How to Pray...

[Katecan]

In Philippians 4:6 it says, Do not be anxious over anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication along with thanksgiving let your petitions be made known to God. Basically prayer is simply talking to God just like you would talk to your very best friend.

God cares deeply about each and every one of our problems and is just waiting for us to come to him with those problems. The Bible tells us over and over to constantly bring our problems to our Heavenly Father. Prayer is not to inform God of something which He may not be aware of or to try to convince Him to love us more. He already knows our needs and He has certainly shown his love. Prayer's purpose is to assist us in building our relationship with God.

Why should we pray?
Prayer unleashes Gods's power so that he is able to work in our behalf. Prayer opens the channels of God's blessing. Prayer is how God accomplishes the things that he wants to see happen in our lives. Prayer opens new doors of opportunity for God to move. In fact you can view prayer like a door. You are on one side of a closed door and on the other side is God. But standing with God is all this incredible and unimaginable power. When you pray, it is you turning that doorknob and swinging that door wide open. For it is at that moment when all that power can step through that doorway and work for God's good, and for your good.

Since he respects our freedom of choice and free will, prayer enables him to step into our lives. God has limited his powers in our lives to the importance that we place on prayer. Prayer gives God the permission to do what he has been longing to do all the time. Even when we do not see anything significant occurring, God is still at work solving the problem. When there are apparently no answers, God is still is waiting for the proper time to give us the solution.

Psalm 55:22 Throw every burden upon God.
Psalm 68:19 Blessed be Our God who daily carries the load for us.
Psalm 56:9 This I well know, that God is for me.

There are four basic steps involved in the proper way to pray.

1--Bring the problem to God's attention immediately. But always keep the problem God centered and not problem centered.
2--Supplication. The definition of supplication is---a very honest and clear confession that tells God that you need his help.
3--Then focus on God and not on the problem. Keep in mind that our prayers are always to be God centered.
4--Thanksgiving. You are thankful because you know the following about our great and mighty and glorious God.

* That you can come to the Father with your problems anytime
* That he is concerned about you
* That he loves you
* That he said that he would help you
* That he will see you through this problem
* That he has the power to solve this problem
* That you trust him 100%

God is just waiting for you to talk to him, waiting just for those few brief moments when you acknowledge him, think about him, and show him some love and respect. Yes, your God is just waiting for you to talk to him and he desperately wants to talk to you, not in words, but through your mind and your heart. God is going to bypass the vocal cords and the ear and instead your heart will feel that gentle tugging, that urging, that pulling. Your heart and mind will know exactly what God is trying to tell you.

Most people expect God to answer them in some divine way or somehow speak to them verbally out of the heavens, but that isn't the way God operates. God speaks to a persons heart. To their mind. To their sense of moral righteousness and fairness. To their sense of what is right and Godly. And those methods of communication that God uses are extremely loud and clear. The person that has found Jesus and who has Jesus Christ dwelling within them, is listening to Our Lord talk constantly to their heart, conscience, soul, and spirit. The true child of God can hear God speak just as clearly as if God was standing right along side of them verbally talking to them. But before God can begin to talk to you, something must happen. You have to be receptive to God's words. You have to begin to communicate with God and listen for God to speak. You have to get your heart in the right condition.

Many people ask the question, why bother to listen to God, because God always seems to work in such mysterious ways. They say that they have absolutely no idea how or why God does what he does. But for the true believer, God's ways are not mysterious. His ways are not concealed behind smoke and mirrors. It is just the opposite. Because once you begin to understand Jesus Christ, once you begin to learn what he is all about, once you begin to understand what he is trying to do in this world and in your life, once you begin to understand the tremendous importance that he holds for all of mankind, then his actions will not be mysterious. In fact that's when his ways become crystal clear. For that is when the veil over your eyes has been lifted. Now the true believer will actually be able to predict what God is going to do in a great many situations.

God wants each believer to know what he expects from them, and what each believer can expect from God. That is why Jesus was speaking to all believers down through all the ages when he said the following. Mark 4:11 "And He said to them, To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God."

But to get to this point there must be tremendous desire within the heart of the believer. A desire to put in the time and make the effort in a lifetime search for Godly truth. Few mysteries will be able to stand up against an onslaught of this magnitude. So be prepared for God to speak to you, and when he speaks to you he wants you to listen. There are always two people involved in prayer. You and God. So prayer should never be a monologue, but rather prayer should always be a dialogue.

You may wonder just how he will speak to you, just why he would speak to you, and just what methods he uses to do his speaking. Generally there are four reasons why he speaks to you and there are four basic methods that he uses.

REASONS HE SPEAKS TO YOU

* God desires to have fellowship with us. We are his most precious creation and he loves us dearly. Each and every one of us is a child of God.
* God knows that we constantly need direction in our travels through life.
* God realizes we need comfort and assurance in order to get through all the trials and tribulations of this mean and cruel world.
* God wants us to get to know him.

METHODS HE USES TO SPEAK TO YOU

* God speaks to us through his Word. He uses the Bible as his foremost tool to impart truth.
* God speaks through the Holy Spirit who is with us every second of the day.
* God speaks to us through other believers.
* God speaks to us through divine circumstances. We are all living under heavenly guidance, and if you look closely you will see the hand of God written upon many of the wonderful things that come into your life.

SEVEN THINGS TO ASK YOURSELF EACH TIME YOU PRAY.
Each and every time that you pray, you should ask yourself how the things that you are praying for fit in and affect the following seven conditions.

1) Will the thing that I am praying for meet my Godly personal needs and will it fit in with a just and righteous life style, or is it superfluous and just born of the flesh?
2) Am I being submissive to God's will, and will I gladly accept what ever God is willing to give me, if anything. Is your spirit one of absolute submission to his will? Can you say, not my will Father, but let your will be done?
3) If my prayer is answered will the result honor God?
4) Will it harm or hurt someone else or will it interfere in another person's life.
5) Will it please God. Will what you pray for delight God?
6) Does my request contradict or conflict with the Word of God in anyway.
7) Will it further my spiritual growth. Will what I pray for bring me closer to God?

YOU MUST ALSO REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THREE THINGS WHEN IT COMES TO PRAYER.
FAITH---You must have complete faith in God.
OBEDIENCE---You must obey God fully and completely.
PATIENCE---You must wait patiently on God, for we are all on his schedule.

WHY IS SO MUCH PRAYER NEVER ANSWERED?
Because we center on the problem and not on God. We tell God what to do. We talk about only the problem and not about the greatness of God. We tend to talk in terms of "me" and "I". We don't talk or think about God, just ourselves and our troubles. We begin our prayers with both hands out, and we still have them out when we finish our prayers. Unfortunately when most people pray there is no praise being spoken. No thankfulness being given. No glory being expressed. No honor or adoration being shown.

James understood this pitfall of incorrect praying when he wrote James 4:3. "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly". So tell God the problem and then focus on God. God can't wait to solve your problems. God loves to work out difficulties in our lives and if you keep your focus on God, then one way or another he will solve that problem. This is what the Lord meant when he proclaimed in Matthew 11:28, "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give your rest."

Also, we tend to burn out when our prayers are aimed at negative things that we are trying to avoid. If all we do is talk to God about how horrible and terrible our problem is, then all we do is become more depressed, and get more discouraged. We become more agitated and we have more anxiety. Then the problem becomes bigger and bigger and as it grows it takes on a life of its own. What God wants us to do most is focus on positive aspects and powers of God. Think about how God is all powerful and all knowing. Focus on his amazing attributes and qualities. Describe his wonderful characteristics. Read passages from the Bible which describe the greatness of God and his ability to do absolutely incredible things. Think about our God who is able to do everything from walk on water to raise the dead, and then ask yourself if he is not able to solve your problem?

Also read a few Bible passages that describe God helping people out of extremely difficult situations. Tell God how loving and wonderful he is and that he has only your best interests at heart and that his solution to the problem may be so much better than the solution you would like to see happen. In other words don't pray to the problem, pray to the solution of that problem. Because when you focus on God, God will focus on your problem. Remember God is a solution centered being and he can solve any problem - just put your complete faith and trust in him. For when you pray to God, he hears much more than your words. He is also listening to your heart.

No one likes the trials and tribulations that suddenly show up in our lives. But if we keep our eyes focused upon Jesus Christ, then we can know without a doubt that there is a wonderful solution available for each and every problem that enters into our lives. That even though it looks like there is no possible way out of this difficulty, our all powerful loving Heavenly Father can solve that problem with absolutely no trouble at all. And he will do just that if we just stay focused on him.

The Word of God describes the many hundreds of times when God came to those that needed his help. He came to their aid because they kept their focus on God. When Jehoshaphat, the King of Israel realized suddenly that three huge separate armies were coming against him to destroy him and his people, the very first thing he did was turn his full attention to God, and he told God that his country was completely defenseless and that they desperately needed his help. He also told God about another thing that the nation of Israel was doing.
2 Chronicles 20:12 "O our God, we are powerless against this great multitude that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you."

God gave Jehoshaphat this answer.
2 Chronicles 20:17 "You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord who is with you. Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out, for the Lord is with you."

The result? Without a single sword being drawn, without a single spear being thrust, without a single arrow being fired, Almighty God in his incredible way, allowed the three armies to begin to squabble among themselves. This led to skirmishes breaking out throughout all three armies, with the result being that the three armies wound up completely destroying each other. These pagan and wicked armies, sent by evil people, completely destroyed each other. Every single enemy soldier, from all three of those armies, laid dead on the battlefield. And this all happened because Israel had kept their focus and attention on God.

Another thing you might do if you have a specific problem is to do a Bible word search, or get a concordance and do a search for every verse in the Bible that relates to that specific problem. Then meditate and examine each of those verses. Read and discuss each verse with God and ask him to do for you, what he has done for others having similar problems. As an example suppose you have a health problem. Then look up all the verses that relate to sickness, health, illness, affliction, disease, affirmity, disorder, malady, sickness, ailment, condition, ailing, unhealthy, ill, infirmity, and anything else that you think deals with illness. If you search hard enough you will be amazed at the verses that you will find. If the problem is one of health you will find verses like the following.

Exodus 23:25 "So you shall serve the Lord your God, and I will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you."

Jeremiah 33:6 Behold, I will bring health and healing; I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth."

Matthew 9:35 "Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people."

Matthew 10:1 "And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease."

Jeremiah 30:17 For I will restore health to you, and heal you of your wounds, says the Lord."

Deuteronomy 7:15 "And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt."

To do the above is going to take some effort on your part, but think of how much joy God is going to have when he sees one of his children working hard in this effort. And then think of the blessings that he just may reward you with."

The Bible is jammed full of examples of the power of prayer. The power that comes when a person just simply opens up their heart and talks to God. A typical example is King Hezekiah, one of many Kings of Judah. He reigned over the Jews in Jerusalem for 29 years. He was a God fearing and a God loving King who really tried very hard to do all that was Godly. In fact in 2 Kings 18:3, it says this of King Hezekiah. "And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done."

But then one day King Hezekiah fell sick and was on his death bed, so he called the mighty prophet Isaiah to find out if indeed he was going to die. And here is what Isaiah told the king.
2 Kings 20:1 "In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live."

King Hezekiah had no where to turn. It was completely hopeless. He was going to die. But look at what he did. He opened up his heart, fully and completely, and he reached down into the deepest regions of his heart, and began to carry on a prayerful conversation with God.
2 Kings 20:2-3 "Then he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying, Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight." And Hezekiah wept profusely."

And what was the result of this prayerful conversation with God?
2 Kings 20:4-6 "And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: "I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. And I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David."

Fifteen years may not seem like a great deal, but to one who is on their death bed, 15 years of additional life is truly a miraculous gift from God himself.

When trials and tribulations come into our lives there is a tremendous temptation to immediately begin to worry and become fearful. However worry and anxiety do not bring clarity. Instead, they simply cloud our minds and prevent us from seeing God's solution. All fear and worry do, is paralyze us. But you can prevent mental distress from ever coming into your life, if you look to Jesus Christ the very moment a difficult time enters your life. If you can immediately concentrate on the Son Of God and not on the problem, then worry and fear will never be able to gain a foothold. If we are able to do that then verses like the following will become very, very evident. Psalm 34:19 "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers them out of them all".

Prayer changes us, not God. Prayer opens our hearts and minds to the greater and wiser will of God. Through prayer, God gives us strength to better reflect his character of love when we are tested. Through prayer God gives us courage and peace to trust in his control over matters that are beyond our control. One of the hardest things to believe is that God is intimately involved in our lives when everything is going wrong in our life. But what prayer does is transform doubt into trust.

WHY WE SHOULD TRUST GOD

*
* My God is right here all the time.
* My God loves me unconditionally.
* My God will listen to me.
* He will help me.
* He will hear me.
* He will give me peace.
* He will solve my problems.
* He keeps his promises.

Just imagine that you had an extremely difficult and serious problem and there didn't seem to be any possible solution, when suddenly our loving Heavenly Father walks up to you and says, "Can I help you in any way? I would just love to be of assistance to you". What a glorious moment. Now you realize that this problem is history. What seemed so unsolvable a minute ago, will now be solved by the Creator himself. Would you not instantly forget about the problem and do nothing but think about God's greatness? Would you not immediately begin to praise and thank him. Instead of worrying any longer about the problem, would you not take tremendous joy and pleasure in his great power, love, and glory? So please remember that this loving God is standing beside you every second of the day and night. For God, there are solutions to all problems, and he is the one that has those solutions. And he cannot wait to solve every one of your problems. All you need to do is to ask him and trust him and focus on him.

HOW TO TALK TO GOD
In Matthew 6:7, the Lord tells us something very interesting concerning the times when we pray. "When praying, do not say the same thing over and over again, just as the heathens do, for they think that they shall be heard for their use of many words."

Just imagine for a moment if your spouse, or one of your children, or your best friend came to you and told you that they wanted to tell you something. But after they told you what they wanted to tell you, they then repeated the same thing over and over. And to make matters worse they did this every single time that they spoke to you. After an hour, or a few days, or a month, wouldn't you get turned off and just ignore this ridiculous type of conversation? Wouldn't you want to just get away from this boring and bothersome experience?

When you talk to God he doesn't want the same prayer over and over. When you repeat something like that, the prayer has lost its meaning and borders on being just worthless conversation. You could get a tape recorder and just record your message over and over and then leave it running. That way you could save yourself alot of time and do other things all the while your supposedly praying. Plus, when you repeat the same prayer over and over you will usually find that your mind wanders to many other things the whole time that you are saying the prayer.

God doesn't want to hear memorized prayers that someone else wrote. He wants to hear your prayers coming in your own words and coming straight from your very own heart. You need to talk to God as if he were your very best friend, because he is. Your prayers should come from your heart and should be a conversation between you and God. It should be as if your prayers are getting ready to burst out of you and you can hardly wait to talk to God.

The Our Father prayer that Jesus taught his disciples in Matthew Chapter 6 was simply an example or an outline on how to pray. If you examine this prayer while you read it, you will observe an incredible relationship that has been built up between the Son and his Father. You will also see not only communication and conversation between the two, but also much honor and praise that is being given, forgiveness that is being requested, complete trust being placed in the Father's hands, the recognition of incredible power, the awareness of great glory, and the proclaiming of supreme authority.

Matthew 6:9-13
Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen

If you are going to take the time to say a prayer, then the prayer that you say better come from the deepest part of your heart. If you really think about it, anything else is completely meaningless. So talk to him in detail about your needs, hopes, dreams, joys, and everything else that is having any kind of importance or effect on your life.

Prayer is our lifeline to God.
We should tell him our thoughts, desires, hurts, and problems, as well as giving him our thanks and praises. He wants to hear them all from us. He already knows what they are but he wants us to tell them to him. Also remember that God's help may come about in steps or stages. Your request to the Father may involve and have impact on the lives of many, many others, both now and in the future. Therefore you may not receive immediately all that you request from him, but the tide has turned the very moment that you turned to him. Whenever you cast all of your care and concern upon him and rely upon him totally to supply your needs and to show you how you are to live, he is quick to respond.

Giving God our thanks is part of praying
Imagine for a moment that you do something really nice for a person you care about. However that person doesn't give you the slightest recognition or acknowledgment. That person simply accepts what ever you did for them, and without a word, simply walks away. Would you be eager to do the next nice thing for that person? And if you did another nice thing, and there was again not the vaguest hint of acknowledgment or thankfulness, would you continue to do nice things for that unthankful and rather selfish person?

God is just like us. We were made in his image and his likeness and the Bible tells us repeatedly that he is very active in our lives. We are his children, and because of his love for us, he allows many wonderful things to come into our lives each and every day. God loves to bless his children, and if you consider that God is almighty and that nothing in this world happens without his permission, then those wonderful things that happen to you in the course of a day, has to be allowed by God. How do you know that God didn't engineer a simple thing like finding a parking space that is up real close to the store you want to go in? Or on a busy day at the supermarket when you are in a real big hurry, could God have created that one and only empty line at the check out? If someone fixes you an absolutely wonderful meal, how can you tell that God wasn't behind it? Could God have been responsible for giving you that extra second that you needed which prevented a terrible car crash? Could God have planned the way for that promotion, that excellent news from the doctor, or that wonderful friend that you met?

Could God be behind that warm and loving memory that gives you such incredible peace and joy? Was God the guiding force that assembled your family? Does God make sure your health, and the health of your love ones, stays excellent? Was it God that got you through school and guided the way to your employment? Was God the one responsible for softening your harden heart so that you became aware of his glorious presence? Is God the one giving you that extra strength that enables you to endure that trial or tribulation? Is God the one behind the effort to get you to lead a Godly life which will guide you up to, and through the gates of his paradise?

Many people would simply pass all of the above off as pure luck or fate, and that God is not involved in any of it. But, if they are wrong and they refuse to thank God when good things happen to them, then I think that they may be doing themselves a great disservice, and you have to wonder if the blessings will continue. Much of the Bible talks about thanking and praising God as the following verses indicate.

Psalms 95:2 "Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with praise."

Ephesians 5:20 giving thanks always, for all things, to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ".

1 Thessalonians 5:18 "In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus".

Psalms 100:4 "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name".

Hebrews 13:15 "Therefore, let us continually offer to God the sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name."

Psalms 97:12 "Rejoice in the Lord, And give thanks".

Praying for others
When we pray for others, we become partners with God in his work of salvation, healing, comfort, and justice. God can certainly accomplish those things without us, but he gives us the privilege of being involved with him through prayer. When we intercede for a friend in trouble, a mother having surgery, a neighbor who needs Christ, a family in financial trouble, even a country lost in sin, we are asking God to please use his awesome powers to provide, to help, to fix. We are acting as a go between, asking God to direct his power in a specific direction.

The Word of God is just loaded with a great many instances where a single person, through Godly prayerful communication with God, touched the heart of God, and in turn brought about incredible changes in the lives of others. My favorite example is when God wanted to destroy every single Jew in Israel except for Moses, and then build a brand new nation of Israel. We can find this story in the Book of Exodus.

Exodus 32:1-6 "Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. And Aaron said to them, Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, This is our god, O Israel, that has brought us out of the land of Egypt! Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play."

So while Moses was up getting the 10 commandments, the people of Israel turned their backs on God and were off making and worshipping false gods. Not only that, but the Israelites were giving complete credit to a false idol for bringing them out of Egyptian slavery. What was God's response? Needless to say God was angry and he tells Moses what he is going to do in the next few verses.

Exodus 32:7-10 "And the Lord said to Moses, Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, 'This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt! And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and indeed they are a stubborn people! Now then, let me alone, that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation."

God was about to destroy the entire nation of Israel. He was going to destroy every man, woman, and child. The only one not destroyed was going to be Moses. But through Godly prayerful conversation, look what Moses tells God.

Exodus 32:11-14 "Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, and said: Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever. So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people."

As you can see, prayer is communicating with God. Prayer is a "one on one" conversation with the only person who many times is the only one who can help. Prayer is conversation from the deepest part of your heart to the Almighty Creator. Prayer is telling God what is on your mind and what is in your heart.

And because of that one single prayer that Moses said to God, look what happened. Exodus 12:37 tells us that there was well over 600,000 able bodied men so it is estimated that there were approximately one and half million people if you consider the wives and all the children. And Moses, through a single intercessory prayer, saved the lives of every single one of them. That's the power of prayer.

In fact, if you want to experience an instantaneous jolt of God's great love, then the next time that you pray for someone, or do any charitable act, thank and praise God. Tell him that you are so very grateful to him for giving YOU this oportunity to help one of his children in need. Tell him that you are so very thankful to him for allowing YOU to help another human being. Get down on your knees and thank him for this extraordinary opportunity that he has given you, to help alleviate the pain and suffering of a fellow man. Then get ready, because God in his incredible power, will fill your spirit, soul, and heart, with utter joy, love, and peace.

Proper and effective prayer is not only praying and talking to God but it is also focusing on him. If I focus solely on the problem then my prayers stand a good chance of not being answered. Calling on God in prayer tells God that I have knowledge of him, that I have faith in him, that I have desire toward him, that I am dependent on him, and that I want to be obedient to him.

Also think about teaching yourself to do certain things each and every time you pray. As an example, each time you pray ask God for forgiveness for recent sins. Each time you pray pledge a renewed effort towards repentance of those sins. Each time you pray ask him to bring new Godly knowledge into your mind so that you can grow in spiritual maturity. If you examine your heart a little, you can probably find a great many things that you need to talk to God about each and every time you pray.

Why don't we pray more?
I think that probably the four biggest reasons why we don't spend very much time in prayer are:

* We are too busy to spend time in prayer.
We have too much taking place in our hectic lives so we put prayer completely out of our minds. We tell ourselves that we will pray after doing the shopping, and after we do the shopping then we tell ourselves that the praying is going to have to wait till after we watch that important program on tv. Then we put prayer off till after dinner and then we tell ourselves that we will pray at bedtime. And of course when bedtime rolls around we are much to tired to concentrate so we better put prayer off till tomorrow.

Soon we train our minds to avoid even thinking about prayer. We can now go months without the slightest thought about prayer. And when the thought of prayer happens to slip into our consciousness, then we simply fall back on the old, "I'll pray right after I do............ That is simply ignoring and disrespecting God.

* The second reason why many of us seldom if ever pray is that we look upon prayer as inactivity.
We need to do something that we can see right now. We want immediate solutions to immediate problems, so we don't want to wait around for God to do something because we never know how long he may take. We want instant results and we think that we can usually obtain them by our own efforts. We'll try everything that we can think of and if nothing that we try works, then we will pray and ask God.

* The third reason why many of us seldom pray is that we don't feel it's effective.
We prayed many times in the past and we feel that God never answered any of our prayers. We prayed that loved ones would not die and sure enough they died. We prayed that we would get this grade on a test, or that we would accomplish that goal, or that we would get that job, or that we would meet that perfect someone, and none of them ever happened. We reason that God either doesn't like us or he is far to busy with other matters.

We fail to realize that God has very specific plans for each and every one of us, that he is attempting to mold us into something that he wants us to be. We forget that we are on his time schedule and that his goals may be completely different than our goals. We don't think about the fact that only God can see our entire future nor do we stop and think that what we see as good, may in fact be disastrous to us and to others. We may many times be just like that small infant wanting desperately to put that glittering and colorful piece of broken glass in its mouth. And the infant cannot for the world understand why the mother quickly removes the piece of glass, thus preventing the little child from enjoying it.

The real irony is that most believers trust God for their eternal salvation, but they don't trust him for their day-to-day needs. And so, unless it is a catastrophic problem, they will abandon God when it comes to most daily matters.

* And the fourth reason is that talking to God makes us uncomfortable.
We may find ourselves uncomfortable talking to or even thinking about God for a great many reasons. It may be that in the back of our minds we know that we are unrepentant sinners, and that we just don't want to give up those sins, at least not yet. And if we start to talk to God he may just change our attitude toward those sins and get us to change our ways and our life style, and if that happens then we will miss out on all the pleasures those sins bring us.

Others may feel uncomfortable because of the shame and guilt that they will feel once they open their hearts up to God. Those hurtful and embarrassing memories of all those many sins that they have spent years mentally burying, may once again rise to the surface and cause a great deal of emotional pain. What they fail to realize however is that their prayers will be directed straight to the great healer. To the healer who promises to bring us great peace.

So prayer is hard work, but our communication with God is as essential to our spiritual well being, as breathing is to our physical life.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to peer into heaven and see God listening to all the prayers coming into heaven and then watch as he assigns heavenly angels to each and every one of these prayers. Millions and millions of prayers being assigned every second to groups of angels all simultaneously. And among this tremendous work load, everything is orderly and flowing so very, very smoothly.

Think of sitting in on a meeting of a large group of angels who are assigned to only one prayer, maybe one of your prayers. Think of the joy you would have listening to the solutions that are brought up and of the repercussions and consequences being discussed for each of the possible solutions. Watch as non vocal advice is constantly flowing out from God to all the angels at that meeting. You notice how each piece of advice and every single solution is done with only Godly well being in mind. You beam with joy as you see so much heavenly effort and care going into just one of your prayers.

And then you suddenly begin to see and understand that what you were praying for was going to be completely wrong for you and your life out in the future. In fact it would have been disastrous to many others had you gotten what you wanted. You watch as the angels arrive at a completely different but a fantastic solution, a solution that won't take place right now but will in the near future, and this solution is just absolutely great.

All this has taken place in less time than it takes for an eye to blink. But you notice that as the angels arrived at their solution, God has received the solution simultaneously from the angels and has said, "What a terrific solution. That's exactly what I was thinking". And then you watch as the solution is gathered up by a group of angels and brought down from heaven and is safely held by the angels to await that moment in time when that solution can be implemented into your life.

HOW DO I PRAY

[Katecan]

Do you realize that in just about all other religions you are generally given man made creeds, beliefs, formulas, systems, routines, even dress codes, and then you are expected to adhere to and follow them your entire life. You have to grit your teeth and work as hard as you can and faithfully follow the dictates of that religion. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of karma, the Jewish covenant, and the Muslim code of law, all offer a way to earn approval of your god so that the believer may join their god after death.

In fact in all other religions except Christianity, the things that you do here on earth will determine whether you go to heaven or not. In other words, it is up to you to work yourself into heaven. So in all other religions you do all these things in the hopes that when you die you would have done enough to earn the right to meet and to be with your god.

But the big problem with all those other religions is that you never really know for sure whether you have done enough. Whether what you have done, was done right. That there wasn't some horrible miscalculation on your part. This is very important in those religions because your very entrance into heaven depends on those good works, and doing those good works right.

And the gods of those other religions do not forgive and forget sin, they weigh sin. Because in those other religions you go to heaven only if your good works are greater than you bad works. If you have done more good things than bad things. So at the end of the day the believers in those religions look back upon the day and try and figure out if they did more good works than bad.

It is completely different with Christianity. In Christianity, doing good works will not determine whether you gain entrance into heaven. Something else called Faith is going to determine that because in Christianity a Holy God is going to come down and come into your life right now, while you are still bad, still sinful, still living a decadent and ungodly life. With Christianity you don't have to wait till you die to meet your God. You meet him now, while your still alive and at a time when you usually need him the most. In fact the God of Christianity requires you to meet and know him before you die. The God of Christianity requires that you accept him and actually allow him to dwell within you while you are still alive. For the Christian, it is mandatory that a powerful bond be formed between him and his God while the person is still alive.

This leads to another very important question. If I have accepted Jesus Christ as my God and Savior, then why am I still bad and sinful so much of the time? Now that God is in my life why doesn't he give me more strength to overcome my hang ups, more power to resist all those sinful things that come into my daily life? Why doesn't God fill me with more spiritual toughness to fight off all those advances of a sinful world?

And I will answer that with a question. Why should he? Why should he give you more power and more strength? Who would it be for? For the God living within you? The God living within you doesn't need it because he is strength and power.

The only reason that you would ask God for those things is for yourself, and if you asked God for more strength and more power, then you are telling God to give you those things so you can become a strong Godly person on your own. But the problem is, if God gave you those things then you would eventually tell God that you didn't need him anymore once you were strong enough, that he could go away, that you will be able to do it all on your own. And then suddenly you can once again be independent of God, just like you were before you were saved, because now you will be able to do it all on your own!

Being able to do it on your own?
Not needing God?
Thinking that you don't need God is pride and that's exactly what God doesn't want! Pride is when you elevate your ability, and place it above God's ability. Pride is telling God that you not only don't want his help, but that you don't need it. Pride is telling God that you can get by without any of his help. That you can function independently from God.

Pride is what created the devil, and pride is what ruined the human race. The reason most of us spend so very little time in prayer is the same reason why most of us rarely ever praise or thank God. It is because of pride - we simply don't see a need for it. We are independent of God. We don't need him.

That is why God is not interested in independently empowering you and making you stronger. He doesn't want you to think that you can lead a Godly life on your own and fight sin off all by yourself. Just the opposite. He wants you humble and always looking to him for everything. He wants to dwell and live within you, wants to guide and direct every step of your life, wants you to be totally and completely dependent on him. He wants you to realize that you cannot make it without him, and that you need him much more today than you did yesterday, and that you are going to need him even more tomorrow.

In fact, if you could tell God that there is absolutely no way in the world that you can lead a Godly life, do you know what he would say?
He would say, I know. You have absolutely no chance at all of leading a life that is even the slightest bit Godly. You can't, but the one living within you can.

Unfortunately a great many ministers and churches mislead their followers, usually unintentionally. They lead their followers to believe that now that they are saved they should suddenly become pure white saints, saints that no longer sin, that no longer stumble and fall, that no longer fail. They don't talk very much about the fact that being saved is only the very first step in a life long experience of study and learning, and that much prayer and meditation is going to be required in order to keep constantly growing spiritually.

They don't talk very much about the great many pressures to sin that will constantly be pressing in on them, and that many times they will yield to those sins. They don't tell the faithful that is why they need to completely surrender to Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, and that they must do this every second of every day.

Not one of us can live a Christian life by ourselves. It is completely impossible. Not with these fleshy bodies. Not with these five senses. Not in this world that is saturated with sin. Not with all those non-stop temptations that are constantly bombarding every one of us 24 hours a day. The only way to lead a Godly Christian life is by walking hand in hand with Jesus Christ, 24 hours each and every day.

It is only by our moment-to-moment choices throughout the day, that we can choose to say "no" to our flesh, which is at war with God, and invite Christ through the Holy Spirit to be in control of our lives in all the little things as well as in the big things that happen to us in the course of a day. This is what Paul was explaining in the following verses.
Romans 8:7-8 "For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law; indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God."

Every Christian faces two very deadly enemies each and every day. The first enemy is our carnal nature and the second enemy is the devil. Every day our carnal nature is a self resurrecting monster which begs for attention. And the devil knows this. Our carnal nature demands to be first and the devil preys on this. And this happens each and every day of our lives. That is why Paul said he had to put his carnal nature to death every single day.1 Corinthians 15:31, "I die every day."

And the only way to put a carnal or fleshy nature to death is by completely surrendering to Jesus Christ on a second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour, daily basis. Surrendering to God means that you can never be too busy to pray and read the Word of God. Never to busy to talk to God. Never to busy to ask for his advice and guidance. Never to busy to ask for his help. Never too busy to live your life exactly the way Jesus said to live it.

Christianity is a relationship between you and Jesus Christ. But in this relationship it is you that surrenders completely to Jesus. Jesus doesn't want you strong and independent. He wants you always on your knees, every day of your life, constantly asking for his guidance and his direction and his help. Daily you must surrender your life, your desires, and your will to God. Our Lord tells us this even in the prayer he taught us to pray to God the Father, "Give us this day our daily bread."(Matthew 6:11)

This Christian relationship that you have with Jesus is one where you and the Lord are walking together arm in arm down the pathway of your life, but in this relationship it is Jesus Christ who is leading the way. He is the one deciding which path to take, and it is he that lights up that path that helps prevent you from stumbling and falling. This is described so clearly in the following two verses.
1 John 1:5. "God is light, and there is no darkness at all when in union with him."
Psalms 85:13 "Righteousness will go before the Lord, and he will make a path for my steps."

Jesus Christ is the only true light and only he can light up your path. And as you realize, it does not take very much light to drive away a great deal of darkness. So without Jesus Christ in your life, there is nothing but darkness. This is symbolic to what happened during the 6th and 9th hours as Jesus Christ was hanging and dying on the cross. While Jesus was dying, darkness was descending down upon the earth. It appeared that the light of the world had gone out, and three of the Gospel writers were so moved that they wrote about this darkness.
Matthew 27:45 "Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land."

So it is Jesus Christ who leads you around all those obstacles that lie in your path. In fact it is The Lord who is making all the decisions in your life. Do you remember when Paul explained in Galatians 2:20 how this relationship worked when he said, "It is no longer I that live, but it is Christ that is living in union with me". This is simply another way of saying both you and Christ are living your life together, but that he is doing the leading.

Knowing what is right and what is wrong is not good enough. A great many verses warn us of this danger.
Ezekiel 33:32 "For they hear your words, but they do not do them."
1 John 3:18-19 "My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth."

The important thing is doing what is right, and not doing what is wrong.
James 1:22-24 "Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is not a doer, he is like a man observing his face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he is."
And the only way to do what is good and not do what is wrong, is by turning your entire life over to Jesus Christ. For it is only when you fully surrender your life, that Christ can take over and lead and guide. Because then it is not the world leading you, it is now the Son of God who is leading.

A commitment to obedience is almost automatic for the one who has surrendered his life to God, for surrendering means that you will look to the Scriptures for guidance, and that you will strive to obey every command you find there. It means that you will pray because you are commanded to pray. You will respect and submit to governing authorities because you are commanded to do so. You will take seriously your responsibilities as a Christian citizen and stand up for truth and righteousness. You will submit to what the Bible says about marriage and divorce. You will respect plant and animal life, doing your best to carry out your responsibility to rule over and protect the earth as God's representatives. By surrendering, you become a willing tool, allowing God to use you for service unto himself, so that he may be glorified in your life.

People who love and obey the Lord will be led to the joyous certainty that, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."
For those that fully surrender, verses like Psalms 143:10 become very important. "Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God.

So surrendering to God means living a life that is in alignment with God's word. A life that is in complete agreement with the Word of God. We strive to walk like his word tells us to walk. We endeavor to talk like his word tells us to talk. We attempt to live like his word tells us to live. We live our life so that what God says is right, you say is right. What God says is wrong, you say is wrong. All of the above can be summed up in one short sentence. Believe the truth of the Word of God, put your faith in Jesus Christ, and live in a moment by moment dependence on him.

It is only when you enter this stage that you can begin to grow and mature spiritually. And that is because spiritual maturity occurs only when a person places more importance on Jesus Christ, and what Jesus wants, than what the individual wants or desires. In fact if you really think about it, there are only two types of life that a person can live. Either a person can live a self centered life, or he can live a Christ filled life. There are no other choices.

God knows only too well that all believers are going to sin on occasion, some many more than others. He knows that all believers will stumble from time to time. That we will make the wrong choices, take the wrong path, come to the wrong decisions. He knows that all believers are human with their five senses intact, and in a great many cases, unprepared for the onslaught that the world and satan has waiting for them. So we are all going to sin, but even though it is very possible for any believer to commit a sin, it is impossible for the genuine believer who has surrendered to Jesus, to live a life of sin.

And this is because as you begin to surrender to Jesus, you will find the world begins to lose its appeal, because it is now Jesus, and what he wants, that becomes important in your life. And the more surrendering that a believer does, the greater will be the believers ability to discern God's will in everything that he does. For it is a constant surrendering to Jesus that allows the believer to reach the ultimate goal of surrender. And that goal is having absolutely no separation between your spiritual life and your common everyday life. The two lives become one.

Unfortunately, most believers take their spiritual life and simply tack it onto their secular lives. This allows them to live two different and separate lives with the result being that many times their spiritual life has little if any impact on their secular life. They just don't realize the importance of so many verses like, Philippians 2:5 "Let the same mind be in you, that is in Christ Jesus."

Like any loving and caring father, our loving heavenly Father is very interested in every single thing that takes place each and every day of your life, even all those many insignificant things that don't seem to make a difference to anybody, including yourself. And this is because he is involved in every single decision that you make regardless of how small it may be. And that is why God wants you to completely surrender to him and allow him to have complete control over every aspect of your life, and he wants this control every second of every day. This is the only way your going to grow and mature in Christ. The more control a person allows God to have in their life, the greater that person's spiritual growth is going to be and the closer that person will be to God.

So every morning surrender your life to him. As Paul said in Romans 12:1 "So brothers and sisters, I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him." And the Word of God tells us over and over that we are to do this each and every day of our lives.
Luke 9:23 "Then He said to them all, "If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me."

In fact surrender is one of the most important words in all of Christianity. Do you want to know just how important the act of you surrendering is?
Surrendering to Jesus Christ is another name for "being born again."
Surrendering is allowing Jesus Christ to live inside you.
Surrendering means living a life (a Godly life) that is pleasing and acceptable to Jesus Christ.
Surrendering is you confessing your sins when you sin and really repenting and turning away from them.
Surrendering is the thing that allows you to accept the free gift of grace that God wants to give you.
Surrendering is the one thing that will allow you to have eternal life.

So surrendering means giving up pride, giving up control, giving up independence, giving up all those things in our life that we have deemed important and precious and have placed ahead of Jesus Christ. Surrendering to Him means allowing Him to guide your life, it means bearing our crosses for His sake, it means acknowledging Him in all things, it means realizing that everything we have in this life comes from Him. And most of all it means that we finally understand that we cannot make it without his constant guidance and protection.

Before the birth of Christ, people in the old Biblical days constantly made sacrifices to God. They would take their best animals, or the best portions of their crops, or fresh baked loaves of bread, or containers of oil, or just about anything of value, and they would surrender it totally and completely up to God. Surrendering the best they had, showed that they themselves were surrendering to God. After the Messiah Jesus Christ came into this world, we no longer had to sacrifice animals and other things up to God. Now our sacrifices to God consists of the surrendering of our minds, our bodies, and our souls up to the Son of God. After Jesus was born our sacrifices were to become faith, trust, and obedience.

We become children of God not by knowledge; not by simply understanding what God is trying to tell us. We only become children of God when we begin to surrender. It is when we surrender that we can place our complete trust and confidence in Almighty God. We are then able to allow God to see us through all our trials and tribulations. For it is when we begin to surrender that we realize the vitally important truth listed in verses like the following.

Deuteronomy 33:27 "The eternal God is your refuge, And underneath you are his everlasting arms."

Isaiah 41:10 “Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”

Joshua 1:9 "I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

Isaiah 41:13 "For I, the Lord your God, am grasping your right hand. I am the one saying to you, Do not be afraid for I myself will help you."

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation."

Isaiah 43:2-3 "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not flood over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you. For I am the LORD your God, your Savior."

These verses, along with a great many others all through the Bible, tells each of us that God is willingly responsible for the life that is totally surrendered over to him.

Without total surrender we attempt to work for God instead of letting God work through us. We must put aside our self-interest and simply let God's will unfold around us. Everything he does for us is for our own good. Worship him without having to know and see everything. Live your entire daily life in his presence. Allow him to guide and direct your daily walk through this life. He will give you all that you need. In his own incredible way he will cause your path to cross the paths of others. Remember to that God's glory and God's purpose are the end of all things, and you will certainly find happiness and salvation there.

Without total surrender, you will find that your own self-interest and your own pride will cause you to reject the gifts of God because they do not come in a way that suits you. Without total surrender to Jesus your fleshy body will always demand more, demand different, demand greater. This is why God asks for nothing but death to your old self. Selfishly loving yourself and putting yourself first, smothers your spirit and shuts down your chance for spiritual growth. In fact if you really think about it, any form or degree of rebellion against God will begin to short circuit your faith, and begin to have damaging affects on your relationship with God. When this happens, sin is not very far away. And this is because the very core of any sin is when we make ourselves the center of life, rather than making Jesus Christ the center. Lack of trust in Jesus Christ, our own self-love, and pride are the main ways in which Christians express the real meaning of sin.

If you don't completely surrender to God then how else are you going to be able to put complete faith and trust in him? How else are you going to learn to love him and obey him? How else are you going to be able to turn to God rather than the world in order to weather the storms and the trials that seep into your life. Without being able to turn to Jesus how else are you going to be able to put up with the disappointments, the discouragements, and the disillusionments that seem to constantly enter into one's life. When difficult times arise in our lives, running to God - not from him - results in victory.

And after surrendering, and after walking arm in arm with Jesus Christ on a daily basis, you will soon find that it is he that is providing you with all the strength and power and toughness that you will ever need.

The believer doesn't have to cry out to God for more strength. He doesn't have to beg and plead with the Holy Spirit to fill him up even more, so he can overcome the many sins that enter into one's daily life. Neither does the believer have to keep asking Jesus to please make him into a better and stronger Christian. The believer doesn't even have to spend time in prayer asking God for more help in leading a Godly life. None of that has to be done. The only thing the believer needs to do is surrender. That's all. Simply surrender. You are not waiting on God, God is waiting on you.

It's sad but most Christians seem very willing to surrender their sins and their problems to God. However they generally rebel when it comes to surrendering their whole life to Him. But surrendering completely to Jesus Christ is what it takes if you want to grow spiritually, walk in God given strength, and have a Godly relationship with him.

The believer who doesn't surrender to God is the one who wants to change and tries like crazy to change but is unable to. Wants desperately to lead a Godly life but unfortunately fails over and over. It is the Christian who refuses to surrender completely that finds the obstacles coming into his life much to difficult to overcome, the mountains much to tall to climb, the pitfalls far too deep to cross, the storms much too severe, and the pressures and temptations of this world far too strong.

Ask yourself this question. If you get angry a lot and you find yourself frequently on your knees begging God to make you stronger, then why doesn't God help you? Or if you are short on patience and you find that you seem to be asking God all too often to please give you more patience, then why doesn't he? Or if the lure of that alcohol is so very strong, and even though you have prayed over and over to God to make you stronger, then why doesn't he?

And the answer is a simple, because you have not surrendered or you have not stayed surrendered to Jesus Christ. There are a great many extremely interesting verses all through the Bible that talk about this, and a very good one is John 5:30, where it says, "I can do nothing on my own".

What John is saying in this verse is that without continuous and total surrender, you will never be truly successful. In fact you can pray on your knees until the cows come home, but until you surrender, you will never ever be victorious in your effort to lead a Godly life. Many believers surrender at various times of their life, usually due to traumatic experiences. But the very instant; that exact moment when a believer decides to take back from God just a little bit of that surrender, then satan and the world will be waiting, and they are going to pounce on that believer.

But then we come to a very interesting verse where Paul says in Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." And he says this while chained and in prison. So this verse certainly sounds contradictory when compared to John 5:30 above which says, "I can do nothing on my own." But look at what Paul is not saying. He does not say that he has the ability to do absolutely anything he wants to do. Nor is he saying that God has given him full authority to decide what should and should not be done. And he is not saying that he can do all things when the circumstances are right. What Paul is telling us is that, I can do, and God will enable me to do. I can work and God will enable me to work. I can speak and God will enable me to speak. Whatever God led him to do, Paul knew that God would also empower him to do it. I can do every single thing I need to do today, as long as it's in the will of God, and I can do it through the strength of Jesus Christ who is the one residing within me.

So Paul does not say that he can handle whatever comes up. Instead, he says, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." And God intends for every one of his children to approach life with this same confidence.

God wants you out of options. He wants you to finally realize that your efforts are hopeless, that your skills and status are immaterial. That all your money is useless, and that your many friends are of absolutely no help. For when you do, then this will be the point in time when the last of your pride fades away and this will be the moment when you begin to realize that God just may be the only answer. This will also be the time when you begin to realize that there is hope and peace and a great deal of tranquility in those outstretched arms of Jesus Christ. For it is now that you begin to surrender, and when you surrender you allow the Son of God into your life.

You just cannot live a Godly life on your own. Only when a believer surrenders their life to Jesus Christ and has him living and reigning within them, can they be successful in accomplishing the hopes of God that are expressed in 2 Corinthians 7:1, where it tells us, "Beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit."

So for the person surrendering, a commitment to obedience is almost automatic. Because surrendering means that you will look to the Scriptures for guidance, and that you will strive to obey every command you find there. It means that you will pray because the very Word of God tells you to pray. You will respect and submit to governing authorities because God tells you to. You will take seriously your responsibilities as a Christian citizen and stand up for truth and righteousness. You will submit to what the Bible says about marriage and divorce. You will respect plant and animal life, doing your best to carry out your responsibility to rule over and protect the earth as God's representatives. And thus, upon surrendering, you become a willing tool, allowing God to use you for service unto himself, so that he may be glorified in your life. And it is at this point where the lifestyle of Jesus Christ becomes your lifestyle.

That is why the believer who has not surrendered to Jesus Christ and who is not constantly walking hand in hand with him, will not be able to see the curves, the potholes, and the ditches that line this walk of ours through this life. The one who hasn't surrendered will inevitably stumble and fall because much of his life is still in darkness. Without surrendering your life to Jesus then you are keeping his light from fully lighting up the path you are walking on.

And all this happens because until you surrender completely to God you will walk independently of God, and the world and satan will be waiting for you on that independent walk of yours. For without God the world will take over, and the world will shape and mold you, and it will be a very sinful world that leads and guides you. And with the sinful world leading you through life you will soon find that you begin to rationalize sin, then you defend sin, and then as your heart becomes harder, you actually begin to seek sin out. For a Christian to walk through this life without Jesus Christ and who expects to remain Godly, would be equivalent to a bride in a white wedding gown who goes down into a coal mine and who expects to come back up wearing a clean white dress. It just cannot be done. It is impossible.

It is not until you surrender your life fully and completely to Christ that God can bless you as much as he really wants to. It is not until you allow yourself to become completely dependent upon Jesus that you can recognize and appreciate the blessings that God The Father sends into your life. Only then will you truly become a child of God's, one of the King's kids. Only when you give yourself fully to Christ, only when Our Lord is allowed into every area of your life, will you be able to accomplish the amazing things that God The Father has planned for you. The gifts of God all pass through Jesus before they get to us; and all our prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings all pass through Jesus Christ before they get to the Heavenly Father.

It is not until your completely surrender to Jesus Christ that you can speak with truth, verses like Psalms 73:23-24. "You have taken hold of my right hand and you guide me with your counsel, and afterwards you will receive me to glory". For it is only when you fully surrender to Jesus Christ that a believer can truly say that they know the Lord, love the Lord, and are closer to the Lord today, than they were yesterday.

Spiritual growth stops when a person begins to prevent God from exercising control in their lives, when a person takes his eyes off of God, when a person moves ahead of God and decides to do the leading. That's when the barriers against sin begin to break down and man's worldly flesh begins to take over and allows sin to enter. You just cannot lead a Godly life without God, and being independent of God is a spiritual death sentence.

In his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul wrote, "I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong". (2 Corinthians 12:10)
Paul had discovered that strength was found in weaknesses. Instead of trying to lug his cross up a hill, Paul decided it was best to turn it over to the Lord. So when Paul's strength was insufficient, he turned to God. As a result, Paul humbly walked through life's ups and downs with a perspective that kept his eyes always focused on Jesus. He had surrendered to The Lord.

Power and strength, truth and wisdom, the ability to do what is right and what is wrong, not only originate with Jesus Christ, but these abilities and many more reside within the very presence of Jesus Christ. So once we bring Jesus into our lives, once Jesus becomes the center of our lives, once our lives revolve around him, then all those things that are residing within him, will reside within us. It is only when you reach this point that you give God the authority to do incredible things in your life, and in the lives of others. What God was able to do through Paul is one very good example.
Acts 19:11 "Now God worked unusual miracles through the hands of Paul".

Let me ask you this question. What is the very first thing that most people say when faced with a difficult trial or tribulation? They will usually say, "My Lord, what am I going to do now?" But that is the wrong question to ask. What surrendering to Jesus Christ teaches a believer to do is to ask, "Lord, what are you going to do? One who has surrendered to Jesus doesn't have to begin calculating what they are going to have to do. They don't have to rely on their own abilities and their own resources. The ones who have surrendered have placed complete faith and trust in Christ and know that somehow, somewhere, sometime, he is going to show them the solution to that difficult time. And why not? With Christ dwelling within you, you not only have his presence, but you have his power and his provision as well.

Keep in mind that surrendering is a life long process, but by surrendering we slowly but surely learn to overcome all the many sinful pulls of the flesh, the world, and satan himself. Through surrendering, we soon learn that we are submitting to God and his ways, and we begin to discover that we are building the very character of God within us. It is when we surrender that we are finally able to realize that we are doing things the way Jesus would do them, that we are saying things the way he would say them, that we are looking upon things the exact same way that the Son of God would look at them, and that we are dealing with people in the exact same way that Jesus would deal with them. That will be the time that verses like the following will become very, very important in our lives.
Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

So, when all of the above is taking place; when you have surrendered to Jesus Christ, when the Son of God is living within you, when all your actions are his actions, then don't you think that satan and his evil human followers will be unable to sway you away from your Godly walk through this life, that the world will be unable to make any inroads into your life, that you will be able to have incredible God given power over your own fleshy desires? Paul gave us all wonderful advice and said it so perfectly in the following verse.
1 Corinthians 11:1 "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ."

Without daily surrender to God, we tend to drift away from him. Slowly, gradually, and unconsciously. The tide of our culture carries us away from Godly influences. We lose our desire to sit at Jesus' feet. Our delight in him fades. We find ourselves lapsing into old idolatries.

With daily surrender to God, we have God dwelling within us and we are given the strength to survive. We are given the power to endure. We are given the ability to overcome anything that comes our way. God doesn't have to send something special down from heaven to enable you to face your trials. His greatest gift, his Son, is already in your possession.

Jesus tells us over and over that, "I AM THE WAY" So his ways must be our ways, his words must be our words, his thoughts are our thoughts, his beliefs are our beliefs. He lives his life in and through us, so our hands are his hands. Our eyes and ears are his eyes and ears. Our thoughts and actions are his thoughts and actions. And it will be an absolutely incredible day when you can finally say that your character is his character. That your goals and accomplishments are his goals and accomplishments. That your works are his works.

Then the question comes up, how do I learn about "HIS WAY"? And "HIS WAY" can only be discovered from the pages of the Holy Bible. That is the one and only place where you can find out what God expects from you, and what you can expect from God. And each and every verse was put there to guide and direct you, and to help you obtain eternal life.

Many people also think that when they come to Jesus and become born again Christians and pledge their lives to the Lord, that Jesus will begin a process of healing what is damaged in them. That he will fix what is broken. That he will put the pieces back together. That he will put some Godly patches on them. That isn't true at all. Jesus isn't interested in fixing you or healing you. He doesn't want to mend you or patch you up. He doesn't want to glue all your broken pieces back together. He doesn't want to repair you. He wants to replace you! He wants to make you a brand new creation. He wants to dispose of the old you and make you a brand new you.

That is why when you come to Christ and accept him fully and completely as your Lord and Savior he doesn't just put a new look on your old person. He doesn't just preform a spiritual make over on you. He's not interested in giving you a quick spiritual massage and then send you on your way. What he wants is to make you into a brand new person. When you accept Jesus he creates someone who has never existed before. A brand new person who is now capable of communion with God. You begin a fresh, new life, completely forgiven of your sins and guided by the Holy Spirit. The Bible is full of verses like the following.
2 Corinthians 5:17. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new".
Ephesians 2:10 "For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."
Ephesians 4:23-24 "Put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness."

When you were saved and were born again you became a brand new person. And this brand new person began acting on new principles, living by new rules, with new ends and new goals, and in new company. You the believer were created anew. Your heart was not merely set right, but instead a new heart was given to you, and where the heart is changed, the life and the actions will be changed. When you became saved your thought patterns were different, the focus of your attention was different, your conversation was different, your attitude and your outlook were different, where you went and what you looked at became different, even your friends became different. You began to acquire new hopes and new dreams. The center of your life was no longer what pleases you, it is now what pleases him.

You were changed. The greatest desire of your life was now to do his will. When you were saved you became the workmanship of God, created in and through Christ Jesus. It was at this moment when you, as a saved believer in Jesus Christ, began the journey on your life long path to feed your soul with "spiritual nourishment" so that you could grow in spiritual maturity and in the correct knowledge of God. Then, as you grew, you reflected his very nature in everything that you thought, said, and did. It was at this point when the following verse became a crystal clear, rock solid reality.
Philippians 3:21 "Our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, will transform our lowly body so that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself."

And unlike the hardened sinner who continues to stand by and justify his sinful actions, when you were saved your soul was greatly affected by sin and indeed now hates sin. You now reject the things that are bad, wrong, and sinful. You, who once looked upon certain sins with amusement, now look upon those same sins with dread; with a sickening feeling. Suddenly you found yourself not wanting to be around all those Christ haters and Christ rejecters. The things you use to laugh at now causes your heart great despair. No longer are you able to detach yourself and look the other way because now those sins, and those injustices, literally scream out at you. And you, who formerly saw no beauty in God, had no respect or love for him, and who rarely even thought of him, now love him above all things.

And do you want to know exactly what God himself said would happen to you the very second that you surrendered and accepted Jesus Christ and were born again. He told you something very interesting at Ezekiel 36:26-27.
"Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new Spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you".

That is why within the hearts of those who are fully surrendered to him, there is no desire for darkness. There is only a glorious yearning for the light of his pure love.

http://members.tripod.com/~robertwells/surrender.html

[BUTTERFLY-7]

that was so long God Bless you Girl