Joyful Jar

Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.-1 Peter 5:7 Prayer allows us to have a deeper relationship with our God, our Father. If we spend regular, daily, unhurried time in prayer with God, we will deeper our relationship with Him. Prayer helps us to grow spiritually, it increases our faith and also provides a place to unload our burdens. To be honest, I use to not put very much effort in my prayer life, I would only prayer for about five minutes every other day and most of the time it was a prayer of asking for rather than thanking for. Chapter 3, really changed my heart on prayer, and inspired me. First of all prayer increases are faith, when we go to the Lord and ask for guidance or healing for others, and we see His work in the things we prayed for, that strengths our faith. 2. Prayer provides a place to unload burdens. If we begin our day casting our cares and burdens on the Lord, then we can go about are day relieved, freed from many heavy weights.

*Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. -Psalms 119:105 The greater your proportion of your day -of your life-spent hidden in quiet, in reflection, in prayer, and in study of God's word. The greater will be the effectiveness, the impact, the power of the part of your life that shows.When we spend time with Christ, He supplies us with strength and encourages us in the pursuit of His ways. How? 1. Develop the habit of drawing near to God. "And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord." -Genesis 19:27 "My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up." -Psalms 5:3 "And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he (Jesus) went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." -Mark 1:35 All three of these men went to the Lord in the morning, at the start of their day. As I mention in the last post,

1. Choose to spend time with God. I know for me, that its easy to get distracted by other things on your to do list. You know, doing school work, checking your e-mail, cleaning the house, and so forth. As a matter of fact, I recently moved  from Florida to Alabama with my family, and let me tell you, there were a lot of things on my to do list that distracted me from my time spent with God. Weather it was unpacking boxes in my room, the kitchen, the bathroom, hanging pictures, organizing, helping my mom unpack, the list goes on! I had it in my head that I wanted to be unpacked before church on Sunday morning. It didn't take but a couple of days until I was so hurried and tired, that I began to become anxious and irritated with every thing around me. Don't do what I did, remember to set aside time in your day for God, put Him first, don't let the world rob you of this precious time, to be spent with your Heavenly Father, the most fulfilling relationship in life.

During the Summer I try to read more books, because first of all I have more time and second its good to workout your brain during the Summer, to keep it strong for school in the Fall. ;] One book I've just started to read, again for the second time, is by Elizabeth George called A Young Woman After God's Own Heart.The first time I read this book I was about half way done with my Sophomore year in High School. However, because of school I didn't have the time to REALLY read and take it to heart, if you know what I mean. : p Elizabeth George has written several other devotional and guide type books for young lady's, such as: "A Woman's High Calling", "A Woman's Walk With God", and Beautiful in God's Eyes". Elizabeth George is a popular teacher and speaker at Christian events. Her ministry experience includes, teaching high-school and college women, at churches and Christian college campuses. Although Elizabeth George beliefs o