Press In

Don't be weary in prayer, keep at it. Watch for God's answers, and remember to be thankful when they come. Colossians 4:2

Times are hard. We need hope, now more than ever. So often we feel hopeless. We feel weak. We feel like God isn't hearing our prayers. We need hope for a better future. We need hope for a better life. We need God to answer us.

Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to Him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually come and attack me.'" And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones, who cry out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off? I tell you, He will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:1-8
 
In the above parable, the judge didn't care about justice or her plight. Yet he responded to the widows persistence. Jesus' point isn't that we have to wear God out with our petitions till He finally caves in to stop us from bothering Him. Jesus wants to encourage us that God DEEPLY CARES about His children who cry out to Him. He IS listening. HOW MUCH MORE will God respond to our prayers than the judge to the widow. He WILL come to help us ... and He WON'T delay an answer for one second longer than is necessary for our good.

NOTHING is impossible for God. So until He makes His will concerning any given request clear to you, keep on asking again and again and again, IN FAITH BELIEVING, though it may seem like nothing is changing at all. 

God's answer to your prayers could be JUST AROUND THE CORNER. He may answer your 20 years worth of prayers TODAY. Never think that God doesn't care or doesn't hear just because nothing has changed yet. He hears your prayers.

I will answer them before they even call to Me. While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers. Isaiah 65:24


Not one prayer is ever wasted. God hears our every sigh. He DOES NOT tire of us asking. He WANTS us to bring our requests to Him. He tells us not to lose heart and to pray always because He intends to answer our prayers. In His way and in His timing.

Keep. On. Praying. Keep asking. Keep thanking. Keep hoping. Don't give up. Don't lose heart.

THE ENEMY WILL EXHAUST BEFORE YOU DO.


Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray over those reading this post. I curse all attacks that may be coming against them. Help them to pray and keep on praying. In faith. Believing. And thank You Lord, that at just the right time, You will answer. In the meantime, give all the grace to wait. In Jesus' name, amen.





See also:  The Man with the Plan



FYI - if you can't see all of the writing due to light colored letters, go to my blog page at http://answerfortheailing.blogspot.com/2015/10/press-in.html

I Pray, Lord

I PRAY LORD, for those being abused. Give them a way out and help them to take it. Heal them. Give them peace.

 

I PRAY LORD, that You touch every broken heart and mend them. Emotional healing for all in need.

 

I PRAY LORD, for all who are at a crossroad, for all who need help making decisions. No confusion. Give them wisdom, show them the way.

 

I PRAY LORD, for all who are sick/in pain and in need of healing. Touch their bodies with Your presence. Take away the pain. Bring healing and wholeness.

 

I PRAY LORD, for all who feel like giving up/depressed. Lift their weary heads. Give hope, encouragement and refreshment.

 

I PRAY LORD, that You be ever near us. We aren't perfect, but we love You. Come get us soon, and help us all to be ready.

 

I THANK YOU LORD, that You hear us and answer us ... in Your time and in Your way.

 

To God be ALL the glory!

 

Prayer for our Pastors/Ministers

Let us lift up our pastors and ministers, they need our support and prayers.

Father God, I pray for every Pastor who is feeling down and depressed today ... lift them up, encourage them, give peace and give hope.

God, bless our Pastors. Touch their hearts and bring healing, help them to hear and follow Your voice, protect and bless them. Help them not to grow weary in well-doing. Give them renewed strength like the eagles. Help them to have good health.

Help them not to be deceived, but instead keep their eye on the prize. Keep their hearts turned toward You and not be discouraged by those who hate. Cause people to listen, accept, and treat them and their families with love and respect. Favor them for forsaking all for the call.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Now More than Ever

Go away, all you who do evil, for the Lord HAS heard my weeping. The Lord HAS heard my plea; the Lord WILL answer my prayer. Psalm 6:8,9

LORD, help us to hear from You today, and may we be obedient. Give us wisdom to make right decisions.

LORD, have mercy and compassion on us.

LORD, we need Your strength and grace. Help our bodies to be physically able and our minds to be mentally able to do what we need to do.

LORD JESUS, heal our bodies. Take away sickness and pain. Release us from the tormenting spirits.

LORD, keep us close to You through the things that we are going through, help us not to push You away in difficult times, but instead allow You to draw us closer.

LORD, give us Your peace, Your perfect peace, that surpasses all understanding.

LORD, be with us, our families, our friends, all Your people ... special touch and anointing for us. Bless us with uncommon favor. Strengthen us. Heal us. Love on us. Help us to grab on, hold on and don’t let go of the hem of Your garment, Jesus. For all our needs are met in You. You are the Answer. To every question. To every problem. To every heartache. To every sickness. To every cry. Blood of Jesus over us.

His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him --- though He is not far from any one of us. Acts 17:27

We need You now LORD GOD … more than ever. Be not far from us.

Yes, You Do Know It

 

The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the mighty waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars ... The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning. The voice of the Lord shakes the desert; the Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in His temple all cry, “Glory!” Psalm 29:3-9

 

If you belong to the Lord, you DO hear His voice. If you didn't, then there would be no reason for the enemy to try to convince you that you don't.

Don't listen to the voice of confusion, it's NOT of God. God is the author of peace, the peace that passes understanding. BELIEVE that you hear God's voice ... by faith. Don’t just have selective hearing, when it’s something you like it’s Him and if it’s something you don’t like it’s the enemy, it doesn’t work that way.

Be careful about these “still small voices” that we hear in our heads and our hearts. We need to be sure that it is God that is talking to us. Sometimes our flesh and even the devil will put thoughts in our heads that are not of God. You can usually tell if it’s actually God that’s talking if the thing that He tells you is in agreement with the Word of God. He doesn’t go against His Word.

The gatekeeper opens the gate for Him, and the sheep listen to His voice. He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. When He has brought out all His own, He goes on ahead of them, and His sheep follow Him because they know His voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” John 10:3-5

Elijah described God’s voice as a still, small voice (I Kings 19:12). God does speak with an inner audible voice at times. However, I’ve found that usually, God's voice comes as spontaneous thoughts, visions, feelings, or impressions.

God told Habakkuk to record the vision (Habakkuk 2:2). This wasn’t an isolated command. The Scriptures record many examples of individuals' prayers and God's replies (i.e. the Psalms, many of the prophets, Revelation). Journaling is the writing out of your prayers and God’s answers. I call the process "two-way journaling," and I’ve found it to be a catalyst for clearly discerning God's inner, spontaneous flow, because as I journal I’m able to write IN FAITH for long periods of time, simply believing it is God. I may write a prayer of thanks or something that’s weighing heavy on my heart, and then I’m still before the Lord to see if He wants to respond back to me. He ALWAYS does.

When you pray, He answers. Expect God to talk back to you. Answers and responses may come at a time other than when you’re praying, but they do come.

Things that will help give you discernment for God’s voice - Spend time with Him. Be still before Him. Focus on Jesus. Get in the Word. Listen. Journal. Repent when you sin. Shake off offenses and pray for those who despitefully use you. Get to know God and be obedient.

Yes, you do know it …God’s voice that is … believe you know it.

Father, I pray that You give us the faith to believe that we hear from You. Help us in turn to be obedient when You ask us to do something. Help us to ignore the voice of the enemy. Speak words of comfort, peace and edification to our hearts to give us encouragement to continue on. In Jesus’ name, amen.

God Listens & Answers

I (the Lord) will answer them before they even call to Me. While they are still talking to Me about their needs,
I will go ahead and answer their prayers. Isaiah 65:26





Father, I come to You through Your Son Jesus ...

I pray for uncommon favor today. Shower us with Your blessings, Lord. Bless our finances, pay our bills, may we have so much that it's an overflow for all those around us.

Pour Your strength into us, refresh us and fill us with Your mighty power. Give us Your peace Lord, that passes understanding, in our hearts and minds. Touch our hearts and remove any heartache or pain, bring healing and restoration. I speak life to the dead areas in our lives ... live in Jesus name. Remove pain and heal our bodies, help them to line up with Your Word, for by Jesus' stripes we're healed and made whole.

I speak restoration to divided relationships ... give unity, peace and healing. I curse the enemy off the institution of the family. Get your hands off our spouses, our children, our parents, our homes - RESTORATION'S coming.

Help us to hold on Lord, because I know that You're a move suddenly God, it's gonna be any day now. Help us to put our hope in You Lord God, cause that's when we won't get hurt and disappointed.

Help us to walk in Your ways Lord God and not our own. Show us the way to go and what to do. Help us to hear Your voice above the crowd, give us discernment Father.

Thanks for imparting wisdom for our situations, help us not to lean on our own understanding. Help us to simply trust You Lord, for trusting is where true rest is found. Thank You Lord God, for the privilege of being able to take it all to You in prayer.

Thank You Lord God, that You hear and answer.

I love You with all my heart heart Father God. In Jesus' name, amen.

God knows your situation. Trust Him. You are His child, He loves you, and He knows exactly what your needs are and is making provisions before you even ask.

God really does listen and answer.

Trusting God

Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He’s the one who will keep you on track.  Don’t assume that you know it all. Run to God. Run from evil. Proverbs 3:5-7

I recently read Romans 4 (see below) from the Message Bible (2011 NavPress) and was deeply encouraged by it. The writers of the translation really knew how to put things in todays terms to help simple-minded folks like me 'get it'.

Though your situation may be seemingly hopeless, believe anyway. Decide to not live on the basis of what you see you can't do, but on what God said He would do. God will make good on what He says. With a word, God can make something out of nothing.

Pray and expect God to answer. Prayer is simply talking to God. Everything will come in the time that God has prepared it to come, so keep praying until something happens. If you ask, God'll give you strength that you never thought you'd ever have.

The Lord asked me yesterday, 'Why do you continue to worry and stress over things that I've already told you I've taken care of?' Good question, why do I? Lack of trust obviously. The more we get to know about God and His character, the more we trust. Getting in the Word and staying in it helps us to get to know our Father better.

God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey Him & the power to do what pleases Him. Phil 2:13 

How long are we going to do things our way, before we realize we have to relinquish control to make it .. give it up. Sometimes, it's a good thing that we feel like we're loosing control. Don't trust your own instincts more than God and His Word, He's faithful and won't let us down ... BELIEVE.

Focus on the Lord and not the problem. Let's keep our eyes on Jesus instead of our circumstances. Don't panic, we're not alone. Even when we can't see which way we're going, God will show us the way to go.  We've come too far to loose hope. Our better days are still ahead of us.

Having done all ... stand. God's gonna take care of EVERYTHING. Simply trust. With God all things are possible, so I'm gonna keep believing.

We don't have to have everything all figured out. Let's let Daddy figure things out and handle them.

Father, I pray that You speak to us and our situations. Help us to hang on to every word that You give us. Create a spirit of hope and expectation that will never die, but instead grow each day, knowing that You will always come through for us, at just the right time. Give us peace while we wait on You, trusting that You have everything under control. In Jesus' name, amen.

 

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Romans 4/MSG

1 So how do we fit what we know of Abraham, our first father in the faith, into this new way of looking at things? 2 If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. But the story we’re given is a God-story, not an Abraham-story. 3 What we read in Scripture is, "Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own."

4 If you’re a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don’t call your wages a gift. 5 But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it’s something only God can do, and you trust him to do it-you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked-well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift.

6 David confirms this way of looking at it, saying that the one who trusts God to do the putting-everything-right without insisting on having a say in it is one fortunate man: 7 Fortunate those whose crimes are carted off, whose sins are wiped clean from the slate. 8 Fortunate the person against whom the Lord does not keep score. 9 Do you think for a minute that this blessing is only pronounced over those of us who keep our religious ways and are circumcised? Or do you think it possible that the blessing could be given to those who never even heard of our ways, who were never brought up in the disciplines of God? We all agree, don’t we, that it was by embracing what God did for him that Abraham was declared fit before God?

10 Now think: Was that declaration made before or after he was marked by the covenant rite of circumcision? That’s right, before he was marked. 11 That means that he underwent circumcision as evidence and confirmation of what God had done long before to bring him into this acceptable standing with himself, an act of God he had embraced with his whole life.

12 And it means further that Abraham is father of all people who embrace what God does for them while they are still on the "outs" with God, as yet unidentified as God’s, in an "uncircumcised" condition. It is precisely these people in this condition who are called "set right by God and with God"! Abraham is also, of course, father of those who have undergone the religious rite of circumcision not just because of the ritual but because they were willing to live in the risky faith-embrace of God’s action for them, the way Abraham lived long before he was marked by circumcision.

13 That famous promise God gave Abraham-that he and his children would possess the earth-was not given because of something Abraham did or would do. It was based on God’s decision to put everything together for him, which Abraham then entered when he believed. 14 If those who get what God gives them only get it by doing everything they are told to do and filling out all the right forms properly signed, that eliminates personal trust completely and turns the promise into an ironclad contract! That’s not a holy promise; that’s a business deal. 15 A contract drawn up by a hard-nosed lawyer and with plenty of fine print only makes sure that you will never be able to collect. But if there is no contract in the first place, simply a promise-and God’s promise at that-you can’t break it.

16 This is why the fulfillment of God’s promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God’s promise arrives as pure gift. That’s the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them. For Abraham is father of us all. He is not our racial father-that’s reading the story backwards. He is our faith father.

17 We call Abraham "father" not because he got God’s attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn’t that what we’ve always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, "I set you up as father of many peoples"? Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. 18 When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, "You’re going to have a big family, Abraham!"

19 Abraham didn’t focus on his own impotence and say, "It’s hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah’s decades of infertility and give up. 20 He didn’t tiptoe around God’s promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, 21 sure that God would make good on what he had said. 22 That’s why it is said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right." 23 But it’s not just Abraham; 24 it’s also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. 25 The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God.

Prayer to Begin the Day

Look to the Lord and His
strength; seek His face always.
Psalm 105:4




The Lord gave me this prayer back in 2002. I have it in a frame on my wall in the kitchen and pray it whenever I get the chance.

Abba Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank You for Your faithfulness. Thank You that You will never leave us, nor forsake us. Be not far from us.

Baptize us in Your love. Reveal Your unconditional love for us to us - let us see that love in everything around us. Remove all obstacles that keep us from receiving that love.

Help us to know who we are in You. Lead us and guide us, in the way that we should go. I pray for a fresh anointing and re-newed strength.

Bless us so that we may bless others. Love people through us. Speak to people through us. Heal people through us. Let them see Jesus in us. For You are what it's all about.

Amidst the rush of the day, it's comforting to know that our job is to simply trust and obey. YOU do the work. Your response to me one day when I repeatedly told You, "I'm trying, Lord. I'm trying" was "I see you trying. Stop. Start leaning. Trust the Spirit. You can't do it. Why do you even try? Do you think that you can do a better job than I can? Only My spirit through you can do it ... that's what grace is for."

Work Your perfect will through us. I'm honored that You choose to live in us, Lord. Thank You that Christ in us is the hope of glory.

Thank You Father, in Jesus' name.