And to stand every morning to thank and praise the LORD, and likewise at even;
1 Chronicles 23:30, KJV

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
John 4:24, KJV

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
Psalms 100:4, KJV

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful
Colossians 3:15, KJV

This was the duty of the priests of God when they roamed the desert. It showed that praise should be done in the morning and at night, so as saints of God having the priesthood completed in Jesus Christ, we should likewise praise Him in the morning and at night. Not just ask for His help, but also to praise Him for all He has done for us. Praise is just as important a part of prayer as our requests are. It also says to thank the Lord – a thankful attitude is what God wants from His people. It says that peace shall rule in our hearts if we are a thankful people. So in our prayers, we should tell God about how thankful we are to him.

We have three elements which should be in our prayer life besides our requests: praise, worship and thankfulness. Just waking up in the morning is a reason to thank the Lord.

We should also take time to delight in the Lord for without Him, we would have nothing; indeed we would not even exist. The law of the Lord should make us happy. Though we now live under grace, we should still rejoice in both his law and grace.

Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.
Psalms 119:92, KJV

And there ye shall eat before the LORD your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the LORD thy God hath blessed thee.
Deuteronomy 12:7, KJV

Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD.
1 Chronicles 16:10, KJV

And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:13, KJV

We see in the above verses that we should rejoice in all the blessings that we have been given by God. If ever you think that you’re not blessed, remember those who live in dirt huts and are dying daily because they can’t afford food or health care. Rejoicing is an important part of prayer. Remembering his blessing is how we can rejoice in troubled times. It also shows in the second verse that we are to seek the Lord, as seeking God is also an important part of prayer. It is important to note that seeking God isn’t a half-hearted effort. We are commanded to seek Him with all our hearts and then we shall find Him.

Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
Philippians 4:6, KJV

Requests are also a part of prayer. It is important to note that the above verse says that our requests are to be made with thanksgiving, so we must come with a thankful heart to God when we are going through trials and need His help. There will always be something to be thankful for.

To sum it all up, we pray by praising God, worshiping God, being thankful to God, being delighted in God, rejoicing in God, making our requests known to God and seeking God with all our hearts. This is how we are to pray, by putting all these things in our prayer life. Prayer should also be a daily thing. For God desires time with us, as any parent would want time with their children.

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There have been joys, sorrows, growth and frustrations. Through it all, God has been faithful. In fact, He is always faithful, as all of us looking back can see. That is the only value in looking back, to see God’s faithfulness and to use it to spur us on, as Paul says in Philippians 3:14, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which Christ has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (NIV)

I personally have experienced, and been declared free of cancer in the last year, seen a daughter married, seen our sons develop and grow in stature and knowledge, stayed true to my husband, moved, and most importantly, grown in God. It has been an amazing journey for me. I have been a Christian for 34 years, yet felt as though I had been asleep most of those years. Especially in comparison to the awakening God has placed in my heart and soul this year.

A fantastic God awaits those whose heart is hungry. Hungry for truth, hungry for reality, and hungry for Him! The Holy Spirit is working full time in these last days to reveal Christ in all His risen power. We need only ask, and the Father WILL give it to us, because that is what He wants too! Let’s ask for more this year: more of His presence, more of His Purpose, and more of the Spirit and faith. Let’s be like Stephen in the New Testament. Acts 6:5 says, “They chose Stephen, a man FULL of faith and of the Holy Spirit.(NIV)

All this, so we can become more like Jesus and reach others for Him.

Let’s make THOSE our New Year’s Resolutions! I’m going for it! How about you?

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Let’s start at the beginning….

26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

27 So God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.

30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. (Genesis 1: 26-30, NIV)

Just imagine it. The wonderful atmosphere of the Garden of Eden, with all its prolific and abundant provisions! The first of humankind, needing and wanting for nothing… And, in a single moment of evil and foolishness… it was all changed forever.

8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.

9 The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin [d] and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. [e] 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will certainly die.” (Gen 2: 8-17)

Now, about to be tempted by the serpent, she was one step closer to committing that sin that was recorded forever, for all mankind…

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3:1-8, NIV)

Not only did she commit the sinful act of disobedience, but she dragged poor Adam along with her. Look at the repercussions that were put in motion in that moment…

17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:17-19, NIV)

Like Eve when she ate from “the tree of knowledge of good and evil“, we are deceptively taking a bite out of what is going on around us – all because we want knowledge and answers to everything, and control our of circumstances! All the while, we have forgotten about eternity ahead, and who created all of this provision for us!

Let’s face it, we reap what we sow. As a worldly society, have altered what was originally beautifully planned for all us. The very same world that Adam and Eve were given to take care of on His behalf, is now showing its’ signs of negligence on our part. Mostly, as a result of our greed and selfishness, our craving for knowledge, and our inability to discern what is evil and what is good!

Our technology has created ideals, stunted lives, and a materialistically-focused world. Look how we have created garbage dumps, toxic waste, and atmospheric conditions that have brought us both pollution and the effects of global warming!

In our pursuit to maintain control of our economies, and ranks of importance in world dominance, we have created world wars and weaponry as the world has never known before – all with an ability to drag others along for the ride, and to totally annihilate the human race in one fell swoop! Think about it… A single press of the button and it could all be changed forever!

Today, I was reading about the Doomsday clock. If you are unfamiliar with it, is a symbolic clock-face, that is recognized worldwide. It is used as a representation of our vulnerability, particularly, to the threat of nuclear warfare, but it is also about earth’s other detrimental states of condition. To see it move forward would mean we were one step closer to the end of the world as we now know it.

On January 27, 2007, “The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists” posted the official statement that made headlines around the world. For the first time since February of 2002, a change was made to move the minute hand another minute forward. It is interesting to note that it was changed to read “seven minutes to midnight”. (Midnight equals the conclusion of the final hour; indicating that nuclear devastation has come.)

At that particular time in history, as you will remember, there were “wars and rumours of wars” (Matt 24:6), and there was talk of nuclear activity coming out of North Korea and the Middle East. There was suspicion and attempts to prove nuclear materials were being manufactured in secret in different lands. Plus, the powers that be and the media were leaking and producing stories of weaponry being positioned to hit their targets on opposite sides of the Atlantic – putting all of humanity at risk. So the decision was made to pathetically confirm the state of the world…. and it would be done simultaneously on both the east and west sides of the Atlantic at the exact same moment.

RUNNING OUT OF TIME

We are living in a state of moving closer to the last hour. The Body of Christ can feel it. Even scientists, astronomers, seismologists, and world leaders, with all their intellect and scientific evidences, can acknowledge that we are moving on a downward spiral.

Interesting, how the minute hand was placed precisely at seven minutes to the final hour. Seven is the biblical number of completion throughout scriptures. Are we concluding the correlation between what is happening in both the natural and spiritual realms of our entire human race and planet?

God gave warnings to Adam and Eve regarding the result of sin, and to us through His written word. The prophets of the Old and New Testaments confirmed and passed on the warnings of the last days. They have already been spoken out and posted for all eternity. All one has to do is pick up a Bible to see all the confirmation. Unfortunately, many may hear the truth, argue it, and proceed to bow to their own desires.

Evil thoughts and intents of the heart has brought us to the places of temptation and follow-through and we have indeed reaped the results. We have become self-reliant, self-centered and ignorant; perhaps, even curious that we might missed something. We have forgotten what this has all been about. It is about what comes beyond the end of this world…beyond here… and into eternity.

“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” (Eph 5:15-17, NIV)

This doesn’t mean making the most of opportunity in the worldly sense – we have already done that! Note that Eve acknowledged the truth of what she was told, even as to tell the serpent. In spite of the devasting awareness she would experience when no longer having that kind of relationship, or proximital presence with God, (not to mention, altering the future of her life and her place in eternity), she went ahead and did it anyway. She heard the truth, but chose to ignore it in that moment and bow to her own temptation and desires.

How about you? Are you going to choose to ignore the truth in this very moment? Or do you want to know what His Will is for your life?

He told us that Christ would be returning. We know the truth. It has been written to us. But “when” that is… only He knows for sure.

“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Mark 13:32, NIV)

The truth is that eternity is inevitable. Everyday that you spend on earth, you are…. one step closer… to eternity.

There is much work for the Kingdom, that has to be done in the time that is left. There are souls that remain unsaved, those haven’t heard the truth, and those that have yet to find their purpose and destiny.

And we know that we are all… one step closer.

ARE YOU READY?

If you have not already asked Christ into your life, we encourage you to do so. It will change your life for all of eternity. Your words don’t have to be fancy. If you are new to the area of prayer, for your convenience… we have placed one on the sidebar for you. If you have taken this step of faith, please let us know. We would love to hear your story… you are welcome to email us.

If you already have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. May we challenge you to seek out your purpose and destiny for the Kingdom, to win souls for the Kingdom, and love the Lord your God, with all your heart, soul and mind? There is much to be done! We look forward to the good report! (“I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters. I will praise you among your assembled people.” Ps 22:22, NLT)

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