Session 4 - Question 6

Good Afternoon to my Favorite Girls!

I love my devotional reading today so I am going to share - are you surprised? I am going to start with the scripture which is so fitting for me (I am a worrier by nature). I am using The Message version because I think it is so beautifully expressed. You can almost hear Jesus speaking....

Philippians 4:6-7 (The Message)
6-7Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

"To experiance the kind of peace that covers all circumstances, the Bible challenges us to develop active, authentic prayer lives. Prayer with real substance to it - original thoughts flowing from a highly individual heart, persoanl and intimate. Often we do everything but pray. We want something more "substancial". Even studying the Bible, going to church, talking to the pastor, or recieving counsel seems more tangible than prayer. But its time to roll away the stone of prayerlessness. Its the most prohibitive obstacle on the road to a believer's victory." - Beth Moore

LORD - Today we place before you our petitions of worry. We pray for you to let our petitions and praises shape our worries into prayers. We know our prayers are sweet incense to you and we lift up these peitions to you. We give them to you whole heartedly. We love you and pray that today you show us a fresh revelation of you. We look to your WORD for guidance and direction. We love you! AMEN

Question 6
Read Revelation 5:8. What kind of impact does it have on you personally that the prayers of the saints are depicted as golden bowls full of incense in the Throne Room of God?

Revelation 5:8
8 And when he took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.

Some quick notes on that verse (notes from my Study Bible-NLT):
fell down before the Lamb: The crucified and risen Christ has divine authority to initiate the events of this age; he is fully worthy of worship.
prayers of God's people: become a significant basis for the judgments and plagues (6:9-11; 8:25)

My thoughts: I love the visual Beth Moore shared in the video about the bowl full of our prayers just waiting for The Lord to answer. I love the thought that our prayers are sweet incense to the LORD. I love that he keeps them close to his Throne so he can answer them in his time. And in a practical sense, I think of our prayers in the Throne Room as the wonderful smelling candle burning in the room to lift every up. He breathes in our petitions and fills his being with US. I LOVE this thought! What do you think?

I am so excited to watch Session 5! I know the weather is looking a little nasty for tomorrow so I'll keep an eye on things and will email if we have to cancel. This will be a last resort.

Also if you forgot to bring your recipe last week please bring this week to share - if you did bring last week bring your extra's to share.

Love to all! Enjoy this beautiful gift of day from the LORD!