Psalm 25

In Psalm 25 David covers these themes

• Confession of sin: vv. 6-7, 11, 18
• Asking for guidance and protection: vv. 1, 4-5, 8-9, 14-17, 19-22
• Proclaiming great things about God: These are scattered in throughout the psalm.
• Prayer for others: v. 22 and included in other parts when he mentions "those who" and similar phrases

This is a good pattern for your own prayer life. There's an acrostic prayer guide that has been around for - well, decades - called the ACTS of prayer.

A - Adoration (Tell God how wonderful He is)

C - Confession (Ask forgiveness for your sins - be specific)

T - Thanksgiving (Thanking God for His blessings, answers to prayer, etc.)

S - Supplication (Pray for others)

Davids prayer (psalm) doesn't follow the ACTS outline in a strict kind of way. His prayer is more organic. He flows back and forth from one to the other as he pours his heart out to God. 

Bottom line:

You don't have to follow a strict outline to pray - like the ACTS of Prayer, but it is good to have all of those items in your prayers. As you are praying you may be thanking God for something and that may remind you of a sin in some way. Don't say, "oops, sorry, I"m past the confession time of my prayer." Let God's Spirit guide you as you pray. Be sensitive to His leading. Hear His voice. Then follow where He leads - not just in how you prayer, but how you live your life.

4 Show me your ways, LORD, 

teach me your paths. 

5 Guide me in your truth and teach me, 

for you are God my Savior, 

and my hope is in you all day long.

 

Standing for what is Right...

...even though the crowd is against you.

I was a bit surprised to hear that Cardinal Dolan gave the closing prayer at the Democratic National Convention. Don't get me wrong. I know that there are many good Christian people who are Democrats, but as a whole, the party has not been supporting Christian ideals. The party of "inclusiveness" and "tolerance" shows the most intolerance to those who defend the rights of the unborn and defend a traditional (biblical) view of marriage.

Cardinal Dolan was not originally scheduled to pray. But after his announcement that he would be praying at the Republican Convention some more moderate Catholics put pressure on the DNC to ask him to speak/pray at their convention also.

I don't know if there were any behind the scene negotiations of what Cardinal Dolan could or couldn't say, but he obviously wasn't going to let the politics of the Democratic party influence how he would pray. In his prayer he said this!

“Grant us the courage to defend life…waiting to be born, welcomed and protected,” he said. He also prayed for “life, without which no other rights are secured.”

Here's his entire prayer if you have 5 minutes to listen.




I won't quote any of the profane tweets that went out the "left" after his prayer. Needless to say, the "tolerant" left showed their true colors as they said many unholy things about this man of God.

As a Southern Baptist Pastor there are a few theological differences I have with the Catholic Church, but I stand along side of them in their defense of life, their defense of marriage and their defense of religious freedom (as in their lawsuit against the Affordable Care Acts requirements that violate their religious beliefs.)

So thank you Cardinal Dolan for your unwavering public stand before a somewhat hostile crowd. May all of us of faith follow your example.

Big Boy Prayers

Did you learn prayers like these when you were a child?
God is great, God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. Amen.

A friend of mine, when first learning to pray, said, "shank sho for our food." The story goes that some time when he was in Jr. High that he said his prayer, "shank sho for our food" and then looked up and said, "Why do I say 'shank sho' ?"

Another phrase often tacked onto the end of a prayer is "and God bless the missionaries." Have you prayed that? I'm certain God hears our prayers and that God does "bless the missionaries," but I know that in our prayers there is so much more God is willing and waiting to do. It's time to put away our childhood prayers and do some big boy praying!

God wants us to be involved in His kingdom work both physically and through our prayers. God is not limited in what He does by our prayers, but I also know that as we pray God's power is seen in great ways. For some reason God lets us in on the wonderful things He wants to do so we can share in the work.

 God answers prayers - not so we can say, "oo, look at this. I prayed for something and it happened." but so that He will receive glory.

Let me try this another way. Which prayer and answer will give God more glory.

1. Prayer - "Lord, bless the missionaries." Answer -  God does something really great in some part of the world.

2. Prayer - "Lord, I pray that an affordable place will be found in Palo Verde in the east part of  Caracas, Venezuela so the four small groups of Christians near there can join together and form a church to be a witness in that part of town. Answer - an affordable place is found and a new church is formed and they begin reaching that area for Christ.

Obviously if you had prayed the second prayer you would join many in rejoicing about the new place and church start and would give God the glory for an answer to prayer.

The prayer request #2 I gave as an example above is an actual prayer request from Ed and Pamela who are part of the Barrios Caracas mission team. Here is a link to a web site from that mission team that tells you about their work and how you can pray. http://www.caracasforchrist.com/

Will you join me in praying for them? Will you pray your childhood "bless the missionaries" prayer or will you pray a "big boy" prayer?

I will update you when I hear an answer to the prayer request and we can give God the glory together as we see Him at work!