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Postures of Prayer

 

Can our posture intensify our praying?
Can we study the word to see how our postures can help us?
There are 7 different postures we can look at…

1. Bowing: this is a physical expression of honor and allegiance; the act of bowing is associated with worship.  Just the bowing of our heads alone communicates that we are addressing the One to whom we’ve pledged our loyalty.

Bowing also sometimes is called dropping to our knees: Solomon’s prayer in 2 Chronicles 6:13 is given as he knelt down in front of the entire congregation of Israel.  Daniel kept kneeling three times a day despite the risk.  Philippians 2:10 reminds us that one day, every knee will bow before Christ.

2. Lying prostrate
This could be like Ezra in Nehemiah 8:6 with your face to the ground (prostrate meaning still or not moving while lying down).

Jesus does this in Matthew 26 in the garden before his arrest.  Also in Revelation 1:17, John fell at his feet like a dead man when he saw Christ resurrected!

Just like prayer drives us lower to the ground in surrender, it can lift us up from our earthly existence.

3. Lifted hands
I Timothy 2:8 “I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without wrath and dissension.”

You can fall to your knees but also lift your hands.

4. Lifted eyes: this helps us set our sights on heaven

Jesus does this in John 11:41 and Luke 9:16.

5. Silence: Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that He is God.” When we are awed and amazed, we are often in silence.  Psalm 62:1 about our souls waiting in silence for Him, since He is our salvation.

God can hear our silent prayers.  Share story of Hannah from 1 Samuel 1:13.

6. Lifted voices: this is the opposite of silence, from Psalm 141 and Psalm 77.

7. Crying out: Psalm 55:17; this carries the idea of something intense and loud or even shrieking in pain.  This is something intense and loud, heavy and heartfelt.

John tells us in Revelation twenty times that the words being spoken in heaven are identified as a loud voice.

There’s a difference between the prayers we do when we’re on our back fighting sleep and the ones we do where we take a specific posture.  Posture is not mandatory or specifically prescribed, but can be deliberate.

Lord, take all of me – my hands, my eyes, my feet, my voice. Use all of these gifts you’ve given me so they return to you as clear expressions of my worship, love, devotion and submission.  I so easily lose sight of you going through the motions of religion.  Lord, turn even my posture of prayer into a means of steadying my wandering mind and opening my ears to YOUR voice.

Thanks for listening!
-Lilly

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God’s Answers to Prayer

Good afternoon! I hope you’re having a great day! Today on the show I talked about the 5 different answers that God has to your prayers.
We first must establish that ‘no’ is an answer to prayer, and there are two answers to prayer that God gives us that actually involve the answer of ‘no’.

1. “Yes. Immediately”.
Sometimes what we pray is exactly in line with God’s will, as well as his timing, and His answer will arrive on the spot. We also need to realize that God is answering our prayers before we even pray the prayer. He says that ‘before they call, I answer.” God is simply not bound by time. He may start answering prayers ten years before you pray it/ He is, now, preparing things for you through the prayers you have yet to pray.

2. “Yes, in due time.”
We need to understand that a delay is not a denial. This answer is basically a “yes, but you’re not ready for it yet.” God is working behind the scenes in your life, waiting for a more perfect moment to unveil His amazing ‘yes’. If it is a “yes, but not now’ answer, what He is giving us is the faith and patience to wait for the right time to arrive.

3. “Yes, so you’ll learn from it.”
Sometimes God gives us what we want because He knows that it will teach us a lesson. We’re much better off trusting God to give us what we need, when we need it, and when we’re ready for it. There are moments when, if God gave us what we asked for, we would one day regret it, and we would thank Him for saying ‘no’. We need to pray freely using the Luke method (or the Hillary Scott method) by saying ‘not my will be done, but yours’, which is sometimes the hardest thing to pray in tough situations.

Now we enter into the realm of the tough answers. No.
This #4 is a toughy to hear…

4. “No, because your heart isn’t right”
Sometimes a no isn’t a ‘wait’, sometimes it’s us asking and not receiving because we are asking with the wrong motives, so that we may spend it on our pleasures. This is insanely hard to hear, but it is very good to have our hearts aligned with God, and having our requests, again, focused not on our will, but His. God isn’t saying no forever, but He realizes that we are not in a position to appreciate the gift or to handle it well. Besides, if it’s not God’s will, do we really want it anyway?

5. “No. I’ve got a better plan.”
Obviously, God knows what is best for his children, and we know that He has a plan for us, it tells us that in Jeremiah 29:11. Sometimes we ask too small, confined by our own limits and knowledge, not thinking outside of what we’ve seen and experienced.
We pray for a handful when God wants to give us a houseful.
WE ARE ALLOWED TO PRAY BIG PRAYERS! Never be afraid to pray boldly and for big things. When we ask for big things, we need to realize that God may just choose to amaze us even further. That’s why praying ‘Lord, will you do immeasurably more than I could ever ask or imagine in this situation?” because we know that He is a powerful God that can do just that, which it tells us in Ephesians 3. One of my favorite verses.

Here’s the prayer for today…

“Father, my default has been to think You probably weren’t listening, and even if you were, You’d probably say no. I bow before you today – more convinced than ever that I am in wise, loving, caring, powerful hands. Convinced that I can trust you. Convinced that every ‘no’ is some way to an even better ‘yes’. You said You withhold no good thing from those who love You. Thank You for letting me ask, and thank you for letting me know that Your desire is truly for my ultimate good. May I trust You even more and pray with even greater faith knowing You want to be glorified through my answered prayers.
In Jesus’ name, amen.”

Thanks as always for listening! Pray boldly.
– Lilly

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The Definition of Prayer

Reading out of the book, “The Battle Plan for Prayer”, we talked today about the definition of prayer, and what prayer really is.
Check out some of the highlights below!

Prayer, at its heart, is communicating with God. Reverently, openly and sincerely.
We are interacting with the magnificent God of the universe.
We can’t forget that we’re in his presence when we pray

If we just understood what being in the presence of the Almighty is like, our minds wouldn’t wander.  We’d enter into awestruck worship.  Stunned and possibly speechless.

We need to realize that prayer is serious business – and we get that privilege because of Jesus. Jesus opened a new way for us to draw near to God through his death and the tearing of the veil.  It was the atoning blood of Christ that opened that channel (Hebrews 10:20).  His blood shields us from the consuming fire. Only through Christ are we safe with God.

The practical definition of prayer…Prayer is communion with God in order to…

1 – Intimately know, love and worship Him

Relationship and Worship are key to prayer.  We’re trying to know more about who He is and what He does. This helps us grow deeper in our love and respect for Him.  This is the “hallowed be Your name” part of the Lord’s Prayer.

 

2 – Understand and conform our lives to His will

Prayer doesn’t just change things, it changes us!  He works to align our hearts and minds to His.  This is the “your Kingdom come, your will be done.”

 

 

3 – Access and advance His kingdom, power and glory

When we pray, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” we are seeking to access God’s kingdom resources, for His mighty power to work on our behalf and for Him to reveal His glory in our situation. The last words of the Lord’s Prayer are not just for church and ceremony – they are to remind us that God is owner of all, ruler of all, and worthy of all (Romans 11:36). Prayer allows us to join God in what He is doing among the nations for His glory.

Prayer is not about prayer – it is about a PERSON.  God Himself. We get off track when we focus more on provision or protection rather than knowing and pleasing God.

“Help me abandon my own agendas and self assurance, wanting to be nowhere else but aligned with Your will.”

Thanks for listening!
-Lilly

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The Purpose of Prayer

thursday

Today we continued our series on prayer, inspired by the book The Battle Plan for Prayer, from Stephen and Alex Kendrick.  Find out more about the book here.

Our focus this afternoon was the PURPOSE of prayer.  Here are some of the notes we shared:

Ultimately, all prayer is for the glory of God (John 14:13). Truly, the best answer He can give to any prayer is whatever answer brings Him the most glory.

What does glory mean?  The Hebrew word for glory, kabad (ka-VAHD) carries the idea of weight and importance, majesty and honor.

The ‘glory of the Lord’ is when God reveals a majestic or important glimpse of who he is. As the Kendrick brothers write, “He is unwrapping a measure of His identity.”  This happens several times in scripture:

  • One who has all authority in heaven and on earth doesn’t need us (Romans 9:20-24), so the mere fact that we’re here is a testimony to His glory.  His awesome glory as CREATOR – the galaxies and stars reveal his attributes as being the work of an awesome creator.  That’s their job!  (Psalm 19:1)
  • In Genesis 22, Abraham is tested when God asks him to sacrifice his son, Isaac.  To us as we read the story, we might be thinking, what is God doing?  But as Abraham is ready to sacrifice his son, he hears a rustling in the nearby brush – a ram, taking Isaac’s place.  God here is revealing His glory as our PROVIDER.
  • John 11 tells us the story of Lazarus, and Jesus saying that the man’s illness would be “for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”  And when Jesus revives Lazarus from the dead, he reveals His glory as the resurrection and the life.  This was a defining moment for Jesus.

Every prayer is a chance for us to witness His glory first-hand.  When He answers, He is letting us see what he is like.  Creator, Savior, Lord, Provider, Protector, Friend and Counselor.

…and what should be our response when He does reveal His glory? We worship him and glorify His name forever (Psalm 86:12).

Our second response is to tell others what He has done. Paul said (2 Corinthians 4:15) that the revelation of God’s grace should cause us to give abundant thanks to God, so that others may see and celebrate how God is glorified through His work through His people.

Of all the things prayer is and does, its greatest accomplishment and its greatest joy, is that it allows us, his beloved children, to be part of bringing him glory!

Our Word of the Day is a tribute to the Knox County Chapter of the American Red Cross and their 100th birthday tomorrow!

Centenarian, a noun meaning a person who has reached the age of 100, or pertaining to or having lived 100 years.

Marcy and Lilly called in from Kenyon’s Pierce Hall and the celebration…here are some photos:

IMG950987IMG950986

Thanks for listening!
– Joe

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Praise Thursday: Priority of Prayer

Good afternoon! It was a drizzle-filled one here in Mt. Vernon, but we continued our series on prayer today, and we talked about the priority of prayer!

Here’s some of the things we were talking about on the show today!
Prayer is:

  • The key to intimacy between Christ and us
  • Our interaction with our heavenly father like we would interact with an earthly father (Matthew 7: 9-11)
  • Human frailty, joined in communion with divine perfection
  • Too wonderful and important no to do it
  • A big deal to God so it should be a big deal to us

Praying isn’t easy because it requires us to pause and focus our thoughts; it requires us to rely less on self-sufficiency; it requires humility…but…

We need God, so we need to make it a priority!

Prayer should be first in the order of things (I Timothy 2: 1-8)

Jesus prioritized prayer above everything else; his disciples saw this consistently, so that may be why they asked him in Luke 11:1, “teach us how to pray.”

Jesus said in Mark 11:17 that “my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations…”

Everything else that occupies the church’s time and energy will be lacking in power and blessing and the fragrance of God’s presence if prayer is not kept first.

We can’t make prayer an add-on or an afterthought…

We were never intended to live out the Christian life or accomplish his work on the earth in our own wisdom or strength.  The plan has ALWAYS been to rely on the Holy Spirit and live a life of obedience in prayer.

Acts 1:14 – a deep devotion to prayer was always connected to the success of the New Testament church.

Devoting yourself to something carries the idea of insisting and clinging to something. We see it again in Acts 2:42 and Acts 6:4.

Everywhere we turn, prayer should be there to meet us. When it does, scripture reminds us that we can expect these things to happen:

  • Evangelism of the lost (Colossians 4:3)
  • Cultivation of discipleship (John 17)
  • True Christian fellowship (Acts 2:42)
  • Wise decisions (James 1:5)
  • The overcoming of obstacles (Mark 11:22-24)
  • Needs met (Matthew 6:11)
  • Ignition of true worship (Matthew 6:13)
  • The sparking of revival (2 Chronicles 7:14)

“Father forgive us for relying on our wisdom, strength, energy and ideas rather than abiding in You and seeking You first. Help us lay aside anything that hinders us from pursuing Your best. Help us to prioritize prayer and devote ourselves to it in our personal lives, our families, and our churches. Make our churches truly houses of prayer for all nations. Revive us again, O Lord. Help us walk by Your strength  and bring You great glory in our generation.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Our word of the day today: inanition

noun || in-uh-NISH-un

the exhausted condition that results from lack of food and water
the absence or loss of social, moral, or intellectual vitality or vigor
Inanition describes a state of suffering from either a literal emptiness (of sustenance) or a metaphorical emptiness (of interest or energy), so it should come as no surprise that the word ultimately derives from the same idea in Latin. Inanition, which first appeared in Middle English in the 14th century as in-anisioun, can be traced back to the Latin verb inanire, meaning “to make empty,” which in turn comes from inanis (meaning “empty”). Another far more common descendant of inanis is inane. The family resemblance is clear: inane is used describe things lacking significance or substance.

Thanks for listening!
-Lilly

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Praise Thursday: Pattern for Prayer

Today I started the first week in our series on prayer! This week, I talked about the pattern for prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, and how that prayer contains the six basic elements that we should be including in our prayers.
Check it out below!

1. Pray boldly. We have no need that God can’t meet.
His resources are unlimited and His power is infinite.
2. Pray that God’s name will be revered and esteemed.
Give Him thanks, obey Him, and constantly be aware of His presence.
3. Pray that God’s kingdom will come in us and on Earth.
4. Ask God to meet our daily needs and the needs of those around us.
All that we are, have, and do comes from God.
5. Seek God’s forgiveness every single day.
6. Request that God protect us from temptation.
“Lord keep me from the inclination to sin when I have the opportunity, and the opportunity to sin when I have the inclination.”

Our word of the day today was slacktivism.
It’s a noun that means: actions taken to bring about political or social change but requiring only minimal commitment, effort, or risk. 
Slacktivism is a portmanteau formed from the terms slacker and activism. It is first recorded between 1995 and 2000.

Thanks for listening!
See you tomorrow for the NZ Top 10!
– Lilly

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Praise Thursday – Prayer!

Thanks for joining us today for a very special Afternoon Drive! Today is the National Day of prayer, and today on the show we talked about just how powerful and important prayer really is!

We read from Ephesians 6:10-20, which reminds us that through prayer, we are fearlessly making known the mystery of the gospel! Check it out here!

“Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains.Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”
-Ephesians 6:19-20

 

We then read from James 5:16-20, which reminds us that prayer is to be used in all circumstances, and that God does truly answer prayer. Read it all here!

“And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
James 5:15-16

In Psalm 23, we are reminded that God is walking side by side with us through our hardest times. God is listening to your prayers. God knows the plans He has for you. If He is walking with you through your darkest valleys, He hears your prayers.

Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
    for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.
Psalm 23:4

Our word of the day today was dendrochronology
And this is the science dealing with the study of the annualrings of trees in determining the dates andchronological order of past events!

Dendrochronology entered English in the 1920s. It is derived from the Greek terms déndron meaning “tree” and chrónos meaning “time.” The combining form -logy is used in the names of sciences.

Thanks for listening!
Have a great evening!
-Lilly

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Destiny Rescue Who Knew!

Tonight is the Crossroads league Destiny Rescue night! Destiny Rescue is an international, Christian-based, non-profit organization which is dedicated to rescuing children from human trafficking and sex slavery. They are are focused on rescuing children and then getting these children into aftercare programs that provide healthcare, counseling, spiritual guidance and so much more. Destiny Rescue is going to be at our basketball games tonight selling T-Shirts and jewelry n attempts to raise $1,500 to rescue one child.
If you would like more information about Destiny Rescue, check out their website here!

Valentine’s Banquet!

WNZR’s 19th annual Valentine’s Banquet will be held on Friday, February 10th at 7p.m. in the President’s Dining Room, located in the Hyson Campus Center on the MVNU campus.
This year’s theme is “Men Are Like Waffles, Women Are Like Spaghetti”!
Tickets are on sale NOW at the WNZR studios!
Banquet tickets are $19 per person and include an Italian Buffet buffet dinner, entertainment and over $1,000 worth of door prizes.
Deadline to buy tickets – Thursday, 2/2 at 6pm.

Big Blue Music Crew…
If you would like to join the Big Blue Crew Music Crew, send a message to wnzr@mvnu.edu. We will e-mail you back a link to take our short survey. Just listen to a couple music clips and give your opinion! In thanking you for participating in our survey, we will send you a Big Blue Music Crew T-Shirt!

Our word of the day today was ‘Ab Ovo’ which means ‘from the beginning’.
Check out some history behind this word here!  

As always, thanks for listening!

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Pursue Excellence

Good afternoon! It was a rainy one here in Mt. Vernon, but we kept dry here in the studio and talked a lot today about pursuing excellence. In the world today, you can settle for being just okay and mediocre. We as Christians are called to be extraordinary!

Act 4:23-31 was a key set of verses that we talked about today. The main point that all these verses make is the power of prayer. When in stressful and hard situations, the first thing that we need to do is pray. God is listening and He cares.
Prayer is an important first step in any difficult situation.

“23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
“‘Why do the nations rage
    and the people plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth rise up
    and the rulers band together
against the Lord
    and against his anointed one.
27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”

Our WinterJam trivia question today was: In what church did the band Newsong get started? The answer was Morningside Baptist Church!
Our winner was Casandra of Gambier! Congratulations! She won two passes to WinterJam Tour Spectacular 2017!

Our word of the day was willowwacks!
Willowwacks are a wooded, uninhabited areas.
This word is slang which originated in New England.

My last encouragement for you today came from 2nd Timothy.
2nd Timothy 1:7 says: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”

We are called to be extraordinary and we are given power and love! We are called to be bold in our lives. Be like Peter and John when they prayed for boldness in their proclamation of Christ and His power. Pursue excellence.  Don’t be ordinary.

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