Child-like Prayer

 

  “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in heaven.  Whoever receives one little child in My name receives me.” (Matthew 128:3-5, NKJV)

 

The following is an article written by my daughter, Vanessa Rivette Rough, and published online in 2010. I found it as I was going through my files the other day and thought that it would be as big a blessing to you as it was to me. Enjoy!

    “My first child was born to us almost four years ago and as new parents, we have been trying our best to impress her with God’s love and His Word. We’ve never parented a child before, so a lot of what we do is trial and error.

      Prayer is one of the things that we, as adults who were both raised in Christian homes, take for granted. I mean, we can’t remember a time when we didn’t know how to pray! But faced with this little creature, we realized it was something we needed to model for her and to teach her-it was something we couldn’t afford to just hope she picked up along the way. We needed to be intentional about it.

    But how do you teach a baby to pray? We had no idea. The best we could come up with was just praying aloud with her every night before we tucked her into bed. Mostly, she just cooed and gurgled and swatted the ceiling fan pull cord.

   When she started talking, we tried to get her to repeat what we were saying. But if you ever tried to get a toddler to do something on command, you know that this is a losing endeavor. The chatty, talkative child who rambled on and on all day would suddenly become a mute once prayer time rolled around.

   No big deal. We just continued to pray with her and hoped that she would be soaking it in.

  Most of our prayers focused on THANKFULNESS and OTHERS. We thanked God for our daughter and all the blessings in our life and we prayed for family members who were sick or friends in need. We prayed for our Compassion children and missionaries we support.

  We NEVER prayed for ourselves. Not that we didn’t ask God for help daily with parenting and jobs and life, but what I mean is we never did it in front of our daughter. Our prayers in front of her were always outward focused. She never heard us humbly ask God to give us grace and strength and help.

  Never, that is, until one day in January.

  The background story is that Ben and I had been struggling with infertility for the past six years. Even though we had a healthy, happy child, she had taken quite a long time to come to us. Miscarriage and many years of (seemingly) unanswered prayers finally resulted in our beautiful baby girl.

   We always hoped God would send us another child and had been trying to conceive for two years at this point. But with my history, we (and by we, I mean mostly ME—Ben had far more faith than I did!) didn’t have much hope that I’d give birth to another child. So, after many months of praying, we had applied for a domestic infant adoption program and were waiting to be accepted.

   I should also mention that while we were both still praying for God to bring us another child (whether by giving birth or adoption), we had stopped praying together. It was just too painful. We didn’t have the strength to do it anymore. 

  That changed one evening when I had the thought, ‘Juliet is three. We might as well get her involved in this prayer. It’s going to be her sibling after all.’ So as we were praying together before bed, I said, ‘Please send Juliet a sibling. A little brother or sister for her to love and grow up with.’ Ben joined in with ‘Please send us a baby, Lord. A baby brother or sister for Juliet….’

   And then a little voice piped in (you know, the one who had been inexplicably silent the past two years?) ‘Yeah! Yeah! I want a baby! I want a baby in my belly!’

    Her tiny prayer brought tears to my eyes, of course, and from then on, she never failed to pray enthusiastically for ‘her baby’. Every night, she would ask God with total faith to send her a baby. I prayed too, but in my heart, I thought we were praying for our adopted child. I think she might have been the only one in the room who truly believed God could send a baby to us the old-fashioned way. 

  Four weeks later, we found out that I was pregnant. To say that we were shocked is an understatement. We were overjoyed, but just dumbfounded because we had lost all hope of this ever happening.  

  Even as we told our family, I could see the disbelief in their eyes and hear it in their voices, ‘Really?!’ they would say ‘REALLY?’ It was just something all of us never thought we would see. (Again, I should clarify that I was the one who thought I’d never see it. Most of my family and friends were faithfully praying for this and undoubtedly did not give up hope, however, they WERE surprised.)

  But there was one little person who didn’t respond to the news with an incredulous ‘Really?’ When we told Juliet the big news, she was excited, but not with that air of disbelief that the rest of us had. The answer to prayer was something she had expected. She had asked her Father for something, and He had answered-what is so incredulous about that?

   Her faith humbled me and reminded me that while I am teaching my child, I have a lot to learn from her as well. It also reminded me that even when we don’t feel like God hears our prayers, He is fully aware of everything-our deepest pains and our most desperate needs.

   So in my quest to impress my child, she ended up impressing me! (Isn’t that a continuing lesson we learn as parents? I’ll never forget those few weeks that she prayed for a sibling and how joyful and grateful we were when God answered her and our prayers in, what was to us, a most miraculous way. 

  I have almost no recollection of our nightly prayers over the past 3.5 years in regard to what was said and what was prayed for, however, those few weeks of Juliet asking God to send her a baby brother or sister are burned into my heart and memory forever. I can hear her little voice, see her eyes scrunched closed and her tiny hands clasped together, and feel that closeness we all shared together as we knelt by her bed.

  I have to admit that, even though I know I shouldn’t be surprised, I still look at my pregnant belly with disbelief from time to time. I look at the mirror and think, ‘Really? Is that really me?’ It’s so easy to fall back to my former mindset of ‘that sort of things happens to OTHER people—not to me.’

   But I’m working to have a more child-like faith. To trust my Father and expect that He will answer me. Not that I’ll always get what I want, but that I can trust Him to give me what I truly need. And I’m thankful for these two special daughters that He’s entrusted to me and am looking forward to learning more from them and with them in the years to come. (Vanessa gave birth to Lucia in October 2010 and to William in November 2014)

  

PRAY

1.        Thank you, Lord, that You are a prayer-answering God! Thank you for listening and caring about me and all your other children too. 

2.        Thank you, for the times you have  had to say no, or wait, because I trust You to know better than I do what I really need and how all I am doing fits together with Your wonderful plan for my life.

3.        Help me Lord, to spend quiet time alone with You so I can know You better and be a better listener when You speak to me through Your Word, or from Your still small voice.

  

 

 

 

     

     

 

Life Principles of Dr. Charles Stanley

  “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. (2 Timothy 4:2, NKJV) 

    Dr. Charles Stanley was an awesome pastor and preacher at First Baptist Atlanta for over fifty years. He was truly a man of God that gave his all for His Savior in his church and his worldwide ministry, In Touch Ministries. Below is a list of Dr. Stanley’s life principles that he lived by:

1. Our intimacy with God - His highest priority for our lives - determines the impact of our lives.

2. Obey God and leave the consequences to Him.

3. God’s Word is an immovable anchor in times of storm.

4. Awareness of God’s presence energizes us for our work.

5. God does not require us to understand His will, just obey it, even if it seems unreasonable.

6. You reap what you sow, more than you sow, and later than you sow.

7. The dark moments of life will last only so long as it is necessary for God to accomplish His purpose in us.

8. Fight all your battles on your knees and you win every time.

9. Trusting God means looking beyond what we can see to what God sees.

10. If necessary, God will move heaven and earth to show us His will.

11. God assumes  full responsibility for our needs when we obey Him.

12. Peace with God is the fruit of oneness with God.

13. Listening to God is essential to walking  with God.

14. God acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.

15. Brokenness is God’s requirement for maximum usefulness.

16. Whatever you acquire outside God’s will eventually turns to ashes.

17. We stand tallest and strongest on our knees.

18. As children of a sovereign God, we are never victims of our circumstances.

19. Anything You hold too tightly, you will lose.

20. Disappointments are inevitable, discouragement is a choice.

21. Obedience always  brings blessing.

22. To walk in the Spirit is to obey the initial promptings of the Spirit.

23. You can never outgive God.

24. To live the Christian life is to allow Jesus to live His life in and through us.

25. God blesses us so that we can bless others.

26. Adversity is a bridge to a deeper relationship with God.

27. Prayer is life’s greatest time saver.

28. No Christian has ever been called to “go it alone’ in his or her walk of faith.

29. We learn more in our valley experiences than on our mountaintops. 

30. An eager anticipation of the Lord’s return keeps us living productively.

Pray

1. Lord help me to spend more time with you so that I can have the intimate relationship with you that Dr. Stanley talks about and which he demonstrated with his life and service to you.

2. Help me to sow the Word with my family, my fellow christians, and with those that don’t know You the way we do so that I can sow your Word and watch the harvest that comes later.

3. Help me to stay humble and dependant upon Your Sprit to guide me every day that You give me to live for You and Your kingdom.

The Love of God

 “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39, NKJV)

Pastor Roger Bennet of Evans, Georgia provided this list from Dr. Dick Dickerson who wrote a paraphrase of  1 Corinthians 13:4-8. He did not tell us from what reference he got the paraphrase:

1. Because God loves me,  He is slow to lose patience with me.

2. Because God loves me,  He takes the circumstances of my life and uses them as a               

                                         constructive way for my growth.

3. Because God loves me,   He does not treat me as an object to be possessed or     

                                          manipulated.

4. Because God loves me,    He has no need to impress me with how great and powerful

                                          He is because He is God, nor does He belittle me as His child

                                          in order to show me how important He is.

5. Because God love me,      He is for me, He wants to see me mature and develop in His 

                                           love.

6. Because God loves me,     He does not send down His wrath on every little mistake I 

                                           make, of which there are many.

7. Because God loves me,     He does not keep score of all my sins and then beat me over 

                                           the head with them whenever He gets the chance.

8. Because God loves me,     He is deeply grieved when I do not walk in the way that 

                                           pleases Him because He sees this as evidence that I don’t 

                                           trust Him and love Him as I should.

9. Because God loves me,     He rejoices when I  experience His power and strength and 

                                                       stand up under the pressure of life for His name’s sake.

10. Because God loves me,     He keeps on working patiently with me even when I feel like

                                           giving up and can’t see why He doesn’t give up on me too.

11. Because God loves me,     He keeps on trusting at times when I don’t even trust myself.

12. Because God loves me,     He never says there is no hope for me; rather, He patiently 

                                           works with me, loves me, and disciplines me in such a way

                                           that it is hard for me to understand the depth of His concern

                                           for me.

13.  Because God loves me,    He never forsakes me even though many of my friends   

                                           might. 

14.  Because God loves me,    He stands with me when I have reached the rock bottom of 

                                           despair, when I see the real me and compare that with His

                                           righteousness, holiness, beauty and love. It is at a moment

                                           like this that I can really believe that God loves me.  

                Yes, the greatest of all gifts is God’s perfect love.     God loves you!            

Pray

1. Lord, help me to walk in the way that pleases you and not to turn aside to the things of this world that are always competing for my attention.

2. Thank you Lord for being patient with me and continually teaching me the lessons I should have learned a long time ago and not giving up on me.

3. I praise you Lord because I know that no matter how I have strayed or failed You, You will never leave me or forsake me                                      

The Great Awakening

   

"Not everyone that says To Me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. (Matthew 7:21, NKJV)

George Whitfield was an awesome man of God. He was an outstanding orator and evangelist, and he knew well that he had been given the very words of life that everyone in the world needed to hear. He had the Good News of Jesus Christ! He was born in England in 1714, but he is most famous for his preaching in the British colonies in America before there was such a thing as a country called The United States of America.

   He made his second trip to America in1739 and his first day there he preached to six thousand in the morning and eight thousand that night. On the following Sunday he preached to fifteen thousand and he was just getting started! The eighteen months he was in the colonies, he traveled two thousand miles on horseback and another three thousand by boat. By the time he left America in 1741 he had visited over seventy-five cities and towns and had preached over 350 times. 

    “Everywhere he went, the message was the same–that people must choose to be ‘born again’ and must accept their new identity in Christ.” 

    “Because Presbyterians and Congregationalists and Quakers and Baptists and others all heard the same message and were free to respond similarly, Americans became inadvertently united by his preaching.  People were offered a new identity that fit well with the American way of thinking. Some were German by background and some were French, and some were English, but none of it mattered; they were all equal under God, they were all believers in Jesus, and they were all born again. This was something new, an identity that was separate from one’s ethnicity or one’s denomination. To be part of the thirteen colonies now meant to buy into a new set of ideas about one’s equal status in God’s eyes–and by dint of this to be accepted into a new community, to be something new in history: in short, to be an American.” (7 More Men by Eric Metaxas, p.62-63)

     What actually happened when he traveled around the colonies and preached in the various towns and cities? The first hand account of a farmer and carpender in Middleton, Connecticut, Nathan Cole, will give us a small glimpse of what happened all over America: 

    “As soon as I heard he was come to New York and the Jerseys and great multitudes flocking after him under great concern for their Souls and many converted which brought on my concern more and more hoping soon to see him but next I heard he was at Long Island, then at Boston, and next Northampton.

 

      Then one morning all of a sudden, about 8 or 9 o’clock there came a messenger and said that Mr. Whitefield preached at Hartford and Weathersfield yesterday and is to preach at Middletown this morning (October 23, 1740) at ten of the Clock. I dropped my tool I had in my hand and ran home and run through my house and bade my wife get ready quick to go and hear Mr. Whitefield preach at Middletown…..I brought my horse home and soon mounted and  took my wife up and went forward as fast as I thought the horse could bear, and when my horse began to be out of breath, I would get down and put my wife on the saddle and bid her ride as fast as she could and not stop or slack for me except I bade her, and so I would run until out of breath, and then mount my horse again…..all the while fearing we should be too late to hear the Sermon, for we had twelve miles to ride double in little more than and hour…

      And when we came within half a mile of the road that comes down from Hartford Weathersfield and Stepney to Middletown; on high land I saw before me a Cloud or fog rising. ….I heard a noise something like a low rumbling thunder and presently found it was the noise of horses feet coming down the road and this Cloud was the Cloud of dust made by the horses feet…..I could see men and horses slipping along in the Cloud like shadows, and as I drew nearer it seemed to be like a steady stream of horses and their  riders, scarcely a horse more than his length behind another, all of a lather and foam and sweat, their breath rolling out of their nostrils…;every horse seemed to go with all his might to carry his rider to hear news from heaven for the saving of Souls……I found a vacancy between two horses to slip in my horse;

   We went down to the stream; I heard no man speak a word all the way three miles but everyone pressing forward in great haste and when we got to the old meeting house there was a great multitude; it was said to be 3 or 4000 of people assembled together; we got off our horses and shook off the dust, and the ministers were coming to the meeting house. …the land and the banks over the river looked black with people and horses all along the 12 miles. I saw no man at work in his field, all seemed to be gone.

     When I saw Mr. Whitefield come upon the scaffold he looked almost angelical, a young, slim youth before some thousands of people with a bold undaunted countenance,and my hearing how God was with him every where as he came along it solemnized my mind, and put me into a trembling fear before he began to preach; for he looked as if he was clothed with authority from the Great God, and a sweet solemn solemnity sat upon his brow. And my hearing him preach gave me a heart wound; by God’s blessing my old foundation was broken up, and I saw that my righteousness would not save me.”  (7 More Men by Eric Metaxes, chapter 2, pp.64-66)

  During the year and a half that Whitefield was in the American colony, thousands of men and women had their lives turned upside down and gave their lives to Christ and were born again just like Nathan Cole. Oh, that we had another Whitefield to come and preach to us today! But we can rejoice that we have the same gospel available to all who will hear and respond to God’s voice when they hear God’s Word preached faithfully and when we read the Scriptures for ourselves! How about you? Have you repented of your sin and accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior? You can do it right now and you too can have your name written in the Lamb’s Book of life today!

   “For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For ‘whoever calls upon the name of the LORD shall be saved.’” (Romans 10:11-13, NKJV)

Pray:

1. Thank you Lord for sending men like George Whitefield to us and for thousands of people to come to know You as their Lord and Savior.

2. Thank you that You have already paid the price at Calvary and we need only to accept the free gift of salvation for our sins and be born again as new creations.

3. Help me today to remember what You have done for me and to live this day for You and be faithful as You send me to minister to others needs.

My Father

“I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty.”       (II Corinthians 6:18, NKJV)

     I was on a bus traveling from Dallas to Fort Worth two years ago and I saw a sign that announced that we were travelling on the Tom Landry Highway. I said out loud to no one in particular, “Coach Landry was a good coach.” A lady from Dallas sitting across the aisle, immediately corrected me, “Coach Landry was a great coach!” she said. She was right!

     As I reflect upon my father today, I am struck with the same idea about his ability as a father, He was a great father! I have many memories of his leadership and care for my mother and us five children. He was a soldier, who served in World War II and then accepted a regular Army commission after the war to serve another 20 years. He was a hero who had survived 2 years of continuous combat in North Africa, Sicily, Normandy, France, Belgium, and Germany. He had been wounded 3 times and had earned a Silver Star for gallantry in action. However, growing up I never heard any of his experiences in the war except the circumstances of his Silver Star.

    He was the unquestioned leader of our family, but he was always in total agreement with my mother. I am certain that they didn’t agree on everything, but they always hashed things out away from the children before letting us know what the rules were or what activities were planned. I don’t have any recollection of being physically punished by him, (although I am sure there were times, I deserved it) but I do remember that I respected him so much that I never wanted to disappoint him. I think the term I read in a leadership survey once that would describe him as a “benevolent dictator.”

     He was interested in my schoolwork, my character, and my knowledge of the Lord and His Son, Jesus Crist. He made sure we went to church and Sunday School every Sunday. I remember one time outside the church when I remarked to my brother that: “If I don’t want to come to church, I don’t have to.” He corrected me immediately! “Oh yes, you do. We all come together as a family, and you are part of the family.” I was sure that I was coming to church on my own volition, but he reminded me that I was still under his authority.

     Most of my memories are of fishing trips with my brothers to a nearby lake, trips to the beach, or to visit relatives with the whole family. He taught me how to hunt and fish and then clean the fish or game. He taught me to play tennis, shoot a rifle, catch and throw a baseball and football, and to caddy for him when he played golf. But the most important thing I learned was how to be a man of integrity. He always spoke the truth in love, and you knew that his word was his bond. To the best of his ability, he would always do what he believed was right in the eyes of God and man.

   Because he was such a great dad, I wanted to be just like him when I grew up. I followed him into a career as an Army Officer and tried to carry myself with the same honor and integrity that he had taught me. When he was about 55 years old, he attended a Billy Graham crusade in Atlanta, GA and both he and my mother gave their lives to Christ. When my wife and I returned from a 3-year tour of duty in Germany in 1975 he was the first to tell me that I too, should surrender my life to the Savior. I didn’t at that time, but he planted a seed that came to fruition four years later.

   Whether or not you have or had a good father, everyone that comes to Christ receives a loving heavenly Father that you can depend on for the rest of your life and in eternity also! 

What does the Bible say about your Heavenly Father?

  You have a Father that never forgets you or what you are going through:

   “Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me. (Isaiah 49:15-16)

You have a Father that is by your side through every trial.

  “And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear or be dismayed.” (Deuteronomy 31:8)

You have a Father that protects you.

   “He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day.” (Psalm 91:4-5)

You have a Father that is merciful and forgiving.

    For as far as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.  As a father pities his children, So the LORD pities those who fear Him. “(Psalm 103:11-13)

Pray

1.        Lord, help me to always look to you as my loving Father and depend upon Your mercy and forgiveness.

2.        Help me today to look for someone to encourage with the Scripture above so they can be reminded of what a loving and faithful Father You are.

3.        Thank you, Lord for loving me enough to die for my sins on the cross.