Week 1 - Pray with J.O.Y.

I decided to start this year off with a couple verses on prayer. I have witnessed the power of prayer so many times in my life, that I knew it was important to understand what the Bible says about prayer.

For Week 1, I memorized the following verse:

"Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

Philippians 4:6-7

I think the part of these verse that usually gets overlooked is "with thanksgiving." So many times we forget to praise and thank God for all that He has done in our lives. Instead we fill His plate with all of our problems. I have been guilty of doing this as well... I am sure we all have!

Something my husband taught me when we first started dating was to pray with J.O.Y. This acronym stands for Jesus, Others, Yourself. It is to remind you of the order you should pray. Thank the Lord for what he has given you; then pray for those around you. By the time you get to yourself, your problems will seem so much smaller than how they appeared before you started to pray.

I love the promise these verses hold as well. "And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." With a strong prayer life, we will experience God's peace in an unexplainable way!!

If you only had today, what you thanked God for yesterday... what would you have?



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