What Every Man Needs to Know

In my last blog I said that we all need to hear the affirmation of the Father: "This is my beloved son/daughter and in him/her I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:16-17).

I think every son especially needs to hear the words of this message from God and it helps if his dad verbalizes and demonstrates it! In this affirmation a father (or mentor) is saying to a man: "You are loved AND you are significant!" Generally, men feel loved when their significance is appreciated and respected.

I got this message from my dad in many ways. I'm thankful that as a boy I was blessed by his affection, his participation in my sports and activities, and his words of encouragement to me.

I think that there's a complementary message from God that women long to hear even more than this which I'll share in my next blog.

What do you think? Do men need to be affirmed for their significance? Can a man receive the Heavenly Father's blessing of respect without receiving it from an earthly father figure?

What Every Person Needs to Know

There's a message that every person needs to hear and believe about themselves. It's what God the Father spoke over Jesus at his baptism: "You are my beloved son and in you I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:16-17)

We all need to be confident deep inside that we are loved as God's son or daughter and that he is pleased with us.

In prayer give thanks to God as you speak the word of the Father over yourself (it helps if you smile as you say this!)...

"I am a beloved son of the Father and he is pleased with me."

"I am a beloved daughter of the Father and he is pleased with me."

Maybe it's hard for you to trust these words in your heart? Why? We'd like to hear your questions.

Perhaps you need healing. Or to engage your heart with your Heavenly Father in some new ways...

• Trusting a "Christ's Ambassador" (2 Corinthians 5:20) to mediate God's love to you
• Learning to meditate deeply on Scriptures that promise the Father's love to you (like 1 John 3:1 or the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15
• Listening to the birds sing over you and feeling the sun shine on your face
• Extending compassion in Jesus' name to someone who is poor or needy
  

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Talk to Your Soul in Prayer, Part 2

Eleven times in his prayers the Psalmist talks to himself with the cry, "O My Soul."

Interestingly, the eleven prayers appear in the Psalter in a meaningful order that group into three types of "O My Soul" prayers, each representing a step in an intimate prayer life. The three A's of connecting deeply with God are: Awareness, Attunement, and Appreciativeness:

1. Open up to God (Awareness): "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God" (Psalm 42:5, 11; 43:5)
2. Find Rest in God (Attunement): "Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him" (Psalm 62:5; Psalm 116:7)
3. Give Praise to God (Appreciativeness): "Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name" (Psalm 103:1; also Psalm 103:2, 22; 104:1, 35; 146:1)

Do you pray to God in these ways?

Talk to Your Soul in Prayer, Part 1

In the Psalms, the Bible's great "soul book," the psalmist talks to his soul (as if it were another person) as he prays to God. He recruits his soul to be alert before God:
“Awake, my soul! Awake harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn” (Psalm 57:8)

Praying the Psalms I discovered that eleven times the Psalmist awakens his soul to God by crying out, "O my soul!"

I have found it helpful to talk to my soul in prayer, to get myself to be alert before God so that I can connect with him and follow Christ. Praying the Psalms really helps me to awaken to God's presence.

What helps to awaken your soul to God?

A Grate-full Day!

Recently at the Crystal Cathedral's Conference on Care & Kindness I attended a presentation by Robert Emmons a social scientist who has studied gratitude the last ten years. He's found scientific proof for what the Bible teaches: gratefulness is good for the soul! Grateful people - including those who are experiencing suffering and injustice - are happy, more loving, healthier, and they live longer.

And each of us can learn to cultivate an attitude of thankfulness. One important way to do this is to make a list each day of things that you're thankful for. Be creative with your list, trying to identify different things each day (you'll have to be very specific!). And make your list a prayer of thanks to God. You'll be blessed and so will others!

Something I'm thankful for today are words I read in Psalm 33 this morning: "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth" (verse 6). What a wonder that the Almighty Lord who breathed the stars into the heavens also breathed his life into our souls! Thank you Lord!

What is something in particular that are you thankful for today?

A Little but Powerful Prayer for Lent

One of the things I'm doing for Lent is carrying a rock in my pocket. Sounds like a funny thing to do, huh?

It's a prayer rock. I have a number of them. I found this one in Israel at what may have been the Apostle Paul's prison cell at the palace in Caesarea by the Sea.

I use it to remind me to shoot up little arrow prayes as I go about my day: "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain" (the Apostle Paul's words in Philippians 1:21).

Sometimes I breathe in deep and slow as I whisper: "To live is Christ." I hold my breath to help me hold the Spirit and the Word in my consciousness. Then I release: "To die is gain." My exhaling a prayer helps me to let go of agendas and ambitions and to follow Christ's leadership.

The rock and the prayer remind me to turn my thoughts toward Christ and his sacrifice for me and you.

Maybe you've tried a form of Centering Prayer that you'd like to share? Or perhaps you have a way you're celebrating Lent that could encourage others?

May the Wind Lift Us

I hiked up into the foothills of Saddleback Mountain this weekend with a friend. From about 2,000 feet up we looked out over the green hills, orchards, and the city of Irvine stretching out till the ocean in the distance. As we stood quietly in prayer the breeze swayed the tall grasses and rustled through the shrub all around us...

I was meditating on how the Holy Spirit is like the wind: we can't see him, but we see his effects; he doesn't speak audibly (normally), but speaks through the objects he moves. To hear God's voice is like hearing the breeze: we need to be still and quiet for awhile.

Then we saw a gift from God: two great hawks with their wings outstretched, gliding effortlessly on the wind. Of course, we thought of Isaiah's words: "They that wait upon the Lord shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint" (Isaiah 40:31).

May the Lord help us to enter his peace, to "Be still and know that he is God" (Psalm 46:10).