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Get ready to Pray!
One more day to the new year, take time to ready your heart and mind and basically your life so that you can pray for the new beginnings you have in 2026. Pray without ceasing, well not the way you read it! Pray every day at least once, be instant in prayer, be ready to pray as needed and prepare your heart to be humble in prayer. Rejoice when prayers are answered but dont act like it is all about you praying, its about God answering.
“Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.
Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the doo1 behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.
“When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!
Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May Your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:1-10
"give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who treaspass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for yours is the kingdom the power and the glory, for ever and ever amen."Matthew 6:11-12 Paraphrased. Maybe or a mix of versions. The first set is NLT. The rest from memory.
When I was growing up in Canada we had certain things we recited in school. I learned in the beginning ... from Genesis and it seems we had to quote the Lord's prayer daily too cause thugh I had moved back the the states before I finished my schooling, once I began reading the Bible in search of God I read this and recalled it!
Even when we do not work to memorize things God will bring the Word back to our minds and memories will flood in as we need them.
Today's point is when we pray. As we are about to begin the new year with a month of prayer and fasting I wanted to post a little bit about our heart process in it all.
First, don't go around telling everyone about yourself. When we pray we are to go into a queit space and pray, between us and God, your prayers do not need to be sung outloud or shouted either. They donot need to stand up to those who you pray with as if they are to be judged or compared. Remember your heart to His is where our prayers come and go!
Sure you can agree in prayer with others, the Bible mentions this in a few places and we will talk about it next month. But for now focus on the heart to heart prayer with God, wherever you are.
Second when you fast; dont go around bragging that you are fasting. Just do it! Pray ask God about what you are praying and fasting for, get His guidance first! If we fast and pray for the sake of doing it or because 'everyone is doing it' without having our heart in it, well, it will be useless. I will also talk more about this next month!
Don't just ignore it when you hear your pastor announce a time for prayer and fasting though, take it serious, and seek God about it just as the pastor says! He is your earthly shepherd and he most likely has prayed about what to pray and fast for, so when you do this coorperately , as a church, follow your pastors direction and seek God about it!
This is a good day to start seeking Him about what to pray and fast for, so let's do this.
Heavenly Father, help us today to begin seeking you for direction in our up coming new year. Help us to see the needs, the desires that we can ask you for and if we need to fast to achieve things. For we knwo in the Word that it says somethings only go by prayer and fasting, and we want to do as we but know You would want us to. Guide us as we pray, in Jesus' name. amen.