Last night I had the privilege once again to provide the devotion at Our Daily Rest. I am so moved by the people that give of their time to prepare the meal. Some of you know Martha. Her granddaughters, Julia and Mallory are always there with her when Martha is serving. What an amazing legacy that she is leaving for those girls, leading them by example in service, just like Jesus served mankind when He was here on earth. Martha’s sister in law, Jean was also there. What a sweet soul she is.

I told my wife as we left how uncomfortable I am doing the devotion. Meeting new people is not easy for me. Even more so, I am uncomfortable because I know that but for the grace of God, I could be in need of Our Daily Rest.

Here is what I shared…

We will have a blessing for our dinner in a few minutes.

But first, I wanted to talk about that blessing. Another word for it is prayer. Everyone knows what prayer is. In its most basic form it is talking to God. The purpose of prayer is to express our thoughts to God. He is the creator of everything, so what is it that you think God wants to hear from us? He would have to tell us that, wouldn’t he?

That is where the Bible comes in. The Bible is God talking to us, letting us know about Him and even what He wants to hear from us. So, for prayer to be really worthwhile, we have to get to know God and we can do that by reading and studying the Bible.

So, what do we learn about prayer from the Bible?

The main thing we learn from the Bible is that there are four basic types of prayers. Praise, Repentance, Thanksgiving, and Requests.

Praise – giving honor to God for who He is. It has been said that we could praise God from now on without running out of wonderful things to say about Him. Let me give you an example. “God you are amazing, You are worthy of my worship.”

Repentance for the sin in our lives – Repentance has three parts. The first part is regretting what we have done. The second part is telling God we are sorry. The third part is committing ourselves to changing our ways. When we truly repent, then God brings us joy. “Forgive me for not studying your Bible, for not getting to know you better each day. Help me to be in Your word each day. Make it my delight”

Thanksgiving – Telling God that you are thankful for all that He has done for you. “Heavenly Father, thank you for giving me a place to rest tonight and for this meal we are about to eat.”

Requests – Asking God to do something for us, or for someone else. “God, please help me to get a job, so I can provide for my family.”

So, I have a couple of questions for you to ponder this evening. Where to you think most people spend their time in prayer and why is that? Is my prayer life where I want it to be?

Join me now in prayer.