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MessianicMusings.com

Not quite Jewish, not quite Christian … totally commited to Torah and Messiah Yeshua.

Archive for February 25th, 2010

Resting in Yeshua

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

One thing I can’t quite do is pray in the morning. I’m too much of a night owl.

But my prayer life has flourished when I do it in the evening; I’ve adjusted my bed time enough to make sure I don’t fall asleep without praying, and with my iPod singing me through it, I have stayed away long enough for the music to stop and God to begin to speak.

I used to try praying before bed, but would often fall asleep in the first five minutes. There’s nothing wrong with resting in Yeshua, but using Him as a sleep aid is not respecting one’s relationship to Him, either.

Prayer is essential to knowing God, and knowing God is essential to serving Him. It might sound odd to say that I wasn’t very effective at prayer before, but I can say that while I still have a ways to grow in my prayer life, I feel for the first time in many years like I’m actually improving and making progress in learning how to recognize God’s voice when He speaks.

Messianic musicians

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

In drawing near to the L-RD in prayer, I’ve been naturally drawn primarily to the worship music of Messianic music artists. However, some of the longer-standing artists seem more distracting than the new generation of artists. Perhaps the songs of old standbys like Paul Wilbur and Joel Chernoff are so familiar and soothing that they sometimes make a better sleep aid than a worship and prayer aid.

My latest favorite artist is someone I pointed out to Rabbi Stan about eight months ago; he wasn’t that impressed back then, but he heard her perform at the Rabbi’s conference this winter and his opinion spun ’round to enthusiasm. It’s kind of nice to know I found her first, even though he won’t exactly admit it: Sue Samuel is a Messianic artist whose latest contribution, Songs … from the Secret Place, is one of the first full albums I bought on iTunes after buying my first official iPod… a 16GB iPod nano, fifth generation!

Along with some songs by Messianic artist Ted Pearce, one track by Paul Wilbur (Shalom Jerusalem!), and even three Christian worship tunes I enjoy … namely, Heart of Worship by Matt Redman, The More I Seek You by Kari Jobe, and Let It Rain by Michael W. Smith … I’ve developed a 46-minute Prayer and Worship playlist that really sets me in the right frame of mind for prayer.

What a help!

Songs to draw near

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

One of the greatest helps Rabbi Stan has suggested in terms of drawing near to the L-RD in prayer is to use praise and worship music for the first 30-45 minutes, then remaining silent in order to hear the L-RD. I’ve been surprised how well it works in terms of reaching that critical amount of time to start hearing from God.

The songs help keep one’s mind focused on the L-RD more sharply. And there’s something Scriptural about staying in prayer for at least an hour in order to hear from the L-RD; after all, in the Garden on the night in which He was betrayed, Yeshua Himself came back from prayer more than once and found his talmudim asleep, and scolded them, saying, “Could you not tarry with me even a single hour?”

So even though Yeshua prayed more than once that night, it seems each session as about an hour or more in length, given that statement. And if an hour or so is good enough for Yeshua, well… that’s who our model is, right? That’s why we call Him Messiah.

Free of Facebook

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

I’ve never struggled with addicting things. That’s a good thing. But I was certainly surprised when the L-RD pointed out to me that Facebook was my addiction.

Still, it makes sense; I was spending an average of a couple hours a day or more on Facebook, yet neglecting things that matter far more, like prayer, writing my novel and spending more quality time with my wife and Dad. It’s odd that the addictions of others stick out like sore thumbs to you, but your own addictions are something you need a kick in the khakis to see.

How wonderful it is, though, to finally be free of it!

Prayer time pays off

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

I have been hoping that I would be able to stick to my prayer commitment once I started Rabbi Stan’s prayer and intercession class, and while I’m not quite at “every day” status just yet, I’m well on my way and much improved in my prayer life so far. The benefits are showing.

The first week, we were told to concentrate on eliminating sin. I got a surprise from God on my first night following through on this; His priority of the sin in my life was different than I expected, and yet it was surprisingly easy to obey, give it up and not feel tempted to go back. Specifically, God told me to “eliminate Facebook.”

I’d been spending far too much time there in recent months and it was affecting my life in many negative ways, but until I spent time in deep prayer with God, I was taking it too lightly to see it for the sin it had become. Since giving up Facebook (and all other “social networking” sites, too, mind you), I’ve had more time for everything that’s really important to me… especially prayer.

But for now, remaining a Messianic Rabbi In Training is more than enough to keep me occupied. And I’m finally developing a respectable-enough prayer life to feel like that title’s not just decorative.