Faithbase

Good morning as you can see I'm coming to you from a different location than normal you might say I'm here at the office of the hospital my office at the hospital where I'm chaplain and I'm on actually on call this week and I think I mentioned yesterday though that I'll be here for a few days and I've already received a request to give a little bit more instruction on how we pray the Bible I just kind of launched into it yesterday but this morning I'm going to spend just a few moments give you a few tips maybe I'll do that each day a tip or two so we don't spend too much time talking about what we're doing but just actually doing this so the first thing I want to mention is that we're not this is not an attempt to interpret the scripture this this is a means of allowing the Bible to guide us to with the Holy Spirit's guidance to use the scripture as an outline for our prayer and so it's not an attempt to do in depth exegesis that's something that we would do in a different setting and I do not recommend that we do this as a means of preparing for a teaching or something but instead this is a devotional time and this is a time to be led by the Spirit and to be using this scripture to pray to our Lord now I should also mention though that to the degree that we have been steeped in the Word of God to that degree we will not be misusing the text as we are guided in our prayer time so let's go ahead and pick it up here and verse 4 of Psalm 1 and I'm going to read the entire psalm and then come back to verse 4 and begin to pray that scripture to our Lord blessed is a man who walks not on the counsel of the ungodly nor stands in the path of sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law he meditates day and night he should be like a tree planted by the rivers of the water that brings forth his fruit into season whose leaf also shall not wither and whatever he does shall prosper the ungodly are not so but are like chaff which the wind drives away therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment or sinners in the congregation the righteous for the Lord knows the ways of the righteous but the way of the ungodly shall perish Heavenly Father we thank you that we are blessed as we walk in your ways that life is not made easy but it is made strong Lord we can be strong in the Lord and in the power of your might as we prayed yesterday and we again are reminded that if we call you Lord we certainly must obey your teaching Lord we want to be like that tree we want to be the beacon of Christ likeness in our community Lord we do not want to be like the ungodly because they are like chaff that is driven away Lord their lives are unstable their lives are without meaning without purpose Lord all that they think that they have in truth they do not have and Lord anytime Lord I pray that any one of us feels that unsteadiness in our life that we would immediately look to you Lord God and ask you and ask ourselves as Paul the Apostle says to examine ourselves to see Lord God if we are walking in your ways that that unsteadiness that sense of imbalance that sense of anxiety can be an alert to us Lord that we are not that tree planted by the rivers of water Lord so I pray that you would bless us that we would not be like the ungodly that we would not be cut out of the I guess you'd say the influence that that the godly can have in their community influence for good Lord I pray that you would open those doors that instead of being like the ungodly who don't stand in the judgment that are shunned by those with with common sense Lord God I pray that we could be that bright light of not just common sense but of godly thinking in our community in our workplace Lord God and our families that we would be a blessing we would be bringing a strength and stability to all the endeavors that you have given us the opportunity to participate in Lord God Lord we pray that we would be allowed to be part of the congregation of the righteous that that those who gather in your name those who are expressing their commitment to you Lord Jesus in the congregation not just within the walls of the church but in the community as well that we could be counted among those Lord God that as we live according to your word that as we do the things that you've called us to do that we Heavenly Father can be recognized as among those who are righteous and who are Christlike in the ways that we live Lord you know our ways you know us through and through you know everything about us Lord God there's nothing that we can hide from you nothing that we should ever want to hide from you Lord you know our ways and we also know Lord God that the way of the ungodly will perish Lord keep us far from that cause us to live a life that is pleasing to you that is of benefit to our neighbor that is a glory to you and also lifts us to be more like our Lord Jesus Christ Lord I pray for each person that's participating in this prayer time this morning that they could be a blessing Lord God that they would learn to walk in your ways that each one of us would know our Lord Jesus Christ not just by name but by deed Lord God that we would express our submission to our Lord Jesus Christ express our submission and our commitment and our love so we pray these things in Jesus name Amen