Author: debo

When I prayer with others, or especially on my own, I love to pray the Word of God. Whatever the topic, I want to have scripture and verse on each item I am praying for. So if it is the favor of God, provision, healing, walking in joy, or whatever, I like to find a scripture that corresponds to the topic I am praying about. Paul’s prayers in the New Testament books of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians are a perfect place to start. If you are needing a clearer revelation, Eph 1:18-20 talks about the eyes of our understanding being enlightened. Eph 3:16-21 is a prayer for spiritual strength. Colossian 1:9-12 is a prayer that helps to process our priorities. Phil 1:9-11 is a prayer for guidance, and I Thess 3:11-13 is a prayer about abounding love. We can pray these prayers over one another. Your family, your church family, your pastor, even those in leadership in our government. We can also pray the Word over people who are in the midst of struggle. Is 40:31 is a prayer for strength. Ps 55:22 is a reminder to cast our care on the Lord. Lamentations 3:22-23 reminds us of God’s unending faithfulness. I know there are scriptures that have been a source of strength to you in your life, and perhaps have even become your life verse. Make it a daily habit to pray the Word over your own life, the ones you love, and especially those who don’t know Jesus yet. Your prayer could be a life changer!

Pray from your heart is what the Lord asks from us. So often we have the mistaken idea that God values our word usage, more than our compassion. The opposite is true. God would rather see you pray from a heart of compassion than to pray a perfectly worded oratory! So relax! Take it easy on yourself. I know there are times when I just stop praying in English, and just begin praying in my heavenly language, so I can relax and not think so hard, or so much! Praying in tongues is perfect communication with the Father, so when in doubt, pray in the spirit. Paul told us to pray often and regularly in the spirit. Do it every day! It helps me relax, and even helps to segue from one subject to another when I am praying in English. So let the pray flow from your heart. God loves to hear your voice! Just like we love to hear the voice of our beloved, God loves for you to talk to Him. Share your heart with him, let Him know how much you love Him, in prayer! Take time to express your gratitude, for what He has done for you, and thank Him for His tender loving care that He has shown toward you. His heart of compassion is open for you, and He loves it when we show compassion toward others. Don’t get hung up on the words you pray, just open up your mouth, and let your words express your heart towards God. That is what God wants from you.

I love to pray with a group of people. There is great power when we pray with others. The Bible tells us that when 2 or 3 are gathered in prayer, that God is there in the midst of them. So pray with others, and pray in unity. When praying with others, we can see how each others hearts are connected to the situations and people we are praying for. It can be like climbing a mountain up another path. We can have our set pattern for how we pray, and then when we pray with someone else, we hear the perspective they pray from. You can hear their heart, and you can also be led to pray one after another and build on the other’s prayer. With so many different things to be praying for, a list of family and friends that need the Lord, those who need healing, or those seeking employment, or those struggling in the marriages, our government, the nations of the world who need Jesus, and the list goes on and on, our daily prayer time can seem like overwhelming. When we pray together, we can take a section, and pray the Word over that situation. Then another person can pray the Word over another area. When we combine our prayers together, great power can be made available and it says in James chapter 5.
Power in this instance comes from the word dynamite, and truly, the dynamite power of God can be at work in us to change us, and the situations we are praying for. God can work through us as we pray together, in unity.

Pray from your heart. As a kid I used to think that our prayers needed to be eloquent and have great big words in them to be effective. I was so glad when I discovered that God is so much more about heart than any other factor. He wants our heart, and when we pray from our heart, we are letting the real us show through to a real God who is really concerned about our real life. Prayer isn’t a performance, we don’t get graded on how well we do, or sound, or the manner in which we speak. God loves to hear our voice, praying from a heart of love and concern, speaking to His heart. So erase all those thought that you can’t pray in front of someone else, or that you don’t pray as effectively as someone who has a college degree or a bunch of letters after your name. I see a child expressing concern about an owie that their friend has being beautiful in the ears of God. God wants us to come to Him in childlike faith, believing that He hears us, He answers us, and that things on this earth are subject to change because God is able and willing to act on our behalf. He sees the big picture and knows the end from the beginning and wants our prayer to be answered so that we can experience a little more of heaven on earth. So let the spirit of God guide you as you pray. Have your list is you want, but be willing to be prompted to pray for something or someone you may not even know the details about, just because you are prompted by the Holy Spirit. Spirit directed prayer can change things on this earth!

Intro: Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with your dailyeword. This week we are talking again about the one another’s of the New Testament and how we can experience authentic relationships. Our focus this week is praying for one another. It is near and dear to my heart, because I love to pray! I know God hears and answers and prayer changes things on this earth. I encourage you the Word for one another regularly! You can keep it real in prayer! Here is your daily eword.
James 5:16 is such a great scripture. It tells us to pray for one another, that we will be healed. What I love about prayer is that it not only changes the circumstances of the other one another’s we may be praying for, but it can change us in the process. This verse speaks to me that I don’t have to be 100% well to pray for someone who needs healing. In fact it says that they will be healed, and the one praying will be healed! When I got that revelation a few decades ago, is when I got turned on to prayer in a significant way. God can use me, when I open up my heart in prayer for someone else. When we take our heart’s concerns to the Lord in prayer, God’s power and ability, his wisdom and instruction can be released into our life. We get to grow by praying, and at the same time, the ones we are praying for get to see changes in their life too. I have a plaque in my home that says prayer changes things. It does, but it also changes people. It starts when we open our heart up to God, and he begins working in us. At the same time, He is working on the situation, or the people involved and things can begin to change from that moment. You’ve heard me say this before. If it’s not good yet, it’s not done yet. Keep standing in prayer. Things are going to get better. Don’t loose hope. Hang in there and keep on praying.

Because the focus in my life is encouragement, I have a harder time with admonishment, which means to caution or gently reprove. What I have found is that the oreo principle works really well when it comes to admonishment. I find that admonishment is most effective when it begins and ends with encouragement. Admonishment can use a little cushion, and encouragement can be just what is needed. I have noticed this with myself, that I can hear 5 compliments, and 1 negative comment, and my focus is all about the negative. It doesn’t matter that I had 5 times more compliments; our focus turns toward the negative. To keep that from happening with a godly admonishment, we have to have the big picture in mind. We know that the person admonishing us has our best interest at heart, and we know we are loved, and then we can receive it with a right heart, and make the necessary changes. In our world, receiving correction doesn’t generally come gracefully. We get mad, we blame others, we let our hearts get hard. None of this has to happen! Let’s love one another enough to point out blind spots. Let’s love one another enough to admonish one another to be the best person that God has called us to be. We can do this as we keep it real in relationships.

The word admonish actually means to caution or gently reprove. There are times we all need correction, and being involved in a body of believers, and even in a small group setting, we can gently admonish others in their blind spots. If I have lipstick on my teeth, or a string hanging from my jacket, a good friend would let me know that. If I have an area in my life that needs correcting, I am thankful for friends who will help me see that too. Of course, the person who would do that for you would be someone close enough to have permission to do that, without causing an offense or our defenses rising. Who in your life does that for you? We each need someone, or a group of people, who help us see things from a different light. I have a few friends who have gone through destructive relationships that ended in divorce, and I tell them right up front, before they ever consider moving on to a new relationship that I am on their search committee. Of course I am joking, but I want them to know, that I will help them weigh in on their new relationship decisions, because often women choose another abusive, or negative relationship the next time around. They dismiss or are blinded to negative traits that will lead them to the same situation, only round two. Let’s choose to put ourselves in situations where we have accountability, and offer your accountability to others. That protection comes in the family of God, and is available if we seek it out, and is a great way to keep our relationships real.

A very effective way we learn as Christians is in a small group. Our church calls small groups Grace Groups, and we encourage every member to be involved in a small group. The wonderful advantage of being in a small group is you have a circle of friends to be accountable to, and you have a place where you feel you belong. In a large church, you can come in late and leave early and never make any human connections. If we want our churches to be a place of community, connections in a small group are a wonderful option. From Bible Studies, to interest groups, even to groups focused on outreach and helping others, just meeting together on a regular basis, learning together, studying together, eating together, working together, small groups give us the opportunity to put our faith into action. They are a great way to keep relationships real. Part of getting together is sharing life. Sharing life experiences, life struggles, and life victories. We can encourage those who are going through tough circumstances, and we can rejoice with those who have made it through. Small groups can be like a big potluck dinner, where everyone brings something tasty to eat. When we share life together, we sit at the table and enjoy the best of fare. I want to encourage you to be a part of the buffet set before you in a small group. You will be better for it.

Romans 15:14 tells us to instruct one another. One on my daughters who had been in school for many, many years just graduated last May with her doctorate. She had been learning formally,working toward her PHD and was a teacher at the University of Utah at the same time. She received a formal education, working toward a formal PHD! Most learning happens in a much less formal way. Mothers teach their babies so much in the first two years of life. Kids learn by watching others in daily life, what to do, and what not to do. Family learning is more than often called training. We can teach with our words, but we train with our life. If our teaching and our training doesn’t line up, or our words and actions aren’t aligned, all of our teaching and words will be nullified. How you act on Sunday at church, shouldn’t be an act! It should be how you live your life 24/7! Monday through Sunday, our words and our actions should line up. It is called walking the walk, and talking the talk. It is called Keeping It Real! We can instruct others, not just with our words, but with our life, day after day. Our conversations and daily activities are often the most common way we teach or instruct others. So remember every day, people are watching you, and learning from you.

As all the birds are flying south this fall, it is interesting to watch the ones that stay around. You don’t see sparrows flying in formation. I heard one explanation of why they don’t, that was comical. Here is the reasoning, geese are going someplace, sparrows are going nowhere. Do you want to go somewhere in life? I sure do. If we look at the goose, and what scientists surmise that geese fly 70% farther as a team than on their own, I would say that as humans, we need others! We really are better together. Geese flying in formation gives us an awesome illustration of how we can be learning from each other. They demonstrate how one is the mentor for a while, and then they become the mentored. Two of the best lessons we could teach someone in our sphere of influence is to learn to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, and learn to lean on Jesus. We are God’s sheep, as it says in John chapter 10, and we can recognize and obey His voice. I confess that over my life everyday. You can say that too! I am God’s sheep and I know His voice. That helps us learn over and over again that leaning on Jesus is the best way to live. When we lean on Him and not our own understanding, we can know that He will direct our paths. So if you want to go somewhere, join the team, and learn to lean! And keep it real!