Prayer Thoughts for the Heart

Archive for the ‘Prayer Journal’ Category

All of life is about giving. We give INTO putting off making important decisions and we give INTO selfishness and impatience.

We may even give INTO the gas pedal and go too fast and give INTO getting aggravated at other people on the streets and highways.

We may give INTO our weakness for “no no” television programs or certain magazines, or some websites.

We should not give INTO making excuses that is not the whole truth. Excuses only satisfy the one who makes them.

Now let us think about things to give INTO that will be pleasing to God and the people around us.
Give INTO prayer and the studying of God’s Word. Because we must desire it or we will forget to apply it to our day to day living.

Give INTO biblical wisdom and then put it with our knowledge and it will give us discernment and understanding of the best kind.

Give INTO offering a Sacrifice of Praise to God with thanksgiving for what He has done to us.
We have much to Praise God for, because Jesus Christ gave INTO suffering or He could not have died; without dying He could not have made atonement for sin; and without completing His redemptive work, He could not have finished the work of Salvation for everyone!

“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of our lips that confess his name” (Hebrews 13:15).

We all have the same amount of time, but we often say to ourselves, Oh if I just had more time, I could. . . . . .

We will never have any more time. We have now, and we have always had, all the time there is to have.
So the next thing for us to learn is how to prioritize our time. Every so often, ask yourself, am I killing my time or making my time count? Am I managing my time or just being active.

Lost time can never be found again and when it is gone it is gone! The older we get the faster time seems to fly by, so take charge of your time.

Most likely, once we understand common sense and wisdom sense about time, we can use our time more effectively and this will reveal to us whether we have made good use of our time.

Our time is the most valuable thing that we can spend and we need to spend it on something that will outlast our time.

Scripture says that we are to spend some of our time to lay up treasures in heaven and that even a cup of cold water given in the right spirit will be rewarded, Matthew 10:42.

We are to spend some time reading and learning godly wisdom and how to be obedient to God’s Commands. His wisdom is more precious than rubies or fine gold.

Wisdom can give us paths of peace and keep us from evil. It can give us a heart of love, compassion and integrity. It will help us to perceive understanding and knowledge, “Real Truth” and mercy, Proverbs 3:5-6.

It will provide us with integrity if we choose to accept it. It means we are a person of moral principles, honesty, sincerity, truthfulness, fairness, and trustworthy.

The person who has a True Christian Spirit is someone who has spent time with God in Prayer and in His Word and lets it penetrate their soul. This will bring out the best in them because it is what will guide their words and actions.

When we take time to be better, (to surpass, exceed, or improve to a greater extent), we will enjoy better times.

The Psalmist says that he will take time, seven times a day, to Praise God for His righteousness, and he loves to obey His commands, Psalms 119:164 & 167.


The Church

The Church is not a building, but a group of people, who are followers of Jesus Christ. They look to Him as their Savior and Lord.

The Church has as its foundation, the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. He gave the Church a commission and that is to reach and teach people, all that He had taught His disciples.

After His ascension, He said that we would have the Holy Spirit’s presence to help the Believers to live for Him and to serve others. We have been sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise until the day of redemption.

Some people see Believers, who fail to live up to a certain standard, as hypocrites. They think they should live one way and yet they are doing otherwise. However, they are blinded by the truth, because the truth of God is spiritually discerned.

Without a doubt, Born again Believers will fall short of God’s goodness. But, what others cannot see is the heart’s desire of a person and how hard they may be trying to live a Christian life.

Growing as a Believer is a lifelong process and we will fail ourselves and others. To be sure, Satan is always ready to pull us down to his level.

More often than not, Believers will see their sin quickly and wi ll ask God in Jesus name to forgive them and help them not sin in that way again. Most likely, no one will know when this prayer takes place. But God is faithful to forgive our sins, when we sincerely ask Him.

All Believers are a work in progress and is in no way perfect. But, sincere love for God and for others is a way to live life and show God’s love to the world.

“The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14 NIV).

“The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s Children” (Romans 8:16 NIV).



Quite often I have heard people say that they enjoy keeping a prayer journal and I do too.

There are many reasons for keeping a prayer journal. For me, the first one is that when I write my prayers, it keeps me more focused and my mind doesn’t wonder.

Another reason is that I can look back through my prayer journal and see that my prayers have been answered. Some are not as I might have wanted, but still God did answer. We forget that sometimes God says no and that is an answer.

A prayer journal can also be a diary, or a record of a very specific prayer request that included names, places and dates. This information can be helpful at times should we like to know the date of the passing of a friend, birth records of grandchildren, marriages of friends and family and changing of jobs or children off to college.

All these things we are praying about have been to ask God to put His loving, protective, merciful, comforting, and healing hands upon20each one prayed for.

It amazes me some times when I go back and read part of my prayer journal and I can see God’s hand in it and too it sounds much more mature than I think I am, when I wrote it. The Holy Spirit is our teacher and in these instances it shows.

Start your prayer journal today; however I don’t write in it every day. But there are times when I write in it for weeks at a time. Some days are a quick prayer before I get up, praying while I am driving my car and a quick prayer before I go to sleep at night. However, our whole day should be an attitude of prayer. Talking to God off and on all day when we hear or think of a prayer need.

Celia Milam