Hooking up to God (Part 1 of 8)

HOOKING UP TO GOD

Forming a Relationship with GOD Part 1 of 8
Luke 11:2

"And He said to them, 'When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be Your name...'"

Benjy was angry. "I prayed and prayed for a new bike, and my Birthday has passed!" He stomped his feet and slammed the door. His big brother overheard Benjy's complaint, and went outside to calm down his little brother.

"Benjy, let's talk about how you pray. Maybe you're doing something wrong."

"How can you pray the wrong way?" Benjy asked his big brother.

"It's easy when you don't follow the prayer plan." Was the answer.

Benjy shook his head, he'd never heard about a plan to pray. Have you?

Our biggest mistake is to think we can take God on our terms. This shows up in our prayer life.

Relatively few people pray to God on His terms. God wants a relationship with His children, and prayer is how we achieve that relationship.

In Jesus’ life, prayer was His motivation, and His ministry was the prize. Being separated from the Father was only tolerable because Father and Son reconnected through prayer. God the Father wants that same relationship with us—that same kind of connectedness. Jesus’ ministry was a marathon, and He showed us how to complete the race and attain our own gold medal.

The disciples came to understand how important prayer was to Jesus, and said, ”Lord, teach us to pray--as John also taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1). John the Baptist had a whole curriculum for teaching his disciples, and he focused on teaching them how to pray.

After more than two years of following Jesus, His disciples wanted that same lesson. They had front row seats to hear Him preach. They were right beside Him when He performed miracles. Now they wanted to learn the nuts and bolts of His ministry: prayer.

Don’t we usually ask an expert to teach us something? Because prayer was the core of Jesus’ ministry, they asked Him to teach them. Jesus wanted prayer to be vital in their ministries, too.

Can you see His warm smile when they approached Him with this request? Immediately He taught them what we call “The Lord’s Prayer.”

This is a misnomer—something called a wrong name. Jesus couldn’t say this prayer Himself because He was without sin. He could not say, “Forgive us our sins” for example. But, he taught it to them. Now it is called “The Lord’s Prayer” because He was the author. It is really an outline, or blueprint for us to follow in building our own prayers.

Take Home Nugget
Learning how to pray will carry a child into old age and usher that person into heaven. The following devotions will address the individual phrases of a well-known prayer that can be an outline for every prayer. Could there be anything more valuable in your life than learning to develop a relationship with the Father like Jesus had?

It would be great to learn how to pray,
But words don’t come easily.
Teach me, Lord, my heart to stay
In a place where we can grow intimately.

J.D. Griffith

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Independence

INDEPENDENCE
Matthew 6:9-11

Stacey was happy she had fooled her sister, Devin. Sneaking the last brownie, she swallowed fast. When Devin wanted some, Stacey shrugged her shoulders. “All gone!” she proclaimed, licking her lips.

Stacey’s delight was short lived. Her conscience screamed of her trickery. Tormented from within, Stacey thought, I could have shared that last brownie with her. Her calm left her, and she couldn’t forget her deception.

“I am sorry Devin. I ate the brownie just before you saw me. I should have split it in two. I won’t do that again, I promise.”

Immediately, Stacey felt better—especially after Devin hugged her and said, “That’s OK, I ate the last cookie.” They shared a giggle. That’s transparency and intimacy.

This is the relationship God wants to have with each of His children.

When those pangs of conscience strike, it’s a sign that we’re to admit guilt. We are not calm until we admit our wrong. Admitting our offense will restore peace, and that brings freedom.

Conscience attacks rob us of freedom. When we’re not free, we’re in bondage. Repenting and admitting our wrong releases those knots of bondage from our seared conscience.

This is how prayer works, too.

Consider Jesus’ example of how we are to pray. Matthew 6:9-14 in the Bible outlines the blueprint of how we’re to pray. This is commonly called “The Lord’s Prayer”. By following this example of prayer, we find a personal relationship with our Creator—God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. By meaning the words we say, we’re cementing a family bond with our Creator. This creates an intimate and transparent relationship between God and His child.

This is freedom, independence from bondage. Just as young America

broke free from the bondage with Great Britain, we can be free and

independent, too. Through prayer and repentance, we are independent

from the sin that held us captive.

Take Home Nugget
Jesus’ model prayer recognizes the Father’s holiness and acknowledges His omnipotence (all power). With those words we reach out to Him in worship and reverence. We also admit our guilt and thank Him for forgiving us when we forgive others. We recognize Him as sovereign over all. Do you mean those words as you say them?

Jesus taught His children how to pray
So in our hearts peace would stay.

J.D. Griffith

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Sustaining Grace Part 4 of 4

Greetings faithful reader,

These past few weeks overwhelmed, tried, and delighted me. I am pleased to be back into your realm posting weekly devotions. I’ve missed you! Moving from Charleston, West Virginia to Walnut Creek, California was an adventure, to be sure! I am reunited with my husband now, after he “tested the waters” before moving us cross country. This new beginnings for us was not free from trials, however. Alone, I packed and packed and packed. My husband arrived and hauled our belongings to storage, then loaded up our Impala. Shocks smashed flat, she groaned with the weight insulting her free spirit. (Who doesn’t name their cars? Ours is a female named Rosita). She courageously climbed the Rockies and delivered us safely to Walnut Creek, CA. We marveled at the richness and diversity of our country. Finally on the fourth day, we stopped driving West. We settled in and slept soundly.

Praise God for delivering us safely into our new beginnings! Now, we are challenged to find a “new normal”, three hours earlier from our original time zone. Yes, the trials continue, but as I praise God for His provisions, James 1:2-3 reminds me. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” I thank God for my trials, and for you, dear reader. You are so worthwhile persevering through trials for, as God’s child—and my sibling.

Our trials are not done, however. Sometime in the near future, God may change my circumstance where I may be absent from you again for a short while. But in the meantime, let’s move forward in Him whose grace sustains.
Let’s finish God’s grace devotion series today; it is good to be back with you!

SUSTAINING GRACE (Part 4 of 4)
2 Corinthians 11: 23-28, 12:6-11, Philippians 4:11

2Corinthians 12:8-9: "Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.'"

Four answers God gives to prayer requests: “Yes”, “No”, “Wait”, and “My grace is sufficient”.

How do Christians respond to life’s circumstances? Confidently--regardless of how our Father answers our prayers.

St. Paul talks about his attitude about life. After his transformation from a persecutor of Christians to a Saint, he learned contentment. (Philippians 4:11). He was whipped, put in prison, stoned, shipwrecked, robbed, weary, hungry, thirsty, and often naked. (2 Corinthians 11:23-28).
Through it all, he didn’t complain. He felt privileged to have been called to suffer for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But he had one thing that irked him.

He had a thorn in the flesh. No one knows exactly what it was, but we know

it bothered him. Three times he asked Jesus to remove it. Jesus answer to

him was, “My grace is sufficient for you; My strength is made perfect in

weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).

What kind of an answer is that? If you were to study the passage in the Bible, the answer is there. Jesus hates boasting. The thorn in Paul’s flesh made Paul humble. When he was in this state, Jesus could use him to the Father’s glory. Indeed, Paul’s weakness was glorified before the Father through Christ’s strength.

Two thousand years later we’re still reading Paul’s letters. These are called Epistles. Corinth, Ephesus, Thessalonica were cities where he founded churches. His friends, Timothy and Philemon received his letters, as did the Romans and the Hebrews.

Paul found contentment in God’s sustaining grace. Always sufficient, always present, grace expresses kindness and sustaining power. This sustaining power changed Paul’s life from defeat to victory. This same grace enabled him to persevere through trials when tempted to give up.
God wants us to learn to live by His grace. We’re to be salt and light to the world. His grace covers all situations. We’re covered with a canopy of grace that works everything out for our good.

Take Home Nugget
With this canopy of grace covering every circumstance in our lives, we have no excuse to give up when we feel something is too hard. Our life is in the hand of the Sovereign God of the universe. How can we give up when He is on our side?

The things that come before me
Are too many to list.
But when grace covers everything I see,
Serving God is hard to resist.

J.D. Griffith

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MOVING ... and trips

Hello, friends.

I just wanted to let you know that Jolene is fine, but making a change. She and her husband are moving from West Virginia to California. That's quite a change and does take some time, so she is technically off line for the month of July and she will be missed.

She faithfully had written some devotions that I could post, but I also have been off line due to family issues have not been able to post them, either.

The last part of July will find me in Colorado (traveling from Iowa) with the church high school youth group at Nation Wide Youth Roundup (NYR) for 10 days. That trip also requires lots of attention and packing. July has and continues to be filled to capacity. So we are taking a bit of a "leave" and Jolene will be back in August with plenty of items to post.

Prayers for safety and God's good will in all these efforts, plans and travel.

As we continue is His service,
Linda Shanks
Bible Study for Kids