Prayer Thoughts for the Heart

Posts Tagged ‘Prayer Thought’

The Book Stores, the Libraries, and even our own shelves at home are full of How to Books. No matter what we start to do, we usually decide to go to the book store and see if we can find a How to Book for our new project.

There are How to Books on building a house and decorating a house. Some books on fashion design and wood working. Some books on landscaping and planting a garden. Some books on weight loss and exercising. We could make this list longer and longer.

However, the How to Book we all need most, and need to spend time searching through, is the bestselling book of all times, the How to Book on Christian Living, The Bible.

The information in the Bible, covers every area of a person’s life, and their relationship to God, and to other people. The information is to help us live a godly life.

If you have a copy of the Holy Bible, you have a treasure chest that is overflowing and waiting for you to take out the gift of salvation with eternal life. Then take out the pearls of wisdom and all the golden characteristics of God, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

The Bible has many books in one book. Included are books of poetry, history, sermons, prophecy, evangelism, romance and much more. These all have something in them that God wants to teach us.

Below is a list that can be helpful as we live our daily routines of life.

1. Let the mind of Christ be in you, Philippians 2:5.
2. Grow in grace and knowledge, 2 Peter 3:18.
3. Overcome evil with Good, Romans 12:21.

The words think and thank come from the same root word and one reminds us to demonstrate the other in our speech and actions.

Think means to ponder or reflect. Thank means to express gratitude.

A thankful heart and mind most often will be a thoughtful heart and a thoughtful heart and mind most often will be a thankful heart and mind.

Therefore, when we are thoughtless, we are usually thankless. Very seldom is a thoughtless person thankful for what he has and therefore he is forgetful to be thankful to himself or to anyone else.

Scriptures urges us to think and to thank. It is a choice that we need to make. No one can make it for us, but it should be the desire of our heart.

If we pause a moment to think, most likely we will pause to give thanks. Pausing gives us time to remember, as thankfulness comes to the mind from the heart.

If we are thankful to God for His goodness and believe it deeply and it rules our mind and heart, thoughtfulness and thankfulness will rule our actions. Another way to say this is, to let divine love and wisdom, umpire our life.

The Bible is a treasure chest of wisdom and knowledge for us to open and take from to use and share with others. Give thanks and think to praise God for such a wonderful gift as this.

If our speech and actions are covered with God grace, it will be gracious, wholesome, truthful, respectful, thoughtful and thankful.

Forget not! Remember the above, think and thank about the fact that these two words are interdependent. They go hand in hand and remind us what our response should be at all times.

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV).

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7 KJV).

My name is not Katie Lee, but it once was my name.

Fred and Sarah did not have any children. They had hoped and prayed for a child for six long years. Finally one day they realized that a baby was on the way to their home and they were so excited and thankful.

Preparation for the arrival day started that very day. My mother began to make baby clothes and my Dad began making a cradle and a high chair. And all the time they were spreading the good news.

Nine months later a beautiful and healthy baby girl arrived on December twenty-third. She was almost a Christmas Day baby, but two days ahead of time was fine with Fred and Sarah.

She weighed in at six pounds and four ounces and really was a gift from God and an answer to many prayers.

When I was six weeks old and my Dad was rocking me, he said to my Mom. You know, Katie looks so much like your mother. We should have named her Celia.

My grandmother’s name was Celia and my grandfather’s name was Joseph, but everyone called him Joe.

A short time later they wrote to the Bureau of Vital Statics and requested that my name be changed to Celia Jo.

They were surprised when a copy of my birth certificate came back and a line had been drawn through the name Katie Lee and Celia Jo written just above Katie Lee. I suppose doing it this way everyone can see that my name was legally changed.

Three years later Annette was born and five years later Wynelle was born into our family.

My sisters and I were raised in a Christian home and we spent most every Sunday morning in church with our grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Afterwards, we went to granny and papa’s house. Ate dinner with everyone and then spent the afternoon playing.

I am thankful that we had a close knit family and for my up-bring among a lot of our relatives. We all learned godly wisdom at the feet of our elders and by their example.

What a wonderful heritage to proclaim!

“You have given me the heritage of those who fear Your name” (Psalm 61:5).

The meaning of the word Integrity is: We are a serious minded person and believe in practicing honesty, sincerity, and straight as an arrow purpose for our dealings with others.

We would be wise to seek Jesus’ word for integrity, and that is to have a pure heart. A good conscience that has been taught Biblical Principles, can sleep well, and not be concerned about how we acted or reacted the day before.

Purity of heart is a Spiritual thing where we have taken our standard of conduct from the Bible and not the world. We need to free ourselves from the pollution we may see and hear each day and not mix it in with our godly integrity.

A Believer desires to be clean and pure and pleasing to God in our walk with Him. This mind-set must come from within and renewed every day.

Remembering that God is Love and to show others God’s Love, we must walk in Integrity.

The Apostle Paul was a disciple that was sold out to walking in Integrity. Most of us may not be called to preach and teach, but we are called to be a good example that is demonstrating godly integrity.

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:1-2).

“The integrity of the upright guides them” (Proverbs 11:3a).

We would be hard pressed to find anyone that doesn’t like to receive a gift. Today, I have good news that there are some exciting gifts we can receive.

First one is God’s gift of salvation and it is your free gift today. “…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31 NIV). All we have to do is receive it by faith and it is yours to keep. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV).

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:7 NIV).

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2 NIV).

God has another gift for us and it is His gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a wonderful gift because He is our teacher and guides us in the things of the spirit. He is the one who helps us discern biblical truths and to know right from wrong.
“But the man who isn’t a Christian can’t understand and can’t accept these thoughts from God, which the Holy Spirit teaches us. They sound foolish to him, because only those who have the Holy Spirit within them can understand what the Holy Spirit means” (1 Corinthians 2:14 LB).

Our next gift is the gift of godly wisdom that we receive when we know God as our Lord. “For the reverence and fear of God are basic to all wisdom. Knowing God results in every other kind of understanding” (Proverbs 9:10 LB).

Another gift to receive is the privilege of prayer. We can pray at any moment in time and God hears us. “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (Hebrews 7:25 NIV).

One morning at our church, during our Thursday morning prayer time, a young woman said to me. “I have been thinking that God wants me to divorce my husband”.

I was shocked and couldn’t believe what she was saying to me. She and her husband had three children, came to church, and seemed happy.

I ask her if her husband was abusive to her or the children and she said no. I then asked if she or her husband were having an affair and she said no. As we talked on about her situation, I could see that she just wanted her freedom.

After we had prayer for her and others, I told her that God didn’t want her to divorce her husband, but that the ideas of the world were making her think this way.

I felt bad that she was unhappy and our prayer was that she could see and do what God really wanted her to do. When children are involved, there is much more to consider than just self.

They moved away from our area and I don’t know what happened in this situation. However, I hope that she heard from God, worked on her marriage, learned to love again, and kept the family unit intact.

She had made a commitment when she was in love and got married. The most important thing to remember is the commitment that we make to each other. We will fall in and out of love and if there is no commitment then what. We have to work at keeping our love alive and well.

“Delight yourself in the Lord; and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4 NIV).