A God Centered Prayer

And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: "O Lord, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made Heaven and earth. Give ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God. It is true, O Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by mens hands. Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God."

2 Kings 19:15-19

This prayer that Hezekiah prayed didn't start out by telling God his needs, but started by lifting God up, worshiping Him and just giving Him all the glory. Yes, he ask God for a favor, but the focal point of the pray was on God. This my friends is a God centered prayer. Think about how we start our prayers today, most of the time it starts out like this "Lord I need this, this, and this and I pray for this person and if you can answer these prayers, then I promise I'll read my Bible tonight" This is not a God centered prayer, we have got to start our prayers by lifting up and praising God Almighty who is such a Holy God. I mean think about it, He is The Alpha and Omega, The Beginning and the End, The Creator of all things. I believe He deserves to be #1 in our prayers and not our needs. Now I have had trouble with this for a long time now and God just opened my eyes about a month ago that I was praying just for my needs and for my own life, as well as others lives. It is good to pray for others and ask for good things such as wisdom and knowledge, but when it gets in the way of giving God His praise and His glory then it becomes, in a way, wrong. God should be our focal point in our prayers, Bible reading, and life. A wise man once said that "we are most satisfied in Christ when Christ is most glorified in us." which means the higher God is lifted up and the more He's glorified the more we gain from Him. It's hard to understand, but it's the truth. We have got to put God first in not just our prayers, but in everything we do. He has to be the center of our lives and if we put Him first in everything then we gain everything there is worth to be gained and that is Christ Himself.

To God be the Glory!

Philippians 2:3-5

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interest, but also to the interest of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:"

This is a great verse to remember when you start thinking way to much about yourselves. We get so caught up in our own little world that we just don't care about others around us. We need to start looking at others interest and start helping and not asking for help. One major thing is, we have got to start caring and helping others without expecting a reward, just help people because it's what Jesus did and we are called to do as He did. Christ calls us to be humble and He said the humble will receive lots of blessings, but we should not be humble and kind because we want the blessing, but because we want to please our Heavenly Father. If we will humble ourselves and put others first, they will see that humility and Christ can use that to change their lives. I try very hard to worry about others interest and not my own and I do struggle a lot with pride, but Christ helps me and when I pull through the feeling is amazing. So I challenge you to worry less about yourself and start caring more about others, because in the end, it's worth it.

To God be the Glory!

Psalm 18:1-3

"I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies." Psalm 18:1-3

This is a great verse that encourages me in troubled times and just lets me know that God is always there. It's good to know that no matter what, God is there and He will take care of things. Jesus Christ will be our deliverer and save us from our enemies, but only if we let Him. We have to surrender everything we own physical and spiritually, for Him to be able to be our savior. God will not let us down as others do around us, that is why we must put our trust in Christ and not people. He will be our friend when we are at war against the world and He will be our fortress and shelter when trouble comes our way. It is He and He alone I trust my life with and you should too.

To God be the Glory!

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

This is one of my favorite verses along with so many others in the Word of God. We should practice this kind of love in our daily life. This is a great example of what Christ acted like here on earth and the way He always acts, He does not envy, as we do, He does not boast, as we do, He is not proud, as we are, He is not rude, like us, He is not self-seeking, as we are, He is not easily angered, like we are, He keeps no record of wrong when we ask for forgiveness, as we do. Christ is love; the reason He came down from Heaven and died a horrible death to save us worthless sinners, is because He is love. We need to show people the same love that Christ showed all people. Is it hard? of course it's hard, but we must persevere through the tough times and turn to God for help. This is what I try to practice daily, I want to be the man that, is trustworthy, that can protect the ones he loves, that can persevere under trials that come his way and that doesn't seek things for himself. Will it be hard? sure, but I'll put my trust in Christ and he will guide me. Like Proverbs 3:5-6 says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." That's why I have nothing to fear and neither should you, this is not something Christ is asking, but is commanding us to do. In Matthew 22:36-39 Jesus says that loving others is the second greatest COMMANDMENT, with Loving God being the first. Which means that it is law and we shouldn't take it lightly. The real problem is that, the real meaning of love has been done away with in this world, we tell our girlfriends, boyfriends and other people that's in our lives that we love them and yet it's not the same love that Christ talks about. Romans 12:9-10 says "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves." Lots of people these days aren't sincere when they say "I love you." They just want the other person to think they're nice. Now are all people like that? no, they're lots of Christians out there that understand the love of Christ and practice it daily, but the word love in this world has really lost its value. I would like to close with this, if you don't love then you can't know God and I can say this because in 1 John 4:8 it says "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."

To God be the Glory

1 John 2:15-17

"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world-the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."

How many times do we catch ourselves loving the world and believe we still love God? Well it just said that if we love the world then we can't love God. In other words, you either hate the world and love God or love the world and hate God. The choice is yours, but make sure you choose wisely because it's your soul your dealing with and if you wrongly choose, then it'll cost you everything. Are Christians going to struggle with loving the world? Absolutely, I know I find myself loving the things of this world and turn them into idols, but then the Holy Spirit calls me out and I repent and turn from my evil. The major issue these days is that people call themselves Christians and yet are in love with the very thing God hates. They crave sinful things, they lust with their eyes, and boast about themselves, and yet they will suffer an eternal death because they loved the creation more than the creator. See it doesn't matter if you know God, what matters is that God knows you. Heres an example, if you walk up to the front gate of the White House and say to the security guard "I know the President, please let me in." You know what he's going to say? He's going to look at you and say "yeah right," but now if you walk up to the gate and the President says he knows you and is expecting you, then you will be able to enter. The Same thing with God, if you say you know God, but God doesn't know you. Then you loved the world and disowned God so then God will have to disown you because God can not be with sin. It says in 2 Timothy 2:12b that "if we disown Him, He will also disown us;" So stand firm in the faith because this world and everything in it will pass away, but if we surrender ourselves to Christ and do His will. Then we will spend our eternity in Heaven with Him.

To God be the Glory!

1 Peter 5:10

"And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast." 1 Peter 5:10

I have noticed, that when we as Christians have been mocked or persecuted, it makes us feel like nobody cares about us and makes you feel left out, but really we're not left out at all. We need to understand that there is absolutely no reason for us to fear people or worry about what they think. The worst thing they can do is kill us, but God Almighty can send our soul to hell for eternity. I don't know about you, but we need to fear God more than man, but not a fear of being afraid, but a fear of respect and honor. Because God loves and cares about us, why do you think He sent his Son Christ for us because it's the sin He hates, not us. Christ wants us to turn to Him and take shelter when we are persecuted, because this world is a war zone and we will be persecuted and it will make us feel alone. That's why it says in 1 Peter 5 that He will restore us and make us stronger, He will be our shelter and our comfort. He is where we should get our strength, joy, and peace, they are from Him and only Him. We are going to be persecuted like it says in 2 Timothy and the world will think of us as fools, but does it matter? Who gave you life? Who is in control of everything? Who is going to come back again and destroy this earth that everyone is so in love with? The answer is God. So we should not be afraid of what man can do, but we should lift up the name of Christ and give Him all the Glory. Because we have done nothing to deserve any kind of glory. All we do is sin, and then pray to God for forgiveness and then go right on back sinning. The amazing thing is, He forgives us, so many times have I sinned and asked for forgiveness and I know for a fact that He forgave me because in 1 John 1:9 it says "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." All I can say is "Thank you Lord!" and really that is all we can say because nothing we do can ever repay Christ for what He did for us.

To God be the Glory!

Proverbs 11:13

"A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret." Proverbs 11:13

Trustworthy people are hard to come across these days because of all the gossip and lying, but someone who you can trust is a great treasure. Some people don't realize it, but gossip can hurt a lot. In Proverbs 18:8 it says that "The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man's inmost parts." When people don't have Christ, they can get depressed pretty easy and if someone has been gossiping about them, then it just makes things worse. Gossip is more of a problem with people who talk, more than they should, but everyone as gossiped in some point of their life. Harsh words against someone can really hurt especially behind their back. That's also how rumors start and rumors can ruins some one's reputation whether the rumor is true or not. So next time you feel like gossiping about someone, say this to yourself "is gossiping about them, worth them taking their life," and if your a true Christian then the answer is No! Because people take their life all the time because they feel like the whole world is either laughing at them or that everyone hates them, so they decide to end it. Without Christ people's minds don't have that protection, joy, and peace and it is easy for the devil to get in their head and mess things up. The point I'm trying to get across is that many of us Christians hurt people with our words and yet were the ones who are suppose to be lifting others up. That is why you should give God praise for your friends who are trustworthy and you know they won't gossip about you. Because those kind of people are hard to find these days.

To God be the Glory!

1 Peter 4:12-14

"Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange is happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the suffering of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the spirit of glory and of God rest on you."

1 Peter 4:12-14

A lot of the time, we as Christians don't think of the word suffer to be a good thing, but to suffer for Christ is the greatest thing a Christian can go through for his Master, God Almighty. The thing is, if the world don't see the difference in us, then they have no need to persecute us, which means we are living like the world and not like Christ. When you suffer it could be physical pain or emotional pain, you could be beaten, thrown in prison, killed or just mocked, put down by others, and not having popularity. We should rejoice when we go through these sufferings because we're suffering for Christ which means we're serving the God who gave us life and He looks down and says "Good job my good and faithful servant." That should be the only thing that matters in a Christians life, to be able to hear those words come out of the mouth of God Almighty. And yet we sit at the house watching tv, playing sports, driving in our nice car, caring about our reputation, rather than the God who spoke and everything was put into place. We should be so ashamed of ourselves, because we have denied Him over and over again, and yet he still forgives. That is why we must suffer because he suffered for us. We are so worthless and yet he suffered so much for us and every time we deny him, it's just like we spit in the bloody face of Christ and say "we don't care what you did for us." That's exactly what we do when we deny him and turn to the world. And when we call back for forgiveness, He looks down at us and says three amazing words "I Forgive you." All I can say is Wow! what grace and mercy that our God has for us selfish beings. We should praise God like Paul and Silas did when they went through suffering in prison. In 1 Peter 4:16 says "However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name." We need to rejoice and not curse God when we are persecuted because we bear the name of Christ, which should be the greatest honor, since He's the Creator of the universe! Just remember next time you get persecuted for your faith or things just don't go your way, that you don't even deserve to be alive and yet Christ has given you so much. How Great is our God!

To God be the Glory!

Forgiven

"I'm in our secret place, alone in Your embrace, where all my wrongs have been erased, You have forgiven. All the promises and lies, all the times I've compromised all the times You were denied, You have forgiven."

Forgiven by Skillet

Psalm 119:11

"I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you"

Psalm 119:11

What a great verse to remember and live by, if only we would live by it. We must read and memorize scripture if we are going to get through this spiritual war. Not only will it help when you are telling others about Christ, but also through Christ you will be able to conquer the temptations that the devil's demons throw at you. That's what it means when it says "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you". Because if we know God's law and His Word we are not going to want to sin or have anything to do with sin. Our minds will be pure and we will have understandings that others just don't have, because they are not in His Word, which makes them deceived. We will start to see through the lies when we pick up God's Word and dig in. God's Word is like our map or instructions for life and without it we will start to believe the world side of things and not God's. We will not have that understanding and won't be able to see through the lies that are put out by the world. This is why we need to hide God's word in our heart and use daily in our life.

To God be the Glory!