Prayer by Gary Rose

1 Thessalonians, Chapter 5 (WEB) says..

¹⁷ Pray without ceasing.

But do we? The Little church mouse says...

Fact is- sometimes it hard to pray. Face it, our lives are full of things to do, places to go and an ever increasing communication intrusion.

 Then, sometimes, sinful tendencies get in the way...

 Doubt

James, Chapter 1 (WEB)

 ⁶ But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.  ⁷ For that man shouldn’t think that he will receive anything from the Lord.  ⁸ He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. 

Loving sin

Psalms Chapter 66 (WEB)

  ¹⁸ If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord wouldn’t have listened. 

Greed

James, Chapter 4 (WEB)

 ¹ Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? ² You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask.  ³ You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

Pride

Luke, Chapter 18 (WEB)

  ⁹ He spoke also this parable to certain people who were convinced of their own righteousness, and who despised all others.  ¹⁰  “Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector.   ¹¹  The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men, extortionists, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.   ¹²  I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.’   ¹³  But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’   ¹⁴  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Why is this on my mind? When I woke up this morning, I realized that God had answered a prayer of mine that I have been praying for about a year now. Shortly after this I realized my prayers might have been answered because I also have been asking that God might help me purify my life.

Somehow, this sign just seemed to fit. I will be thinking a lot about this today; how about you?