Prayer

Scripture

 But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

~Matthew 6:6, NLT

Quote

When you pray, have no other motive than to know your Heavenly Father more intimately.

~Oswald Chambers {My Utmost, Sept. 16}

When I read Chamber’s devotion, I could not help but think about my own life and testimony. Motive is everything with God. It doesn’t matter how good the deed is: you could give all your riches to fed the poor or even give your life for another, but if it was not motivated by love for Christ, there is no reward. There have been times in my life when I thought my motive was pure only to realize later, that is was not pure at all. When I began my life as a preacher, I wanted to be known as a great preacher and a man of prayer. I tried everything in the early years and nothing seemed to work. I made myself get up at 5:00 am and have a prayer time but it was pitiful and very unfulfilling. I struggled with maintaining any kind of quite time. I read books, I tried to break old habits but nothing worked. Within the first hour of my alone time with the Father, I was fighting boredom and sleepiness. I wondered to myself how others spent the entire morning with the Father.

The LAW of PRAYER is to ask and prayer is definitely about getting things from the Father but that is no longer my main focus. I am not going to say that prayer changes us but not the circumstances but I will say that prayer does change us and it also changes circumstances. Our motive in meeting with the Father in secret is not to impress others. There is a a vanity in us that does covet praise. It is very easy to spot in others but we must remember, it is in us as well. Bad motivation can hinder our communion with the Father. We are to begin our prayers with praise and adoration but sometimes it is necessary to deal with our sin. The key is to be open and honest with the Father. You may as well tell Him the truth because He already knows everything that is in your heart. Once you weed out the bad motives, everything will change. To have this peaceful communion with the Father, you have to meet with Him alone. You have to leave everyone and everything outside your prayer closet.

When two young people, a male and a female, fall in love; they long to be alone. They have a deep desire for intimacy and I am not talking about getting naked physically but for the intimacy of the soul. A part of the love experience is our desire to be known by the one we love. There is nothing boring about this kind of intimacy. Time flies when lovers are talking to each other. So the key to a productive QT is get your motives purified. Once we weed out the vain motives, things will fall in place.

Extra

Thankful for another wonderful LORD’s day. The Carnival at DBC went great. I think they have found a new avenue of ministry. The weather was perfect. One man came up and asks me what 2 Corinthians said, It just so happened that God brought it to my recall and I quoted the KJV…The love of Christ constrains us. The NIV reads ‘compels’ us. He said, “I’ve ask eight people and you are the only one who knows.” It might be good if we get familiar with the scripture we are wearing. I explained the verse to him and he told me he was saved; actually, he told me all about it. I thought everything went well and Mandy is to be commended.

A little heat wave coming in today. They are predicting 90 plus for the next three days but we can handle that knowing that it will not last long. September has been pleasant, PTL.

Old Gregg posted yesterday. First time since the transplant. He said he might be coming home the middle of the week.

Have a great day and a great week. Thanks for reading the blog.

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