Archive for May, 2008

Circles

This is only the first half, so make sure and grab part two of this on youtube if you want to see the whole episode.

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Prayer

Matthew 6:9-15

Day 1: verse 9 “This, then, is how you should pray:  “ ‘Our Father in heaven,  hallowed be your name,…”  (Praise)

It seems so easy to go to God in prayer when I need something. When my relationships are not going well, or when I need to make a decision, or if I need money. Whenever I am nervous about anything, I know I can go to God in prayer. But Jesus says that we should start our prayers by praising God.  The word “hallowed”  means:  “make holy” or “greatly respected”. When we start our days in prayer and start our prayers with praise, suddenly our whole day is put into perspective. The things we were worried about before don’t seem as big when we remind ourselves of how huge God is. King David, the writer of most of the book of Psalms, was a great praiser!
Psa 139:14      “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

Do it: spend 5 min. praising God for who He is in your life. Try reading a Psalm that lists praises and then think of your own. There are so many things that God is and does for us…  you can never run out of things to praise Him for!!

Day 2: Verse 11 “Give us today our daily bread.” (Petitions)
How do you feel when you need help from someone else? Is it hard to admit it? Do you sometimes feel embarrassed? It’s not always easy to ask for things. But God wants to supply all of our needs. He wants us to depend on Him for everything.
James 14:2 says “… You do not have, because you do not ask God.”  Now, this doesn’t mean that every little thing we want, God will give it to us…  that would make us all spoiled brats!! But as far as our daily needs and things that are necessary to live, God will provide.  Nothing is too big our too small for God.

Do it: Spend 5 min telling God what you need and asking Him to be your provider. Think of something that you think may be impossible…  God wants to blow your mind!

Day 3: Verse 12 “Forgive us our debts…”  (confession)

I hate making mistakes. Nothing feels worse than knowing that I have done something bad, especially when it hurts someone else. I always wish I could just pretend it didn’t happen, or if it’s really bad, I might even be tempted to lie about it so no one finds out. But no matter how hard I try to make it go away, I can never fool God. He sees and knows everything I do. Imagine that you are standing inside your house and you want to go outside, but there is a door keeping you inside. What would happen if you just pretend that the door is open and try to walk through? You will walk straight into the door!! No matter how many times you try it, you will never get outside until you open the door. That’s what confessing our sins to God does. Sin is like a closed door keeping us from being close to God. But when you admit the things you’ve done wrong and get honest before God, all of a sudden He opens the door and you can talk to him with nothing in the way.

Do it: Spend 5 min. getting really honest before God and confessing everything you’ve done wrong. He already knows about it, so why not just tell Him? Nothing feels better then knowing that you have told the truth

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Dance.

Day: 1
Read – Exodus 15:1-21 (Victory)
These verses cover a lot of different postures. Singing started it… but the ladies got DOWN! When my brothers and I used to play games against each other and I won I loved to get up and do a little victory dance. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed with the excitement and thrill of victory that all I can do is throw my hands up and move my feet (I am not going to lie… I shake my booty a little…a lot). God’s people had just been freed from hundreds of years of slavery and the only way they knew to celebrate was to throw down some dance moves.

Do it: Think about something God did amazing in your life. Now dance because of the victory he has given you (it is okay to turn a little music on).

Day: 2
Read – Psalm 150 (Commanded)
Sometimes when I am down I don’t want to do anything. If I am having a bad day I just want to sit and mope. It is hard to dance when you feel like nothing is going right. In this text We are commanded to worship in certain ways. It is not just a request. It does not say “if you want to” at the end of these postures. I always feel better after thinking about how big my God is. It is are responsibility to dance even just to make Him happy.

Do it: Dance even if you don’t feel like it. It will even act to lift your mood. Try it.

Day: 3
Read – 2 Samuel 6 (Crazy)
I love to watch my 2 year old little girl dance. I think she is awesome. She does moves as if it were all planed out ahead of time. Most of the time she dances as if she could care less what the people around her thinks. David was so happy about the presence of God coming back to town that he took his outer cloths off and danced unashamed. He danced so crazy that his wife made fun of him for how ridiculous he looked. David said that he would dance even crazier to show God how excited he was.

Do it: Do a crazy dance to God. Show him how happy he makes you.

Day: 4
Read – Luke 15 (Celebrate)
It is an amazing feeling to be reunited with someone you haven’t seen in a long time. It is hard to be apart from people you love. God has so much love for all people. He even loves the people who reject Him. It hurts Him when we leave His home. When we recognize our need of Him and come into His house, He throws a big party with music and dancing. We should be so excited when people give their lives to Christ. It should cause us to dance for joy when He turns someone to Him.

Do it: When God changes one of your friends lives it is time to dance. It is a party when he is changes someone’s life.

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