Praying Life

 

Me:  Your friends look like rough company.

Prodigal:  Yeah, he steal his mama’s egg money.

Me:  Maybe you should pray for him then.

Prodigal:  That is what I am planning on doing.

 

This is from the book A Praying Life by Paul Miller

 

Oddly enough, many people struggle to learn how to pray because they are focusing on praying, not on God.  Making prayer the center is like making conversation the center of a family mealtime.  In prayer, focusing on the conversation is like trying to drive while looking at the windshield instead of through it.  It freezes us, making us unsure of where to go.

 

Some of my best prayers times are just a simple conversation as if I am talking to someone who loves me and is interested in me.  Of course God is someone who loves me and is interested in me.

 

2 Corinthians 3:4

And such trust have we through Christ toward God.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

 

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Purity of Heart

 

Me:  Howdy Prodigal!  Your friend looks like he was weaned on a sour pickle.

Prodigal:  No he is just upset.  He needs some encouragement.

Me:  Maybe I can share some encouragement.

 

This is from the Secret of Happiness by Billy Graham

 

If we are truly pure in our hearts, we will have a single-minded devotion to the will of God.  Our motives will be unmixed, our thoughts will not be adulterated with those things which are not right.  And our hearts will be clean, because we will not tolerate known sin in our hearts and allow it to pollute us. 

 

We must continually go to God to cleanse our hearts.  Now is a time of confession and cleaning of our hearts before the Lord.

 

1 John 1:8-9

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Our Helplessness

Me:  Your friend looks sad Prodigal!

Prodigal:  She eats sorrow by the spoonful.

Me:  Well maybe I can encourage her.

 

This is from the book Beyond Our Selves by Catherine Marshall

 

I learned that when achievement has come because of our helplessness linked to God’s power, it has a rightness about it that no amount of self-inspired striving can have.   Furthermore, when achievement comes this way, it does not bear in it the seeds of increasing egocentricity that success sometimes brings.  Because we know that ideas and the ability to implement them flowed into us from somewhere beyond our selves, we can be objective about our good fortune.  

Since then God has never allowed me the fulfillment of a soul’s sincere desire without first putting me through an acute realization of my inadequacy and my need for help.

 

I feel so helpless right now.  How do I stop from feeling discouraged in my helplessness?  I believe you have to pray and believe God’s promises.  Lord I pray that you will help me this day to focus on you and you alone.  Do not let me focus on the things of this world.

 

1 Corinthians 15:27

For he hath put all things under his feet.  But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Automobiles

 

Me:  Nice car Prodigal!

Prodigal:  Thanks,  I am going to take a nice drive in the country!

Me:  While we are driving, I will share a story about automobiles.

 

This is from the book Growing Deep in the Christian Life by Chuck Swindoll

 

Many, many centuries ago, all this iron, glass, rubber, plastic, leather, and wires came up out of the ground.  Furthermore, each substance fashioned itself into various shapes and sizes….and holes evolved at just the right places, and the upholstery began to weave itself together.  After a while threads appeared on bolts and nuts and —amazing as it may seem–each bolt found nuts with matching threads.  And gradually everything sort of screwed up tightly in place.   A little later correctly shaped glass glued itself in the right places.  And you see these tires?  They became round over the years.  And they found themselves the right size metal wheels.  And they sort of popped on.  They also filled themselves with air somehow.  And the thing began to roll down the street.

And one day, many, many years ago–centuries, really–some people were walking and they found this vehicle sitting under a tree.  And one of them looked at it and thought, “How amazing.  I think we should call it automobile.  But there’s more!  These little automobiles have an amazing way of multiplying themselves year after year…even changing ever so slightly to meet the demands of the public.  Actually, that process is called “automutations.”

 

Maybe these people should believe in Jesus instead!

 

Ezekiel 6:13

And you shall know that I am the Lord, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak, wherever they offered pleasing aroma to all their idols.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

The Spirit Does the Miracle

 

Me:  I am enjoying this walk Prodigal!

Prodigal:  Me too, good time to share about the Lord right now!

 

This is from the book You Were Born for This by Bruce Wilkinson

We are partnering with the most powerful force on earth–God himself.  And the Holy Spirit has been given to us so we can do good works by His power.  He is our Helper.  He is the only one who does a miracle.  You and I are simply blessed to be invited into partnership with Him.

 

God let me be reminded of the grace and mercy you gave me in first allowing me to know you.  The second is that you even allow me to be part of miracles in the life of other’s .

 

1 Corinthians 14:15

What is it then?  I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also:  I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Servant’s Heart

 

Me:  Look at those nice condo’s!

Prodigal:  I do believe that those people are so rich they eat their layin’ hens.

Me:  We can’t have prejudice against the rich.

Prodigal:  No, we can’t.

 

This is from the book Voices of the Faithful by Beth Moore.

I had known the quiet woman for only a few months, but already I respected her.  Her father had died young, and she was the primary breadwinner for her family.  She worked hard and sought to honor her mother.  After a missionary led her to the Lord, she also lived her life for Jesus.  She was pleasant and had a true servant’s heart.

She went to church, yet even there the dividing lines were drawn.  As a poor girl born into a low Hindu caste of street sweepers, few greeted her with handshakes and warm embraces.

I had been bedridden for more than a week.  I was too weak to go to the nearest medical facility.  I struggled to swallow water, and I ate and drank nothing else.  My body and mind were too exhausted to read Scripture or even to pray.  My family was continents away, and friends did not know what to do to help me improve.

Then the young woman came to my bedside.  I was happy to have her there.  She placed her hand on my forearm and went directly to the Lord in prayer, asking for my healing.  The  next morning I was well.

How grateful I am to the Lord that the woman whom so many reject placed her hands of prayer on me!

Although it is easy to judge other believers for their treatment of this woman born in humble circumstances, I had to ask myself the shameful question, Do I have any prejudice in my heart?

Chele, South Asia

 

Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.  For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of Lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.

Deuteronomy 10:16-17

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Rugs

 

Me:  What a nice rug!

Prodigal:  It is my friend’s and she picked it out.

Me:  Well I would say she’s got plenty of arrows in her quiver.

Prodigal:  I would agree!

 

This is from the book Voices of the Faithful by Beth Moore

In a small town high in an Andean valley, exquisite wool rugs are made entirely by hand.  Freshly shorn sheep’s wool is first washed in a vat of water heated over an open fire.  Detergent is added to remove natural oils and grime as a wooden paddle is used to stir.  The workers then rinse the wool in the river.

Then, the craftsmen examine the wool.  They set aside the purest white wool to be used in its natural color.  The wool that is not pure white is placed in a vat and heated again.  Dye is added to the flawed wool to make the bright colors needed.

After the dye process, the wool is hand-spun into thread.  The finished rug will have at least 60,000 hand-tied knots per square meter.  Brilliant masterpieces of color and design are made of the pure wool and the wool that was once flawed.  The dye covers the flaws and makes the wool attractive and useful.

I look at my life and see many failures.  However, just like the wool that could not meet the standards of pure white, I can still have value.  God has not only forgiven my sins, He covers my flaws with Himself, and I am made beautiful and useful.  As I daily submit to Him, I become part of the design of His perfect will.

There is no one of us whose life is too flawed with sin to be used by God.  Our value comes not from who or what we are, but from what God makes us.

 

Donna, South America

He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

Titus 3:5-6

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org