Our move to Wordpress

After many weeks of being frustrated with the terrible operation of Blogger Beta, and the non-response from tech support, I have reluctantly decided to move to Wordpress. The new home is GraceDigest.wordpress.com . I am going to attempt to move all this stuff over to my new host, but if I am unsuccessful I am still saying bye bye to blogger. My next post in the series on prayer will be at the new address.

Thanks to all of you who have been so kind to me since I started sharing my thoughts at Grace Digest. I look forward to our continued connection at our new home.

Grace and Peace,

Royce Ogle

Prayer # 8

God promised in Matt 6:25-34 that if we put Him and His kingdom first, food, drink, and clothing will be provided. Even though this is true, these necessities of life are ours when we put God and His work first, He still wants us to ask for them. Jesus taught in the Lord’s prayer that we should pray saying “Give us this day our daily bread”. Why if it is already ours do we need to ask? Because God said that is the way He wants it done!

Imagine that when you get to heaven you see a huge room with your name above the door and as you look in you see everything you could have ever wanted or dreamed of having. You say to God “I don’t need any of this now but I sure could have used it on earth!” And His reply is “My dear child you should have asked me for it and you could have had it”. God wants us to pray, He commands us to pray! And, we sin when we don’t pray.

The chief thing that will keep you from prayer is the sin of unbelief. Surely if you believed the wonderful promises about prayer by the dozens in the Bible you would pray! The fact is that you trust yourself and your ability more than you trust God. You are more comfortable depending on your job than you are your heavenly Father. I can say I believe in God all I want but if I live my life as if He does not exist I am really a liar.

Start praying!

Prayer # 7

The Bible teaches very plainly that sin in the life of the petitioner hinders prayer. Where are you more likely to come to terms with personal sin than on your knees? If you are fighting with your wife, stealing from your boss, or lying about your neighbor, it stands to reason that your prayers will be hindered. The most likely reason is that you will not pray !

I might be going way out on a limb, but I believe prayer is hindered, not stopped. Can you imagine a man with a hangover from a night of drinking and gambling has ever cried out to God in desperation “God please give food for my family and I will never take another drink as long as I live”. And God in his mercy and grace sends a neighbor with food, or a church food pantry gives the family a sack of groceries, and the prayer is thus answered. Then Friday night the poor sinner is back at the bar just as last weekend had never happened. I believe like John Rice said in his book on prayer, “God is much more willing to answer, than we are to pray”. God wants to answer prayer. It is the method He set in place for His creatures to get things from Him.

Start asking!