Why have I decided to post this quiet time? I gained the conviction awhile ago when reading "The Prideful Guide's Soul to Humility", found at DPI Books (http://www.dpibooks.com/) that if I don't use my gifts & talents God's given me to glorify God & to encourage others, then that's selfish & it's not humble.

My deep conviction is this: We all have talents that can be used to "encourage one another daily" (Hebrews 3:13, NIV) Hebrews 3:13 and "...spur one another on toward love and good deeds"(Hebrews 10:24, NIV) Hebrews 10:24. As members of the body of Christ, we all have different roles. Each person must fulfill his or her role to keep the body of Christ, the Church, strong.

Every person in the Church is like a brick in a wall that makes up the church. The mortar that holds these bricks together in the church are your love, encouragement, commitment to Christ, faithfulness, as well as your individual gifts, talents & abilities. I encourage you to figure out what your gifts & talents are so you can build up the body of Christ. If you don't honestly know, pray about it & ask God to reveal it to you. Then, seek some advice. Ask someone who knows you well what they think your gift(s) and/or talents are. Then, go & do something to develop this gift and use it for God.

So, I hope by sharing this conviction with you, that you will be inspired in turn to figure out what your talents & gifts are that God has given you. I pray then, that you will use them to build up & edify the body of Christ, the Church, & to encourage others, & to win others for Christ.

A word or two about my writing style. I write very conversationally. I picture you, the reader, reading this text, & then having questions pop into your mind based upon what you read. I also have been told by others that I ask deep questions. So, occasionally, I'll just throw a question out at you, the reader. I hope that you, in turn, will ask yourself these questions, reflect inside & come up with some answers...or some more questions. I ask you things that I hope will make you think, & things that will make you check your own heart(feelings)& mind (thoughts) on things. I also believe that Scripture can speak where I am unable to speak or adequately express what I want to say.

So, break out your Bible, because I have lots of Scriptures that I will quote throughout this time we will spend together. Hey! And if you don't have a Bible handy, I've included (for your ease) hypertext links to the Scriptures I use throughout this mini-Bible study/lesson so that you can jump to those Scriptures with a simple click of your mouse! Is technology amazing, or what? Sit back, & enjoy this quite time. I hope you will use it to branch out into your own study on faith and prayer...sit back & relax. Okay, don't get too comfortable! Grab your cuppa coffee, or your cuppa tea or whatever, and let's get things started...

There is yet another reason that I am writing & posting this quiet time. I've found that my prayer life had been not at all spectacular lately, & I realized my faith was also dwindling. A connection? Of course! I decided to study out prayer & faith all at once, & I actually came to the conviction that they're closely intertwined.

Jesus, our Lord & Savior, is an amazing example of how we should live our lives daily. This is why when we're in a situation in our lives that we don't know how to handle or even when we just want to seek God's guidance - we need to pray, as well as think "What would Jesus do (in this situation)?"

Often we try to figure out what God's will is for our lives. We face a difficult situation & we don't know what to do or what action to take - so we pray for "God's will to be revealed" in our lives. Ever been there?

I was there. I felt, with a situation God had allowed to come into my life, that I was helpless, & powerless to do anything. I felt faithless, hopeless, & fearful. My faith was simply shallow. I wondered "Why" was this situation happening at this point? Didn't God know I was weak? That I couldn't handle this difficult situation in my life at this time? Even though I felt weak, & rather useless, God still expected me to do the things He expected me to do and my life, with all it's responsibilites, couldn't be put on hold. I didn't feel that God could do or accomplish anything through me or through my life.

I felt faithless like Moses when God sent him to take the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses responded with excuses:

"Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" Exodus 2-4

I suggest you read Exodus 2 through to Exodus 4 to understand that Moses, at first, made a lot of excuses because of his faithlessness, & doubt.) Exodus 2-4. The good news is, if you've seen "The Ten Commandments" or "The Prince of Egypt" or read Exodus, you know that Moses didn't stay faithless & doubtful very long. God used Moses to set the Israelites free from slavery from Egypt & He made these people His people & set them free (much like Jesus sets us free from the slavery of sin, today).

Did you ever notice that God didn't concern Himself with what Moses said? All God said in response to Moses' "Who am I, Lord?..." was basically that He wanted Moses to take his eyes off of himself & to stop being faithless, & to focus on God & who God was, not on who Moses was not.

God's response to Moses was merely: "I Am Who I Am." Exodus 3:14
My Church studied out Exodus awhile back. God doesn't want us to be faithless, to doubt or to be fearful, He wants us to look at who He is, & not at who we think we are or are not, or what/who we think we can or cannot become.

God has much more vision for our lives than we'll ever know. And remember, God sees the past, the present and the future at the same time. We only know our pasts (which we are powerless to change) and are trapped in our present, unable to control our futures.

I realize now, given some time to reflect, that this situation didn't present itself in my life to make me doubt, or to be faithless, or to shake my faith. God gave it to me for many reasons. One of those reasons is to reveal where my heart has been at, & where I needed to grow.

God often uses challenges to refine us, from the inside-out.

While I was seeking advice as to how best to handle this difficult situation that God has placed in my life, a good friend taught me an unforgettable lesson:

God's will for my life is simply this: to pray. Your faith in your life will be reflected by how much you pray.

It's an often overlooked Scripture, but let's look at it anyway:

1 Thessalonians 5:17-18: "...pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" (NIV). 1 Thess 5:17-18
What is God's will for my life? To merely pray...He'll help me through whatever I'm going through, and give me the faith I need to get through it.

God's will for me is merely to "pray continually". Well, if God is going to reveal what His will is for my life, then I'd better be praying continually.

A little digression - my church was blessed to have a bunch of different leaders from around the world, visit my Church awhile back.

I was blessed enough to receive some amazing advice from Andy Flemming. For those of you who don't know, Andy is a Canadian who has planted churches in the CIS over the last several years. I sort of see him (in my opinion) as a modern-day Paul. The advice he gave went something like this - I shouldn't just pray. I should pray AND listen.

Often we pray, but we don't listen to what God is trying to tell us. We set our expectations before God & ask Him to either rubber-stamp our selfish desires, or feel that the way we have thought out in our limited wisdom is the only way God could possibly go. God is wiser than I am, & He may be telling me something I haven't thought of, or even dreamed of. So, I should listen AND pray.

God let Andy know years ago, that He wanted a Church planted in Moscow - the exact date God put on his heart was August 7th, 1984, he told me. Andy was looking at a world map where cities needed mission teams. He was looking in Europe & Asia. He was praying for all those cities. He noticed a line dividing one part of the map from another. The line ran near Moscow. God put a dream on Andy's heart to plant a church in Moscow.

Andy spoke of that dream to other church leaders. Not long after, a Church was planted in Moscow, & it's growing, strong, and faithful, to this day. Since that time, there have been dozens of churches planted in Russia, by Russians, in the CIS. Not too many years ago, before the Iron Curtain fell, it seemed an impossible dream for the Iron Curtain to fall, or that churches could be planted & mission teams could be sent out to Russia. When the Russian coup hit, most churches fled or were given the advice to leave Russia. Our church had just planted one - in Moscow.

The men & women over there, including Andy, didn't leave. They trusted God & prayed that God would move. Well, move He did, & He's still moving.

Stand in awe of God. Pray those prayers that scare you - dream those impossible dreams & listen to God's answers, watch God answer your prayers in ways you didn't know He would or could. Watch God then move & work in your life with a mustard seed of faith. Andy prayed such prayers & listened for God's answers. I believe that we should do that too.

My friend, K.R., gave me some advice about how to handle a difficult situation in my life. I admire my friend, because she lives the life she preaches about. She went through a very rough time this year with her son, where he almost died - more than once - & he was in & out of the hospital many times. She shared with me that until she got to the point where she prayed fully surrendered (like Job): "God, you gave him to me, You can take him away, if it's Your will", that she knew she was fully relying on God.

This Job paraphrase actually is found below (read from the beginning of Job to get the context):

"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised." Job 1:21

After K.R. prayed this prayer she felt peaceful, & content, like God was in total control & would work things out - "...for the good of those who love Him..." Romans 8:28

Sometimes, we intellectually know that God is in control, but we are shaken by what's going on around us, & we don't feel like God is in control of what's going on in our lives. But no matter how we feel, the fact is - God IS in control. But, often a difficult challenge comes to test how much we will cling to that reality.

My personal conviction is that God allows challenges to come into our lives for another reason also: So we will become more reliant on God, and become less self-reliant, and more humble.

By nature, I am a very selfish & prideful person. Sometimes, I think God must look down on me & shake His head & smile with a twinkle in His eyes & say:

"Lesley, Lesley - when will you learn I gave you this situation to learn to lean on Me, to rely on Me - to see that only I can help you through this, & only I can give you the perseverance, & strength to come through this challenge victoriously?" I hear God say: "Lesley, I need you to lean on Me,& not your own understanding".

Ever been here? Ever heard God say this to you when you're facing something difficult? Most of us have at some point or another. But if we don't learn to lean on Him & rely on Him, guess what? We can become bitter, even more faithless, & sink deep into a pit of self-pity, depression & hopelessness. How do I know?

I did exactly that last year after a car accident where it took many months for my body to heal. Each day was a chore - migraines, searing back pain, muscle spasms, increasing financial debt, unable to work. Yeah, I understand, I've been there. Instead of initially trying to see what God could teach me, I became bitter & angry with God. Only later, did I learn to humble myself before God & ASK what He was trying to teach me - only THEN was I able to learn anything. My advice? Don't allow yourself to go there. Turn to God & learn to rely on Him & ask what He may be trying to teach you. Pray unceasingly. Be open about how you feel to others and with God. Build your faith through prayer & Bible study.

There are thtree good quotations I'd like to give you to remember (borrowed):

Here's the first quotation:

The only difference between a rut and a grave is their dimensions. - Ellen Glasgow

In other words, only you can decide how long you'll stay in a "rut" spiritually. Trust me, God does not want you to be in a rut, at all. Often, we dig our own ruts or graves spiritually by not relying on & turning to God.

Instead, we grow bitter, ungrateful, discontented, & hopeless.

Trials only reveal what's already in our hearts & magnify what's there by 100%. You may say - "Hey wait a minute! I wasn't ungrateful, bitter, discontented, & hopeless before this trial/challenge."

Yes, you were - it was just hidden in the deepest recesses of your soul, & God used this challenge or trial to bring it to the surface so you could see it yourself, & where you still need to grow Jeremiah 17:9

Do you want a small rut spiritually, or a grave? I'll take a rut any day, over a grave! At least I know by giving my hand to God & by asking Him for help, He can pull me out. He could pull me out of a grave, too, but in the process, I may end up hurting myself, hurthing others, or turning my back on Him & pushing Him away.

Here's another quotation:

People are like stained-glass windows: They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.

- Unknown

In other words, when the darkness of trials & tribulations of this world assault you, you'll only make it on through to the other side if you have a light from within to help light your way. Your light within must be Jesus, the Son of God, who IS the Light of the world. How much light that will shine through the darkness will be dependent upon you, & you alone. If your relationship with God isn't growing stronger daily, growing more powerful & dynamic, then this light within you is gonna grow dim quickly.

If you ARE building your relationship with God daily, however, through prayer & studying the Bible & putting it into practice, then God's light is gonna shine within you brightly. So brightly, in fact, that others won't be able to help but notice & be impacted that God's light is still shining through you amidst the darkness of trials & challenges.

Here's the final quotation: Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. Martin Luther King Jr.

In other words, just start climbing that mountain, take the first few steps. You don't have to picture yourself ascending to the summit, just picture yourself at each step along the way, climbing higher & higher, with the Lord's help.

I told you these three quotations were deep.

One thing I feel I must share is that God does not ever set us up to fail. He allows things to happen in our lives so we can learn something, grow in our character & faith, grow even closer to Him, & so we can glorify God through trials & be a great example of how to overcome to others.

Back to my friend...God's light shone through her during a very difficult & dark time in her life, & her faith & godly attitude toward it DID inspire me. What did I learn from her? Well, her faith to get through this difficult time was built thru prayer. Through prayer, she was confident of what God's will was with regard to her son (her son did get better, by the way). She taught me that I need to imitate her & build my own faith through prayer, & to find out what God's will is by surrendering my will & accepting whatever His will is & to be content with it & trust whatever happened, God is always working for my good.

Again, trials and tribulations come to refine our faith & prove our faith genuine:

1 Peter 1: 6-7 (Read verses 3-9 for the complete context):

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."1 Peter 1:6-7

This study will be long, & I plan to post things as I study them out, & keep adding onto it.

Here are some more things I've been learning besides those mentioned above. "Only God can move mountains, but faith and prayer move God". (E.M. Bounds)

Isn't it amazing to think that God is able to move mountains, part the Red Sea, raise Jesus from the dead, perform numerous miracles & He is our God! Not only that, but we can move God to action though our prayers! Does that not just blow your mind?

"When faith is broken down, the foundations of our spiritual lives give way." (E.M. Bounds)

Broken faith, broken prayer lives, and broken lives. I know I feel broken, not whole, when my faith breaks down & when my prayer life isn't as good as I know it should be. How about you? But the great thing is we don't have to stay broken down. We can be whole again, & God will build us back up. It's simply going back to the basics. Prayer, Bible Study, fasting (if you're medically able to fast, that is) - if not, you can still fast from SOMETHING.

Okay, I know there's some of you reading this who are skeptical. I can hear your skepticism seep through the internet. How? Because I've been there myself. It takes a former skeptic to know one that may be reading this = O )

"It's that simple? Nah. It's gotta be more complicated than that. You don't know me, I've tried this & that & the other thing, & it still isn't working!" Okay, maybe you have tried. But are you consistent with it? Are you persevering & continuing in it? If not, you'll see only half-hearted results at best.

Half-hearted effort = half-hearted results. If you're half-hearted about your relationship with God, you won't get anywhere, trust me! You may not know me, so how can you trust me? Well, if you can't trust me, then at least trust God:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:11-13

You won't truly find God, unless you seek Him wholeheartedly. God's Word says it, so it's a fact. To borrow a line from the movie "The Ten Commandments": - "So it is written, so it is done." (A little paraphrasing). It's as simple as that.

You're feeling you don't have enough will or belief in yourself or in God to try? You're too weary, to try again? You're too busy & bogged down with life to make the time for God again? Excuses - that's all they are.

Did you know that spiritual men & women refuse to make excuses? They refuse to make excuses for their sin, they own up to it & take responsibility for their sin, get open about it, get the help they need, & they repent. They refuse to blame others when things go wrong that they know deep down they've caused or let happen themselves. They may be fearful at times or faithless or doubting. But when that happens, they are open about it with others & they pray to God. They ask God to make up for what they lack. God DOES help them & make up where they lack with His strength.

If you feel too tired or too weary or too whatever to try again, then you don't trust God. How big is your God? What CAN'T God do in your life?

How powerful is YOUR God?

My God can move mountains, part the Red Sea, overthrow kingdoms, create the world in a week, stop wars, make the sun stand still for a day, raise the dead, cause plagues to destroy an evil nation, set a nation of slaves free, topple a giant with a young teenager's holding a sling shot and two smooth stones.

You get the idea? Your God is only as big as you think He is. And this is how powerfully you will expect God to move in your life also. Don't limit what God can do in your life by your small dreams, dwarfed goals, lack of faith, & cheesy expectations. Expect God to be who He really is - powerful, Sovereign, Almighty, loving, full of mercy, full of grace, overflowing with forgiveness. This is the God you follow. This is the God whom you serve.

He can do anything in your life IF you'll only let Him. And even then, He will do even "more than you can ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20). Ephesians 3:20

I was at a point in my life where I felt absolutely faithless last year. I wanted to give up. I had no hope. I didn't want to try anymore. Do you know how I got out of it? God used a friend to teach me a very important lesson.

Here's the Scripture my friend, C.L., shared with me:

Proverbs 13:12, NIV: "Hope deferred makes the heart sick..." Proverbs 13:12
I realized that older disciples sometimes go through different challenges than younger disciples. One of the challenges is dashed expectations and hopes & dreams.

You know, when you get out of the water & you're baptized, you have all these hopes & dreams & goals. You also have all these hopes & dreams & goals about what you want to do for God & His Kingdom when you're walking with God daily, & have a great relationship with God. So, you have these goals in mind. Hey! Goals are good. Dreams are awesome. Go ahead & dare to dream, set goals! You'll only hit the goal based upon the one you set yourself in life. Have great expectations of yourself!

But, I think we in our hearts set goals & dreams & then Satan, years later, creeps in. How does he do this to us?

Well, Satan feeds you lies and makes you ungrateful for what God is already doing in your life and what He has already done in your life. Satan makes you think you should have something better, something more, than you already have. And then you realize:

- "Hey! I remember when I was a young disciple & I hoped I'd be married by the time I was 5 years old as a disciple, & I've never even dated someone steady!" - "Hey, I thought I'd be successful at a great job by the time I was 25 & debt free!" - "Hey, I wanted to be on a mission team by the time I was 3 years old in the faith, & I haven't even made impact in my own city yet!"

Dashed expectations, goals, & dreams.

You see, originally, these goals, and dreams were godly. They were faithful. But eventually, if your heart grows ungrateful, you lose patience & don't trust God's timing or God's direction in your life anymore. You think God "owes" you something because of your: hard work, faithfulness, loyalty to Him.

Well here's some news: God owes us NOTHING. God saved us, through Jesus on the Cross, but even that, we never deserved. It was just God's grace & forgiveness, mercy & love for us that enabled us to embrace the Cross & Jesus in our lives & come to know Him.

If God saved me, & taught me how to be a disciple & God gave me nothing more, I should be content with that. The problem with these expectations is that we lay them before God & expect God to give them to us & pray about them. God may grant them, or He may not.

God may give us a different answer than we expect. How do we know our expectations are in line with God's will for our lives in the first place? Prayer.

Did you pray about these things before you started to expect they should happen in your life? Did you surrender that whatever God's will was with regard to these expectations, hopes & dreams, that He would help you to be content, whatever His answer, first?

Watch out! If you didn't, you're in danger. Because these goals and expectations and hopes and dreams that were once godly, may become ungodly. Satan can make you think that you deserve something more than what you have. Satan can try to make you think that your life without God would be better. Satan can try to convince you that if you hadn't become a Christian, you would have already received some of these goals, hopes, dreams, & expectations.

Even as a disciple, as a true Christian, you may be disappointed & have dashed expectations. You may blame yourself, you may blame others, or you may even blame God. I highly recommend a book called "Disappointment With God" by Phillip Yancy. It goes much more into detail on this point than I plan to go into here.

Basically, dreams, goals, hopes, ambitions, & expectations are good to have for yourself. If you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, they had better be godly. The problem comes when these dreams, hopes, goals and expectations become our focus, and we take our focus off of God. Essentially, these goals, hopes, dreams, ambitions and expectations, though once godly, become ungodly. How? They become ungodly if they become our focus, and our focus no longer remains to be God.

What we focus on, we work toward. What we dream, we often pursue. What we hope for, we make efforts to obtain. What we expect, we place our hope in.

If these dreams etc. become our hope - we are sunk. We can over time, without even knowing it, take our eyes off of God, and fix our eyes on our goals, dreams, hopes & ambitions. When this becomes the case, our hopes become dashed, our dreams become ungodly or impossible to reach. Our expectations become frustrated. We can end up bitter, disappointed, ungrateful, and ungodly people.

This is what I see is a slow disease that invades your spiritual life over time. Only when this sinful disease comes full-blown do we see the symptoms.

What are the symptoms? Lack of ambition. Loss of dreams. Loss of motivation. Loss of hope, which leads to a sick heart. A sick heart is very ugly, & it rots you spiritually from the inside of your soul outward.

God does love us to dream, to hope, to work toward goals, & to have expectations. He even blesses us & grants many of our hopes and desires as long as they are in line with His will for us, & as long as they are godly. Anything God gives us is a blessing & a gift from Him.

If we don't get something we expect, however, do we have any right to become ungrateful? Nope! How dare we expect that God owes us anything? God owes us nothing. But because He loves us as His children, He does bless us, & often answers our prayers in the way we hoped He would.

Keep in mind, however, that God blesses us when we are obedient, faithful, grateful and when we put God first in our lives. He does not bless us if we are ungrateful or unfaithful or disobedient or if granting us something will be harmful to us spiritually. God knows way better than I do what's good for me spiritually & He indeed knows what is bad for me spiritually.

I'll trust God to take care of me. If God asks me to reshape my expectations, or to dream a different dream, or work toward a goal in a different way - I say "Okay."

Some questions to ask of yourself:

1. What are your dreams, hopes, desires, expectations, & goals? 2. Are they godly or worldly? 3. If God for whatever reason doesn't fulfill your expectations in the way you had hoped, will you be disappointed? Will you become ungrateful? Lose faith? Get bitter? Think God doesn't love you?

Remember this always - "God works for the good of those who love Him" (Romans 8:28, NIV).

And for good measure, read Romans 8:28-39 - it will encourage you, no matter what you're going through. Repeat this one verse over & over until you believe it with every core & fiber of your being. Memorize it & recall it when you feel your hopes have been dashed, your expectations unfulfilled, your goals are unmet, & your dreams seem squelched. You'll be glad you did. Romans 8:28-39

So here we are - "Wow! This is becoming long!" and I feel I haven't even started yet....

I know I'll have more to add in the future, but this is all I have for now. I hope this little "study" on Faith & Prayer, albeit brief, and as of yet, incomplete, at least gets you thinking. I pray it gets you wanting to study this out in your Bible Study. And I pray it builds your faith somehow.

mt28-18-20@rocketmail.com

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