Tag: praising God

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Chapter 3: On Prayer–Prayer: just do it … but how?

For years I struggled with praying to God in a heartfelt, meaningful and appropriate way. I say appropriate because after all, I was coming to the Lord and Creator of everything, who is also my heavenly Father.  My heart yearned to communicate with God sincerely, yet I usually ended up feeling frustrated, feeling I was falling short. Though I had read the Psalms and other prayers in the Bible, I hadn’t picked up on elements of approaching God in prayer which were within those portions of scripture.

I remember when I was introduced to a simple way of approaching God, easy to remember, one that was rooted in the scriptures, called the ACTS of prayer (prayercentral.net) . You could use four fingers on one hand to remind yourself of the acrostic, which stand for the following:

 A is for Adoration. Approach God in humility, reverence and awe and worship Him for who He is. We learn about Him as we read and study the Bible. He is Holy and we must approach Him as such (Luke 11: 2).

C is for Confession. Sin acts as a wall between us and God, effectively blocking our prayers (Isaiah 59:2). We need to be sensitive to God’s Spirit on a daily basis, as He speaks conviction to us, and confess and repent of all known sin as soon as we are aware of it (I John 1: 8, 9). That way, communication with God remains open.

T is for Thanksgiving. The greatest acceptable sacrifice we can make to God, along with laying our lives at His feet as a living sacrifice, is that of thanksgiving and praise (Hebrews 13: 15).  Our prayers are to be seasoned with them.

S is for Supplication. This is the part we normally think of as prayer: asking God for something (Luke 11: 9, 10).  Our requests must be couched in the reverence and worship due God, seeking first His will in the matter, purged of known sin through confession and repentance,  wrapped in trust and infused with thanksgiving.

The disciples of Jesus apparently had feelings and experiences with prayer similar to mine for they asked Him to teach them to pray:

“Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.’

So He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread.  And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’” (Luke 11:1-4, NKJV)

In this prayer we can see quite well the elements of the ACTS of prayer: Adoration, Confession, and Supplication. Though Thanksgiving is not obvious in this prayer, thankfulness is clearly taught throughout the Bible in such passages as:

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.” (Psalm 100:4, NKJV)

“[D]o not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6, 7, ESV)

Another is:

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which you were called in one body; and be thankful.” (Colossians 3:15, NKJV)

The scriptures are full of psalms and prayers and from them we can learn the proper manner in which to come to God, and what to pray for. We need to look for and carefully study them as we read our Bibles.

Practice coming to God in a way similar to prayers in the Bible, psalms and the way the simple ACTS acrostic teaches us. This is not formulaic prayer, it is prayer learned from God’s word itself. This type of approach to God is what I am trying to learn and do. It has been working for me, guiding me into the presence of God in a manner worthy of Him. There are other similar, biblical approaches to prayer. Find one which resonates and use it. They are only means to an end: Prayer— just do it!

 

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Chapter 2: Importance of the Bible–Decisions, Decisions

When I made the decision to praise God, it was really the decision to submit to His Sovereignty in my life, just like my dad did when he gave me up to God. All the rest of my decisions have been shaped by that initial choice, and my emotions trailed along behind. The Bible played a key role in this decision and the consequences flowing from it.

“For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope”. (Romans 15:4)

These two things, perseverance and encouragement of the scriptures, are important factors in getting through tough times. The scriptures are full of encouragement because they are about God’s dealings with people, people just like you and me. Here is an excerpt from my first blog, written days after my first cancer surgery:

What is hopeless and impossible with man is not so for God, for all things are possible with God. Am I scared? Of course I am. Do I have anger and fears? Absolutely. I cry to the Lord who hears and understands, and who alone can do anything about them. I cast myself on his mercy. If others hadn’t been in similar situations we wouldn’t have the scriptures which are full of such agonies. Now I choose to affirm my faith in the God Who Is. And He highly values faith.

Encouragement of the scriptures only comes from reading the scriptures on a regular basis. This is what I was talking about earlier, when I said I continued my reading in the Psalms after my cancer diagnosis. I had made reading scripture a part of my life, really hearing what it has to say and letting it sink in. No one hands encouragement of the scriptures to you apart from reading or hearing the scriptures. From the Bible I learned about what others have gone through down through the centuries, many of them much worse than my circumstances. I read how God was present with them and helped those who trusted in Him, and I gained encouragement in the midst of my scary situation.

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Chapter 2: The Importance of the Bible–Not by Myself

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:8)

Opening my Bible, I turned to the next Psalm in my daily reading, which began, “Praise the LORD! I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart…” (Psalm 111:1) and my heart said, no, I don’t want to, I don’t feel like praising God. I feel like I’ve just been punched. I’d rather demand why this is happening to me. I have a heavy weight someone just dumped on me and I definitely do not like it, especially since it can kill me.

It was the day after I received a diagnosis of breast cancer. I was sitting in the bedroom of our son’s home, 3000 miles from our home in West Virginia. My husband and I had been on our way to the airport the day before, stopping at the doctor’s office to get the results of my biopsy on our way out of town. We were heading to California to spend the Christmas and New Year holidays with our children and grandchildren and had been anticipating this time with great delight; it is hard being a continent away from the ones you love the most in the world. Now not only did we have to absorb and manage this news of cancer for ourselves, but we had to share it with our two sons and their wives. It seemed extra difficult to find the right time because it was the Christmas season.

As I read the Psalm that morning with these feelings and thoughts of hurt, confusion, anger and fear steam rolling through my head and heart, another part of me simultaneously acknowledged, “Yes, I will praise the LORD, because I know that is just what I need to do, it is what I must do”, especially since I was so hurt and didn’t want to do it.

I already knew, from years of living with MG, a severe muscle weakness, how important it was that I do choose to praise God in the face of these conflicting and dark feelings. If I only praise God in the sunny meadows, when life seems nice and comfortable, but refuse to praise Him in the dark valley where fear and pain stalk, I would be a hypocrite. Besides, it makes no sense to turn my back on God, cutting off my only source of comfort and strength and hope right when I most needed these things.

That moment, I chose to praise God; a sheer act of the will. Let me tell you, my emotions were not on-board at that point. This was not an easy decision. It was a struggle. But I knew that if I chose according to how I felt at that moment, I’d end up in the depths of despair and would have a long hard battle to dig myself out of that pit. This was not academic head knowledge. I had been on the edge of that dark pit of depression many times. I knew from experience not to go there.

When I made the decision to praise God, turning my back on that dark, deep pit of anger and fear, it was really the decision to submit to His Sovereignty in my life, just like my dad did when he gave me up to God. All the rest of my decisions have been shaped by that initial choice, and my emotions trailed along behind. The Bible played a key role in this decision and the consequences flowing from it.

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If you write it …

Brokenness to Beauty: Transforming Your Brokenness into a Beautiful Life

Everyone needs encouragement. We all go through difficulties in life and look to those who can give us a word of wisdom, an understanding ear, a word to carry us through the dark times.  And sometimes we need more than a word. We need someone to come alongside us with compassionate assistance.

Encouragement comes in various forms. I believe there is benefit in sharing what one has learned about walking through the good and bad times, about living a life worth living regardless of what comes our way, passing down truth from one generation to another, one friend to another. I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a Christian, and Christians have an obligation to serve one another in love and pass on to the next generation and others around us the lessons God has taught us.

I found as I blogged my journey through cancer treatment, the readers were encouraged by how I went through it. Since every person will go through some form of suffering, difficulty or tragedy in the course of life, either personally or through someone they are close to (a simple reality, folks), it is important to learn how to go through these times in such a way as to come out the other side not only intact, but better for the journey; in essence, to turn one’s brokenness into beauty.

Since childhood I’ve lived with a chronic disease. I couldn’t ignore physical struggles. What I learned, as I observed life, was that no one—no matter how strong and healthy, no matter how gifted or talented, no matter how well-off financially—no one is immune to sickness, disease, injury, pain; loss of loved ones through disease, death, divorce or war; loss of support structures; mistreatment; loss of job, status, social standing. You name it, you and I can be affected by any or all of these in a heartbeat.

For as many people as there are in the world, there are as many different responses to suffering. I’ve seen some people who tragically fall apart. Some turn their backs on God, “losing their faith.” Some people turn to deceptive and destructive “aids” such as alcohol or drugs. Others even walk away from the pain and agony of suffering family members, leaving a wake of ruined relationships and bloodied, trampled hearts. Many become bitter, blaming anything and anyone, especially God, for their woes, clearly revealing their belief that suffering should never have come their way, as though they should be somehow exempt.

Then there are others who appear to just survive, getting through the hard times, as the old saying goes, “by the skin of their teeth.” They grumble and complain their way through it all, with a dark cloud over their lives, like Eeyore, the pitiable friend of Winnie the Pooh. Not an appealing sight.

Thankfully, we’ve also seen those who seem to go through suffering and trials with poise, with grace in the midst of their struggles. Though they have real fears and battles, they aren’t beaten down but actually thrive as a result of their ordeals, real ordeals, coming out the other side of the dark valley stronger and better for their time of struggle. They encourage onlookers by their spirit in the throes of troubles. How do they do it? The answer has more to do with what is inside us than what comes at us from the outside.

I’ve heard from people who went through terrible ordeals and yet came through them praising God that as a result of that ordeal they have a stronger faith in and a deeper relationship with God, that they are better human beings for the experience. Because I’ve had to deal with Myasthenia Gravis (MG), I’ve learned valuable lessons in how to live. I’ve been learning for most of my life to allow my brokenness to change my character, transforming my weakness into inner strength. It matters not what we are born with or what comes into our lives. It only matters what we do with those things.

As an adult in mid-life I was diagnosed with breast cancer, a whole new world of threat. I worked through it day by day. Cancer presented new challenges and new fears for me to face, and those challenges and fears weren’t easier than others I’d faced previously; they were just different. I came to realize, however, that the way I dealt with these new cancer challenges and fears was the same way I dealt with the old familiar challenges and fears of MG.

Facing the scary reality of cancer in my life, dealing with it day by day, I added the dimension of blogging about my struggles as I went through treatment.  To my surprise, the readers told me my blog postings encouraged them, time after time. It has been these readers, along with other significant people in my life, who have prompted me to write this book. They told me numerous times I should write a book so more people could benefit from what God has been teaching me about going through suffering and thriving through it, about using my brokenness to create a beautiful life.

This blog will present my book, “Brokenness to Beauty: Transforming Your Brokenness into a Beautiful Life”.  Most of the book will be here in my blog postings, but not all of it. I plan to publish the complete book when I finish blogging it.

So come along on this journey with me from blog to book … from Brokenness to Beauty.