I pray that you enjoyed a safe and relaxing weekend, as we look forward to this week on our shared path, it is another one based upon taking action and keeping our eyes focused upward.
Opening yourself to receiving love, blessings and abundance may not come naturally to you. It did not for me. I had to unlearn all I was wrongly taught about building walls and trusting no one.
However as you begin to let those walls come crumbling, tumbling down, you will develop confidence and foster self esteem. Those in turn will strike a responsive chord in others allowing for trust and openness; both seeds of love.
It might take you a while. Be patient with yourself, and the easier the process of your “Becoming” will become.
This week we will meditate on the concept of prayer. What is it? How to correctly use it and what to expect from it. We’ll begin with a definition.
Prayer in the Bible is an evolving means of interacting with God, most frequently through a spontaneous, individual, unorganized form of petitioning and/or giving thanks. It is also at times glorifying God through praise.
I’ll also share a question I was asked by a member of my Bible Study pod. Eloise enquired as to whether or not it is okay to pray and ask for blessing?
The answer is absolutely, yes. We can simply turn to the legendary Psalmist, King David for proof positive of this fact:
David ran to God with all his needs. He was never ashamed to seek the Lord. Psalm 25 gives us some great examples of the kinds of blessings David sought.:
“…do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.”
“Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths.”
“Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love…”
“Guard my life and rescue me…”
Seeking blessings from God, is in fact something we should all be doing.
Scriptures clearly point to the fact that God is ready to freely give us His blessing, however only when we live our lives obediently to and seek Him.
God’s blessings in our life are strongly rooted in accepting His gift of Grace.His grace causes us to humble our pride, as He says to us while you may actually deserve My judgment, instead I am giving you My favor.
The Psalms give us a wealth of information and examples of prayer. Another one that I’ll reference is Psalm 86.
In this heartfelt lament David makes 15 urgent requests of God. It instructs that our needs should lead us to pray to God, who alone can deliver us.
So what have we learned from the Psalms so far today? Let’s answer that question with a few more questions…
1. Why should we pray? We should pray because we have needs. Great and small. Prayer should be our first strategy when seeking results.
2. To whom should we pray? God. Simple one word answer for the one undoubtable Source of all goodness, Grace and Mercy.
3. How should we pray? We should pray sincerely, regularly, continually, in humidity, faith, trust, obedience and with gratitude, thanks and praise.
Like our lives, what we pray for and/or should pray for changes continually.
Tomorrow, our focus will be a plan for you,as we discuss How to Develop Your Prayer Life, here on “Becoming Today”.
Becoming Today with Rochelle Jeanette 