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“Until you believe God is with you and for you, fear and hesitation will characterize your life.”

A thought by Steven Furtick (2010-09-21) from his book, Sun Stand Still: What Happens When You Dare to Ask God for the Impossible (p. 102). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

I am looking on my other blog, bill’s front porch, at The Lord’s Prayer.  It is what Jesus shared with His disciples when they asked Him to teach them how to pray.

Now the first request He told them to ask for was to ask that God’s name be hallowed.  Now to hallow means that we are to acknowledge who God really is.  One way to do that is to start your prayer with praising God.

I am right now sitting on a picnic table outside close to a beautiful Florida lake.  I am in the middle of my walking.  In my first part of my walking I listened on my iPhone to last Sunday’s message by Brian Moll who is the Pastor of Forefront Church in Manhattan and when that was done I had a time of focused prayer.  Now in the first part of my prayer I acknowledge who God was through praising Him.

Some think that praising Him and thanking Him is the same thing but they aren’t.  Praising Him is taking a meaningfully focused time to acknowledge who He is.  For instance, He is love, He is unchangeable, He is omnipresent (He is everywhere), He is omniscient (He is all knowing), He is omnipotent (He is all powerful).  You praise Him for who He is then you thank Him for what He has done.  After doing that you really realize that He can handle what is happening in your life so then you ask Him specifically to give you what you need.  When you emphasize who He is and what He has done you then come boldly to request of Him.

But until you really realize that He is with you (omnipresent) and He loves you and He has the power (omnipotence) to take care of you then you will live in fear and worry.   We live way below the privileges of what God has for us because we don’t really acknowledge who He is.

So what has you worried today?

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