Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Prayer. Praise. Worship. Thankfulness

In 1 Thessalonians 5:18  "give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." In Philippians 4:6-7 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." In Psalm 28:6-7 "Blessed be the Lord, because He has heard the voice of my supplications! The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, And with my song I will praise Him."Read those verses a few times and let that sink in. Let it marinate on your mind and meditate on them. Read them slowly and savor the taste because the Lord is good. Then continue reading. It's okay, I will wait. 

I thank God for every hit and every person who has taken the time to read what I post. To be honest, when I use to look at the statistics for my blog and only see a few hits on what I just posted, it would bother me. I know the Lord is using me via this blog to edify, teach, correct and encourage the end times church. I would write what I thought was hot holy fire and only a few people are reading what I post. But the Lord is showing me to give thanks even for the few people who come to my blog. He is the one who draws them in. Not me. So thank God for the few who follow me and read my posts. You are all a blessing to me. I thank God for entrusting me with you. So what if my ministry isn't huge? So what of I have a few followers?  Jesus didn't do it for the numbers. Like the old saying goes, "It's not the quantity, it's the quality." My readers quality is like fine gold. What I post isn't for people who want their ears tickled. My blog isn't for the lukewarm. It's called 'MY BURNING HEART 4 JESUS' for a reason. My audience is for those who are on fire for the Lord. Perhaps that's why I don't have thousands or millions of followers and hits on my blog. This blog is dedicated to my Jesus and the true church of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. 

(Amazing...that wasn't even how I was going to start this post. Praise the Lord.)

The Lord is answering a prayer I prayed a while back. I asked the Lord to show me the authority that I have been given through Jesus and what is available to me through Jesus. I prayed for joy. I prayed to have more faith in Him. Praise the Lord for His faithfulness.Disclaimer: I am not bragging or boasting on myself but boasting on the the Lord according to the scriptures. A couple months ago, at work things were tough. We were under staffed and had more work than we could handle. Customers were calling in angry. We couldn't win. I almost wanted to quit my job and when I would pray, I would just complain. Nothing changed at work and I just felt discouraged. I needed to change and what changed was this. When times got hard, when I felt discouraged, when I was mad instead of dwelling on that I began to dwell on my God. P.P.W.T. - Prayer, Praise, Worship, Thankfulness. I would start praying, praising the Lord and worshiping Him. I'd let Him know what I was feeling still. I let my petitions and supplication be presented to Him. I learned how to minister to the Lord through a prayer group I have been going to on Sunday evenings. The Lord began to change my discontent heart to a heart of contentment. 

The Lord also is showing me how to yield the sword of Spirit more effectively, which is the word of God, to combat my feelings. My feelings were real but they are not the truth. There is only one truth and that is Jesus Christ. Feelings make a great caboose on your train but makes a horrible engine to pull that train. As I prayed as loud as I could without distracting my colleagues, I'd quote verses to remind me that the Spirit that lives in me is greater than he who is in the world. In between calls (I work at a call center) I would read my Gideon Bible or I'd sing a praise song. The enemy tries to distract me though. Songs I haven't heard or thought of years would come to mind. I'd start reading about the news on bing.com. The Lord would show me I was being distracted and I'd focus on Him again. It's a struggle but we were born into a war on the losing side. Now we switched sides to the winning team and our old team hates us even more. So be it. 

Another thing that the Lord has shown me that works fantastic is before I start work, I pray and I pray to the Lord to give me strength, that He would be glorified by my work, I'd pray that I work heartily for Him, and that work is an act of worship. I'd ask the Lord to help be slow to anger, slow to speak and quick to listen. I pray that I would bare good fruit and that it would all be for His glory. Work is much better now. Dedicate your work to the Lord. So what if my company is still under staffed, we still have angry people calling in, we still have too much work but my God is bigger then all of that and He is with me! 

Recently I saw a video where the Pastor was saying to have an attitude of gratitude. The Lord brings to my remembrance what my life was life like before I got born again. My eyes tear up not out of sadness but out of gratitude. God didn't have to save me and letting me fry in hell would've been right because I was sinful. But the Lord had mercy on me. The Lord drew me to Him and I had to make a choice and that choice was who I was going to serve. I had already lived it up and what the devil had to offer wasn't good. I was so unsatisfied and disappointed with my life. I am so glad now that I turned to Him and that He has been faithful with what I committed to Him which was my life. When I remember that and see how much I've grown I cant help but pray, praise, worship and be thankful. When I think about what is yet to come, I am excited and thankful to be a part of God's great plan. 

So I went to work and just started blessing God and doing what He said to do. My car isn't the nicest but thank you Lord my family has a car. My job doesn't pay what I would like and sometimes it sucks but thank you Lord for my job because I have a job. The devil tries to tempt me by glancing at women where ever I am at but I thank God for my wife because He gave her to me so that I may learn how to love like Jesus loves the church I thank God that my wife is a Godly woman. In all situations, circumstances, good times, and bad times God is worthy of all praise. He is still good, powerful, holy, righteous, wonderful, awesome and every praise there is! Even when things aren't going our way, they are going the way God wants. Don't let the enemy attack you and make you complain. Make those situations make you praise the Lord. I promise you whatever is attacking you won't attack anymore. Those feelings and thoughts will go away because it's driving you to worship and focus on God. That is not what the enemy wants us to do. Jesus is worthy of the highest praise even when life sucks. After having this attitude of gratitude,  joy that I haven't had in a long time began to bubble up. I was so happy. Pray for me that when times get hard that I would still seek the Lord's face. 

Anyways, praise God and thank you for reading this very long post. My prayer is that someone reads this post and they are encouraged. For a season I felt like I hit a plateau. If you hit a plateau,  seek the Lord with all your heart and He shall be found. I found the Lord afresh in prayer, worship, praise and having a thankful heart. I know that this seems really basic but the Lord breathed life into my prayer life and put a new meaning on many things. This is the last post of 2015. See you again in 2016 Lord willing.

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