Obstacles to Prayer

So far you haven't asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive so that you can be completely happy.

~ John 16:24

Luther notes that we have two obstacles to prayer.

1. The devil prompts us to think that we are not prepared to pray, and we should wait. Then we become distracted by our daily tasks, and we might not get around to it. We could also become distracted by useless thoughts, losing concentration while in prayer.
2. We feel that we are not worthy to pray, and should wait until we have confessed our sin and taken the Lord's supper to feel closer to God while in prayer.

We must know that we can "freely approach God and call on Him", as Luther says.

- becky

Gracious Blessings

Tonight, I pulled a Bible verse card out of my RAP Bag from Jodie. Here's what it said:

May you always

see God in

the beauty

of every day!

May the Lord show

kindness to you,

as you have

shown to me.

Ruth 1:8

Jodie wrote a nice note on the back of the card to me, too. There is also a verse from the book of John: From His abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. ~ John 1:16.

Both of these verses fit well when I consider friendships. First, the verse from Ruth speaks of kindness. Second, God has blessed us graciously with wonderful friends.

- becky

Super Cool!

So, this morning, I read my page from my Martin Luther devotional book before my shower. The focus of the devotional was John 3:19 - And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

I had a few extra minutes this morning, so I decided to read Psalm 1 -

Blessed is the man

who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree

planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish.

These readings were not referenced to each other in my devotional book. I read the two separately. I hadn't even planned on reading the Psalm; I simply found a few extra minutes on my hands this morning.

I was struck by their relation to one another! They totally fit together! As I pondered these, I got to thinking about my blog post about friendship last night. These readings reminded me how important it is to surround myself with those who share my same love for the Lord.

- becky

One Of Us

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

I know that Jesus was a man, just like you and me. (I realize that I'm not a man, but a woman. Jesus was human. Is that better? hahaha) He was sent here by God to do the most important job of all - conquer sin, death, and the devil.

What a wonderful gift. This is why baby Jesus is the greatest Christmas gift of all.

- becky

Bible = God

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

John 1:1-3

These verses in the book of John seem to come up often in Bible study. They offer a great deal of comfort, and help me to feel strength in my faith.

• God has always been around.
• God gave us the Word (a.k.a. the Bible).
• God speaks to us through the Bible.
• God is the creator of everything.

Don't we trust those businesses, employees, people who have been around for a long time? After all, they know the history. They have seen what works, what doesn't work, what has been tried, etc.

God is the one we should trust most of all. He has been around the longest of all. He created us. He will never abandon us.

WWJD has been a very popular slogan. Maybe we should ask remind ourselves L4G - Live For God. Each and every day is full of blessings from Him.

- becky