The Declaration Series: "I Will Pray to My God"

   Reflections4Life™ February27, 2022

"I Will Pray to God"

"Praise the One who gives us life and keeps us safe, who does not allow us to stumble in the darkness." Psalm 66:9 (VOICE)

Scriptures for the Series: James 4; 2 Chronicles 7:14; Psalm 119:11; Lamentations 3:40; Psalm 51:10; Proverbs 11:28; Psalm 37:4; 42; Luke 3:4; Psalm 66:9; Isaiah 30:2

Welcome to part nine in our Declaration Series. Pray to God. The answers we need and the solutions we seek are in God. He has the answers. When we pray, we enter spiritual warfare. So put your Spiritual armor on and let God lead. We do not have to wonder if we would kneel or lie prostrate before the Lord, giving Him all the praise and worship, and believing in your heart that the answers you need can all be found in Him. You just have to ask.

I decree that this week's Reflections4Life will be a continued source of encouragement and inspiration for your heart, mind, and soul.  This week,  concentrate on your prayer and meditation life. There is so much that God desires to reveal to you but waits for you to come to Him in prayer.  Ask Him first before seeking answers elsewhere. Make God your first stop when seeking answers to your questions and solutions to your problems.

I have been guilty of seeking advice from others and answers to my questions from others before I even thought of going to my Heavenly Father and seeking His wise Counsel. Why do we do this? Why do we seek everyone else's advice and answers before we go to God, who knows us and knows the plans He has ordained for our lives? Surely He would have the answers we seek? Instead, we spend the time we really do not have, seeking answers from people who do not know us the way God knows us. Neither do they know the plans that God has ordained for our lives. Therefore, they would not have the best answers to give and we run the risk of making circumstances and situations worse.

The Bible is filled with many instances of people praying to God for answers. They sought His direction, His leading, and His help. They understood that God, above everyone else, knew the path they should take. That, the One True God, would direct them and give them victory.

Ephesians 6:18 (VOICE) Pray always. Pray in the Spirit. Pray about everything in every way you know how! And keeping all this in mind, pray on behalf of God’s people. Keep on praying feverishly, and be on the lookout until evil has been stayed.

 Here are a few more scriptures to meditate on Psalm 5, Psalm 22, Psalm 42, Psalm 51, Genesis 20:17, Genesis 24:12; 42, Genesis 32:9; 12.

There is power in our prayers, Beloved. Maybe you forgot that. Perhaps you did not know. But yes, there is power in our prayers. Not only are we lifting up the Name of Jesus, seeking His will for our lives, answers to our questions, but we are also engaged in spiritual warfare! Yes! Prayer is spiritual warfare! If you think the enemy doesn't try to stop you from praying, then take a moment and recall the various times you would begin to pray and something happened. Or, you fell asleep. Or, you felt like God did not hear you or was not listening to you. All distractions from the enemy. Seeking to keep us from 1. the answers we seek, and 2. the power that destroys his plots and plans. As well as break his stronghold and chains off of ourselves and those we love and have been called to minister to.

Put on your spiritual armor when you go to pray. Things happen when we pray. Not only do we get answers and solutions to our problems, but we are also breaking down the enemy's camp and destroying the hold he has on so many of our loved ones. This is why God tells us to always pray. To, constantly seek Him and His will for our lives and those we lift in prayer. We cannot stay where we are and expect to get what God ordained for us when He is in another place, telling us to come on! But you will not know this if you are not praying.

My Beloveds, may the spirit of peace and prosperity find permanent rest in your lives. I decree that every good thing that God has ordained for your life will become evident to you. Pray with all your heart every day. Seek the Lord and His ways.  Let God be the first place you go when seeking answers and solutions. Prayers are powerful. Your prayers are powerful. God has the answers you seek.  Go to Him first. He is doing great work in your life. You are blessed. Now go...and be a blessing!

©2022. Ruthe McDonald. All Rights Reserved. 

THE DECLARATION SERIES: "I Will Look Up To The Lord"

  Reflections4Life™ February20, 2022

"I Will Look Up to the Lord"

"This is just as it is written in the scroll of the words of Isaiah the prophet, A voice crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight'." Luke 3:4 (CEB)

Scriptures for the Series: James 4; 2 Chronicles 7:14; Psalm 119:11; Lamentations 3:40; Psalm 51:10; Proverbs 11:28; Psalm 37:4; 42; Luke 3:4; Psalm 66:9; Isaiah 30:2

Welcome to part eight in our Declaration Series. Look up to the Lord. He will give you the instructions you need to make the paths before you, straight. He will provide you with what you need to walk the path of righteousness, allowing Jesus to be Lord over your life and have a seat on the throne of your heart. Look up to the Lord and He will tell you how to prepare for His coming, once again.

I decree that this week's Reflections4Life will be a continued source of encouragement and inspiration for your heart, mind, and soul. Look up to the Lord. for all things. Make it a habit to seek out GOD and His ways of doing things. When fear tries to grip your heart, look up to GOD. When You want to know how to accomplish a task, look up to GOD. What worked yesterday will not work today. We are under a new anointing every day and we must move as GOD leads or miss where He desires us to be. 

In the Book of Luke, John the Baptist was the one crying out in the wilderness. Son of Jewish Priest, Zacharias, John did not follow in his father's footsteps. He moved as a prophet, announcing and preparing those for the coming of Jesus. He preached about the coming of the Lord and how He would be a different kind of Rabbai. John was preparing the people and the way, for the radically new way GOD was coming to the earth. It was a far cry from the way of their fathers and the way the current Priests had taught and governed themselves and others. 

John the Baptist shook things up, well in the same manner that Jesus was going to do. He was doing a new thing. Just as Christ came to do a new thing back then, He desires to do a new thing in us and in a new way. However, in order to catch this new thing; to be in a position to receive His instructions, we must look up to Him. We must seek Him in a new way that allows us to be in sync with the living GOD. We must be willing to do things we have never done before. Do things in a new way that may seem radical to the ways we were taught and the old traditional ways.

Jesus came in a totally different and radical way than many were expecting. Had the priests of that time been listening to John the Baptist, they would have known to look up to GOD for the new instructions and the new way that things were going to be done. They would have been prepared for the radical way in which Jesus moved and spoke of the Heavenly Father. Jesus did not come using violence, cheating, or dominance. Instead, He used love, healing, service, and compassion, as He lead with all power in His hands, given to Him by the Father.

John preached that GOD was not interested in their ritualistic religion. The Father wanted to change lives and that would only be done through His Son, Jesus. GOD wants to change our lives. But in order to happen, we have to follow His lead; His instructions. To know what they are, we have to look up to Him. We have to go before Him and receive His instructions and way of doing things. We cannot assume what worked yesterday will work today. Or, what He desired from us yesterday are the same instructions for today. His anointings are new every day. And every day we must seek His will. We must look to Him and find our way.

My Beloveds, may the spirit of peace and prosperity find permanent rest in your lives. I decree that every good thing that God has ordained for your life will become evident to you. Stop relying on what things used to be and start looking to GOD for how they should be. There is no guessing when you look up to GOD. Because He will make your paths straight; empowering you to walk in your blessings as He ordained. He is doing great work in your life. You are blessed. Now go...and be a blessing!

©2022. Ruthe McDonald. All Rights Reserved. 

The Declaration Series: "I Will Delight Myself In The Lord"

 Reflections4Life™ February13, 2022

"I Will Delight Myself in the Lord"

"Take delight in the Lord, and he will give your heart's desires." Psalm 37:4 (NLT)

Scriptures for the Series: James 4; 2 Chronicles 7:14; Psalm 119:11; Lamentations 3:40; Psalm 51:10; Proverbs 11:28; Psalm 37:4; 42; Luke 3:4; Psalm 66:9; Isaiah 30:2

Welcome to part seven in our Declaration Series. Delight yourself in the Lord and He is going to give you the desires of your heart. That is pretty straightforward. Yet, many of us still do not do this. Or, we do it for a while and then stop but expect GOD to continue giving us what we want. This is not a one-time action. This is a lifestyle. A change in our thinking, our behavior, our relationship with our Creator. GOD is certainly waiting to give us the desires of our hearts. But we must first learn what it truly means to delight ourselves in the Lord.

I decree that this week's Reflections4Life will be a continued source of encouragement and inspiration for your heart, mind, and soul. Delight yourself in the Lord. Make it a habit and not just a one-time or sometimes thing. Think about it for what it is: a lifestyle change. You are making a conscious decision to change how you live your life and think about the relationship between you and GOD the Father.

Delighting yourself in the Lord is not about telling God what you think He wants to hear. God knows our thoughts before we think them. He definitely knows what is residing in our hearts. Better than we do! God desires for us to delight ourselves in Him. For many of us, we were not taught what it actually meant to delight ourselves in the Lord. Think about it; do you remember that being a Sunday School lesson? Or, if you came to Christ as an adult, did anyone say to you: Oh! Don't forget to delight yourself in the Lord every day? I am certain they didn't. If we are going to delight ourselves in the Lord and receive the desires of our hearts, we should at least know what delighting ourselves in the Lord looks like.

To delight yourself in the Lord, you are seeking Him daily with your whole heart, mind, and soul. You are seeking the mind of God to know what He knows. You are putting on the mind of Christ so that your thoughts are now lining up with His. You are meditating on the word of God, studying and applying it to your everyday life. Delighting yourself in the Lord is getting to know the heart of your Creator and what pleases Him. You decide not to be afraid to bare your heart and soul before Him, coming naked and vulnerable in your emotions. You expose yourself before God and receive His healing in return. You learn to trust Him where you cannot trace Him. But you also believe Him to keep His promises made to you.

Finally, when you have delighted yourself in the Lord, you will find that His ways are now your ways. His thoughts have become your thoughts. The things you now desire in your heart, are in alignment with the perfect will of the Lord for your life. You now understand that what God has for you is the best. You cannot beat God's giving. Whatever you can come up with, will still not hold a candle to what God has ordained for you. When God grants you the desires of your heart, they will be more than you thought possible.

Ephesians 3:20 "Glory to God, who is able to do far beyond all that we could ask or imagine by His power at work within us;" (CEB)

My Beloveds, may the spirit of peace and prosperity find permanent rest in your lives. I decree that every good thing that God has ordained for your life will become evident to you. Delight yourself in the Lord. Get to know the heart and mind of God, our Father. Believe that He is granting you all that you need and your desires. He is doing great work in your life. You are blessed. Now go...and be a blessing!

©2022. Ruthe McDonald. All Rights Reserved. 

The Declaration Series: "I Will Seek After The Kingdom of God"

  Reflections4Life™ February 6, 2022

"I Will Seek After the Kingdom of God"

"Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf." Proverbs 11:28 (NIV)

Scriptures for the Series: James 4; 2 Chronicles 7:14; Psalm 119:11; Lamentations 3:40; Psalm 51:10; Proverbs 11:28; Psalm 37:4; 42; Luke 3:4; Psalm 66:9; Isaiah 30:2

Welcome to part six in our Declaration Series. We will determine to first seek after the Kingdom of God. Not after riches or the lusts of the flesh. But after the heart of God and the things that matter most to His heart and not of our flesh. Seeking the Kingdom of God and the way God does things keeps us from pursuing the lusts of the flesh, which often results in nothing but trouble, and not to mention, the delay of God's promises manifesting in our lives.

I decree that this week's Reflections4Life will be a continued source of encouragement and inspiration for your heart, mind, and soul. Seek after the Kingdom of God with all of your heart and soul. Ask yourself if the things you seek after are only to gratify your flesh or to edify your spirit and the lives of others. The things we often seek to gratify our flesh are often not after the Spirit or the heart of God. Sometimes we forget that the Holy Spirit resides in us. We also forget that the Father has called us to share the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Seek His Kingdom and how God does things.

Our successes do not lie in how much money we can accumulate in. our lifetime. Success lies within the growth of our Souls and Spirits. True wealth is measured by the lives we touch and change for the better; for eternity. It lies in the actions of us sharing the Good News, the love of Christ, and the true secret of success, with others. That, prioritizing seeking after the Kingdom of God and its righteousness is the standard by which God will judge us on judgment day. 

There is nothing wrong with desiring the finer things in life. To own beautiful things, live in gorgeous places, and even find someone to share our lives and love with.  However, God must come first. Beloved, when we seek after the Kingdom of God, He, our Heavenly Father, will add all these other things to our lives. In fact, God will GIVE us the desires of our heart when we seek Him and delight in HIM. (Psalm 37:4)

Our time spent in God, seeking His will and after His Kingdom and the way He does things, is not in vain. Though we may not see things right away, what we are producing through our obedient actions, through our fasting and praying, is preparing us to receive the abundance of blessings that God has ordained for us. God is a promise keeper. Following after the Kingdom of God empowers us. It also gives us the knowledge and wisdom we need on this earth. It strengthens us as we wait for the manifest blessings of God. It gives us the courage, the words, the heart to share with the people God sends us to. Including those in our own family.

Matthew 6:31-34 Do not worry then, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But [seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you..So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

My Beloveds, may the spirit of peace and prosperity find permanent rest in your lives. I decree that every good thing that God has ordained for your life will become evident to you. Seek after the Kingdom of God for ALL things. Invite God into every area of Your life.  Though some things might prove difficult, allow God to be your strength and your Supplier. Seek after Kingdom, fast and pray, and believe that God is granting you all that you need and even your desires. You are blessed. Now go...and be a blessing!

©2022. Ruthe McDonald. All Rights Reserved.