Your Prayers are Heard

No degree required. Heaven is not closed to you because you don´t have a degree. Or maybe you have 10 degrees and a Phd to boot.

It doesn´t have any impact on how accessible God is to you and your prayers.

That is the beauty of spirituality, of knowing the God of the Bible.

People, in their humanity and ¨unique" status in life, may take great pains to exclude some folks, to build fences and complex alarm systems to make sure only those they choose ....to have access to their lives.

Take heart, my friends, my brother and sisters in the Lord. Be good to all, no matter what their station in life, as much as you can, with the energy and the motivation and power that God gives you.

You think that nobody is watching? There is always someone watching....and usually someone listening too.

God knows your heart. His Word says in James Chapter 5:16b ¨The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.¨

What does that mean? It means...if God considers you a righteous person and you take the time to pray in earnest and with perseverance, that you are going to accomplish a lot with these prayers.

Why? Because God answers prayer.

Don´t waste time wondering if He hears. Keep moving forward. Don´t second yourself. Never question if the time you are spending in prayer is wasted time. NEVER. Prayer time is an excellent expenditure of your time on this earth. Period.

Prayer time is golden time, platinum time, angelic time and miracle time.

You are not missing out on anything that you have sacrificed in order to spend time in prayer. God will, in his timing and wisdom, reward you accordingly, of that I am certain.

Are you asking....well Carla, if prayer is so important .....what should I be praying about? 

Well, I would start by looking at how Jesus addressed his Father in the Lord´s prayer( see Matthew 6:9)....

Jesus said we should pray like Him...... And He addressed His Father in prayer like this....using the plural ¨Our Father which art in Heaven¨

Prayer builds community. We are a ¨WE¨ congregation. We have a mutual father, who is Father God.

We pray  as community minded Believers when we state ¨Our¨

Father in heaven. 

Sometimes, I am grieved by all the individualization that has occurred in the modern church. Instead of thinking communally, we have talked about our own individual testimony and our ¨personal¨ relationship with God. But my understanding of the scriptures leads us to OUR, not to my. We are an interconnected Body. WE are a WE body. Many parts of one whole.

This is why prayer is so deeply important. Pray for your brothers and sisters in the Lord. Pray for those who are rich and those who are poor. Pray confidentially. No one needs to know who you are praying for.

Pray for those who are old and those who are young. Pray for those who are succeeding in life and those who are struggling. Pray for those

 who are hurting and those who are healing.

Your prayers are powerful. Your words matter.

Would you allow me to thank you? Thank you for praying for me. I am deeply grateful.

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you.

Peace,

Carla.

The Ability to Seek and Serve God

Twas thinking again..... I like to do that once in a while.

Was thinking about how it´s hard for some of us in this modern society to be able to seek God. We just don´t necessarily have a frame work in our current society for what that means. What does it mean to seek God? How do I know how?

And so, in prayer today, I was praying for someone. That someone has an incredible capacity to live large, to give their all to a strongly held belief. That person needs the peace of God.

We may be able to do a lot of things in life.....to accomplish great feats of strength and beauty. But what is the hallmark of someone who knows how to connect with God their Maker? What happens to a person externally when other people can sense that person loves God? Is loving God the same as serving Him?

I don´t know much. But I would say, that when I cross paths with someone I suspect of having a close walk with God, I notice that they are usually not very talkative. They have a quiet inner knowing of the world of the Spirit. They don´t seem to feel the need to compete for attention or get awards and trophies for what they have done in this life. They seem to have an air about them which steers us towards the future, a future where God is. They don´t have a pressing need for any particular material item. They have a contentedness in their smile and patience in their tone.

Well friends, not sure what the purpose of this post is, other than to encourage those of you who are stubbornly praying for someone who has yet to yield to God. I want to encourage you not to be discouraged. Don´t give up. Don´t feel like you are wasting your time. Earnest prayer for another human being is never wasted. Prayer is an extremely valuable expenditure of time.

It may be, that when you are praying, you may need to be asking God to give that person on your prayer list, to be given the ability  to seek and serve God. It may not come naturally for some folks. 

Ask God to stir up in that person a love for Jesus. Ask God to reveal Jesus to that person. Ask God to stir up a desire for the Word of God and the ability to understand it. Ask God to lead righteous people into their path. And if you get tired of the burden of prayer, ask God to raise up intercession for that person. You need not bear this burden alone.

Sometimes we do not know how to pray. Sometimes we do not know what it will take before we see a breakthrough in someone´s life. Some folks have thick walls built around many layers of their life. It is only the mystery of God that will unravel that fortress. It is not your responsibility to unravel a person. In fact, it might be perceived as downright nosy to try to ¨figure out¨ how someone is supposed to come to God.

It is not my place to oversee anyone´s journey with or towards God. It is only my duty to pray until I see or sense a breakthrough......a proverbial connection between a human being and his/her Creator. I can not walk in another person´s shoes towards God. But I certainly can bring a person´s name in prayer to God in heaven so that God will move obstacles out of their path to joy and peace and wholeness.

Resist, my friends, the desire to understand all that God is doing in a human being´s life. We do not need to understand all of God´s ways. We rarely do.

 We simply must trust and pray. Pray and persist in prayer until you see and sense the breakthrough. Pray until you sense the peace that only comes when a person has peace with God their Saviour.

Well, my friends, that is all.

Be well and enjoy this beautiful evening, wherever you may be.

Peace,

Carla.

What is Frightening about Prayer

I've come to a conclusion today....that what is actually frightening about prayer is not that it is hard or unfruitful or arduous, but rather quite the opposite.
Lately my experience with prayer has been that not only is it easy, but it is soooo fruitful, so very fast and excessively kind, loving and generous that the simple abundance and kindness of God is just so hard to wrap my brain around.

I love God. But sometimes it is just hard to comprehend how very generous and patient and kind He really is. When I spend time in prayer, however briefly or lengthy period of time I spend, it has begun to astonish me how quickly God answers my prayers. His door is sooo open. He is so very welcoming and listens so attentively.

I write these things, not to cause confusion or to invalidate any other kind of experience that you may be having or have had in the past regarding prayer to God. I have had, and probably might have in the future seasons of time when God seems oddly quiet....as if He is waiting me out to get me to do some of my own thinking and make some of my own decisions. God doesn't babysit us forever. There are times He lets us stand alone, for our own good and for the health of our relationship with Him. Mature folks learn how to stand, and kneel and sit and run and play and work and think and write and gallop......shall I go on? ")

There is room for all of your experiences, past and present, with God. He can handle all your fears, frustrations and confusion. He can heal your mind. He can heal your body. He does well for you.

Let it be that this day, you see the hand of your God at work in life today.

Peaceful productivity,
Carla





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