Focus

Hearing God’s Truth

FeaturedLeave a comment

Read John 14

Verse 15:

“If you love me, you will obey my commandments.”

Why do I not listen to God? Is it because I cannot hear him in my noisy world?

I listen to people I know. I listen to their personal testimonies and take them at their word. The truth is I don’t consciously and deliberately put up my hand to God to say, “stop!”

Do I love the company of misery more?

Truth is difficult to hear through ignorant ears. Love is difficult to feel when the heart is surrounded in the barbed wire of despair. Obedient advice becomes optional not imperative when I listen to someone other than God allowing the world to consume my attention and my actions.

Why am I so insensitive and obstinate to know the one who treats me as His child?

God will never tell me, “I told you so” because He loved me first. Once I realize I have constantly shown Him disrespect, I feel the shame and humiliation of my ignorance and take responsibility for my despair by actively searching for His voice.

Dear Lord, I praise Your wisdom and I ask for Your forgiveness to being easily led by foolish and self-centered pursuits. Help me to open my ears and unburden my heart to You so I may fully hear Your voice instead of the world’s. Guide me with Your peace so I may no longer be troubled or cowardly. Thank you for the Spirit of Your Truth. I love you! I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen

Prayer Journal tips (2)

Examining our circumstances in a prayer journal will help us to gain perspective by opening our hearts and ears to hear God’s will in our life. Sometimes the words flow like a rushing river and other times they are like a drip from a leaky faucet. At one point in my prayer journal, I was only able to draw a small box in the middle of the page. In time God showed me the box was a metaphor for my authentic voice. The power of a prayer journal is the ability to trace the footsteps of our walk with God.

Visualizing God’s Presence

FeaturedLeave a comment

Read Isaiah 40

Verse 26: 

Look at the sky and see.
Who created these things?
Who brings out the stars one by one?
He calls them all by name.
Because of the greatness of his might and the strength of his power,
not one of them is missing.

If I am a child of God, where can I see the tremendous treasures of His holiness and His triumphs in my life? How do I see the face of God and not depend on idols?

My ability to bring my mind and thoughts into focus is to feel God’s warmth with the sun on my face, the gentle caress of my hair in the wind, see the beauty of the rosebud that may one day bloom, and the colors of autumn’s wisdom as the days fade. 

What in my life has shifted my focus away from the sunrises and sunsets that God paints for me each day? Or the soothing rain that shares my tears from heaven?

I am powerless when faced with my life’s difficulties on my own. I am unable to endure the darkness when it is God who I need. My futility in prayer is my inability to visualize God in my life when He surrounds me each day in nature. I humbly ask God’s forgiveness and boldly ask Him to correct my blurred vision to see the guiding sun and moon of His eternal presence in my circumstances and in the lives of others too.

Dear Lord, I give you all the praise and glory! Thank you for calling me by name to draw me close and by the power of your love so I may not wander away from you. I love you! In Jesus Christ’s name, I pray. Amen

Prayer Journal tips (2)Transcribe a Bible verse(s) each day in your prayer journal. Transcribing Bible verses honors God and aids in your meditative focus and memorization. When referring back to your prayer journal, your transcribed Bible verses reinforce God’s Word and His promises as they are revealed to you in your life. It will transform your prayer life!