Tues/Feb 21, 2012 Prayer 2

"But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, Who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him."

Good Tuesday afternoon, please pray for the staff and all who call The Bridges their home as the bug is still there, but getting better. Praise God for that. We have been informed that our Thursday morning sing-along is on. Praise God for that also. Tuesday is the day we pray for cures for cancer, heart problems, failed kidneys, etc. Pray for Tom, Grant and me tomorrow as we disconnect the electric from the building we are getting and get ready for moving day.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 Prayer: Matthew 6:6 - But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, Who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. (NIV)

What is Jesus telling us with our scripture of today? When we are praying we are not to be a show-off about it. He is also telling us that is good to just go into our room, or I would think any other place that is quiet and we can be alone talking to God. One real interesting point to me here is He knows and sees us so when we pray in secret, we will get rewarded... Yes, that is what the scripture tells us. Wow, in our room to pray, makes me wonder, was Jeff Gordon praying in that car, his room for the race, when his car rolled the other night? I am sure he was, and we were in our room praying for him also. Gosh, my momma loved Jesus and followed Him, and she must have followed Him in this scripture, for me also, for I remember being sent to my room a lot.

Now we who pastor and preach also need to pray in the open, we need to pray for others, but we also must remember this and hey, these are not my words, these are the words from the scriptures. "And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like the pagans for they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." When I went through Lay Leader classes a few years back, one of the things the instructor taught us was not to preach a prayer. I have given the prayer before a lot of midget and pony football games and also their annual awards dinner. One time before the dinner when I was going up to give the blessing on the food, my son, Keith, one of the coaches, said to me as I passed by, "not too long, dad, don't let the food get cold".

Ok, God wants to hear from us, He wants us to talk to Him, and yesterday we talked about taking time to listen to God.

Tomorrow, how many kinds of prayer are there? Do you know? If you do, share it with me.

Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for the message of today, please help us to walk in Your light, hear our prayers for the sick and heal them according to Your will. Thanks for this day, and may we please You by living it for You. I love You Jesus... and I pray in Your Name... Amen.

Now go forth sharing your blessings. Love ya, Pastor Dan.