Quiet thus far in our neck of the woods.  Carla had to open the store this morning, she left before I even knew she was up – still a bit tired from yesterday.

Even my warm up walk and exercises were harder this morning, but it was what was needed.  I am getting some relieve from the pain in my shoulder and able to do more than a couple weeks ago.  If it continues this way I ‘should’ be able to heal up without an operation.

Haven’t heard how the tests went, yet.  I do know there was an anomaly or two, I told them if there was anything different about tests, it would come on mine.  Our family just seems to challenge the professionals and make them dig into research more often.

The sky is interesting.  It is a very very light blue.  It back drops Mt. Hood and even though the mountain stands in all its white glory, it almost blends into the sky.  Mt. Adams had more contrast, of course we only see the top of it.

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“Prayer is an effort of will.”  Oswald Chambers

Mathew 6:6 “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”  KJV

One of the most difficult things to do is to pray.

We have to make time if we want to truly communicate with God.  While short prayers through the day help us keep in touch, they are not truly communicating with Him – they are important, don’t get me wrong – but they do not take the place of a determined effort to sit down with Him and not only speak, but listen and that takes time.

I recently read a person’s thoughts on communication in today’s world, “too many people listen so they can reply, not to learn.”

With God the only reply should be, “Yes, my Lord.”  The only way we can get to that point where we can actually communicate with Him is to give Him time to talk with us – it doesn’t make any difference what time of day that sit down occurs, but it must happen for us to gain further insights into God and His will for our lives.

It is so very easy to get distracted.  We have noises all around us, family, friends, television, phones, work, and the list goes on.  Our mind loves to trick us, I don’t know how many times I will be praying for something specific and the next thing I realize I have spent seconds, sometimes minutes, with my mind going off in a different direction.

Yet, God has made it clear He wants us to go before Him, one on one, and talk with Him. 

To do that we must cut back on all distractions, even that of the mind.  When Daniel prayed, he prayed aloud.  When Jesus prayed, He prayed aloud.  Even though both were praying in private.

By doing that ourselves it may help us keep concentrating on what we are doing, praying.  Then as we wait for Him to talk with us we must determine within ourselves to listen, even if it takes time.

Too many of us take pray lightly.  We are missing out on a great blessing from God when we do that.

As Oswald says, “it is an act of will.”

An act of OUR will.  We either do it or we do not, it all depends on us; we can use any excuse we want, but it still comes down to a choice, either we do it, or we do not.

I need the Lord to help me focus on my communication with Him.  Not half-heartedly, but with my full attention – not letting anything interfere with that, including my own mind.

I must will myself to be fully in His presence.

Later, Art (-: