Women of Warren Vlog – Who Are We Talking To?

Good morning and happy Monday. I thought we'd start out this week by talking about prayer, specifically the posture of our heart as we come to the Lord in prayer. It can be tempting to rush to ask the Lord all of the things that I need or just bring to him the things that are heavy on my heart. But I find that I really need to pause at the beginning of my time with the Lord and praise and adore him and take the opportunity to remind my heart who is it that I am talking to. I often use some verses that I thought I'd share with you today in my prayer to the Lord, again, preaching to my heart the truth of who he is and who I am talking to. The first verse is out of Isaiah chapter 6, verses 1 through 3. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple above him were seraphs each with six wings with two wings they covered their faces with two they covered their feet and with two they were flying and they were calling to one another holy holy holy is the lord almighty the whole earth is full of his glory. I'm a visual person, and so I love the picture that that paints in my mind of the throne room of God and talking to the one who is seated on the throne, whose robe fills the temple, and who is holy, holy, holy. Another verse that I love to use to remind my heart of who I'm praying to and also to use in praise and adoration to the Lord in starting my prayer is Nahum chapter 1 verse 3. It says, the Lord is slow to anger and great in power. The Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm and the clouds are the dust of his feet. Again, that reminder for my heart of how big my God is, that the clouds are like dust at his feet. I find that when I start my prayer, reminding and preaching to my heart who it is that I'm talking to, it gives me perspective. It gives me perspective on not just who I'm talking to, but also perspective on the condition of my own heart. When I remind myself of how great and how big and powerful my God is, I can more clearly see and I identify through the power of the Holy Spirit the sin in my own heart that I need to confess. It also gives me perspective on whatever's heavy on my heart that day, whatever request I'm bringing for the Lord. When I remind myself and start with praise and adoration over who God is, my heart is in a posture where it is much more willing to lay my request before him to pour out what's heavy on my heart and to surrender it and to truly trust that the great big God who is on his throne, who dearly loves me, who the clouds are the dust at his feet, that I can trust his will and his way on whatever it is that's heavy on my heart that day. I hope that's an encouragement to you. I hope maybe you will consider starting some of your prayers this week with just a few moments. Maybe you use those verses and you just praise and adore our great God. And we know that not all of our prayers might start like that of course there's no perfect formula to talking to our heavenly father and we're told in the word of god to pray continually so sometimes that might just be a quick prayer of urgency in a moment where something is suddenly heavy on your heart or that you that you think about or are in a situation where you just need to find an intervention that happened the other day at my house one of my little boys went to take a bite of his dinner and instead of holding the fork horizontally to bite he held it vertically to bite and he has great orthodontic care in his future so the fork wedged itself right between his two front permanent teeth. And it was a moment of panic. Of course, my husband was not home in that moment. So I did very just urgently and quickly, oh Lord, please help me get this fork out of my little boy's mouth before there is any permanent damage done to his teeth. So I didn't take the time in that exact moment to praise and adore him. But if we do take that time periodically to just remind us who we are talking to, it'll help give us perspective that we need. By the way, we were securely and gently able to remove the fork. No permanent damage is done. I thought I'd end our time today using a psalm in prayer to the Lord. This is Psalm 104. It's just the first three verses. The whole psalm is really just full of praise and adoration to the Lord, so I encourage you to look at that. But the first three verses of Psalm 104, and what a great way to end our time and start off our week today praise the lord oh my soul oh lord my god you are very great you are clothed with splendor and majesty he wraps himself in light as with a garment he stretches out the heavens like a tent and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters he makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. I hope you have a wonderful week and that you go forward in praise and adoration of our great and loving God.

Originally published at warren.church.