These come from a great book about prayer by Steve Brown entitled Approaching God: How to Pray.  My copy was published in 1996 by Moorings: Nashville, Tennessee.  Mr. Brown writes with ease and makes you feel comfortable from the very beginning of the book.  It’s almost like the two of you are sitting in an easy chair having a discussion like two friends might have.  The book is full of information for people who have a desire to pray.  It is sort of an inspirational book, but it is more than that.

Inspirational books seem to have too many stories of people who have overcome hard circumstances, but don’t offer any real direction that one might take.  This book has the stories, it’s true, but Mr. Brown also gives information that will help get you on the road to praying and prayer, or help you stay on that road.

This list comes near the end of the book and will give you a taste of what you can find in the book.  Steve Brown tells us that these suggestions have been around nearly as long as Christianity, and has served the community well:

1. ” … to see great power in prayer, there must be faith.”    In Mark 11:22-24Mark 11:22-24
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22?And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. ²³?Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass; he shall have it. ²⁴?Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.  

WP-Bible plugin, Jesus emphasizes faith and belief in prayer. Faith is a gift from God.  “If you are going to pray for something, pray first for faith.”  See also Luke 17:5Luke 17:5
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5?And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.  

WP-Bible plugin and Mark 9:24Mark 9:24
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24?Straightway the father of the child cried out, and said, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.  

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2. “… faith doesn’t come quickly, it is a process.”     If you have little faith, (as so many of us have),  only little things can be accomplished.  But if you have faith the size of a mountain, then you can move the mountain through prayer.  Here’s a tip for increasing faith:  Ask God to work in your own life, first, to be a little kinder, or gentler, to have more grace for people that irritate you, to be a better parent, and so forth. As you see God working in you and answering those prayers, you will gain the faith that will allow you to move bigger mountains.

3. ” … effective prayer is always within the parameters of God’s will.”     Read 1 John 5:14-151 John 5:14-15
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14?And this is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us: ¹⁵?and if we know that he heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him.  

WP-Bible plugin and take special note of the phrase: ” … that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”  How do we know His will?  It is revealed in the Bible.  I can give the short answer, though: if the request brings you on a closer walk with Him; if it is a request for more love toward those who persecute you; if is a request that benefits another, then God’s answer will be in the affirmative.

4. “… effective prayers are specific.”     Tell God what you need, what you desire, what your afraid of and what your concerns are.  Be specific and detailed.  See James 4:2James 4:2
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2?Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war; ye have not, because ye ask not.  

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5. “… remember that God is God and He knows better than you what is needed.”     We may think we know what is best for us, but we only have the view from a small window looking out on a brick wall across the ally.  God sees the whole universe from a huge picture window that shows the past, present and future and all the possibilities.

6. “… know about the power of praise.”     Praise has power – even when bad things happen.  My own personal thoughts are that Satan and his minions can’t understand why we praise God when something bad happens to us – more than that, they can’t stand it and go running off!  Praise should always be a part of every prayer.

7. “… be obedient (or, at least, want to be obedient) to what God tells you to do.”     Obedience is a sign of your response to God’s love.

8. “… keep on praying.”     Luke 18:1-8Luke 18:1-8
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18 ¹?And he spake a parable unto them to the end that they ought always to pray, and not to faint; ²?saying, There was in a city a judge, who feared not God, and regarded not man: ³?and there was a widow in that city; and she came oft unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. ⁴?And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; ⁵?yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest she wear me out by her continual coming. ⁶?And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge saith. ⁷?And shall not God avenge his elect, that cry to him day and night, and [yet] he is longsuffering over them? ⁸?I say unto you, that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?  

WP-Bible plugin is a parable about a woman who wouldn’t quit petitioning a judge for justice until she got it. We should likewise be persistent in our requests.  Matthew 7:7-8Matthew 7:7-8
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7?Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: ⁸?for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.  

WP-Bible plugin is a well-known passage and in the Greek, the words imply perseverance and frequency – in other words, it is an on-going action on our part.

9. “… don’t make demands, make requests.”     God is God; He is not a vending machine.

10. “… God will take your prayers as seriously as you take your prayers.”     If your prayers are not important to you, how can they be important to God? If you don’t make requests or are lackadaisical being obedient or praising or any of the other items listed above, do you think God is going to take you seriously?  Would you take someone seriously if they were halfheartedly mumbling something about needing  meal or a place to stay?

If you can, find a copy of this book and give it a read.  If you have been wanting to begin a prayer life or want to take your prayer life a step further, this might be a good book for you.  It is not a book full of theory and studies made by doctoral candidates or heads of ivy-league theological colleges.  It is a book the lay-person can grab hold of and understand.  It takes us from the very basics of prayer into deeper, more meditative and contemplative styles.

Here is a link to this book, Approaching God: How to Pray,on Amazon for this book if you would like to purchase it. I see there are about 16 copies that are new for about $5.00 and quite a few copies that are used for like a penny or something.

It’s easy to read and if you have any interest at all in starting a prayer life or going that extra step closer to God, I think you’ll like it.

Psalm 11 illustrates King David’s stand when it comes to trusting God in the face of impending adversity.  Someone (one of his advisers perhaps) has told him that the enemy is preparing to move against him and that he should flee to the mountains while there is still an opportunity to safely escape.

Well, David doesn’t like the advice and states in no uncertain terms that God is his refuge.  This is a short psalm, but, as is the case with the word of God, there is something we can all take away from a reading of it.

You can find it on this page.

The Bible tells us there are several books that are kept in heaven:

• The Book of the Living
• The Book of Life
• The Book of Tears
• The Book of Works
• The Book of Remembrance.

What I would like to focus on in this post is the Book of Remembrance.  I think it has special significance to us, especially in these days when it is becoming increasingly difficult to be known as a Christian, because discovering the purpose of this book should give us comfort in the knowledge that God has not forgotten us.

We discover much about this book in Malachi:

Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name. They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, on the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. –Malachi 3:16-17Malachi 3:16-17
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16?Then they that feared Jehovah spake one with another; and Jehovah hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name. ¹⁷?And they shall be mine, saith Jehovah of hosts, [even] mine own possession, in the day that I make; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.  

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Two verses prior to this verse, God is actually telling His people that they have a skeptical spirit and they murmur against Him saying such things as  “It is vain to serve Him;” and “How is it going to profit us that we have kept His laws and walked around being all penitent?”

These people are talking among themselves – they are not discussing this with God, Himself, through prayer.  They are murmuring and complaining.  And they are doing all this after God has told them that if they tithe then He will bless them.  This is the only place in the Bible, by the way, where God actually tells us to test Him on the benefits of giving tithes.

God heard all these people complaining or being skeptical even after hearing of the benefits of following God. (We all have that choice – we can follow or not follow – God wants willing followers. He will never force anyone.)

It seems they weren’t as prosperous as they thought they should be when following Jehovah. In verse 15 they say the wicked are the ones who God has favored. The proud are the happy ones; those who work wickedness have it made; and those that tempt God are delivered. What these discontents have seemed to forget is that those who do not follow God and seem to prosper in this life have their reward in this life. The promise of an eternal life with God is not made to them because of their discontent and scoffing.

But it is not only the malcontents that are talking among themselves – those who follow God are also talking to each other. These, however, are speaking of the goodness of God, praising Him and walking in fear or awe of Him. God hears these godly people and He his pleased. He writes in His Book of Remembrance the names of the godly – those who feared Him and meditated on Him.

God is so pleased with these people that he calls them His jewels and says He will spare them in judgment – just as a father spare his own son who has served him.

Does God need a Book of Remembrance?

No.  As humans we cannot fathom God or any of his characteristics, (a major stumbling block for non-believers is that God knows each of us personally – we cannot understand this, and so to the atheist, we are stupid for believing such impossibilities).  As imperfect humans, we cannot understand how anyone or anything can be better than we are and so we apply human standards to everything, including the Master and Creator of the Universe. It is almost like we are building the Tower of Babel all over again.

We limit God to our own limitations – how foolish.

The ones who need the Book of Remembrance are we humans.  In fact, God knew this, and he named special occasions and had the people build monuments to commemorate an event.  This is something the people needed to remember all that God had done for them.  We find one specific reference to a monument in Joshua 4:1-7Joshua 4:1-7
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4 ¹?And it came to pass, when all the nation were clean passed over the Jordan, that Jehovah spake unto Joshua, saying, ²?Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, ³?and command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of the Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones, and carry them over with you, and lay them down in the lodging-place, where ye shall lodge this night. ⁴?Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man: ⁵?and Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of Jehovah your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel; ⁶?that this may be a sign among you, that, when your children ask in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? ⁷?then ye shall say unto them, Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of Jehovah; when it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.  

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God had led the people to the banks of the Jordan and after they had passed through the river He commanded that one man from each tribe of Israel was to gather a stone and erect a monument to the remembrance of the Lord’s work in the lives and safety of the people of Israel. (To be specific in this instance – when the Ark of the Covenant was carried into the waters of the Jordan at the place that the people were to cross over into the promised land, the waters parted, just as they had done at the Red Sea during the Exodus, and the people crossed over on dry land. This is what God wanted the people to remember.)

It is we who need the Book of Remembrance and the other monuments to remind us of God’s grace and mercy.  It is we who need to recall the “stones” of remembrance that have been set-up along the paths our life has taken through the years – just as God instructed the Israelites to build a monument there at the Jordan.

When the circumstances of our lives seem to be going against us and things seem hopeless, we need to think about all the times that God has come to our aid by recalling all the stones along the path we have walked – the stones that signify such events as recovering from a severe accident; marrying the perfect man or woman to fulfill our life; the rescue of a child from a deathly illness; the safe travel through an area later found to be filled with danger; the successful release from an addiction to drugs or smoking or alcohol.

If God has remembered us during times such as those examples above, why would he forget us now – at a time when He is needed the most?  The answer is: He won’t. He may be waiting longer than we like, but He always has His reasons.  Do not doubt, He is with us at all times.

God knows us and remembers us.   Grab onto that and never let go.

As followers of the one true God we can be assured that God will not forget us and that we will be forgotten at the end of our days here on Earth.

May God bless you in all you do and in every way.