Praying Without Ceasing

 Romans 12 verse 12, 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 16-18, Psalm 66 verse 18, Ephesians 6 verse 18, Colossians 4 verse 2, Matthew 6 verse 6, Romans 8 verse 26, 2 Chronicles 7 verse 14, Luke 18 verse 1, 1 John 5:14, Jeremiah 33 verse 3, John 14 verse 13, Luke 21 verse 36, Hebrews 4 verse 16, Daniel 6 verse 10, Jon 15 verse 7, Psalm 118 verse 17, Romans 1 verse 9, 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 11, James 5 verse 13, Romans 8 verse 34 and Acts 2 verse 42. In the scriptures that we read we see that it's important to pray and to pray without ceasing but to also give all of our requests and make our requests known to Him. We see how that prayer can be an important but crucial part of our life's testimony and that we shouldn't stop praying to our Savior who gives us new life every single morning to breathe.

Which brings me to the song that Matthew West released called Don't Stop Praying. I want to share some of those lyrics now as a way of I'm hoping these lyrics can help better understand what we read in everything but also how we can apply it to our lives and help all of those around us come to know God.

What's your impossible? Your "I need a miracle", What's got you barely hanging by a single thread?

What looks so hopeless now? What weighs down your heart with doubt? You beg for a breakthrough, but no sign of breakthrough yet, When you've cried, and you've cried 'til your tears run dry, The answer won't come, and you don't know why And you wonder if you can bow your head even one more time

Don't stop praying, Don't stop calling on Jesus' name, Keep on pounding on Heaven's door And let your knees wear out the floor, Don't stop believing, 'Cause mountains move with just a little faith And your Father's heard every single word you're saying, So, don't stop praying, He's close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit, The Alpha and Omega knows how your story ends.

When you've cried, and you've cried 'til your tears run dry, The answer won't come, and you don't know why
And you wonder if you can bow your head even one more time, Oh, do it one more time And don't stop praying, Don't stop calling on Jesus' name, Keep on pounding on Heaven's door And let your knees wear out the floor, Don't stop believing, 'Cause mountains move with just a little faith, And your Father's heard every single word you're saying, So, don't stop praying.

Pray without ceasing because Satan is preying without ceasing.  

Prayer reminds us of who we are compared to God. He is in control when all feels out of control.

To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.

God's command to pray without ceasing is founded on the necessity we have of His grace to preserve the life of God in the soul, which can no more subsist one moment without it, than the body can with air.

I wanted to end on all of this because I feel it's important to be reminded of how prayer works, and how prayer is a very important crucial part in our life to where we see God's Love, Mercy, and His Grace.

 

A Light From A Shifting Shadow

James 1:16-18 says: Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

The Shifting Shadows we move away from that might be bad because we are afraid to let go of our past hurts, has overcome with a light that is Christ and allows us to Shift from a Shadow of doubt to a shadow of light in Christ so that our everlasting life is created and crafted in the scrapbook of our testimony in order to grow of the child we are becoming more and more in the eyes of Him and to know He doesn't let go in the things that we face daily.

Which is where when I was hearing Cassie Clayton sing on Red's Room, I thought what to do for my January 24th study and well what about shifting shadows but then as she was singing, I thought well what about A Light from A Shifting Shadow, so that we could take the Shadow of fear and doubt, the shadow that shifts into the worriedness of anxiety, all of what the enemy would like us to shift our focus on but if we start shifting that shadow of light, a ray of hope, a light that overcomes all things through Christ then we don't allow the enemy to win in the shadow of fear or doubt, because that shadow has shifted into A Light of Gratitude to where we are able to overcome obstacles with God leading our every step that we take.

I was coming up with different titles last night of things that could easily be song titles but I also want to share how these titles can fit into a study like this one also.

You see with A Servant's Heart, we have The heart of a Servant Of Grace with A Gem Of Love,  Love of God, an abundant of  Gems Of Mercy,  A Gem of A Thousand Words where A Thousand Words In Arms Of Jesus can never fail,  In The Arms Of Jesus, and A Beauty Within The Heart Of Jesus will never be broken or forgotten as we live daily to be like Christ and even if we sometimes fall short, we know that God is with us in all of these things and giving us hope for a future and for eternity.

I want to look at just a few more scriptures that we can apply to our Life's Testimony in all of this.

2 Timothy 1 verse 7, Philippians 4 verse 6-7, Psalm 34 verse 4, Joshua 1 verse 9, 1 Peter 5 verse 7, John 14 verse 27, Isaiah 35 verse 4, Matthew 6 verse 34, James 1 verse 6, Proverbs 3 verse 5-8, Matthew 14 verse 31, Jude 1 verse 22, Mark 9 verse 24, Isaiah 41 verse 10, Hebrews 11 verse 1, Jeremiah 29 verse 11-13, John 1 verse 5, John 8 verse 12, Matthew 5 verse 16, Psalm 27 verse 1, Matthew 5 verse 14, Psalm 119 verse 130, 2 Corinthians 4 verse 6, Ephesians 5 verse 8, Colossians 3 verse 2, Proverbs 4 verse 25, Matthew 6 verse 33, Romans 8 verse 5, Philippians 4 verse 13, Isaiah 26 verse 3, Psalm 119:2, Romans 12 verse 2, 1 Chronicles 16 verse 11, John 3 verse 16-17, and 2 Timothy 3 verse 16-17.

In all of these we see how our Fears, our doubts, our anxieties that we have can be conquered through light, that we don't have to doubt but to keep our hope and our Faith in Jesus Christ because we keep that hope and faith in Him to where we can shift our focus from the things that scare us, and really start to focus our hope and faith in Him and that's where we shift our main focus then we can start seeing that Shadow of Light because we are no longer having the shifting shadow of fear, anxiety and doubt, but rather we are having our focus be a shifting shadow of light, the light which is Christ. The Light that allows us to see the good in the things we want to draw close to in Him where we are loved by Him, 

Psalm 91 verse 1-2 says this: Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High  will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

With this we can shift our focus into Christ with a shadow of light and not a shadow of doubt.

Which brings me to this quote that I want to share: Change like Shifting Shadows.

I wanted to share this quote because I wanted this as reminder that we are never alone.

That if we change our focus of a shifting shadow that is doubt, fear, and anxiety to a shadow of light, hope, and trust then our shifting shadows of the bad turns into good cause we put our Hope and Faith in Jesus Christ who loves all of us as His Beloved children each and everyday and because He loves us, we can remember to change our focus from the bad to good just like a shifting shadow of what the enemy may try to rob, steal, kill and destroy.

Because just like this quote that I want to end on, it says this: Nothing Is Impossible With God.

2 

Love One Another As God First Loved Us

 Psalm 40 verse 10-11, John 13 verse 34-35, John 3 verse 16, 1 John 3 verse 23, 1 John 4 verse 8, 1 John 4 verse 7, John 15 verse 13, 1 John 3 verse 1, 1 John 4 verse 16, 1 Corinthians 13 verse 13, Ephesians 4:2.

Come all you weary, Come all you thirsty, Come to the well, That never runs dry, Drink of the water, Come and thirst no more, Well, come all you sinners, Come find His mercy, Come to the table, He will satisfy, Taste of His goodness, Find what you're looking for, For God so loved, The world that He gave us, His one and only Son to save us, Whoever believes in Him, Will live forever, Bring all your failures, Bring your addictions, Come lay them down, At the foot of the cross, Jesus is waiting there, With open arms, see His open arms, For God so loved, The world that He gave us, His one and only Son to save us, Whoever believes in Him, Will live forever

The power of hell, Forever defeated, Now it is well, I'm walking in freedom, For God so loved, God so loved the world, Praise God, Praise God, From whom all blessings flow, Praise Him, Praise Him, For the wonders of His love (praise God).

For God so loved the world, That He gave His only begotten son, That whosoever believeth in Him, Should not perish but have everlasting life, Now that is the gospel in a nutshell, Everything you need to know, About redemption and salvation is in that one verse of scripture, Twenty-five wonderful words, Some say they're just nothin', But some words upon a page, In a dusty old Bible at a backroad revival Or a Sunday school lesson from childhood days, Yeah, and some say they're just numbers, Just some numbers on a sign, 3:16, they don't mean a thing, We see it all the time, but the world pays no mind, Well all I can tell you is what it means to me, These are the numbers of my hope, These are the words that set me free, They tell the story of a Savior, Who gave His life for me And with all that is within me I believe, For God so loved, So loved the world, He gave His one and only Son, For God so loved, My daddy was a preacher, He made me who I am, Told me Jesus wants to reach you And Jesus did through Billy Graham, I heard him talking through that TV

He said, "Come just as I am", so I came, Now in my life I've failed and fallen, I have drifted far and wide, I have wandered from my calling, I've believed that devil's lies, But I never have forgotten, The Truth that pulled me from the bottom, From the day I joined that prodigal parade, For God so loved, So loved the world, He gave His one and only Son, For God so loved, yeah, All who believe Will never die, But you will have eternal life, For God so loved, Yeah, Hallelu, Hallelujah, You sent Your One and only Son, For God so loved, Sing Hallelu, sing Hallelujah, Hallelujah, You sent Your One and only Son, For God so Loved, Every life's defining moment, Is the moment you decide, What will you do with Jesus?, Will you let Him change your life? Well, it's an open invitation, Calling out to everyone, It don't matter where you've been, It don't matter what you've done, Hear that still small voice calling, It's calling you to come, And if these words wash over you, Your new life has begun, Your new life has begun, Your new life.

So Many times I felt so weak, Wondering if I’ll ever be strong to keep on Going, I felt unstoppable unbreakable but deep in my Heart I knew I was hurting so many times I left things unspoken, Hard times had made me realize that I’m not that strong on my Own we all are stitched in the Heart of God so Love one another as Christ loved you because you’ll never know what someone’s going through, We can’t make it on our Own

Sometimes in our lives we tend to judge when it seems we disregard ourselves we all bleed the same and hurt the same together we’re strong so why are we so Divided open up your hearts and see that this is true , Jesus knows how it feels to be alone we all need each other.

In everything that we read and what was shared in song lyrics, we can see that we love one another just as Christ has loved us because we know that nothing can separate from the Love of God.

We know that God loves us because He is Love and we know nothing can change His Love for Us.

Beloved Believe He Died To Make Your Heart His Home.

We know that as His Beloved Children that no matter what we go through, we can see how God is making all things new and working together for our good and for His Glory.

No matter what we face in life, we know that we should try to love each other as Christ loves us.

I want to share a song called Love God, Love People.

I've been running in circles, Jumping the hurdles, Getting caught in that rush of doing so much, I'm feeling kinda worn out, All this checking the boxes, Tryna be flawless, Has me spinning my head, catching my breath, Too afraid to slow down, I tell myself to keep this up, That God wants more than just my love, But I've been complicating things, It's just like me to overthink, Gotta keep it real simple, keep it real simple, Bring everything right back to ground zero, 'Cause it all comes down to this, Love God and love people (people), We're living in a world that keeps breakin', But if we wanna find the way to change it, It all comes down to this, Love God and love people.

We see in this song that when we love God, we can also love the people around us daily and show them that God's love is forever because no matter what that kind of love will never ever fade away.

Let us remember all of this as we go about our week in Loving as Jesus Loves, remembering how God first Loved us before we came into this world and so let's remember to try and show Love to one another just as God first Loved Us and still loves us daily and calls us His Beloved in every way.

Jesus calls us to love one another. Even ones who are unlovely. Jesus loved the unloved and unlovely. Love others as God Loves us.