30 Days of Thanks

Today I am thinking of the message we heard in prayer meeting last night on prayer.  What a blessing it is to be able to go to the Lord anytime we want.  In good times and bad or maybe for no real reason at all or perhaps just in praise.  No particular posture needed.  No payment needed.  No reason to wait.  It's like having your best friend with you all the time.  I think if my best friend were with me all the time we wouldn't be best friends anymore :)  BUT  God is our very best friend and he never gets sick of us. 

Our pastor used the illustration in the Bible of Moses interceding for Israel. 
Deuteronomy 9:18-29

"And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also.
And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him: and I prayed for Aaron also the same time.
And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, [and] ground [it] very small, [even] until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount.
And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibrothhattaavah, ye provoked the LORD to wrath.
Likewise when the LORD sent you from Kadeshbarnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then ye rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice.
Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.
Thus I fell down before the LORD forty days and forty nights, as I fell down [at the first]; because the LORD had said he would destroy you.
I prayed therefore unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin:
Lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.
Yet they [are] thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power and by thy stretched out arm."

I know this is a large scripture to digest, but our pastor brought out some challenging thoughts... I've been thinking about them ever since.  Is there someone in your life who just seems to be going the wrong way?  They claim to know the Lord and seem to have a desire for spiritual things, but then walk away from the very things that would help them grow and mature?  I have several someones in my life like this.  Is my prayer for them important?  You can see from this passage that Moses went through this same thing.  I am praying that the God who began a great work in the lives of these people in my life... will perform it... just as he promised He would do.  I am taking to heart this example from the life of Moses.  It inspires me and encourages me.  God is good and God is able to change the life of even the most crusty individual you know.

What a great God we serve and just another thing to be thankful for... the power of prayer.

If you'd like to participate in the "30 Days of Thanks"  head on over to Conny's and link up.