Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Daily Devotion

The Significance of Prayer, Praise, and Patience
 
"But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you."  Matthew 6:6 
"Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD." Psalm 150:6
"But if we look forward to something we don't yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)"  Romans 8:25
 
Evening everybody!  Today was my 25th birthday and I must say, it was wonderful.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  Anyway, at some point during the day, I happened to think about the acronym PUSH.   And I've heard it said two different ways--Pray Until Something Happens and Praise Until Something Happens.  And I don't know why but I had to find another P word--patience/patient--that would fit into the PUSH.  So I came up with be Patient Until Something Happens--but only after you have done the other two.
 
See, we sometimes miss out on things we are supposed to receive because we decide to operate outside of God's will.  We pray empty prayers asking God for healing, wealth and success but we don't give God the praise.  Sometimes we get caught up with praising God in the heat of a song, and we haven't prayed enough about a situation.  We even claim to be patient until something comes along to distract, discourage, and defeat our faith. 
 
I use these three here because I've learned that you cannot do any particular one of these things without doing the other to receive from God.  You cannot pray and not have patience that God will bring to pass the thing you requested of.  You cannot praise and ignore the part that says to bring your cares, concerns, and worries to God.  You cannot be patient and not have offered any praise to the Lord.
 
Now that you have a third word, combine them all together: Praise, Pray, and be Patient until God moves on your behalf.
 
"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

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