His Encouragement #35

Good morning, and welcome to His Encouragement Thursday! I don’t know about you, but Thursdays are my struggle day of the week. By Thursday, I have already been working hard at school and at home, and I just wish it would hurry up and be Friday already. LOL! I definitely need a little extra Jesus time on Thursdays.

Trisha, my blogger friend at Joy of Reading, and I decided on calling this post “His Encouragement” because our real source of peace, strength, and security can only come from Jesus Christ. He, and He alone, is our constant! We pray and hope that these Thursday posts become a real encouragement to you and help you end your week strong in God’s love and purpose for you. God bless!

Today’s Thursday Encouragement comes from:

Psalm 100 (ESV)

A Psalm for giving thanks.

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into His presence with singing!

Know that the Lord, He is God! It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His Name!

I will admit it…I don’t think I am good at praying.

Some days, I really get into a talking jag with God and an hour will fly by. These moments are filled with praise, with gratitude, with requests, with questions, with tears, etc. These prayers are raw and real and organic. In these moments, I feel God’s presence so deeply. They’re wonderful moments full of blessing. I feel so connected to God during these prayer times.

Unfortunately, I cannot replicate these prayer moments as often as I would like. My heart wants to make this a daily habit, but I seem to be a big failure. I try to repeat the pattern I used before when my prayers seemed to be actual conversations between myself and God, but when I do that, the prayer becomes stifled. I get frustrated by my stunted prayers and give up. What’s wrong with me?!

I think my problem stems from HOW I begin my prayers. Proverbs 3:6 states, “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.” God wants to be acknowledged by me — especially in my prayers! I must declare who He is with thanksgiving. Perhaps, if I come to Him with prayers of praise and thanks (like Psalm 100 above) and acknowledge who God is in my life, rather than prayers of talking at Him, He will be more receptive to my heart and needs, and my prayers will regularly become that organic, raw, wonderful experience I sometimes have.

Every time I pray, whether it be early in the morning when I wake, middle of the day when life is chaos, or nighttime when my day is almost over, I need to begin my talks with God by rejoicing in Him as my Father, Savior, and Holy Guide. I need to enter God’s presence with thanksgiving and praise. I need to acknowledge that God is God!

God is so smart that I’m guessing He already knows that praising Him puts me into a proper mindset so when I do finally get around to requests, I’m a little more in line with His will. I think this is what John meant when he wrote, “This is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us” (1 John 5:14; my emphasis).

Today, I am encouraged to change my prayer habits for the better. I plan to begin each and every prayer with joyful noises just as the Lord desires!!!

NOW, IT’S YOUR TURN!

WHAT BIBLICAL VERSE IS ENCOURAGING YOU TODAY?

And, check out more Thursday Encouragement from my fellow blogger friends:

Trisha @ Joy of Reading

Jacquelyn @ A Heavenly Home

Jessica @ A Baker’s Perspective

Becca @ The Becca Files

If you would like to join us: please contact Trisha or Nicole