Prayer

Prayer is something that for me I can easily slack off on. But why? I love talking to other people it is one of my favorite things. And God talks to me through His word and I think that I think oh God knows my heart I don't actually need to talk to Him, He already knows everything I am going to say. But the truth is God wants to talk to us!! We can be so humbled when we pray and literally get on our knees and cry out to Him! Sometimes I just go off on tangents and talk to Him about what I thought about the day and tell Him what I am thankful for! This really great speaker at camp 2 years ago Wes Davis had the acronym ACTS. I think it's pretty common but very important! A-adoration(worship) what do we love about God!! C-confession. T-thanksgiving! So many blessings! And S-supplication or requests. 

I love The Lord's Prayer. There is someone that I know that says a lot of times they go back to just praying that! “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. ’ (Matthew 6:9-13 NIV). Matthew 6 is great to talk about prayer. We shouldn't pray in front of others just so they can see us pray or so we can check it off our lists because that is not really connecting with God. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:6 NIV). This is not to say that you always have to pray this way but just being in private with God and really focusing your full heart and self on Him and not being distracted is a pretty special thing!! If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9 NIV). This is so true. We can't just keep going like God knows we are sorry or we won't do it again because no! We need His help not to do it again! We can begin to forget how powerful sin really is! 

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. (Psalm 118:1 NIV). Do you ever really think about how great and perfect Gods heart is and how sinful and sad ours is especially without Him! His love is so perfect and does battle through any trial! If we aren't focusing on God or speaking to Him than we will start spending our time with something else even if it is of Him we still need to be with Him in order to serve and love Him! I try to start my mornings on my knees praying and then in His word but not to be legalistic about it just to get my day off to the start with Him before I do anything else! God has really blessed this time!