|
Hey there! Sorry for taking a long hiatus from sending you these daily reflections. We have seasons where all of our energy is needed in other areas and it is ok to take care of yourself! I am going to get them going again daily for the next month or so! I have gotten consistent encouragement to also turn these into a book - message has been received and I will work on that in 2024 so stay tuned!
Day 223 -Shameless Audacity
📖Daily Reading
Luke 11
Join me on my morning walk as we rise and shine together by walking through the Bible daily and learn a practical applicable coaching nugget from the ultimate life coach - our creator (whatever that means to you). No judgement zone here, all are welcome, we are all on a spiritual journey because we are after all spiritual beings having a human experience.
📝 Reflection
Luke 11: 8
I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
WOW! We are called to pray with shameless audacity, these words are in the NIV translation fyi. The NLT says ‘shameless persistence’, ESV say with ‘impudence’ which means arrogant boldness, disregard of others, or lacking in modesty! Now before we get too excited we need to understand this within context. One of the disciples asks Jesus ‘can you teach us to pray?’ He answered with this in v2 “When you pray say:
“‘Father hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.(May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.) Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation (but deliver us from the evil one).
While we can literally say and repeat this prayer, and if you have ever spent even a few Sundays in a church then it is probably already committed to your memory, there is a broader formula we can extract from it. As with prayer the starting point has be to that it is heart felt and honest. So as we look at this formulaically, lets break it down.
- Heart check❤️ - are you in an earnest and honest posture and seeking Gods will?
- Honor and acknowledge Gods sovereignty
- Ask for your daily physical needs to be met and be grateful that they are
- Ask for forgiveness
- Extend and give forgiveness to others for their sins against you - let go and let God be judge
- Make sure what you are desiring and praying for isn’t leading you into or causing you to be in temptation and sin.
Easier said than done. But when you can pray in this way he further instructs us to do it with boldness, shameless persistence, immodesty, and audacity! Jesus uses a story to illustrate this for us, he sets the scene; lets say you have a friend coming to visit you and you have no food to offer him but you know that your neighbor does. He says to go to that neighbor even if it is very late at night and the neighbor is in bed. He says to knock on the door, even if you get a response that that he is sleeping, it is too late and he doesn't’ want you waking up his household etc… and he insists that he is not getting up. He says don’t take no for an answer, he has food and you want the food for your friend. Keep knocking until the neighbor gets up, not because he wants to help you but just to shut you up and send you on your way and leave him alone!
This does indeed sound shameless, bold, immodest and audacious! He goes on after this story in v 9 to say “So, I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” He goes on to make a comparison of a father, whose son asks him for a fish, will he give him a snake instead? Of course not! So if a simple human father is willing to respond to his sons requests, how much more do you think your Heavenly Father will give to those who ask in prayer?
I don’t know about you, but I feel extra emboldened and audacious today! I don’t know how many times I have heard the Lord’s Prayer and even the comparison of the earthly father to heaven father, but somehow I did not get the message about encouragement to be shamelessly audacious with my prayers. I think I have more often than not been the one that has knocked late at night, been told to it was too late and I respectfully went away empty handed.
Although thinking back on a few instances where I was at the end of my rope and on my knees daily and multiple times a day seasons of life that maybe this was exactly what I was doing, and those seasons are now a testimony and I was delivered from the depths of despair that I was in. I was set free, my messes have become my messages. My heart is earnest and as pure as I can get it for now with God’s help daily. I want to help other be set free, I want to forgive as I have been forgiven. I want God’s will not mine, because I have learned that my will eventually aligns with his when I surrender and trust His process and timing.
I believe this is His kingdom come to earth here and now, this is heaven. Heaven is not a far away place and we just have to suffer through this broken world pining away for and trying to earn our way to heaven. We have the opportunity and are being invited to seek and experience heaven on earth with shameless audacity and show this kind of love and possibility to others along the way. This is the good news.
✍🏼Daily Journal Prompt
Have you prayed with shameless audacity before? Is there something you need or would like to pray about this way today?
📖Tomorrows Reading
Luke 12
Coaching Opportunity
Let's make 2024 the year of YOU by laying a solid foundational mind set! The world needs what only you have to offer! Give yourself the best gift ever, the best version of you is ready to rise & shine!
Book your free📞Wake Up Call today to learn if this is what you have been waiting for!
If you have stuck with me this far, then you are not reading this by accident, I believe God has a plan for you and is calling you forward!😉🤩
CONNECT WITH ME
Subscribe to Rise & Shine✨Together Daily Encouragement
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/felecia.b.holmes (personal)
Rise & Shine Together Private Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1093183278239989
You Tube: Rise & Shine Playlist
|