Shalom,
Psalm 90:12:
12 So teach us to number our days, that we may get us a heart of wisdom.
The word "number" here is the Hebrew word, "manah", which means: to weigh out, to allot, to enumerate, to prepare. We, as believers, are to be accountable for each day! We have full control over what we allow into our schedules. We should treat each day as a gift from God and find out, first of all, what He wants to accomplish THROUGH us! Prepare yourself to succeed, each day, in everything you put your hand to! When we do this, this verse tells us that we will have a heart of wisdom!
In Luke 11:1:
1 THEN HE was praying in a certain place; and when He stopped, one of His disciples said to Him, Lord, teach us to pray, [just] as John taught his disciples.
Do you know why His disciples wanted to learn how to pray? They had walked with Jesus long enough to know that He was a Man of prayer! They saw that His prayers were always answered. If you want to learn something, you should always go to the person who knows the most about it! They did that! Jesus responded with what we now call the Lord's Prayer, but it wasn't really His prayer. Jesus never prayed this prayer because He never needed forgiveness! He was without sin! Jesus did NOT give this as a prayer to be remembered and prayed. He gave this as a pattern for all prayer! Here is the pattern:
We start out addressing the Father and giving praise and thanksgiving to Him! Then we make sure that we have an attitude that is wholly committed and surrendered to Him. We ask for our needs to be met, with confidence that He knows those needs and desires to meet them! We make sure that we walk in forgiveness with everyone, for that WILL affect our prayers! Remember that our offerings are not even acceptable to God when we harbor unforgiveness in our hearts toward ANYONE! (Mark 11:25) Then we are to pray for His leading, guiding and directing in the right way that does not lead to sin! He will NEVER lead us into sin, but He WILL lead us through it to victory! There is nothing especially wrong about saying what we know as The Lord's Prayer, but it is not how a child of the Living God, who has a Covenant with Almighty God through the precious Blood of Jesus, should pray! We need to be specific in our prayers, remembering 1 John 5:14-15:
14 And this is the confidence (the assurance, the privilege of boldness) which we have in Him: [we are sure] that if we ask anything (make any request) according to His will (in agreement with His own plan), He listens to and hears us. 15 And if (since) we (positively) know that He listens to us in whatever we ask, we also know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that we have [granted us as our present possessions] the requests made of Him.
Get that Word inside of you and you will never pray another unanswered, unproductive prayer again! There is great power in believing prayer - USE IT!
2 Kings 20-21 tell us of Hezekiah and his successor, his son Manasseh. Hezekiah was one of 4 kings, (including Asa, Jehoshaphat and Josiah) who followed the example of King David and did right in the sight of the Lord. Hezekiah's name means: the Lord strengthens. He counted on that many times during his 29 year reign as king of Judah. He DID make some mistakes, though, and verses 12-13 was a big mistake! The results are listed in verses 16-18. When Hezekiah died, his wicked son, Manasseh reigned. You can add to the list of Hezekiah's mistakes the fact that he didn't raise his son in the way he should go! When it was Manasseh's time to reign, he did evil in the sight of the Lord! parents, training up your children IS a full time ministry, and it is your most important one! God will make up for our shortcomings and mistakes, but we have to point them in the right direction, at the very least! Let's not settle for the least! Let's do all in our power to set a good and Godly example for them of how to be a person of praise, prayer, worship, authority, love, boldness, compassion and one who delights in the things of God above and before all else! That is the most important memory to leave them with! AMEN!
Shalom in Him!
