too much of a focus on material things. It is important to understand that it is perfectly fine to have a healthy affection for certain things, but we must remain balanced.

Desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33 CEB)

Jesus wants us to have a great life and He wants us to actually enjoy our daily lives to the fullest! [Read more…]

Perfect Peace ~ John 14:27

Peace can be described as freedom from disturbance; quiet and tranquility.

There are several promises of God outlined for us in the Bible. John 14:27 focuses on peace given to us by God. The more we develop our own personal relationship with the Lord, the more evident these promises will appear to us through prayer, as well as through our daily reading of the Word. One promise is that the Lord has made is that He gives us His perfect peace. When something is perfect, [Read more…]

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