Category Archives: Devotional Life

The value of developing a relationship with God, The value of having a daily quiet time.

The Sins We Commit in Prayer – Matthew 6:5-8

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In Matthew 6:1-4 Jesus taught us how not to practice our righteousness, mainly in terms of our giving to the poor. Then in verses 5-8, He tells us how not to practice our prayers. He said,

“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.  6 “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

7 “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.  8 “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

From this passage we may identify two sins while going to prayer, or even in prayer. The first is that we may pray to be known and seen by others. We can call this sin…

1. Putting the Focus on Self When We Pray

So, first of all, when you hypocrites pray you are anxious to be known by others as being a great prayer warrior, or a holy man of prayer. Perhaps in your prayer group you get pleasure knowing that people think of you as a person of prayer. And so, thinking that they may regard you that way, you do everything possible to support their thoughts. Thus, you are quick to be the first to pray, and you will pray extra loud so that they can hear you.

But not only is the prayer-hypocrite anxious to be known by others as a person of prayer, he also wants to be seen as a man or woman of prayer. So, you may position yourself to be seen praying. Do you have a prayer room in your church? Do you enjoy having people see you go into the prayer room?

Prayer should not be that way. Prayer, Jesus said, is to God only. It is not for the eyes and ears of others. We should work on not being conscience of each other’s praying—that is, how they pray. Rather, when we pray, we should be carried on the wings of prayer so that we are always thinking on God.

The second sin we often commit in prayer is…

2. Thinking Too Much on The Form and Length of Time We Pray

We think that we will be heard for our beautiful words of prayer. You may think of this as “vain repetitions.” Perhaps you have heard of the terms “counting beads,” or “prayer wheels,” or “walking a labyrinth.” And many take great pride in repeating prayers over and over, thinking that this impresses God or others, or even yourself.

In all of what is said here, it is all the sin of self and pride—even in prayer. It is the sin of self-worship and self-adulation. When we try to worship God in our pride, we are actually worshipping self. Now we know that the best picture of man is to look at him on his knees waiting upon God. But even in that picture man sins if he thinks about himself as performing a holy act before God. Hence, sin is something that follows us into the presence of God.

So, when you pray try to shut out and forget yourself or what other are thinking about you.  Instead realize that you are in the presence of God and that He is listening to you and wants to meet your needs. Realize that He knows all your needs already and He desires to give you what you ask for.

Christian Can Rejoice Even When Facing Bad News

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I have been feeling kind of bleak this morning in terms of the election results. My candidate is not doing as well as I thought he would. But I found good news in Psalm 112. For those who fear the Lord they can be happy and look up—even when facing bad news. I will highlight the verses that stood out to me (from the NLT).

v. 1. Happy are those who fear the LORD.

v. 4. When darkness overtakes the godly light will come bursting in.

v. 6. Such people [the righteous] will not be overcome by evil circumstances.

v. 7. They do not fear bad news; they confidently trust the LORD to care for them.

v. 8. They are confident and fearless and can face their foes triumphantly.

My Conclusion

I don’t have to fear bad news.

I will not be overcome by evil circumstances.

I will face my foes triumphantly.

The Purpose Of A Prayer Ministry

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What the world could use most is prayer.  But for some reason most of us don’t understand the value of prayer.  We come up with all kinds of solutions to our problems, but we miss the most important one—prayer.  Prayer is the best solution because it brings us directly to God and gives us the power of God.

God is calling us to prayer.  He invites us to His throne, and He says to us, “Call on Me and I will answer you,” “Come to Me and I will give you rest.”  Moreover, He searches continually for the faithful, like Abraham, Moses, and Daniel who will sacrificially stand in the gap before Him (Ezek. 22:30).

But there are so few these days that are faithful in prayer.  And there are so few preachers who preach and teach and model prayer.  Peter Wagner, in his research, has found that 80% of the meaningful intercession in the average congregation is provided by only 5% of its people.

What is wrong?  Why don’t we see the need for prayer?  Why don’t our preachers preach on it more?

Well, one of the things we can do in our churches and fellowship groups to help people learn about prayer and how to pray is to provide a prayer ministry.

Two Purposes of a Prayer Ministry

A prayer ministry is simply a ministry having to do with prayer.  A prayer ministry I think has two purposes:

1.  It serves those who need prayer.  This is its primary purpose—to see that people are prayed for, as many as possible.

2.  It serves those who desire to pray.  To accomplish the first and primary purpose, a prayer ministry must service the needs of those who desire to pray.  This second objective I think is the main task of the prayer ministry—so that the primary purpose can be accomplished. 

The prayer ministry, then, as I see it, is a vehicle to help people pray: to teach them about prayer, and to motivate them to pray.  It may also provide for them people to pray with, people to pray for, a prayer atmosphere, and prayer tools.  Overall, a prayer ministry will help people to develop a desire for prayer, to feel the call of God to pray, and to gain a sense of responsibility to pray and intercede for others.

So, the prayer ministry covers a lot of ground.  It is a big service.  But we must be careful that we don’t get off track so that we lose our focus.  A prayer ministry should not be so focused on all the activities of its ministry, that it loses its focus on helping people pray.

I think this occupation with activities is what happens when leaders are more concerned with how the ministry looks then with people.  Leaders sometimes get so caught up with getting people to events to hear grand messages on prayer, and they get so enthused about their prayer breakfasts and prayer charts and prayer chains and prayer walks, etc., that they forget about how their people are doing, whether they are learning how to prayer or not.

The heart and focus of the prayer ministry is being involved with people, not events.  It exists to serve people—to counsel them and teach them and to help them grow in the Lord.  If all our prayer activities and prayer tools distract us from our focus then we must get rid of them.  They do us no good.  Likewise, if we as leaders spend most of our time at our desk making plans and writing sermons, etc., and very little time with our people, that is just wrong!  Jesus spent most of his time with His disciples.  They learned by being with Him.  They learned how to pray mainly by watching Him pray and by praying with Him.  Let us as prayer leaders seek to do the same as Jesus did. 

Source: My book, Prayer A to Z, pp. 293-294.

Plan to Pray Long

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There are so many people with so many needs, which require us to spend much time in prayer.  But, as Wesley Duewel has said, “We will never have enough time for prayer unless we deliberately plan for it…The time we give to prayer by deliberately planning is the measure of our value of prayer.  It is the truest measure of our love for Jesus.”5

I urge you to follow our Lord’s example in praying at night and in the early morning.  If the Lord is calling you to get up early in the morning to pray, if you want to be powerfully used by God and if you want to really know Him, you must immediately get up when He wakes you.  As E. M. Bounds has said, “No man gets God who does not follow hard after Him.”6

So wake your lazy bones up and get going with God (I’m talking to myself)!   If you are prone to be lazy and want to sleep in, I urge you to instead follow the desire to pray.  That holy desire will provide for you a great blessing when you heed its call.  And when you have decided that you are going to rise early to pray, that decision, backed up with action, will break all your self-indulgent chains, giving you greater and greater strength and desire for God.

Besides morning and evening prayers, Sunday afternoon is a great time to spend an hour or two in prayer.  What better time to use for prayer than the Lord’s Day.

If you are planning to pray long, don’t be discouraged if the first few minutes are especially difficult.  It seems, at least for me, that after twenty minutes or so of struggling in prayer, the rest of the time is more enjoyable and less of a struggle.  That is because it often takes that long to enter into that heavenly realm where you are in awe of God. 

When you get to that place in your prayers, you will almost forget that you are on earth struggling in the flesh; you will be more conscious that you are with God in the heavenly places.  That is, you will be so taken up with God that you will forget all about your earthly affairs.  In that blissful time, your thoughts will be more with God’s thoughts; therefore, you won’t be concerned with all of your worries; you will be more concerned for the will of God.  During that sweet time of prayer, you won’t be thinking about what you could be doing or what you should be doing; rather, you will be so overcome with desire for God that all you will want to do is to drink and imbibe deeply of His love. 

I challenge you to extend your prayer time for longer than twenty minutes.  It will be less of a struggle from then on.  And the blessings that follow will be tremendous!

5 Wesley Duewel, Mighty Prevailing Prayer (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Francis Asbury Press, of Zondervan Publishing House, 1990), p. 160.

6 E. M. Bounds, Power through Prayer, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House), 1979, p. 58.

My Update (10/3/2020): Cleaning, Publishing, Prayer, Work

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Its been a couple of weeks since I’ve given you an update. I’m not a diary person; I find that this personal blog kind of fulfills that purpose—and more. Anyway, I will start with my apartment…

Cleaning the apartment. I have been in my apartment for just over 20 years and now we have a new management company; and they are stricter. They recently came in—while I was gone—and did an inspection. They said I needed to clean my fridge and bathtub and bathroom floor; and they are coming back in a month to check it.  Well, I’m feeling kind of upset over it, but now that I’m getting busy cleaning, I think it’s a good thing for me—God’s will.

Publishing my book. I’m a self-publisher and I’m now in that process with my last book. Editing is easy, just reading it through and checking things. But yesterday I spent about three hours trying to delete the header info from a blank page! I finely figured it out. It helps to click on “help” on my MS word. They gave me a five-point answer, and it worked! Next, I will check it over one last time and then put it in a pdf form and send it to Lulu (a printing co.) to be printed and bound. Oh, and I also have to send them my designed cover page. Lulu does a good job at making the books, but they don’t do much to sell it for you. I’m gonna half to think of ways to sell my books myself. I just have to do it—even though it really isn’t my gift.

Trump and Country. I have a blog with that name, but I quit on it a few months ago. It was too stressful for me. But though I don’t blog on politics much anymore, I do keep up with watching the Fox videos and also some reading. More and more these days I have been feeling a strong burden to pray for President Trump and this country—in that order. Every morning when I pray, he is the first item on my list: for his health, strength, and wisdom. I also pray that just judgment would be done on all those evil forces (evil people) coming against him and this country. Please pray with me. Christians, please pray. It is your most important duty. Nothing but prayer will work to come against the darkness; only God is strong enough to come against it. And He chooses to work mostly through our prayers.

My healthy and work. I want to keep working in my painting business, but I am retired and I’m slowing down. In some respects, my work is good to give me exercise. But if I overdo it, which I always tend to do, my arthritis flares up and my muscles get really sore for a few days. The key is to find the right balance between work and rest. It’s kind of nice to not be bothered by work for a few days, because I like to just sit and read and do my writing. I hope and pray that my writing will be a benefit to others, that it won’t be a meaningless or just a self-fulfilling exercise.  I’ll be praying about it, and then commit it to Him—and wait for His peace.

God bless you my fellow bloggers and followers. Keep up your good work and encouraging words. Prayer to you always.

Stephen

A History of Prayer Posture

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer A to Z

Through both Old and New Testament times, standing for prayer seemed to be the norm for public prayer.  Such positions as sitting and kneeling were almost never practiced in public prayer, but were more often practiced in private prayers.

Shortly after the advent of Christ, however, kneeling began to be practiced more often, especially in public worship.  In fact, according to an article written by a Markus Bochmuel, the first entire half of the service was practiced while kneeling, followed by the rest of the service in which the congregation stood.  I presume that this new movement of kneeling in the service (during which a liturgy was said) began by the insistent teaching of the church fathers that kneeling was “a necessary expression of humility and submission.”  No doubt, all these holy minded church fathers had a clear and lasting picture of what they knew and heard about Jesus and…

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Planting Seeds of the Gospel

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In my reading today I was struck by the passage in Mark 4:26-28.

And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil;  27 and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows — how, he himself does not know.  28 “The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head.

My observation here is that God calls us to plant the seeds of the gospel. I think for a Christian that is his primary task. And that task is very simple; just plant the seed and leave it alone. God will do the rest. He will cause it to grow. Too often I think we are too concerned that we will do something wrong or not enough. So, we do nothing out of fear.

The passage says that the farmer planted the seeds in a field and then he left the field and goes about doing whatever he does: he goes to bed and gets up. I grew up on a farm and that is basically what you do. You put the seeds in a planter, then you drive the tractor back and forth over the field planting the seed, until the whole field is planted. Then you go home, put your tractor and planter away, go have supper, and eventually go to bed. There is no more that the farmer needs to do with that field. There is no more that he can do. He trusts that rain will come and water the seeds and that the seeds will grow. And that is exactly what happens—every time!

Now in the meantime, as he waits for the seeds to grow, he continues to work. Perhaps he will plant seeds in another field, or he will cultivate a field that he had previously planted, where the corn seeds had grown. The point is that he will not worry about the seeds growing; he will keep working doing whatever God calls him to do—trusting that the seed will grow as it always does without the farmers help.

I will say again that I think many of us, including myself, are not always doing what we are called to do: we are not planting seeds of the gospel. We do all kinds of Christian things, but we are not planting seeds. We are not sharing our faith: in a conversation, in a blog or tweet or text.  It doesn’t take much: a bible verse, a thought from the word, a lesson learned. Any small truth as small as a mustard seed can grow into a very large plant—which represents something very substantial that we may contribute to the kingdom of God.

My Update: 5 things

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Okay, I’ll get right to it…

My work. I’m a retired painter—not a lot going on. Tomorrow or the next day I will wash a deck and paint it. I do this particular deck every 3 or 4 years. The next two jobs are doors—to repaint a few doors—easy. After that I have a bedroom to paint. So, what I have lined up is easy, a little boring, but just enough to keep me out of trouble.

Bible reading. I always manage to keep myself busy, but for some reason I feel that I have sadly neglected my time in the word. Yesterday I decided that I would spend two half-hour periods reading the bible—where I am at in Exodus. I liked it. It did me good. I’m gonna try to keep doing that. I have sort of prided myself for being faithful to a morning quiet time. But recently I feel the need for more and something less structured. My goal is to fill my mind with the word of God; to meditate more on it.

My book writing. I’m sort of at a lull in my writing. I had two different books going, but I finished them. Now I’m going through them one at a time, editing them; so I am basically just checking grammar and spelling and to make sure everything is said right.

Photography and walking. For me those things go together. Without my camera walking would be too much of a chore. But walking with my camera is like hunting and an adventure. I’m always hunting with my eyes for the perfect shot. Yesterday while walking I was quite disappointed by all the overgrown weeds and grass, but I did spot two beautiful purple Morning Glories (pictured). My walk was worth it just to see them. And the way the light reflected out of the middle of the trumpet bell is gorgeous!

The Coronavirus and globalism. I am getting so turned off by all the hype and news that the pandemic is getting. I really don’t think that it is as serious as the media is telling us. But the globalists are ecstatic about it. Finally, something came along that will help unite the world. Now all they need is one vaccine for the whole world. The only disappointment they have is the US, Israel, and the Christians.

They are so angry at Donald Trump and his nationalist views. If only they could somehow get Biden to win the November election. We will see what happens. But I have a feeling that they will be in for a constant fight until the Rapture. But after the Rapture everything will change. The Rapture itself will be the driving force for globalism. It will propel all the world leaders to come together to strategize their global agenda. I think, instead of being horrified at all the disappearances the devil will cause them to be gleeful at the new global prospects.

My Nature walk along the River

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Every couple weeks or so I like to walk along the Mississippi River on this trail. In this photo I am looking back from where I just walked.

Usually the trail is rugged, but here the way is flat and easier walking. But as you can see, you have to watch where you are going or you will tumble into the river. I walked along this path for a while, and then when the trail ended I took a sharp right up to another broader trail.

Here we are on the broader trail, or it is more like a road. In fact, I often see workers drive on this road.

Looking to the left, you see the river again through this jungle of trees.

Here is a rare sight this early in the spring. So lovely! All of these beautiful sights are God’s special gifts for me to enjoy.

Here the trail winds around these trees; and though the way is darker, I know that God is still with me. “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for He is with me.”

Here the path is quite narrow. “Narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

The path suddenly turns green. It’s beautiful here. “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.”


Up the path and to the left I viewed this red-winged black bird in the swamp.

I have often wondered why this clump of grass always grows taller in this area. Perhaps there is something or somebody buried there that makes the ground more fertile. This reminds me of where we used to live in Delano, Minnesota. We had this corn field and there were places where the corn would grow almost twice as tall as the other corn. One fall day my dad decided that before plowing he would burn the field because he had let it get so overgrown with weeds. Well, it happened that after the weeds had burned off, the ground just kept burning and burning. We discovered that the earth was full of peat soil, and peat burns. So all you farmers, before you decide to burn your field make sure you don’t have peat or you will have a mess, and the good peat will be burned up and good for nothing,