Tuesday, January 31, 2017

January 31, 2017

Greetings My Friend, "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak." This passage jumped at me the other morning. Jesus is talking with the disciples in the garden before He is betrayed by Judas and soldiers come to take Him away. Jesus wanted the Disciples to pray for Him and my devotional taught me a deeper reason to pray which is "Stay awake and pray that you will not enter into temptation." I learned that staying awake is associated with spiritual awareness and the Disciples sleepiness did not prepare them for Jesus' death. I discern from this that the time spent in prayer means that the Disciples may have been made aware of the events that were to take place and would not have been taken by surprise. We too can fall into temptation when we think we can pass up our day's prayer just this once. The problem is that day God may have wanted to tell us something important or how to deal with a situation we will face. Through the years I have read "Pray without ceasing," and it seemed impossible to do. As my prayer life has grown I find being in a prayer throughout the day easier than I had once thought. For me more than likely most of us we have a line of chatter working in our thoughts all day everyday. I have learned prayer is really allowing myself to change the chatter in my mind to a conversation with God. As with most of my faith journey this has taken me awhile to learn and then put into practice, it has grown in me. I do know though that I need to start my day in prayer and Bible study. When I do I find that the prayer without ceasing is much like my day with Junior. We visit with each other throughout the day, sometimes going back to a conversation we had earlier and pick up where we left off. I find my praying without ceasing to be much the same way. If I start with prayer first thing in the morning, with the Word God lays a passage on my heart, my heart seems to understand I need to use this lesson. I felt the Holy Spirit teach me it is important to stay connected to God in order to hear His voice and to know His will. The more I do this I find it easier to listen to God with my heart and then go and do what I sense He is directing me to do. I won't use up energy that is so little within me these days. I also will go directly to the area God is sending to me instead of trying several things before I know I am where He wants me to be. I am not young, I have disabilities that hinder my energy these days so a direct path is important for me. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet

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