The Lord's Prayer...

I wrote this post on 9/3/2012 and had not published till today 11/13/2012.
So it has been a while since I have blogged anything. This last few months the Lord has been doing a work in me that, if you have been reading my blog post, you have kind of had front row seats. You see the last blog I posted I actually wrote 2 months before I published it and then here we are again 2 months since I last posted and the Lord is still giving me new revelations about the same subject. 

Prayer, Worship, Surrender, Love, Irrevocable, Unashamed, Unconditional,  the list goes on;  these are words that I would use to describe my love walk with the Lord. When the Lord started talking to me about my relationship with Him several months back I did not recognize that is what He was doing. He was telling me that He wanted my heart.

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I have always taken issue with people only calling on me or befriending me when they needed me to do something for them, another way to say that is being "taken advantage of" or "using me". A friendship is something that we nurture and cultivate. When you put a seed into soil both the seed, the soil and the weather play a part. So lets say the friendship is the seed, you are the rain, your friend is the soil and the Lord is the sun. It takes all these components to bring growth to the seed and to sustain it. If you put a seed in fertile soil but then rely solely on the soil to nurture that seed to its potential without the sun or the rain it just won't happen, it will wither and die. 

So this has always been an area of hurt for me regarding my relationships with others, I have voiced it to some of them but then I found I grew tired of it and then would just remove myself from the friendship to protect my heart. I have spent many days in my almost 35 years crying out to the Lord asking why? Why was it that my "friends" only wanted to use me, take advantage of me and if they were not getting what they wanted from me then I would not hear from them. For some of those friends it has been years since we have talked. 

This is not really about my friends though, it is more about how the relationships were not cultivated, nourished and taken care of. Something the Lord showed me this last week was about my relationship with Him. He related it to my relationship with my husband and the most intimate act of affection that happens between a husband and a wife. When we go to lay with our spouse we don't talk about our needs in the heat of the moment. Constantly watching our watch saying things like, "I need to do laundry", "I need to start dinner", "I need to go to the store", "I need gas in my car", I need, I need, I need...

"In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock; you told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted hand to give them."  Nehemiah 9:15 NIV

If the word shows us in Nehemiah 9:15, how the Lord is aware of our needs is there any reason to badger Him with them. When I say badger I am speaking literally not using the term loosely. While we are in the secret place with the Lord, it should be an intimate time of worship and praise to Him. Not the mindset of Oh God you are worthy (pay my electric bill). Oh Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth (my car needs gas). Now I am sure we don't pray like that out loud but the after thought I think sometimes we do think, I know I have before.

So the Lord started teaching me how to pray, how to worship, how to love on Him in my secret place with Him.  The most wonderful part about that is the grace like rain that is poured out, He is patient, He is gentle, He is loving and His love endures forever. He will walk it out with you no matter how long it takes. Then when it finally clicks He will rejoice with you in your victory.
I have begun to pray the Lord's prayer, it is the perfect prayer. Bring your praise to the banquet table with the Lord and it is there in that secrect place that you come boldly,  

"Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name,
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, 
as we forgive our debtors."
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever."  - Amen.
--- Matthew 6:9-13 - KJV

Jess's translation:
Lord, I call to you in the heavenly's,
Worthy is your name, you are I AM, and I worship You
I pray your will be done in my heart as You have designed it it heaven
Thank you for meeting my every need and being all about the details of my life
Help me to walk in love towards everyone I come in contact with today
Purify my heart to make me more like you and as the storms come surround me with your peace. Bridle my tongue that I would only speak love. Give me your ears, eyes and heart for Your people. Help me to walk in the design only you could write out, it is in the power of Your Holy Name that I pray, amen! 

Editing for a "p.s." I wrote this in September and shortly after I wrote it Pastor Robert Morris my pastor at Gateway Church in Southlake started a series called, The Lord's Prayer. Isn't is awesome how perfect God's timing is.

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