patience123

Knowing that God is fully aware of a developing child in the womb helps us to realise that the child is already loved by God. It helps the parents to be to understand how precious that little life is. It is overwhelming to discover that God knows us in such detail, that we are in his Book of Life. He knows us better than our parents know us and better than we know ourselves.

God's hand touches the psalmist in everything he does, he seems to feel God's presence all around him. When I look back, I can see how God's hand has been in my life even when I wasn't aware of it. Now I am starting to appreciate his presence and to realise it's there to guide and sustain, always. When I was extremely ill and had to be rushed into hospital for an emergency operation, before the ambulance arrived I prayed for help. I had the most moving experience of a deep amazing peace---- a total and utter sense of release and calm---before I was given pain relief by the doctor my pain was lifted out of my body like a silent steady stream of vapour, at that very moment I knew I was in God's right hand, and I will never forget it, how could I. Such knowledge IS too wonderful for me, but nevertheless I know that my redeemer liveth.

I think we sometimes want to flee from God when we are beset by our own fears, we feel inadequate---not up to the job of striving to please him. If people imagine that God doesn't know what they do, it's probably because they are not in touch with the scriptures which tell us so often that " The eyes of the Lord are on all that we do ". Or maybe they dont believe what they are reading. There are times when I feel fear, and instead of getting closer to God and other Christians, I isolate myself which is so silly as I always feel so uplifted when sharing worship with fellow Christians. However, daily Bible reading is such a blessing and Psalm 139 is awesome, takes my breath away. Thankyou Lord .

Hezekiah asked for healing on the basis that he had walked before God faithfully, and with whole hearted devotion and had done what was good in God's eyes. We need to try to please God in every way in order to get closer to him both to receive and to reflect his love. That way, by study of his Word and by prayer, we are more likely to know what we should and should not pray for and our prayers are more likely to be answered if they are within the boundaries of his will.He loves us and wants to give us the most precious gift of all----------a place in His Kingdom----------who could ask for anything more!!!! Thankyou Lord

Jerusalem was being threatened by Sennacharib, a terrible time for Hezekiah to die and leave his people without a leader. To be healed was of the greatest importance, not only to Hezekiah and his line but also to his nation. God promised David that his house ( dynasty ) would endure forever,and the throne would be established forever. Hezekiah appealed to those promises trusting that God would allow him the time to provide an heir to continue that line, a line that would bring forth the Messiah.

The first two sentences of Hezekiah's prayer like the first sentence of The Lord's Prayer proclaim the greatness of Almighty God. They are important to faith as this vision of God drives our faith in his power---placing our heart and mind in the correct position to petition our GOD who has limitless power and unfailing love to his children. I was so thrilled to read of the Exodus, the desert wanderings,the building of the Tabernacle and later on the building of the first Temple in Jerusalem. That is when I truly felt how great is our God, every year when I get to that part of the Bible I feel great excitement knowing what a treat is in store, I never tire of reading it, thankyou Lord for your wonderful Word. I would also like to thank Dr Ralph for these lessons, they are so helpful.

Hezekiah has confidence and trust in God's great power- the first thing he does is to hand it over to God-bringing the problem straight to him. The underlying principle here is to involve God in all that we do, by sharing our lives with him, in our thoughts and our prayers. We should not try to carry the burdens of our lives alone, God is waiting for us to speak with him on all matters. If we leave Him out of our lives then we may become negative and fearful or arrogant and selfish losing direction.

When we praise our God for his many blessings to us, it helps us to focus on just how richly blessed we are. That in turn helps us to share those blessings with others. If we are too possessive over giving, we cannot worship God without feeling guilty; he gave his only son for us. Jesus never stopped giving all the time he was on earth, he gave up his very life as a sacrifice for our sins. All we have belongs to God, he created and sustains us and we should use our wealth for the good of others, giving God the glory and following the example of our Lord Jesus. We should give with a happy heart as the Lord loves a cheerful giver,however, in order to " cheerfully give", we have to look after ourselves or we can become burnt out, exhausted and cannot serve our Lord as we should.

I might begin to mention God's greatness in my prayer by thanking him for all he has created and for all his many blessings to me and around me. In the Lord's Prayer the praise for his glory is seen in "Hallowed be thy Name" and the doxology at the end "for Thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever" Some of my favourite hymns that point to God's greatness:Immortal,invisible,God only wise :All my hope on God is founded: Angel voices ever singing round Thy throne of light : All things praise thee Lord most high: Great is thy faithfulness, so many wonderful hymns what a blessing!!!

Our praise lifts God in our hearts and minds, we should always exalt God because he IS mighty, he is above all things yet he is all around us. This exaltation helps us to put the Lord our God at the forefront of everything in our lives and in doing so we are saying that we are his, heart and soul. " Hear O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is One. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and withall thy might" Deut:6vs4,5.

Our prayers of praise "bless" God with our love IF our love comes from the heart, we are giving HIM the GLORY. That is his plan for the whole of mankind, that we give him the glory first by loving him and then one another. So thats what we mere humans can give him in a blessing--- our love. Blessing, praise and thanks seem to be very closely linked. If we are truly thankful we naturally want to praise ( bless ) our Father for all his wondrous mercy and his abiding presence with us, so a prayer without blessing seems empty of feeling.

To have a broken heart is in a sense a breaking down of all our false pride, our selfishness and arrogance so that uor hearts become open, cleared out to receive God's grace. All these things need to be swept away so that God's light can illuminate all those dark corners. We resist a "broken and contrite heart" in ourselves because it is painful to confront our faults and failings. In having a broken heart--we are sacrificing our inner being, our very selves to become open to His mercy,blessings and unfailing love. What joy, thankyou Lord.

When we truly repent and accept Jesus as our saviour from sin and death we are given a pure heart. It has been cleansed through his precious blood. However we need to constantly pray for a steadfast spirit for without God we are open to corruption. We need to stay close to the Good Shepherd who loves us. What a comfort and a joy that is.

David owns up to his sins clearly and fully before God. We are just deceiving ourselves,not God, if we try to rationalize our sins and make them seem less than they are. We cannot receive God's grace as it is blocked by our lack of honesty. We should take time-painful as it may be, to acknowledge our sins. God requires truth, he is Truth and the truth is all he will recognize. He is the way the truth and the life, how blessed we are!!!!

A prayer for pardon requires a belief in the word of the Bible telling us that our God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness. However we first have to be truly sorry, seeking forgiveness not thinking it will automatically be given simply because we are believers and children of God.He is waiting to offer pardon if in our hearts we are sincere. Faith is based on what we read in our Bible, what we experience in our lives. we know of the peace that sometimes comes when we forgive others who have wronged us,and the peace we feel when we have asked God's forgiveness. To gain the faith to pray this prayer in confidence takes time to get to know God. We cant always undo what has been done but we need time to consider and to try to make amends knowing the Lord is willing and able to wash us clean. We can start afresh in and through Jesus with a renewed spirit. Thankyou God for your dear Son.

Abraham shows persistence by appealing to God's promises made to those who remain steadfast and righteous, he humbly yet persistently asks 5 times that the righteous few be saved. Persistence is necessary as it keeps us close to God, helps build our faith and the Bible teaches us to "Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests." Eph 6:18 I have experienced praying through and when the answer didn't come quickly it was a real test of my faith, the subject of my prayer was a much loved suffering dying relative who lived alone and far away; God answered my prayer in his time not mine. Of course my time is his time, thanks be to God.

Yes, I think Abraham's boldness pleased God because it seems like God was waiting for Abraham to pray on behalf of his family.God told Abraham what he intended to do to Sodom and Gomorrah, that in itself seems almost like an invitation to pray. What might cause God to take delight in our prayers to him- is the fact that we are acknowledging his presence with us as our creator and sustainer, he knows what is in our hearts and when we pray for others or ourselves we are giving him the glory along with our love and respect, always trying, not always succeeding to put him at the centre of our lives. Please God help us to pray that we may grow ever closer to you.

Abraham was almost apologizing for being so bold and emphasised his position by describing himself as " nothing but dust and ashes" but still he asked to be heard. We must be humble before God when we begin to understand even a little of his greatness, his love and grace given to us! We can only try to be bold in prayer bacause we know that we are loved by him and he wants us to say what is in our hearts, even if he already knows it. He speaks to us through his Word in the Bible and wants us to talk to him.

Abraham pleads with God to spare Sodom because he knows that not every one there is wicked (thinking of his nephew Lot and family). He pleads on the basis that God is just and righteous and surely would not destroy the righteous along with the wicked

If God was not immutable, unchanging, we would not know where we were! We know we can rely on Him who's promises are sure. We pray for his Kingdom to come on earth and it will- He has promised-when the Lord Jesus returns we pray it will be soon. God answers all our prayers but not always the way we would want. If the petition is outside the scope of his will then the answer will be NO

Fitting together predestination and free will is SO difficult to come to terms with but I can only go to Jesus for an example. In Luke ch11 Jesus asks us to be bold and persistent in prayer, and in John ch 17 Jesus prays to God to protect his disciples from evil then prays for all believers and goes on to pray for the world. We see many examples in the Bible where earnest and persistent prayer has changed the outcome of a situation where God has shown mercy and seems to have responded to the prayer.

The aspects of Moses' prayer that we should try to emulate 1. Persistence 2.The emphasis/reliance on God's promises 3. The emphasis on God's love, mercy and forgiveness which had been promised AND shown in the past Getting to know the Bible helps us to understand what God wants to give to us. It helps us to know what we should pray for.

After all that God had done for his people, bringing them out of slavery with miracles and a mighty hand, guiding them day and night, they lost their faith and loyalty very quickly when Moses was not there. They soon turned their backs on God. A loving God like a loving Father would show anger at such disloyalty.Like a naughty child-- how is that child to know right from wrong if he gets nothing but praise whatever he does! Nehemiah ch 9 vs16-18 "But you are a forgiving God gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love" He was justified in saying he would destroy Israel, BUT he did NOT. Praise the Lord !

Because we are from Adam and human we continue to go against our Father's wishes-even though we try to do right.Even Paul in Romans ch 7v19 says "What I do is not the good I want to do, no the evil I do not want to do- this I keep on doing" Being unable to forgive goes against the wishes of our Father we block His blessing by filling our hearts with bitterness resentment etc We are told in the Bible Mathew ch6 v15 "If you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins" My word thats a tough one!! Some of the evil done in the world in my life time....I find almost impossible to forgive, truly need God's help for that one!!

Perhaps we seek to be independent of asking anyone for help because in our pride we may see it as a sign of weakness and failure. Why we seek to be independant of God I dont know- pride? arrogance? easy living? Why should we ask God to give us our daily bread? If we think of Jesus as The Bread of Life, The Word of Life and the Manna in the desert - we need Him each and every day to bring us closer to what the Lord wants us to be.