Big question is always - Is there a right way to do it?
Good motives - to connect with God and align with His will and in obedience to Him. Poor motives - to look spiritual or selfish/mean intent.
At the core of it - prayer (communicating with God) is part of our relationship with Him and develops more powerfully, deeply and intimately with our frequent engagement. Good relationships don't just happen - they are developed through spending lots of time together, open, wholehearted, talking from the heart and attentive listening and doing things together and for one another, in all sorts of seasons, circumstances and moods (through thick and thin). God told us to pray without ceasing - how astounding that the almighty creator of all things wants to engage personally with us all the time (sometimes we forget the immensity of that).
We are growing up into all things in Christ and the Holy Spirit is helping us to know God better in that process. Knowing God's will and praying in line with it is how we pray effectively in power fulfilling Kingdom
purposes. We don't know God's will perfectly yet, but God tells us how we can be able to in Romans 12:2 - "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will."
Did you know we can bless God's heart? We can! The bible says, "Without faith it is impossible to please God". So, that means, the only thing that pleases Him is trusting Him and coming to Him. It's interesting, when you study the word of God and then walk out the truth of it's promises in your every day circumstances (in faith) - you get to know the truth experientially and it blesses God's heart. Last year, we treated my daughter-in-law (Ayako) to a Kayak tour of La Jolla Cove (just the girls) for her birthday. I and my two daughters (Crystal and Taylor) met her at the cove and we set off to enjoy the tour. The day was a bit windy and the cove was very choppy. I took my car keys with me in a zip baggie, stuffed inside a deep jacket pocket. Crystal and Ayako made it out past the breakers. Taylor and I had more of a struggle. Taylor went over once. I went over twice and on the second time I noticed - KEYS GONE! (My oldest daughter Crystal loves to remind me that she told me to put them in a locker). So, I'm an hour plus from my house where another set sits. My hubby is working far away (oh and we don't do cell phones). Crystal and Ayako are in the cove in kayaks - no way to get their cars on the road to get the keys at home. Hmmm...doesn't look good. So, what do I do? Ok, nice guy from our kayak rental offers to swim out and try to find em. Very kind. Thankful for him. At that point I take one look at that huge cove and the one guy swimming and say, "Ok God - I'm your child - you know where my keys are and you can get them back to me" "You God have every means at your disposal" "Lord, when you told Peter to go catch a fish and the first one he would catch would have a coin in it's mouth to pay the taxes - Jesus, I know you can do that or something like it to get my keys to me". "I'm trusting you that you will bring them to me before it is time to leave for home today because you love me and you told me to trust you and ask you when I need help - so I'm trusting you now". Now, at that point, I did not stop looking for my keys. And, I repeated the same words over and over. I thought perhaps God would wash my keys back into shore - so I strolled along the beach in the waves back and forth for about 10 minutes. I felt very sorry for the guy who offered to help search as there was no where to even start looking, so, I thanked him and asked him to stop and not worry about it anymore. Meanwhile, my youngest daughter, Taylor, comes back in. She'd gotten out with Ayako and Crystal, but had a terrible splitting headache come over her (she gets motion sickness fairly easily) so came back to shore. As she came in, she said to me, "Hey, mom, Ayako's got your keys". I said, "WHAT?!" She said, "Yeah, Ayako wanted me to let you know that she's got your keys and not to worry about them". I asked her how. She didn't know. I was praising God as Taylor and I walk back to the rental store and wait for Crystal and Ayako to finish their tour of the cove. When they came in, my daughter-in-law unzipped her pant leg pocket and handed me my keys, still in their flattened plastic bag. I asked her how she got them. She told me that once they had gotten way out there, the guide had them stop and was showing them some of the fish and various things under the water. Someone out there swimming came up to them and held up my keys and asked if they belonged to any of them. My daughter in law recognized my company key chain and said, "Hey those belong to my mom". Talking to God - believing Him and His promises - blessed Him and blessed me! Love to experience the power of God in circumstances.
Aslan is on the move - see Him everywhere!
.jpg)