What Prayer is Worth . . .

In accordance with the Holy Scriptures, the prayers of the righteous;

• are answered.
• give courage.
• give mercy.
• invoke God's presence.
• get God's attention.
• are pleas which produce the knowledge of afflictions in our own hearts.
• cause heaven to hear our hearts.
• cause heaven to uphold our causes.
• are heard by God, who hears them and responds.
• open God's eyes and attentiveness.
• reach heaven.
• move God.
• are answered petitions.
• are accepted by God.
• listened to by the Lord.
• give back the love which the God of Life gives to us by day and turns into songs in us at night.
• cause God to hear our voices.
• cause God to turn an ear to our cries.
• come before God.
• are set before God like incense.
• go against evil.
• please God.
• add years to our life.
• in faith, cause receipt of whatever we ask for.
• are the only way to cause some demons to come out.
• for the poor and destitute are considered by the heavens to be memorial offerings to God.
• cause favor to be granted.
• are not for Show.
• open the way to help others.
• perfect the saints.
• cause God to remember us.
• abound in love and increase our knowledge and insight.
• relieve anxiety.
• are consecrated.
• make sick people well.
• are powerful and effective.
• cause the Lord's ears to be attentive and His eyes to be open.
• are saved in Golden Bowls on heavenly altars.
• Are hand delivered to God by angels.

Better is ONE Day!

A coyote crossed my path this morning. Not sure what that means but things went down hill from there. Sure is Monday!
A smiley face appeared on my system computer this morning in the who is in control box. I know what that means; I don't have control of the system and neither does anyone on the link.
A call from the elementary school came in while I was working to solve the smiley face problem, "Your son is balled up on the floor and won't respond to anyone because he can not be allowed to take a metal bat to the cookout." I can't believe I sent my son to school with a weapon, either.
A message appeared while I tried to email the system log files to the technical support engineer, "You're locked out."
Another message appeared when I tried another computer, "Error... access denied." I concluded it would probably be best not to touch anything that has its own brain (CPU) today.
A phone call came in but every phone I picked up went dead. Whose idea was it to give phones a brain anyway?

After this I finally admitted to myself, "You're really not having a very good day."

A call came in from my boss who said things have gotten worse but I just said, if you need me it would probably be best to call me tomorrow.

Yesterday was so drastically different:
My teenager went kicking and screaming to church telling me it wasn't right to force him to go to church. He was priviledged to sit through the preacher's sermon on the importance of observing the Sabbath. God's perfect timing!
My youngest son got an excellent report from his Sunday school teacher, he was in love in Jesus. He said, "I sang to God and you know what, you were right, it made me feel so good."
My afternoon was awesome, productive, and God was so near.
My son got some one on one time with his baseball coach in the batting cages and afterwards told him know how much he appreciated a great coach. A great parenting day afterall.

Today, fighting the smiley face demon, I understand these worship lyrics more intimately, "Better is One Day in your House, Better is One Day in your Courts, Better is One Day in your house than a thousand elsewhere."

Better is ONE DAY!

Arrival

We tend to live our lives as if we expect to arrive somewhere. You might think you will have arrived when you have more money, get a better job, find love, or build that dream home. Most of us discover that when we do make more money we just want even more. A better job can add stress or increase our desire for a better job. A new love is soon discovered to have human faults just like all the others and that dream home, well, it comes with its share of pitfalls to. Soon after we have reached what we set out to achieve we discover we haven't arrived at all and must set out for a new destination. If we can't achieve what we thought we would, we become depressed or give up on achieving anything at all.
Where is the final arrival? What is it then that we are truly searching for? If not in this world then what are we doing here?
To truly be satisfied in our daily lives we must discover that life is a journey not a destination. Arrival doesn't happen until the end when we meet our Creator face to face for the first time. But that doesn't mean we should disregard the thrill of the journey. I have noticed that this is precisely what many young people try to do. They want the destination instead of the journey-- more money, a better job, and true love, NOW. Right out of high school, at 18, they can't understand why they can't just get a career. Why shouldn't they be hired for the good paying jobs? Somehow they want to skip the gaining of experience and blink onto the destination.
As I look back on my life, those moments of striving toward a new arrival place were the most thrilling and enjoyable times in my life. Although I remember feeling frustrated, often inadequate, and even hopeless. But these times gave me the experience to really appreciate the achievements, to be prepared for pitfalls that came with them, and to share the journey with others.
I believe that is what the journey in this life is all about--- it is the time between arrivals that will help us appreciate the new life we will have with the creator. Joy in life is understanding and finding peace with the perpetual cycle of the journey knowing the true arrival is yet to come.

My Answer

Do I know anything you don't know? Do I feel anything you don't feel? Are any of my thoughts unknown to you?
Do I see anything you do not see? Do I hear anything you do not hear? Are any of my days unknown to you?
Do you feel my heartbreak? Do you know my joy? Are any of my tears not counted by you?
Is there a prayer I've prayed you haven't heard? Have you missed even a word that crossed my lips? Is there a moment of my life you have not witnessed?
You've come to me with open arms and yet I can not touch you. I always know that you are there although I can not see you. And yet, I feel an emptiness that can not be filled, an unquenchable thirst.
What is this longing that this world can not fulfill? This great divide that comes between me and heaven and all that is under heaven. You are my every breath and my life is in your hands.