Week Five - Passion for Our Lives of Prayer Options

[linda]

Passion - here I am on week five and the word 'passion' has hit me square in the face! What am I passionate about these days? And what is 'passion' anyway? I feel like I am beginning at square one. I am almost done with this 30 DJ and have also begun week one of the "Quiet Time Experience - Passionate Prayer". WHOA!! I had better slow down and re-evaluate.

Passion: as defined in the dictionary and in the intro to this study, 'passion' is a powerful emotion or appetite, an ardent, adoring love, boundless enthusiasm, zeal, fervor, a strong feeling for or about something or somebody. So to be passionate about prayer, for me, is to have an appetite so strong for communing with God because I love Him, an intimacy with Him that draws me nearer and nearer. I want to pray because I know to Whom I am praying. I want to share with my God everything, from the daily small things to the big heavy things of my days. I desire the contact with my LORD because I love Him so and cannot wait for His response, His touch, His closeness. I respect His wisdom and His ways.

With that said, with the word defined, I must say that I am learning. Prayer can be mundane because I don't feel that bond at times. It is me ... I am the one who has wandered. God waits for me. He teaches me how to prayer through His Word, through wonderful books like Catherine's, through prayer, through quiet time with Him. Prayer is a beautiful thing, a time of just me and Him. WOW! Prayer is a two-way conversation, not just one-way, that list of laundry and to dos.

Passionate prayer comes from the relationship I have with my God. Passionate prayer comes from the love I share with Him, the closeness in which I revel at the foot of His throne, the time I sit at His feet. As Catherine shared ... the relationship is deepened through prayer. The conversation and communion is from my heart to the heart of God.

So I am passionate. I am passionate about my husband. I am passionate about my family. And I am especially passionate about the LORD. I want to share my life, my day's struggles, my day's successes, the joys and the sorrows. I can be open with my husband as I sit across the table with him. I can just be myself. I am learning to share my heart with God through prayer. In the still, quiet moment, I can sit at God's feet and share what is on my heart. I do not have to be all perky and loud as I once thought 'passionate' meant. I can have tears, bubbly moments, solemn times, terse words. God knows my heart and He wants to hear from me. I want to pray passionately. I want to open the door to my heart and let this caged bird out to fly to God with the beauty of flight and freedom. That is passion to me tonight.

LORD God, as I release the bird in me that has been caged much of her life, I thank You for teaching me passionate prayer through Catherine Martin. I pray that You continue to teach me until I truly am able to pray with all the passion, with all the emotion, that You have built inside this bird. I fly and swirl through the blue sky, caught in the wind, sailing to You. I love this freedom and love You dearly. I lift up my loved ones who do not know You as LORD and Savior. I lift up Cassie as she grieves for her Dad. I lift up my mother as dementia takes bit by bit of the precious woman she is. I thank You for Kenneth. Oh, he is so very good to me and loves me so. We dance together so beautifully through the life You have given us together. I pray that You make it possible for the two of us to see some of this country's west together. I pray that You keep us healthy and safe. Father, please give wisdom to the leaders of this country and the leaders of the world, to make this world a safer place, for all of us, but especially for the young children growing up this day. As this bird lands in Your palms, gently shield me from harm and caress me with Your tenderness. I have so much love to give to You. I am feeling the passion rising, LORD. I believe I am getting it!! I know You can see the smile on my face! : ) I love You, Abba. ~ Your child

[linda]

Day 25 - Warfare Prayer

This sort of scared me as I am not a person who likes conflict so I do my best to avoid it as best I can. Yet, in my walk with the LORD, I am learning that one cannot hide from spiritual warfare if I am to stand strong in the LORD, stand up for my beliefs.

Surely, the rulers of darkness, the powers of evil, are lurking everywhere and desiring to attack us, the children of Christ Jesus. He wants to see us fall. So prayer bathed in the power of God is a necessary kind of prayer. As Catherine states on page 197, "Warfare prayer becomes an intense labor of sober, earnest pleading and anguish." We must be protected ... wearing the full armor of God. Catherine describes this ever-so-well on pages 198-201. The strength of the LORD is built all around us when we purposefully attire ourselves with His armor, with His Holy Spirit, with His Word, and with prayer.

Instead of being afraid, I turn to the LORD for His purpose in my life and ask for His protection in all I am and all I do. The battles are His and I must let Him be my guard and defender. I can pray for victory with passion because I know that He is the Victor.

1 Samuel 17:45-47:
Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand.”

I shall not be afraid, LORD. I walk with You and You alone. Teach me Your ways. Teach me how to pray that I may always be a light in the darkness.

[linda]

Day 26 - Intercessory Prayer

The Greek meaning of 'intercession' "implies an active process of conversation, consultation, or supplication". I love the words - 'active process' in this definition. That tells me that God and I are interacting on an ongoing basis. When I pray for others, He and I are actively communicating about those we love and care about, both He and I! I call out. He hears me. He knows my heart. I know that as He hears, He is responding somehow, someway.

Catherine describes 'interceding for others' as pleading "to God on their behalf. We don't plead because of the worthiness of others to receive our prayers but because of the worthiness of our God, to whom we pray. He is worthy of every prayer we can offer on others' behalf. When He hears and responds, He gets all the glory." "... we will plead the promises of God--who He is, what He does, and what He says. For God honors what He has said in His Word." God is worthy of our prayers of intercession. I find this the avenue for my passion. His worthiness causes me to want to pray to Him for others, calling upon Him through His Word, His promises! I become fervent in praying for others because I love them, but because I love God so much more. Again, it is through the relationship He and I have that causes me to be passionate toward Him through prayer. His worthiness! His glory! And I get to and want to pray to Him passionately! For this I am grateful.

I am learning about this passion!

[linda]

Day 28 - Effective Prayer

My prayer life grows as I grow in the LORD. He is molding me day by day. Through this process, I gain, too, by KNOWING Him in ways I could not have without being willing to be shaped. Intimacy with and love for my Savior grows exponentially. It is hard for passion not to increase, isn't it? I am amazed that this final week in this study has awakened my senses causing an excitement I did not have in my prayer life. I didn't even understand 'passion' in prayer!!! My heart is open to the God of All-Sufficiency, of All-Power.

I believe Him for all and every promise. He will indeed fulfill each and every one of them. I am learning to ask, to praise and thank, to honor and revere, to adore and love, to seek His wisdom and His will.

As I remember the power of God, I will remember that every prayer I speak out loud or silently from my heart has His power behind, beneath, above, and before it. The Holy Spirit, the Mighty Wind, takes each prayer to the ears of God.

Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live. Psalm 116:2 ESV

Oh, how I praise You, Father God. Amen and Amen.

[linda]

Day 29 - The Glory of Prayer

As a college student, I took two fall semester courses at San Diego State where we sang the entire "Messiah" by George Frederick Handel. We practiced and practiced and before Christmas break we performed the beautiful piece of music with the college orchestra. I don't have a great voice, but I loved being a part of this choir for that music. I find that when I hear parts of the "Messiah" I can still sing along. One of the pieces has lyrics that go, "And the glory, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, shall be revealed."
Isaiah 40:5 says:
"And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
As we speak to the LORD, we seek His revelation; we want to know Him better, we desire to have intimacy with Him, the Maker of our souls.

Isaiah 40:8
The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.
He also teaches me that I am to spend more time in His Word in order to know Him better.

I ask in this moment ... may I be diligent, persistent, and consistent in reading and learning Your Word. I want to know You to depths I have not reached, Precious LORD.

Isaiah 40:21
Do you not know? Do you not hear?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

25 To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name,
by the greatness of his might,
and because he is strong in power
not one is missing.

28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
In these verses from just this one chapter in Isaiah, it becomes very difficult for me to NOT desire to seek the LORD with absolute passion. He calls me from every angle. He touches my heart with the joy of His love. He caresses my soul. He sustains me. He loves me. HE LOVES ME.

I LOVE YOU, ABBA. I TRULY DO. May I rise to meet You. May I pick myself up when I fall. May I read Your Word daily and absorb It as though It lives in me for I want It to dwell within me forever. May it be so. From my heart to Your, dear LORD. Amen.

[Catherine]

This is just beautiful Linda. The Lord has taught you so much! We are going to be going on the 30 day journey later this year (April/May 2010) at our church. I'm excited that you are going to join in the discussion of the quiet time experience also. I pray that many will come here and at Cath's Community and share what God is teaching them.

Love, Catherine

[Catherine]

Linda, I love what you've written about passion here. Especially "adoring love, boundless enthusiasm, a strong feeling for someone (God, in this case). May we all have that intimacy with Him that draws us nearer and nearer, as you have described. Blessings and love, Catherine

[linda]

This is just beautiful Linda. The Lord has taught you so much! We are going to be going on the 30 day journey later this year (April/May 2010) at our church. I'm excited that you are going to join in the discussion of the quiet time experience also. I pray that many will come here and at Cath's Community and share what God is teaching them.

Love, Catherine

I, too, pray that 'many' will join you in this quiet time experience and will come to the Cafe or your Community. Sometimes, Catherine, it is in the writing out, the journaling, that suddenly something becomes clear or becomes 'real'. I must say that this week, the word 'passion' became far more than a 'word' for me. I feel it and am desiring to grow in passion for my LORD.

LORD, as people from Southwest Community Church and from around the world join Catherine in "Passionate Prayer - A Quiet Time Experience" over these next eight weeks, would You bring us closer to You through this study and through our devotional time alone with You. Will You also give us a heart to reach out to others in the passion and the light that You give us from reading and devoting our time to Your Word. Will You teach us to pray with passion, LORD. Oh, how I desire to pray with passion. Will You bring us to these two online communities, LORD, to further Your reach across this world and this land. Open our eyes and ears that we would seek You and sense that we might be encouraging others through this study, through writing our thoughts and prayers on these online journals. I pray I am in Your will, following Your ways. In the Name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

[Catherine]

You know what, Linda, I SO agree with you. Sometimes AS I am writing out my insights, thinking long and hard about God's Word, a light bulb comes on inside my mind and heart, opening my eyes to something I had never seen before. I believe that's the illumination of the Holy Spirit - how He takes the Word of God and teaches us - and then, transforms us on the inside. That's why I'm always so excited to open the pages of God's Word - only He knows what He is going to teach me today and then tomorrow and then the next day, and on and on.

Thanks for your prayer for all of us. May the Lord do great and mighty things in us.

Blessings and love, Catherine