7 to Thirty7: February 2012

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Start with Praise

Dug, a dog in the fictional cartoon movie UP, says to Carl Fredricksen without restraint, “You are my master and I love you.”

How often to we acknowledge our God in this way? Do we state it? Do we live like it is true? Is it evident in how we act and how we feel about life?

“You are my master and I love you.” Out of the heart the mouth speaks. It would not be so hard to proclaim and praise God for just being our master if the truth of who He is were in our hearts. It would come out of our mouths without restraint.

Let’s get His truth in our hearts as we start with praise. Instead of coming into His presence and ignoring WHO He is by rambling off a checklist that may or may not be in line with His, “Dear God give me give me give me, help help help, do this do that,” Let’s start with Praise. Instead of talking for a good while before any of our focus is really on God, “Me me me me me me,” let’s first acknowledge our master. Here is a question to ponder, are we really coming before his throne and are in his presence if we are not acknowledging Him at all? Let’s praise our Master like Dug.

The ministry Moms in Prayer encourages prayer time to start with praise. One of their documents list God attributes and scriptures to support each attribute. In order to help us all praise God first while meditating on the truth of who He is, I have modified the document just a bit. Under each attribute I have written out a praise prayer that also defines the God attribute. This can be used to start our prayers with praise.

And not just prayer... start everything with Praise. Start each day with Praise. Start every thought with Praise. Start each meal with Praise. Start a conversation with Praise. Start with Praise.

Talk to and about God with Praise and Worship on our lips...

GOD IS SUPREME

Dear God, You are Supreme! I praise You for You are highest in rank, power and authority. I worship You for You are superior to all, the highest in degree. You are of utmost importance above all Heaven and Earth.

Genesis 14:19

Deuteronomy 10:14-17

Nehemiah 9:6

Job 11:7-9

Psalm 95:3-7

Psalm 135:5

Isaiah 44:6-8

Acts 17:24-28

Colossians l:15-18

Hebrews 1:4, 6

Jude 24-25

Revelation 4:8

GOD IS SOVEREIGN

Dear God, You are Sovereign! I praise You for You alone hold the position of royal ruler, superior to all others. I worship You for You reign above all things. You are controlling everything and can do anything.

I Samuel 2:6-8

I Chronicles 29:10-13

II Chronicles 20:6

Job 42:2

Psalm 33:10-11

Psalm 47:2-3, 7-8

Psalm 93

Psalm 135:6-7

Isaiah 40:10

Isaiah 46:9-10

Matthew 10:29-30

Romans 8:28

GOD IS OMNIPOTENT

Dear God, You are Omnipotent! You are all powerful and I praise You. You have unlimited power and authority and I worship You. You are Almighty God.

II Chronicles 32:7-8

Psalm 62:11

Psalm 89:8-13

Psalm 147:5

Isaiah 40:28-31

Jeremiah 32:17

Habakkuk 3:4

Matthew 19:26

Ephesians 1:19-20

Ephesians 3:20

Colossians 1:10-12

Hebrews 1:3

GOD IS OMNISCIENT

Dear God, You are Omniscient! Not one living thing has knowledge over you. I praise You for You hold infinite knowledge. I worship You for You are God who knows all things; nothing is hidden from your sight.

Psalm 44:21

Psalm 139:1-6

Psalm 142:3

Psalm 147:5

Isaiah 65:24

Daniel 2:22

Matthew 6:8

Matthew 10:30

John 6:64

Romans 11:33-34

Colossians 2:3

Hebrews 4:13

GOD IS OMNIPRESENT

Dear God, You are Omnipresent! Your presence is everywhere. I praise You for being present at all places. You are in the past, present and future. I worship You for being present in all times.

I Kings 8:27

Psalm 31:20

Psalm 46:1-7

Psalm 139:5-12

Isaiah 66:1

Jeremiah 23:24

Matthew 28:20

Acts 17:27-28

Romans 8:35, 38-39

Colossians 1:17 II

Timothy 4:16-18

Hebrews 13:5

GOD IS IMMUTABLE

Dear God, You are Immutable! You never change or vary and I praise You. I worship You for being unchangeable. You have always been and alway will be the great I AM.

Numbers 23:19

I Samuel 15:29

Psalm 33:11

Psalm 100:5

Psalm 102:25-27

Psalm 119:89, 152

Isaiah 40:6-8

Isaiah 51:6

Malachi 3:6a

Hebrews 6:17-19a

Hebrews 13:8

James 1:17

GOD IS FAITHFUL

Dear God, You are Faithful! I praise You for being dependable and reliable. You are loyal, You are devoted and You are unwavering. I worship You for You are steadfast, constant and true.

Deuteronomy 7:9

Psalm 33:4

Psalm 89:8

Psalm 119:90

Psalm 145:13

Psalm 146:5-8

Lamentations 3:21-24

I Corinthians 10:13

II Timothy 1:12

II Timothy 2:13

I John 1:9

Revelation 19:11

GOD IS HOLY

Dear God, You are Holy! I honor You for You are spiritually perfect. I praise You for You are pure. You are sinless and deserving of all awe, reverence and adoration. I worship a Holy God.

Exodus 15:11

I Samuel 2:2

Psalm 77:13

Psalm 99

Psalm 111:9

Isaiah 5:16

Isaiah 57:15-16

Luke 1:49

Acts 3:13-15

I Peter 1:15-16

Revelation 4:8

Revelation 15:4

GOD IS JUST

Dear God, You are Just! I praise You for You are right and You are fair. You are completely impartial. I worship You for being upright, lawful, correct and true. You are a righteous God.

Deuteronomy 32:4

II Chronicles 19:7

Psalm 9:7-10

Psalm 89:14-16

Psalm 119:137-138

Psalm 145:17

Isaiah 30:18

Zephaniah 3:5

John 5:30

Romans 3:25-26

II Thessalonians 1:5-7

Revelation 15:3-4

GOD IS WISE

Dear God, You are Wise! Your wisdom goes past knowledge to understanding and action. I praise You for having keen perception and discernment. I worship You for You have the power of judging rightly. You always make right choices.

I Chronicles 28:9

Psalm 92:5

Psalm 147:5

Proverbs 2:6

Proverbs 3:19-20

Isaiah 28:29

Isaiah 55:8-9

Daniel 2:20-22

Romans 11:33-34

Romans 16:27

Colossians 2:2-3

James 3:17

GOD IS ETERNAL

Dear God, You are Eternal! I praise You for existing though all time. I worship You for You are without beginning or end. You are everlasting.

Exodus 3:14-15

Exodus 15:18

Deuteronomy 33:27

Nehemiah 9:5b

Psalm 45:6

Psalm 90:1-2

Psalm 93:2

Isaiah 26:4

Jeremiah 31:3

Romans 1:20

I Timothy 1:17

Revelation 1:8,18

GOD IS THE CREATOR

Dear God, You are the Creator! You are the one who brought into existence the universe and all matter and life in it. I praise and worship You, creator of all things.

Genesis 1:1

Psalm 95:3-7

Psalm 100:3

Psalm 104

Psalm 148:1-6

Isaiah 42:5

Jeremiah 10:12

John 1:3

Acts 17:24-28

Colossians 1:16

Hebrews 1:2

Revelation 10:6

GOD IS GOOD

Dear God, You are Good! I praise You for You are virtuous and excellent. You are an upright God all the time. I worship You for You are essentially, absolutely and consummately good.

Psalm 25:8

Psalm 34:8

Psalm 86:5

Psalm 119:68

Psalm 136:1

Psalm 145:9

Jeremiah 33:11

Nahum 1:7

Mark 10:18

John 10:11

I Timothy 4:4

II Peter 1:3-4

One more quote from Dug, "Squirrel!" It does not take much to distract us. A simple "squirrel" could make us take our eyes off our master. May we not wait, withhold, overlook or let a "squirrel" get in the way of our praise to our master. The more we do it, the more we feel it. The more we feel it, the more we do it. Praising God first then becomes a part of how we live, feel and think. Out of our heart our mouth will speak and proclaim who God is. Let’s start with praise.

“You are my master and I love you.”

Thursday, February 2, 2012

iLove Deep and Wide

iPray eVotionals

The gun sounds as the race begins. iPray eVotionals exhorts the runners on the path of a prayerful lifestyle. It's the glass of water held out around each month's turn. It's for the runner who can use a quick and easy quench in order to finish strong.

Prayer is communication with God. Can we hear God's voice when He says that He loves us? Or are other voices crowding out our definition of true love?

Defining LOVE

How horribly twisted is Valentine's definition of love? Is Valentines Day a good example of what God is? Because God is love and I'm thinking that this holiday falls short! When we come before our Lord in prayer we want to hear his voice over all the others.

"How deep and how wide is my love for you!" Said a Target ad.

Is Valentine's Day commercialized? Most store advertisements tells us how deep and how wide their love is for us. As deep as our bank accounts and as wide as our homes are able to fit merchandise. What happens (or does not happen) on Valentine's Day is the defining factor on the status of our love life, so we are told. TV becomes a hypnosis tool, like a rocking pendulum, chanting into our heads, "You have no love in your life until you buy a whole lot of heart shaped doodads and expect (AKA demand) expensive doodads in return." A day that could be set aside for honoring God in loveing others is lost in selfish greed, hitting the world's human target on how to love.

"How deep and how wide is my love for you!" I said to my Chiropractor.

Is Valentines Day full of conditions? When I'm feeling great I can say I love my Chiropractor. He uses the Neurological Integration System (NIS) and all I can say is IT WORKS! My love is as deep as his rates are affordable and as wide as how good I am feeling. It's so easy to love someone when you are receiving a service that you are very pleased with. If the service benefits me in a big way then yes, my natural reaction is love... but conditional love. In other words, we love someone because they fulfill a condition that we require before we can love them. Valentines could be a day designed to love on others. But it is crowded out by very human conditions and expectations.

"How deep and how wide is my love for you!" Said God.

Valentines day is commercialized, full of conditions and even our best love intentions can fall short. Why? Because our definition of love is not in line with God's definition of love. Our best human definition of love is dependent on services, cuteness, being cared for, looks, if someone is fun to be with, feelings and emotions that can change from one moment to the next. But God's love preceded anything we have to offer or anything we could be. A great verse about His love is found in Romans 5:8, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." God is Love, and His unconditional sacrificial love is very different from human love; it's not based on warm fuzzy feelings or emotions. He doesn't love us because we're lovable or because we make Him feel good. Forget Valentine's Day holding any sort of definition of what love really is because when we read that God is love in the Bible, this means that God defines love with a higher authority than even Webster's Dictionary! God is the very definition of love itself. As hard as a Target ad might try, as hard as I might try, I cannot define love outside of knowing God. This essentially means that our human "Valentines" definition of love falls terribly short.

"...being rooted and established in love, may [you] have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:17b-19

As we bow our heads in prayer THIS is the love God is speaking into our hearts. Because of HIS love, we can know love.

HOW wide, HOW long, HOW high, HOW deep?

This poem about HOW Jesus loved says it all:

(click to read)

Wide Long High and Deep

How Should We Love?

HOW can we go out and share this love with others?

"How deep and how wide is my love for you!" Said Veruca Salt's dad.

Is Valentine's Day teaching us HOW to love? Most parents love their children no matter what, which is a bit closer to God's sacrificial unconditional-love. They want the best for their children. But sadly (parent or no parent) most of us don't know HOW to love. Most prayers for what is "best" looks like this, "Please let only good things happen to my __________, no harm, no danger, no fear, no challenges that are too difficult, may __________ always feel good, have no pain, be successful, be cool, be popular, fit in, fill in, be pimple free, always get "A"s, be the best and end up in the most prestigious place. A-man." How much love for their "best" is in this prayer? Shockingly very little. In "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" Veruca Salt's dad lived this prayer by giving his daughter everything she ever asked for. She said, "I want..." and he said, "Alright..." She whined and he bowed. She cried and he gave her what she cried for. He ended up with a spoiled brat that did not appreciate anything. A deeper and wider way to love; wanting what is "best" would be through a prayer more like this, "May __________ consider it pure joy and lean in on you when __________ face trials of many kinds and when hard times come. May the testing of __________'s faith produce perseverance. May perseverance finish its work so that __________ may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (From James 1:2-4) Teach __________ that Your grace is all that is needed, for your power works best in weakness. May __________ not fear being weak knowing that You heal and You are __________'s strength. (From 2 Corinthians 12:9) May __________'s character be strong by your spirit, full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (From Galatians 5:22) In Jesus Name A-man" Living out that prayer loves in a much deeper and wider way; wanting what is truly best.

Veruca Salt's dad is not the only example of love in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" Each and every golden ticket winner is an AMAZING, life changing, example of love. Child by child, golden ticket winner by golden ticket winner... click "How Should We Love" below... and you might just find the PERFECT love mentor! One that will show you EXACTLY how you should love...

Click here: How Should We Love?

Celebrate Valentine's Day this year with a love that points your family and friends towards God. Set this day aside to honor God and love on others. That is how iLove on you in this iPray eVotional today! iPray that uLove because Christ first loved you. iPray that you won't wait to first receive from another, but you will be the first to give. iPray you love even when things don't go your way, not withholding love because you might not have gotten what you had expected to get. iPray that you will love your enemies and uPray for those who persecute you. (From Matthew 5:44) iPray against a revengeful, selfish or spoiled heart attitude on this Valentine's Day and beyond! For love is meant to be more than just a day... it's meant to be found in God through Christ Jesus our Lord!

And more than anything iPray that as uPray, as you turn your hearts towards Him, you will hear God's voice when He says that He loves you. That you will have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is for you! (From Ephesians 3:18)

In Jesus' Name iPray for you!

All for HIM,

MICHELLE FOZOUNMAYEH

iPray eVotionals

Michelle's Web site

iPray Links

Dec. 2011 iPray link:

iTeeter-Totter

Jan. 2012 iPray link:

iPray NEWness

Feb. 2012 iPray link:

iLove DEEP and WIDE