Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Phil 4:6
I've been plagued with prayer requests for myself, my friends and children growing up in rough situations. Our pastor has been talking about prayer. My friends have been asking for prayer, and although I do pray a lot to God sometimes I feel like I'm must not be doing it right. Sometimes answers come, but I'm not convicted my prayers had anything to do with it. I know they are important, but some people just seem to "know" that their prayers work.
I decided to start walking through my concordance in my bible and looking at prayer verses. This one stuck out to me the most. Turn your worries into prayer is the reference and the verse talks about prayer and petition. Why is petition called out seperatly? What makes it different than prayer? A petition to me is something you sign to change a law and try to get 1,000 signatures.
Maybe it's having a specific request that you want answered that you are requesting.
I know I have enough requests right now.... and as they say in the Catholic church "Lord hear our prayer".
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Great post. Really got me thinking. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteDidn't I give this verse to you when you graduated from CILT? Or was it to Trista? It has always been my verse, although I still cannot escape anxiety in my life. I know Nancy gave it to me when I graduated and it was ironic because it was my life verse even before that and when she gave it to me, it just confirmed it for me. Sandy always taught me that we should never pray and ask God to be with us because He is always already there. We should thank him for being there and ask his presence to be felt or known. I do struggle with the anxiety part but the next verse is one that I have added when I don't have anything else to say or know what to ask for: Be anxious for nothing but in all things through prayer and supplication make your requests known to God AND the peace that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Phillipians 4:6 AND 7
ReplyDeleteI think the difference in the version I say to myself is the supplication part. That to me is different than the petition part that your version has. Although a petition can be something that we ask for with all of our hearts. But supplication to me suggests I am on my knees asking God to show me the right path; that surrender piece that means I have no idea what I am doing on my own, so I need God to show me the way.
It is what annoys me the most about Garth Brooks song Unanswered Prayers because I believe that all prayers are answered, just not always the answer we want. God answers every prayer, but sometimes His answer is NO or not at all what we thought the answer was going to be. We have to be willing to say, "Oh yeah, you are omniscient while I only have this limited view and I will surrender to what your plan is for my life."
I hope that none of this sounds too preachy. In fact I haven't even been on my blog for way too long and got up in the middle of the night because I can't sleep and opened it up to find your post and the verse caught my eye. I feel like I am the biggest struggler and should be taking my own advice as I have written all of this down and maybe that was God's intent in having me be awake tonight in the first place! : )
I love you girl! Know that we all struggle along trying to figure out motherhood and careers and life in general!
- Heather