How Hungry are You?

eph 6,18

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.
Ephesians 6:18

RECOMMENDED READING:  PSALM 35:5-10  “Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the Lord chase them.6 Let their way be dark and slippery: and let the angel of the Lord persecute them.7 For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul.8 Let destruction come upon him at unawares; and let his net that he hath hid catch himself: into that very destruction let him fall.9 And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord: it shall rejoice in his salvation.10 All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him?”

COMMENTS:  How and when do you pray?   How much time do you spend in prayer each day?  What are the subjects and items you devote to prayer each day?  Then again, what does scripture “pray without ceasing” (I Thess. 5:17) mean and how do we accomplish this?

Discovering and maturing in prayer is a lifelong endeavored.  Most revert to prayer during crisis or tragedy or for critical decisions.  Most do not revert to prayer daily or when life is peaceful.   But we need to look at the lives of faithful Christians we know and especially to Christ’s example in scripture to give us the answer God intends for us to discover and know and follow.

Prayer is far more than a lifeline to God for help but is definitely that.  Prayer is our lifeline of fellowship with our creator and Lord and Savior. Prayer gives us light in the midst of darkness but also guidance during bright days too.  Prayer is our link to the One who knows all and is in ultimate control.  Prayer is also our link to our Best and Greatest Friend and Helpmate.

But prayer is also a mystery of vast opportunity and access.  Much like going into a beautiful room with many wonders and valuable features.  We may become content living in that room but miss exploring and discovering the many other wonderful rooms available to us.  As we explore fellowship with Him in prayer and discover more about our God and learn more from Him, we soon discover a longing to go deeper with Him and spend more focused time with Him.

When we limit prayer to just asking for help when we need it or an obligation we satisfy at a certain time each day and limited to a certain budgeted time each day, we hinder God speaking to us more freely in His time and way.  We limit our openness to receive from Him more of our day.   We also keep ourselves more vulnerable to satan’s temptations by not keeping focus on Him throughout our day.

I too find myself growing weary in prayer and easily distracted by life and family and obligations. 

So, what should we do and change?   What is the expectation God is calling us to?

Think of it this way.  Imagine the food you absolutely love and order as often as you can.  Maybe your favorite meal or favorite desert or drink.  

Let’s take it one step further.  Have you ever been extremely thirsty, working hard all day in the hot sun longing for a cold drink of water?   Have you ever been so hungry, that you couldn’t wait for another meal?  Could you ever be so hungry or thirsty for fellowship with God that entered prayer with that same longing or passion or desire.  But you say we can have conversation with Him as often and whenever we wish.  Doesn’t that diminish our passion because we don’t need to wait and long for Him?  Isn’t that often true of married couple who become so used to each other that their passion fades and they take each other for granted, allowing their love to fade?

Well, neither need be true.  Our love for our spouse and passion for Christ need not fade as the years pass but does require discipline and work to keep relationships fresh and passionate.

God wants to have an ongoing continuous passionate relationship with every one of us all day long and everyday all the time without a break.  He also knows we physically can not sustain or have the focus and energy and discipline to sustain such a relationship with Him.  That is why Christ died on the cross and the Holy Spirit came to indwell in each of us so we can be in and sustain a relationship with Him all day and every day. 

But does that me we are to pray all day and every day instead of doing our work and being in relationship with others, especially with our families?  Of course not.  We can be in an attitude of prayer as we work and play and relate to our family and others each day.  In fact, being in an attitude of prayer opens us to God’s insights and motive and direction so we can make wiser choices and be capable of more deeply loving and caring and service and even leading others.

Yes, we still need quiet time daily to pray and study His Word and give Him praise and worship and thanksgiving.  But we also need to stay in an attitude of praise and worship and thanksgiving while working and going about our daily lives and obligations.  We need to seek His council and direction and follow His direction during day.   Seeking help and council from other faithful Christians is equally important too. 

What I am describing is the example Christ lived while on earth.  You and I can likely give examples of other Christians we know or read about who live closer to Christ’s example than we have lived.  Their example supports and helps us understand and strive to achieve this example too.  But we also need to frequently stop and reflect and consider if we are living any closer to Christ’s example than we lived last year.  As we draw closer to Him, He will draw closer to us (James 4:8)

Let’s develop a passionate hunger for deeper fellowship with Christ. As we devote more time with Him and set reminders during day to help us keep our minds on Him throughout our day, we will start to realize we are starting to “pray without ceasing” and starting to live more like Him with a fringe benefit of beginning to love life and loving others with more joy and with a more positive outlook too.

What I am describing isn’t easy but if worth all the necessary effort we need to sacrifice to make it happen.

So why is prayer so hard?  Why does satan fight so hard to keep us from prayer?  Because when we master this precious gift and open ourselves for God to communicate to us and us to Him through prayer, life changing and eternity changing things begin to happen.  We begin seeing God’s vision for us and begin loving and caring as He does.  We begin becoming more like Him.  But we also begin allowing Him to equip us for battle.    Battle against satan and his schemes and goals.   Battle against his attacks on our family and church and community.  We begin allowing His Holy Spirit to equip us as prayer warriors.   Then when we go out into the world, it is with renewed vision and passion and insights and power.  That is why satan fears and fights us when we pray.   He knows the power prayer has.  He also knows how much God wants to connect with us.   Everything God wants, satan hates because he hates God and wants to hurt Him any way he can, but especially by hurting us.  Know our enemy and equip ourselves to do battle with him.  Are you preparing for battle today? Put on God’s armor starting with prayer, so He will nourish and prepare us as only He can do.  

 

 “Few people arise in the morning as hungry for God as they are for cornflakes or toast and eggs.”
Dallas Willard

AMEN?  AMEN!

If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 205 blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present.

You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily.  My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/

My hope and prayer is, they will become a source of encouragement and tools in ministry for you.

 

Published by donsdevotions

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Don McDaniel - Who am I? Hello everyone and welcome to my devotional journal blog. In order to get acquainted and help you get to know me a bit better before considering following my blog, let me give you some background. I am a 74-year-old male and a retired engineer. I worked for a major supplier of underground mining equipment for nearly 40 years before retiring in 2012. Arlene and I have been happily married since April 1978 and have two grown – married children, one granddaughter and 2 step grandsons. I joined the local United Methodist church at age 12 after accepting Christ as my Savior at age 10 during revival services in that same church in 1961, so I have been a “Born Again” Christian all my teen years and adult life. Christ has helped and guided me all that time. He guided me in choosing my wife and life’s career. My life journey has included regrets and failures, but God has picked me up and protected and spared me from life threatening consequences and dangers more times than I can recall or count. But many I do recall and encourage and motivate me to trust and follow Christ with more passion than ever. Christmas 2011 our daughter gave Arlene and I each a devotional journal. Journals were books with devotion for each day and space to give personal impressions and thoughts related to each devotion. Her desire was to have a lasting legacy she could refer back to and share with her children and grandchildren especially after we are gone. I was touched by that gesture. My parents and Arlene’s were devout Christians, so we would have greatly treasured having that from them, so we felt a sense of urgency to honor her request. I finished my journal first and returned it to our daughter the following Christmas. I’m glad I did it then because Parkinson’s has caused my hand writing to deteriorate since then. The exercise was such a blessing for me. Discipline of keeping journal helped me gain a deeper walk with Christ and greater discipline in honoring my time of prayer and devotion with Him each day. So, I decided to continue the practice but since I could not find a paper journal I liked, I decided to create my own. I had already been receiving electronic devotions by email every day from several sources, my favorite being “Turning Point” from Dr. David Jeremiah. What I decided to do was to include devotional scripture but add my own thoughts and comments only so there would be no issue of copyright infringement. Creating and maintaining journal by computer also addressed my deteriorating handwriting ability. I started an electronic devotion journal January 1, 2013 and have been faithful to that practice every day since. I prayed about method and level of distribution. My initial intent was to only share it with my two children by email, but quickly discovered others in my family, my church, and friends from work (both retired and still working) who knew me and wanted to be included in distribution when they learned what I was doing. I now distribute by email my daily journal at the beginning of each month to over 150 friends and relatives. God has richly blessed and encouraged me. I am concerned with the state of our church and nation, and world for that matter, believing we are living in the end times the prophets of old and Christ have talked about in scripture, so time is short. I desire to be true to my Savior and a witness to help others come to a saving knowledge of Him and equipped to share His Good News too. If my journal can encourage and help others, I believe God wants me to share it. I struggled, for a time at first, because I know many others keep similar journals but only for their own edification and do not want to share them because they are private. However, Christ has stirred my heart to share it as a witness tool. Our son and daughter have a long-time friend who grew up with them who we also befriended nearly 25 years ago. He had a lot of family problems, so would gravitate to our family as a refuge and eventually thought of us as his adopted parents and he as our adopted son. We lost contact with him for some time when he grew up and left home. He traveled around the U.S. and eventually ended up in Ukraine where he resided for next 10 years. He had to return to the US to renew his visa and took opportunity to recommend I begin a blog of my devotions and helped me set it up. He is also an active blogger and has been an email subscriber to my journal for several months, so he has been suggesting I expand my distribution by starting a blog to get broader exposure. After reflection and prayer, I concluded God was in this, so he is helping me set up my blog site. This brief autobiography is my first entry. He returned to Ukraine, then resided there until circumstanced made him decide to move back to US with his young son. This biography was my first post February 29, 2016 . I have published 600 posts from 2016-2023 automatically sent to all my Facebook friends, published on WordPress to be accessible to anyone curious or seeking a deeper walk with God. I decided to take a sebatical to prepare for a new chapter. In 2014 I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease which affects patient ability to walk, drive, do physical work, and eventually talk. By mid 2023 it became evident our home for last 42 years (previously owned by my parents for previous 44 years and by my mother's grandparents for 39 years before that) would eventually not meet my needs so we decided to sell it and move into 1st floor of a duplex we also owned that was the town school from 1855-1913. Likewise, the property was requiring more maintenance that I was no longer able to keep up with. 2023 involved selling our home and moving into apartment next door and then in early 2025 an opportunity to move closer to our daughter and granddaughter in Kentucky which was completed in May 2025. For a number of months I have been seeking direction seeking God's direction and timing to return to blogging as my journey with Parkinson's continues to unfold with God's guiding hand in mine. I hope and pray my devotions will continue to be a blessing for you. God certainly has become closer and more real to me since started this blog in 2016. I have spent time with Him studying scripture and praying and listening and writing this journal. I will continue seeking God’s help and will welcome your input to make this site as meaningful as I can and true to God, who is motivating me to create and maintain it. I will also welcome input in order to make format more meaningful going forward. Don & Arlene McDaniel In His Service, Email: mcdanieldonald769@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Don1951 If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 600+ blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present (https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/link-to-dons-devotional-journal-entries-2013/ ) You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily. My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/ Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to explore and use my devotional blog materials.

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